ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY 

London, 15 September 1887 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky, 
I have received your letter of 28 August. 
I am glad the pamphlet’ sells so well. The copies I received I shall 

4 This sentence was in Russian in the original — > Sozialdemokrat of Zürich (in 
the original Engels uses the Russian initials) —° F. Engels, The Labor Movement 
in America. 

hand over to Aveling who has just returned from the country to be 
distributed partly amongst the Socialist periodicals, partly at his East 
End Meetings at his lectures on the American movement.* I shall also 
try through him to get an Agent for its sale and let you know the result. 

What I wrote about Triibner* has come true stronger than I expected. 
Yesterday Dr Baernreither, Austrian M.P., told me that he had asked 
Triibner—with whom he dealt regularly—to procure him a copy of our 
book. Triibner said he had none, and that Dr Baernreither had better 
order it through an American Agency whose address he gave to 
Baernreither and through which Baernreither ordered the book. Thus 
Triibner not only boycotts but actually burns the book. 

As to the copies sent to Kautsky he could hardly act otherwise than he 
did.!©° Neither Lovell nor yourself ever wrote him a line of instruction. I 
myself never heard whether any copies had been sent to the press here and 
to what papers. We were completely in the dark, and if the book has not 
got into the hands of the English press and not been noticed, that is 
entirely the fault of mistakes committed on your side of the water. Had I 
been informed of what had been done in that respect, or had I been told 
that that was left to me I could have acted. There is no doubt of a sale for 
it here, but not while it is in Triibner’s hands; and if I was authorised to 
find an agent here I have no doubt of being able to do so; of course you 
would have to send a limited number of copies as a consignment. 

The repudiation of the Socialists by George! is in my opinion an 
unmerited piece of good luck which will redeem to a great extent the— 
unavoidable—blunder of placing George at the head of a movement he 
did not even understand. George as the standard-bearer of the whole 
working-class movement was a danger; George as the Chief of the 
Georgeites will soon be a thing of the past, the leader of a sect like the 
thousands of sects in America. 

Your pamphlet on philanthropy? has not yet come to hand. 

Your translation of Marx’s Free Trade speech I shall look over with 
pleasure and compare it with the French original of which I have 
perhaps the only copy extant. We will see about the preface later on. The 
7th Bemerkung’ from the Misére de la Philosophie would fit in very well. 
As to the chapter on Rent, that seems more doubtful, as there is a good 

See this volume, p.68 — >F. Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in 
England - ‘1 F. Kelley-Wischnewetzky, The Need of Theoretical Preparation for 
Philanthropic Work [New York, 1887] — ¢ observation 

deal of reference to Proudhon’s notions in it, and | doubt whether Mr 
Tucker’s lucubrations deserve any attention.' 

The reply of the Executive to my footnote is in itself so deprecatory 
and meaningless that to reply to it would be a work of supererogation. 
I cannot reply in time for the Congress, and the fact remains that I have 
openly taken sides against the Executive in this matter. A fresh contro- 
versy across the Atlantic can lead to nothing. As to the Sozialist and 
Volkszeitung boycotting me, I am sorry for it on account of the sale of 
the book and pamphlet, otherwise it is a matter of perfect indifference to 
me. I have got too often over such chicanery by simply waiting and 
looking on. 

Your expulsion I read in the Volkszeitung at the time, it was what was 
to be expected. I hope your pamphlet will come in time for the 
Congress, it would have been well if it had been out a month ago so as 
to come into the hands of the sections before they sent delegates. I am 
curious what the Congress will do but do not hope for too much. 

Faithfully yours 
F. Engels 

Fortunately the movement in America has now got such a start that 
neither George, nor Powderly nor the German intriguers can spoil or 
stop it. Only it will take unexpected forms. The real movement always 
looks different to what it ought to have done in the eyes of those who 
were tools in preparing it.