ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY?”? 

London, 22 February 1888 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky, 

I have duly received your letters [of] 21 December and 8 January and 
return Lovell’s letter with thanks. 

I am astonished at Grénlund’s proceedings, I was rather glad he did 
not call on me here. From all I hear he is full of vanity and self-conceit, 
to a degree unattainable even to a German, to be reached only by a 
Scandinavian, but also so naif in it as only a Scandinavian can be—in a 
German it would be offensive. Es muss auch solche Kauze geben.* In 
America not less than in England all these self-announced grands 
hommes? will find their own level as soon as the masses begin to stir— 
and will then find themselves shifted to that level of their own with a 
velocity that will astonish them. We have had all that in Germany and 
France, and in the International too. 

I have since heard from poor old Sorge, in a way that fully confirms 
all you say. I fully expected from the beginning that he would not be able 
to live in that solitude and wilderness.” I hope his return to Hoboken 
may prove a success. 

I sent you a No. of Bradlaugh’s National Reformer with an article 
No. 1 on my book.* Copies were sent to: National Reformer, Weekly 
Dispatch, Reynold’s Newspaper, Club Journal, Our Corner (Mrs 
Besant), To-day (H. Bland), Christian Socialist, Pall Mall Gazette. I have 
requested friends to look at these papers and magazines and let me know 
if anything appears, when you shall have it. 

Reeves has also sent for the 1,000 pamphlets,4 whether that is merely 
a ruse to keep competition out, remains to be seen. The thing seems to 
sell exceedingly well. 

* There must be such odd characters too — © great men — * The Condition of the 
Working-Class in England ~4 F. Engels, The Labor Movement in America 

Justice had a copy of the book from you, the Commonweal did not 
require one as I sent one to Morris personally. 

Justice brought out again the old American translation of the 
Communist Manifesto.240 This set Reeves inquiring about an authorised 
translation. I had one by S. Moore, and Sam happened to be here. So we 
revised it and sold it to Reeves; he got the proofs last week and as soon 
as it is out you shall have a copy. Sam Moore is the best translator I know 
but not in a position to do work without getting something for it. 

I do not quite understand your remark about the book being sold 
here 1 shilling dearer. $1.25 is equal as far as I know to 5s. and that is the 
selling price here. 

Mrs Campbell has not yet called on me so far. 

Your remarks about my books being boycotted by the official 
German Socialists of New York**! are quite correct, but I am used to 
that sort of thing, and so the efforts of these gentry amuse me. Better so 
than to have to undergo their patronage. With them the movement is a 
business, and ‘business is business’. This kind of thing won’t last very 
long, their efforts to boss the American movement as they have done 
with the German-American one, must fail miserably. The masses will set 
all that right when once they move. 

Here things go slowly but well. The various little organisations have 
found their level and are willing to co-operate without bickerings. The 
police brutalities in Trafalgar Square! have done wonders in helping to 
widen the gap between the working men Radicals and the Middle Class 
Liberals and Radicals, the latter have behaved cowardly in and out of 
Parliament. The Law and Liberty League—a body gaining ground every 
day—is the first organisation in which Socialist delegates, as such, sit 
aside of Radical delegates.242 The stupidity of the present Tory govern- 
ment is appalling—if old Disraeli was alive, he would box their ears right 
and left. But this stupidity helps on matters wonderfully. Home Rule!” 
for Ireland and for London is now the cry here; the latter a thing which 
the Liberals fear even more than the Tories do. The working-class 
element is getting more and more exasperated, through the stupid Tory 
provocations, is getting daily more conscious of its strength at the ballot- 
box, and more penetrated by the Socialist leaven. The American exam- 
ple has opened their eyes, and if next autumn there was to be a repeti- 
tion, in any large American town, of the New York election campaign of 
1886,’ the effect here would be instantaneous. The two great Anglo- 
Saxon nations are sure to set up competition in Socialism, as well as in 
other matters, and then it will be a race with ever accelerated velocity. 

Can you get me the American Customs’ Tariff and the list of internal 
taxes upon American industrial and other products? And if possible 
some information as to how the latter are balanced by the former with 
regard to cost of production? That is, for instance, if the inland duty on 
cigars is 20%, an import duty of 20% would balance it as far as foreign 
competition is concerned. That is what I should like to have some infor- 
mation about, before I write my preface to the ‘Free Trade’.* 

Reciprocating your kind wishes I remain 

Yours very truly, 
F. Engels