AT LE PERREUX 

London, 19 May 1892 

My dear Lafargue, 

What a rottenly organised statistical service you have over there! 
In Germany we should have had the results 3-4 days after the 2nd 
ballot, whereas such information as is to be found in the Soczaliste of 
the 15th is barely accurate and largely incomplete.! But that will 
come in time. You'll discover that nothing fires the imagination of the 
masses more than a splendid, well set out array of figures announcing 
electoral victories. In particular this is of prime importance when it 
comes to making workmen realise the extent to which universal suf- 
frage lends strength to their arm. Don’t forget to complete your statis- 
tics for | May 1892 — for comparison with the figures for the ’93 par- 
liamentary elections when they come out. If things improve, and of 
that I am convinced, you will see how effective it can be when friends 
and enemies alike are able to ascertain what advances have been 
made, how much ground has been won, in a year. 

After all, the winning of 22 councils and 600 seats is not to be 
sneezed at!*? And the Sole] which you sent me and which, now 
that Bebel has finished with it here, is on its way to Adler in Vienna,* 
confirms as much in distinctly peevish terms. Bravo! 

Now what have the others gained, the Broussists,? Allemanists,*° 
Blanquists? The first must have had some success or lack of it at Cha- 
tellerault etc. etc., the second in the Ardennes, the Blanquists in Le 
Cher. Or did you include them in your list? 

I congratulate you most of all on the fact that in France, too, Las- 
salle’s ‘single, compact, reactionary mass’,*?? the all-party coalition 
opposed to the Socialists, is beginning to take shape. In Germany we 
have had this for years and in the big industrial centres the anti- 
Socialist mass is already mustering its forces for the 1st ballot so as to 
bar our way. The whole of Germany’s official history, if we disregard 
the influence of young William’s’ entourage, a most heterogeneous 

* See this volume, p. 420.- > William II 

camarilla which leads him a pretty dance, is shaped, on the one hand, 
by Socialist influence which is causing the bourgeois parties to com- 
bine into one large party of straightforward resistance and, on the 
other, by the interplay of divergent interests amongst those parties, 
which draws them apart from one another. The Reichstag’s legisla- 
tion is simply the product, the result, of the conflict between these 
two opposing currents, the second of which, the disintegrative cur- 
rent, is gradually dwindling to a trickle. 

Well, the same old game is beginning in France. There is no better 
sign of progress, for it shows that they fear you, not as a riotous force 
liable to act on the spur of the moment, but as a regular, organised, 
political force. 

I have had misgivings similar to those you express about the inex- 
perience of the new councillors. After the wholesale replacement of an 
administration there is a period of between 6 and 10 months when the 
seats of power are occupied by the council’s permanent employees 
who are quite prepared to let their new masters burn their fingers in 
experiments of a more or less dangerous nature. This is particularly 
the case where the new incumbents are Socialists. They should be ad- 
vised to bide their time until they feel they can stand on their own feet 
in their new surroundings. Otherwise the old reactionary officials will 
wreck everything, and the blame will fall on our people. 

As for the daily newspaper,*?? a fresh start must be made. I hope 
you will succeed better wexr vie. In any case, you will be able to set 
up your editorial headquarters. Are you going to have a ‘political edi- 
tor’ —- Guesde? 

Have you really formed a group in the Chamber or is the matter 
still up in the air? 

A thousand greetings from Louise and Bebel *’7° to Laura and you. 
Give her a hug in my behalf and tell her that as soon as the telephone 
has been properly installed, I will use it to have a cask of Pilsner sent 
to her. 

Yours, 

PE. 

Singer too is here, he is staying with the Bernsteins. 

Louise says SHE WISHES LAURA WOULD TELEPHONE HER AN ARTICLE FOR VIENNA. 

I have just received a letter from Gumpert on Schorlemmer. You 
will know that the latter has been physically and mentally sick for 

4 years now. In the last two years he has been unable to come here ei- 
ther for Christmas or for Easter. Last year, when we were to go on 
a sea voyage round the British Isles, he was put out of action within 
the first 24 hours. Recently he wrote his brother* and me to tell us 
not to write him since he was unable to answer. In reply to my en- 
quiry Gumpert informed me that he found Schorlemmer extremely 
feeble after what was a rather light case of influenza. Today he has 
written to tell me that this feebleness, physical and intellectual, is 
growing worse daily, that it is, in fact, senility pure and simple, that 
he had made him draw up his will, that he fears that within a very 
short time Schorlemmer’s mental powers will be gone, and that the 
end is approaching. Poor devil! A talent of the first order fading 
away. You would not have recognised him had you seen him during 
these last few years—all his vivacity and good spirits are gone, he no 
longer takes an interest in anything. I am writing to his brother—he 
will be desperate. Imagine Schorlemmer dying of senility while his 
mother lives on in good health!