London, 13 September 1882 

Dear Mr Bernstein, 
Nothing came of working at the seaside resort of Yarmouth — 

2 £. Sax, Die Hausindustrie in Thüringen.-» Lilian Rosher 

5 people in one room, including my niece* and her 4-month-old 
baby,* made it impossible to do anything, and work was dissipated in 
pleasure and the consumption of excellent Pilsener beer. But tomor- 
row I go into action, and there’ll be no respite until the pamphlet is 
finished. 78 

Your suggestion re a preface on Bismarckian socialism is quite all 
right so far as it goes, and up to a point accords with what I myself 
want. But this stuff could not be dealt with in a preface; it would 
make it far too long. Besides, I could do with more material on acci- 
dent insurance, etc., especially the proposed legislation, without 
which I cannot manage. 

I have been turning the matter over in my mind for a long time, 
and I can well see that something ought to be written about it. I now 
propose to write (for the Sozialdemokrat) a series of articles (each of 
which would constitute an independent whole) on the kind of bogus 
socialism now proliferating in Germany —a series which could subse- 
quently be published in pamphlet form. First part: Bismarckian 
socialism. 1. Protective tariffs. 2. Nationalisation of railways. 3. To- 
bacco monopoly. 4. Workmen’s insurance. But for this I should have 
to have: 

ad‘ 2, a stock-exchange list giving the prices of the recently national- 
ised railways (Berg. Mark., Berlin-Gorlitz, Berlin-Stettin, Markisch- 
Posen) shortly before nationalisation and, wherever possible, the price 
paid by the state for these railways; 

ad 4, the Bill as submitted to the Reichstag by Bismarck. 

If you can procure these things for me, I shall have sufficient mate- 
rial. 

To this, I would, however, append a second part in which I would 
criticise a number of woolly ideas enfranchised by Lassalle and still 
echoed now and again by our people —e. g. the ‘iron law of wages’,? 
‘the full return to the labourer (not labourers) ‘for work performed’, 
etc. To make a clean sweep here is even more necessary than it would 
be in respect of the first part, and if this annoys some of those 
Lassallean ‘leaders’ who have unfortunately come to be accepted,3*! 
so much the better. Hence I do in fact regard the second part as the 
more important one. 

On the other hand, there’s no knowing whether it mightn’t just suit 

* Mary Ellen Rosher (Pumps) -° Lilian Rosher-° as regards 

the book of certain persons if St Ferdinand? were to be subjected to 
this kind of unbiassed criticism. It might be said, should anything of 
the sort appear in the party organ, that it was an attempt to provoke 
a split in the party and a breach of the long-standing compact with 
the Lassalleans. In which case the whole thing might be brought out 
in pamphlet form as soon as it was finished, without prior publication 
in the Soztaldemokrat. 

So either the whole thing appears in the Soztaldemokrat, and subse- 
quently as a pamphlet, 

or it appears straight away as a pamphlet, 

or, for the time being, does not get written at all. 

Voila mon cas.» Well, you choose what you would prefer and, if ne- 
cessary, consult one or two others. But once something has been 
settled, there must be no going back on it. I cannot expose myself to 
another dose of the unpleasantness occasioned by Most’s protests 
against the Dihring. 3°? 

Incidentally, some very nice preparatory work relating to Bis- 
marckery and attendant phenomena has already been done in two 
articles in the Sozealdemokrat on the possible repeal of the Anti- 
Socialist Law. 7% I assume they are by Bebel; if not, the party can 
congratulate itself upon possessing another chap who is so splendidly 
capable of getting to the root of the matter and disregarding all 
considerations of a secondary nature, and this in a style at once so 
straightforward and lucid. The articles are first-rate. 

What you say by way of an excuse for the flabbiness of various peo- 
ple in Germany is something I have already told myself on more than 
one occasion. Yet again and again we find the same old German want 
of character and backbone, coupled with the urge to play the role — 
vis-a-vis the philistine, not the worker — of a worthy, respectable citi- 
zen who is a very far cry from the dangerous ogre he is made out to 
be. These always turn out to be people who consider their modicum 
of education absolutely essential if the worker is not to emancipate 
himself but rather be liberated by them. In their eyes, the emancipa- 
tion of the working class is attainable only through your eddicated 
mediocrity; how could the poor, helpless, uneddicated workers hope 
to achieve it on their own account? 

I wrote to Kautsky yesterday.‘ He tells me he has found some quite 

“ Ferdinand Lassalle-' That’s my position.-° See previous letter. 

passable doctores philosophiae* there. If they really are passable, 
they would be most welcome. 

Adolf Beust will be able to sing you the tune of ‘The Vicar of 
Bray’. 384 

Kindest regards. 

Yours, 
F.E.