London, 10-11 May 1883 

Dear Bebel, 

That you would sooner not sit in the Reichstag, I am ready to be- 
lieve. But you can see what your absence has made possible. Some 
years ago Bracke wrote to me saying: Bebel is, in fact, the only one of 
us possessed of real parliamentary tact.*? And I have found this con- 
stantly confirmed. So there’s probably no alternative but for you to 
return to your post at the first opportunity and I should be delighted 
were you to be elected in Hamburg so that necessity relieved you of 
your doubts.*? 

Certainly, agitational and parliamentary work becomes very bor- 

* This refers probably to the third German edition of Volume I of Capital.-° See 
this volume, pp. 15-16. 

ing after a time. It is much the same thing as advertising, puffing 
one’s wares and travelling around are in business: success is slow in 
coming, and some never achieve it. But there’s no other alternative, 
and once you are in it you’ve got to see the thing through to the end, 
if all your trouble is not to have been for nothing. And the Anti- 
Socialist Law *’ means that this, the only course to have remained 
open, simply cannot be dispensed with. 

Despite the way it was written, the report on the Copenhagen Con- 
gress '° enabled me to read sufficiently between the lines to amend 
Liebknecht’s, as always rosy, version of things.* At all events I per- 
ceived that the half-and-halfs ** had suffered a severe defeat and this, 
I admit, led me to believe that they would now draw in their horns. 
Yet such does not seem to be the case, or not to that degree. We have 
never been under any illusions about these men. Neither Hasenclever 
nor, for that matter, Hasselmann, should ever have been admitted, 
but Liebknecht’s undue haste over unification-— against which, at 
the time, we protested for all we were worth — has landed us with 
a jackass and also, for a while, with a rascal.*> In his day, Blos was 
a lively, courageous chap but after his marriage, etc., the stuffing was 
soon knocked out of him by the difficulty of making both ends meet. 
Geiser always was an indolent, self-opinionated fellow and Kayser 
a big-mouthed commis-voyageur.” Even in 1848 Rittinghausen was 
a nonentity; he’s only a socialist pro forma, in order to enlist our help in 
achieving his direct government by the people. But we have better 
things to do. 

What you say about Liebknecht is something you have doubtless 
long been thinking. We have known him for many years. Popu- 
larity is the very stuff of life to him. Hence he has got fo conciliate and 
conceal in order to postpone the crisis. Besides, he’s an optimist by 
nature and sees everything through rose-tinted spectacles. That’s 
what keeps him so lively and is the main reason for his popularity, but 
it also has its disadvantages. So long as I corresponded only with him, 
not only did he report everything in accordance with his own rosy 
views, but also withheld everything that was unpleasant and, upon 
being questioned, replied in such an airy and off-hand way that, 
more than by anything else, one was unfailingly needled by the 
thought ‘Can the man suppose us so stupid as to be taken in by it?’ 

* Cf. this volume, pp. 7 and 32.-° commercial traveller 

Add to that his incessant busyness, an undoubted asset in day-to-day 
agitation but involving us over here in a mass of useless letter-writing; 
a perpetual stream of projects whose only outcome was to burden 
other people with extra work-—in short, as you will understand, all 
this made a really businesslike and down-to-earth correspondence of 
the kind I have conducted for years with you as well as with Bernstein 
a sheer impossibility. Hence the constant bickering and the honorary 
title he once jokingly conferred upon me here of being the rudest man 
in Europe. My letters to him were, it is true, often rude, but the rude- 
ness was conditioned by the contents of his own. No one knew that 
better than Marx. 

Again, for all his valuable qualities, Liebknecht is a born school- 
master. If a working man in the Reichstag happens to say me instead 
of I, or pronounce a short Latin vowel as a long one, and the bour- 
geois laugh, he’s in despair. Hence he has to have ‘eddicated’ men, 
like that weakling Viereck who, with a single speech, would make us 
look more foolish in the Reichstag than would two thousand wrong 
‘mes’. And then, he can’t wait. A momentary success, even if it means 
the sacrifice of a subsequent, far greater one, takes precedence over 
everything else. You people will discover that in America, when you 
go there in the wake of Fritzsche and Viereck.*? Their mission was 
a blunder as great as the over-hasty unification with the Lassalleans 
who, six months later, would have come to you of their own accord — 
but as a disorganised gang without their bankrupt leaders. 

As you see, I speak to you quite frankly — in confidence. But I also 
believe that you would do well firmly to resist Liebknecht’s persuasive 
blandishments. Then he’s bound to yield. If really confronted by 
a decision, he will certainly adopt the right course. But he would 
rather do so tomorrow than today, and in a year’s time rather than 
tomorrow. 

If a few deputies were in fact to vote for Bismarck’s Bills, thus 
planting a kiss on his backside in return for having theirs kicked, and 
if the parliamentary group failed to expel these people, I too 
would, of course, be capable of publicly disassociating myself from 
a party prepared to tolerate such a thing. To the best of my 
knowledge, however, that would be impossible, having regard to 
existing party discipline whereby the minority has got to vote with 
the majority. But you are better informed than I. 

Any split that took place while the Anti-Socialist Law is in opera- 

tion I should look upon as a misfortune, since all means of communi- 
cating with the masses have been cut off. But it may be forced on us 
and then we shall have to look facts in the face. So if anything of the 
sort should happen — no matter where you are —I should be glad if 
you could inform me and do so at once, for my German papers al- 
ways arrive very belatedly. 

Blos, when he went to Bremen after being expelled from Hamburg, 
did indeed write me a very plaintive letter °° to which I sent a very 
firm reply. 3° Now, my papers have for years been in the most shock- 
ing muddle, and finding this particular one would be a day’s work. 
But some time I shall have to put them in order and, if needs be, shall 
send you the letter in the original. 

Your view of the business conditions is being corroborated in Eng- 
land, France and America. *! It is an intermediate crisis like that of 
1841-42, but on a much vaster scale. Generally speaking, it is only 
since 1847 (because of Californian and Australian gold production 
which resulted in the world market becoming fully established) that 
the ten-year cycle has clearly emerged. Now, when America, France 
and Germany are beginning to break England’s monopoly of the 
world market and when, therefore, overproduction is beginning, as it 
did before 1847, to assert itself more rapidly, the quinquennial inter- 
mediate crises are also recurring. Proof of this is the complete exhaus- 
tion of the capitalist mode of production. The period of prosperity no 
longer reaches its full term; overproduction recurs after only 5 years 
and, even during those 5 years, things in general go downhill. Which, 
however, is very far from proving that, between 1884 and 1887, we 
shan’t have a period of pretty brisk trade, as happened between 1844 
and 1847. But then the great crash will quite surely come. 

11 May. I had wanted to write and tell you more about the general 
state of trade, but meanwhile it is time for the registered mail. Till 
next time, then. 

Your 
F. E.