{IN BERLIN] 

[Excerpt] 

[London, 29 December 1884] 

Should the parliamentary group not wish to adopt a merely nega- 
tive attitude, they can, or so it seems to me, only give their consent to 
state aid for the bourgeoisie,**? from which the workers might concezv- 
ably derive some indirect advantage (something that still remains to 
be proved, however) if the workers are assured of similar state aid.* ‘If you 
give us 4 to 5 millions a year for workers’ cooperatives (not a loan but 
a gift, as for the shipowners), then we’re prepared to discuss the mat- 
ter. If you give us guarantees to the effect that in Prussia state-owned 
land will be leased, not to big farmers or to peasants who cannot 
exist without hiring day labourers, but to workers’ cooperatives, and 
that public works will be put out to workers’ cooperatives instead of 
to capitalists, very well, we'll see what we can do. But not other- 
wise.” 

Provided the parliamentary group makes proposals of this sort for 
which, of course, the right wording must first be found, no one will be 
able to reproach the Social Democratic deputies with neglecting the 
present needs of the workers for the sake of the future.