London, 17 November 1885 
Dear Bebel, 

Just another word or two before you take your seat in the Reichs- 
tag.*7° 

In answer to Schumacher’s long letter defending his attitude to the 
Steamship Subsidies, I have written to him at equal length 3° to 
say that I adhere to my old standpoint, namely, that if in order to re- 
spect the alleged prejudices of certain voters, you do not want to vote 
unconditionally against state aid paid to the bourgeoisie out of the 
workers’ and peasants’ pockets, you may, in my view, vote in favour 
only if a like amount of state aid is directly allocated for the benefit of 
the workers, both urban and rural — primarily for agricultural work- 
ers’ cooperatives on state-owned land. 

To avoid misunderstandings I have asked him, in the event of his 
discussing this letter with other comrades, always to show them the 
whole letter. 

Liebknecht has certainly come most bravely to the fore all of a sud- 
den. His ‘collection’ written in jail, +’ his study of the all but forgot- 
ten Capital, and the prospect, suggested to him by the Right, of fal- 
ling between two stools, seem to have proved extremely beneficial. 
I shall be very happy if only it lasts. He will certainly be in the right 
place when the crucial moment comes, but until then he will cause 
the rest of us an appalling amount of trouble with that habit he has of 
hushing things up, which he regards as diplomacy and at which he is, 
it is true, far more adept than the rest of us. 

War in Europe is beginning to pose a serious threat to us. So those 
miserable remnants of what once were nations, the Serbs, Bulgarians, 
Greeks and other rapacious riff-raff on whose behalf your liberal phil- 
istine enthuses in the interests of Russia, are begrudging one another 
the very air they breathe and must inevitably slit each other’s greedy 
throats. That would be marvellous and would serve the philistine na- 
tionality-mongers right, were it not for the fact that each of these 
pigmy tribes holds the key to peace or war in Europe. The first shot 
has been fired at Dragoman, but when and where the last will be 
fired, no one can say. 

Our movement is getting on so splendidly, everywhere and without 
exception circumstances are turning out so much in our favour and 
our need for another few years of undisturbed development and con- 
solidation is so great, that the last thing we want is a big political 
row. It would consign our movement to the background for years on 
end, after which we should doubtless have to start belatedly all 
over again, as after 1850. 

On the other hand, a war might bring about a revolution in Paris 

which in turn would indirectly provide fuel for the movement in the 
rest of Europe, and in that case the French—no doubt violently 
chauvinist in the circumstances—-would assume the leadership, 
a role for which their level of theoretical development qualifies them 
least of all. A few peaceful years of Radical rule *?° would be the very 
thing for the French who, since 1871, have made very good progress 
politically thanks to the instinctive, logical consistency that is pecu- 
liar to them. For these Radicals have adopted in its entirety the cur- 
rent middle-of-the-road, jumbled-up socialism deriving from Louis 
Blanc, Proudhon, etc., and it would be of inestimable value to us were 
they to be given the opportunity to demolish such empty verbiage in 
practice. 

On the other hand, should a major war break out, it will place six 
million men in the field and cost an unprecedented amount of money. 
There will be bloodshed, devastation and, finally, a state of prostra- 
tion such as has never been known before. That’s why all these gen- 
tlemen are so afraid of it. One may further predict that if this war 
comes, it will be the last one; it will mark the end of the class state po- 
litically, militarily, economically (as also financially) and morally. It 
could lead to a situation in which the war machine turns rebellious 
and refuses to engage in prolonged mutual slaughter for the sake of 
the lousy Balkan nations. The watchword of the class state is aprés nous 
le déluge *°°; but after the deluge it’s we who shall come and only 
we. 

So everything remains as it was: whatever happens, it will ulti- 
mately provide a means for bringing our party to power and putting 
paid to all the old nonsense. But I must say I hope it will happen 
without this massacre; there’s no need for it. If it’s got to be, however, 
I only hope that when the moment arrives my old disability won’t 
prevent me mounting a horse. 

Your old friend 
F.E.