London, 18 March 1886 

Dear Bebel, 

I am up to my eyes in the revision of the English translation of Cap- 
ital, Volume I, which is at last on the point of coming out, but 
since the business of Liebknecht’s fund is urgent, I shall have to take 
a moment or two so as to be able to answer your letter quickly. Here- 
with, then my contribution,— a cheque for £10 on the Union Bank or 
London.! 

Many thanks for the Anti-Socialist Law and spirits monopoly de- 
bates and the Bürger-Zeitung. 

It is indeed striking how faithfully the Anti-Socialist Law debate 
reflects the mood of the majority in the parliamentary group. Unable, 
presumably, to do as they wished they had, willy-nilly, to voice rela- 
tively correct opinions, and the impression made by the debate is, on 
the whole, very good, particularly since Singer was compelled by the 
Ihring case °°? to speak pretty sharply. In general these people, not 
excepting even Frohme, are not too bad when they have to come out 
against the police, either in their own interests or in those of their con- 
stituents and hence keep the worthy citizen well out of sight, for one 
of their besetting sins is this very worthiness which seeks to convince 
an opponent rather than fight him because ‘our cause is, after all, so 
noble and so just’ that any other worthy citizen is bound to come over 

a 

sings another tune than before-" The situation is getting grave for Messrs 
the Radicals. -° See Berliner Volksblatt, Nos. 42, 43, 54-56; 19 and 20 February 
and 5-7 March 1886 (Supplement). 

to us if only he can be made to understand it aright. This appeal to 
worthy sentiments, which neither recognises nor wishes to recognise 
the interests by which those sentiments are unconsciously motivated, 
is one of the chief characteristics of the philistinism which is peculiar 
to Germany and would be impossible over here or in France, either in 
parliament or in literature. 

Never have I come across anything so tedious as the spirits debate; 
even Bamberger’s jokes were as bad as ever, if not worse. So what 
matter if, after that, Schumacher also spoke tediously, proceeding to 
make what amounted to a naked appeal for ‘etatisation’ [Verstaat- 
lichungs]. Richter’s speech, based on statistics, was quite the best. 

I would not venture to pass judgment on Liebknecht’s speech as re- 
ported in the Birger-Zeitung. So much depends on nuances and the 
manner in which something is said and, in a summarised report, all 
that gets lost.>° 

I have not seen the account by Kautsky of which you speak. But as 
regards Hyndman, his behaviour in Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park 
on 8 February did far more harm than good.>** Revolutionary rant- 
ing, which in France would be seen as the outmoded rubbish it is and 
do no harm, is sheer folly over here, where the masses are totally un- 
prepared; it puts off the proletariat, encouraging only the worthless 
elements and, in this country, lends itself to but one interpretation, 
namely incitement to looting which in fact ensued, so that we shall be 
lastingly discredited over here, even in the eyes of the working class. 
As for its having drawn attention to socialism, you over there cannot 
know the extent to which, after centuries of freedom of the press and 
of assembly and its accompanying publicity, the public has become 
completely impervious to such methods. True, the initial alarm of the 
middle classes was quite funny, and brought in a subscription of some 
£40,000 for the unemployed — in all about £70,000— but that has 
already been spent, nothing else is forthcoming and poverty is as be- 
fore. What has been achieved is to equate socialism with looting in 
the minds of the bourgeois public and, while this may not have made 
matters much worse, it has certainly got us no further. You might 
think that Hyndman showed great courage and so it might seem. But 
Hyndman, as I have learnt from Morris and others, is a coward and 
has behaved as such on crucial occasions. This doesn’t prevent him, 
having once got himself into a dangerous fix, from drowning his 
cowardice in his own clamour and giving vent to the most bloodthirsty 
utterances. But this only makes him all the more of a menace to his 

colleagues—-for no one, neither he nor they, can tell beforehand 
what he is going to do. Fortunately the whole business has been 
pretty well forgotten over here. 

I wholly agree with your view that periods of prosperity of over 
6 months will cease to recur. The only prospect of a reactivation of 
trade — directly where iron, at any rate, is concerned and otherwise 
indirectly — lies in the possible opening up of China to railway con- 
struction and hence the destruction of the only remaining closed and 
self-sufficient civilisation based on a combination of agriculture and 
handicrafts. But 6 months will be enough to discount that, after 
which we shall, perhaps, experience yet another acute crisis. Apart 
from destroying Britain’s monopoly of the world market, the new 
methods of communication — the electric telegraph, the railways, the 
Suez Canal and the supplanting of sail by steam— have gone some 
way towards breaking down the ten-year industrial cycle. If China is 
opened up, not only will overproduction risk losing its last safety- 
valve, but emigration from China will assume such massive propor- 
tions that this alone will suffice to revolutionise conditions of produc- 
tion throughout America, Australia and India, even to the extent of 
affecting Europe —if it lasts itself till then. 

Bismarck’s folly is indeed becoming excessive. But it has one recur- 
ring theme— more money! His craziest schemes always and infallibly 
involve the voting of subsidies, and the National-Liberal gents ?*% 
seem to have a positive passion for providing him with yet more cash. 

Another victory in France. Camélinat’s question* about Deca- 
zeville 5*° provoked a three-day debate, while on Saturday,” 7 mo- 
tions to proceed to the Order of the Day were thrown out, until 
finally the government and the Radical gents *? agreed a resolu- 
tion © unprecedented in French parliamentary history and which was 
passed on Monday °**: That this Chamber proceed to the Order of 
the Day, confident that the Government will move all the necessary 
amendments to mining legislation and that its conduct in Decazeville 
will be dictated by the rights of the State and the interests of Labour. 

The rights of Labour—it’s absolutely unheard-of! And as if that 
was not enough, a decision unfavourable to the company which is 
wholly dependent on a state concession and now sees the terms of that 
concession turned against itself. All this, of course, is still on paper, 
* See Z.R. Camélinat’s speech in the Chamber of Deputies on 11 March 1886 (Le Cri 

du Peuple, No. 866, 13 March 1886). -> 13 March -° ‘Réglement de V’ordre 
du jour’, Le Cri du Peuple, No. 867, 14 March 1886. 

but for a first step it’s enough. The whole political situation in France 
has been revolutionised by the initiative of the three working men. 
The Radicals, who also call themselves socialists and who are, in fact, 
the representatives of French national! socialism, of what survives of 
Proudhon and Louis Blanc, but who, as ministerial candidates, must 
make sure of keeping in with the republican bourgeoisie, are now 
compelled to show themselves in their true colours. The cool, almost 
hostile attitude they adopted from the outset towards the labour 
deputies, has shown the mass of the workers what is what; suddenly the 
latter see, alongside the ‘eddicated’ Radicals, genuine working-class so- 
cialists whom they joyously acclaim. The Radicals, incl. Clemenceau, 
must either temporarily renounce their ministerial aspirations and 
follow in Basly’s and Camélinat’s footsteps, or jeopardise their re- 
election. All of a sudden the question of capital and labour is included 
in the agenda, albeit as yet in very elementary form (rates of pay, the 
right to strike and, possibly, mining on a cooperative basis), but 
nevertheless it’s there and there to stay. Since the workers of France, 
however, had received such a first-rate grounding from their history 
and from the altogether outstanding behaviour of our people during 
the past 2 years, nothing more was required to spark off the explosion 
but an event such as the Decazeville strike, combined with the stupid- 
ity of the Radicals in including 3 working men in their list of candi- 
dates. Now things will move fast in France. You'll have seen how 
afraid the Radicals are from the resolutions taken by the municipal 
councils of Paris, Lyons, etc., to vote money for the Decazeville strik- 
ers.° This again is unprecedented. 

If that’s the state your voice is in, don’t go to America.*! The de- 
mands made on the vocal chords by what is universal practice there 
far exceed anything you can imagine. But anyway we shall look for- 
ward to seeing you over here in the autumn. 

Time for the post, too late for registration. Please send me a post- 
card acknowledging receipt of the cheque. 

Your 

F.E.