London, 29 April 1886 

Dear Sorge, 

Have received your letters of 15 and 28 February and 8 March, 
and postcard of 21 March. 

In most cases the notes contained in the ms. are the same as those 
Marx made in his copy for the 3rd edition.5? In the case of those 
which provide for more insertions from the French, I would not com- 
mit myself unequivocally 1) because the work done for the 3rd edition 
is of much later date and hence, for me, more authoritative, 
2) because, in respect of a translation to be made in America, i.e. 
outside his own orbit, Marx might have preferred some of the passages 
to be translated correctly from the simplified French version rather 
than incorrectly from the German — a consideration which no longer 
applies. Nevertheless, it has provided me with very useful tips 
which will, in due course, also come in handy for the 4th German edition. 
As soon as I have finished with it I shall return it to you by regis- 
tered post. . 

The Volkszeitung and Sozialist are now arriving regularly. Over 
the past fortnight I have sent you 7o-Day and Commonweal, March 
and April. Also yesterday 7o-Day, May, the delay being due solely to 
the slovenliness of the publishers. Should you require anything else let 
me know. 

Broadhouse (Hyndman)’s translation of Capital is a complete 
farce.*?’ The lst chapter was from the German, full of mistakes to the 
point of absurdity. * Now he’s translating from the French, and mak- 
ing the same mistakes. At the rate it’s now going, the thing won’t be 
finished before 1900. 

Thanks for the Kalender. I certainly had no idea that Douai was so 
grossly neglected a great man.°’9 May he take with him to the grave 
the knowledge of his greatness as of its total neglect, without first see- 
ing it compressed into a sugar mould. But he was the right man for 
America and, had he remained an ordinary Democrat, I should have 
wished him the best of luck. As it was, however, he went whoring af- 
ter false gods. 

As for the purist who quibbles about our style and our punctuation 
he doesn’t know either German or English, otherwise he could not 
discover Anglicisms where there aren’t any.°°° The German of which 
he’s so enamoured and which was drummed into us at school, with its 
frightful periodic structure whereby the verb is put right at the end 
and is separated from its subject by ten miles of subclauses, is a Ger- 
man which it has taken me thirty years to unlearn. This bureaucratic, 
pedagogical German, which completely ignores the fact that Lessing 
ever existed, is now on its last legs even in Germany. What would this 
worthy say were he to hear our people speaking in the Reichstag? 
Having done away with this horrible syntax because forever getting 
bogged down in it, they expressed themselves in that place like Jews ”: 
‘Faced with this dilemma, Bismarck chose to kiss the pope’s behind 
rather than the lips of the revolution’, etc. Little Lasker was respon- 
sible for this improvement and it’s the only good thing he ever did. 
Were the purist gent to go to Germany with his pedagogical German, 
he would be told that he spoke American. “You know how petty your 
educated German philistine is’ — especially so in America, it would 
seem. German syntax and punctuation, as taught at school 40 or 50 

* See this volume, p. 424. ae Engels is referring to the more straightforward German 
syntax frequently employed by Jews, as exemplified in the sentence he then proceeds 
to quote. 

years ago, are fit only for the scrap-heap to which, in Germany, 
they’re being well and truly consigned. 

I think I wrote and told you that an American lady* married to 
a Russian” has taken it into her head to translate my old book.‘ 
I have looked over the translation and this entailed a lot of work. But 
she had written to say that publication was assured and that I must 
do it at once, so I had to buckle to. It now transpires that she had en- 
trusted the negotiations to a Miss Foster, secretary of a Women’s 
Ricuts society, who had been foolish enough to give the thing to the 
Socialist Labor Party.>>° I told the translator what I thought of this,* 
but the damage had been done. For the rest, I am glad that these folk 
aren’t translating anything of mine——a fine mess they’d make of 
it. Their German is bad enough, Let alone their English! 

The Volkszeitung people must be pleased with themselves. They 
have gained complete control over the movement amongst the Ger- 
mans, and business must be flourishing. That a man like Dietzgen 
should go to the wall is understandable enough.?° Playing around 
with the boycott and minor strikes is, of course, far more important 
than theoretical guidance. But despite all this, the cause is making 
enormous strides in America. For the first time there is a real mass 
movement amongst the English-speaking population. That it should still 
be feeling its way, awkwardly, at random and in ignorance, is inevi- 
table. But all this will right itself; the movement must and will evolve 
by learning from its own mistakes. Theoretical ignorance is an at- 
tribute of all young nations, but so is speedy practical development. In 
America as in England no amount of exhortation will help until the 
need is really there. And in America it is there, as is a growing aware- 
ness of it. The entry of the indigenous working masses into the move- 
ment in America is for me one of the great events of 1886.°°! As for 
the Germans over there, let the presently prosperous kind gradually 
assimilate with the Americans— they'll still be a step or two ahead of 
the latter and a nucleus will nevertheless remain which will still retain 
a theoretical grasp of the nature and progress of the movement as 
a whole, will keep the process of fermentation going and, eventually, 
rise to the top again. 

The second great event of 1886 is the formation of a workers’ party 
in the French Chamber by Basly and Camélinat, two working-class 
deputies who, for appearances’ sake, were included in the list and 
given a leg up by the Radicals,*?° but failed to play the game and, in- 

4 Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky -° Lazar Wischnewetzky-° The Condition of the 
Working-Class in England; see this volume, pp. 393-94. -¢ See this volume, p. 415. 

stead of becoming the servants of the Radical gents, took the floor as 
working men. The Decazeville srrixe>** brought to a head the split 
between them~— they were joined by’5 other deputies— and the Rad- 
icals.* The latter were thus forced to spell out their policy to the 
workers and, since it is only thanks to the Radicals that the govern- 
ment exists, this was highly distasteful, for it meant that they were 
rightly held responsible by the workers for everything done by the 
government. In short, the Radicals, Clemenceau et al, behaved con- 
temptibly, with a result which no amount of exhortation had hitherto 
succeeded in bringing about, namely the defection of the French workers 
Jrom the Radicals. And a further result was the uniting of all socialist 
groups for the purpose of joint action. Only the miserable Possibil- 
ists 7°’ held aloof, in consequence of which they are steadily going to 
pieces. This new peparture has been tremendously helped along by the 
government’s foolishness, notably its attempt to raise a loan of 900 
million frs for which purpose it needed the big financiers, while the 
latter, being also shareholders in Decazeville, refused their money un- 
less the government broke the srrixe. Hence the arrest of Duc and 
Roche °’5; the workers’ riposte was to put up Roche in Paris as a can- 
didate (for the Chamber) in next Sunday’s elections and Duc (Quercy) 
as a candidate for the municipal council, where he is certain to get 
in.*? In short, France can again boast a splendid movement, and 
this is making spanking progress but, best of all, our men, Guesde, 
Lafargue and Deville, are its theoretical leaders. 

Nor has it been without repercussions in Germany. The revolution- 
ary language and actions of the French have shown how lacklustre 
are the jeremiads of your Geisers, Vierecks, Auers & Co., which is 
why, in the recent Anti-Socialist Law debate, only Bebel and Lieb- 
knecht spoke, and very well too.°7! After this debate we can show our 
faces in decent company again, which is something we can by no 
means do after all of them. On the whole, it’s a good thing that Ger- 
man pre-eminence should not remain altogether unchallenged, espe- 
cially now that so many philistine elements have been elected (inevi- 
table though this may have been). In Germany, when times are 
quiet, there is a general tendency to philistinism, and then the spur of 
French competition is absolutely indispensable. Nor will it be lacking. 
From being a sect, French socialism has suddenly become a party and 

* See this volume, p. 409. 

only now and because of this has it become possible for the workers to 
join en masse, for the latter are sick to the teeth of sectarianism, which 
explains why they adhered to the extreme bourgeois party, the Radi- 
cals. Next Sunday’s elections should already see a great step forward, 
although we can hardly expect Roche to get in. 

I believe that the printing of the English translation of Capztal, 
Volume I, will begin in 2 or 3 weeks’ time. I haven’t nearly finished 
revising it, but 300 pages are completely ready for the press, and 
another 200 very nearly so. 

One more thing. Not long ago a Mr J.T. McEnnis interviewed 
me for the purpose of seeking my advice on labour legislation, osten- 
sibly on behalf of the State of Missouri. I soon smelt a journalistic rat 
and, indeed, he admitted working for THE LEADING Democraric PAPER OF 
St Louis,* but promised on his word of honour that he would first sub- 
mit the whole thing to me for revision. The fellow was sent to:see me 
by a Russian, Stepnyak. That was nearly a fortnight ago and I am 
afraid he may not have kept his word. I have forgotten the name of the 
St Louis paper, but if anything should appear about the interview, 
I would ask you to insert the following statement” in the Sozial- 
ist, the Volkszeitung and anywhere else you think fit. If, however, 
the fellow comes back after all and abides by his word, IJ shal] nat- 
urally let you know at once, and then you can tear up the state- 
ment. 

Luckily the movement in this country has come to a complete stand- 
sill. Hyndman & Co. are political careerists who wreck everything 
and in the Sociauist Leacug? the anarchists are making enormous 
strides. Morris and Bax— the former as a sentimental socialist, the 
latter as a searcher after philosophical paradoxes—— are presently as 
clay in their hands and must now find this out im corpore vilt. 
From the next Commonweal you will see that, thanks largely to 
Tussy’s efforts, Aveling will no longer be responsible for this simulacrum, 
which is a good thing. °’”? And it’s these addlepates who propose to 

@ Missouri Republican-» ¥. Engels, ‘A Statement to the Editorial Board of the New 
Yorker Voikszeitung’. -° in their own persons 

lead the British working class! Fortunately the latter refuse to have 
anything to do with them. 
Kindest regards, 

Your 
F.E.