London, 26 September 1892 

Dear August, 

Louise will already have told you something about Kugelmann. At 
first, during the 60s, he was on very friendly terms with Marx and did 
a great deal towards breaking the newspapers’ conspiracy of silence 
over Capital, Volume I. It was also he who persuaded Marx to go to 
Karlsbad,” which did him a lot of good, but after they had been 
there for a while there was a final parting of the ways. Since Marx’s 
death he has written to me several times, but I have tried to keep my 
distance, not being convinced of his reliability. At all events he has 
more than one foot in more than one camp. 

As regards the copies of Herr Vogt, I have written and told him !°? 
that he must first let me know how many he has got. There are all 
sorts of people wanting it. I believe that not even Tussy or Laura 
have got a copy. You, too, will be given preference if at all possible. 

Arndt is a student who used to be in Geneva, and then went to 
Spain where he frequented our people in Madrid before coming to 
this country. While here he was taken under Julius’* wing and he 

@ See this volume, pp. 543-47.-° Karlovy Vary-° Julius Motteler 

would occasionaly come and see us. Then he suddenly went to Paris. 
He never said a word to us about his intention to write for the Vor- 
warts — presumably this was arranged by Julius. I gave him a card 
for Laura but have never heard whether he presented himself; I shall 
ask her. Laura would have referred him to Vaillant and, since the lat- 
ter was in Paris and Lafargue was nearly always away, this would ac- 
count for the consideration currently being shown to the Blanquists 
and their allies, the Allemanists.5? Can you get hold of Arndt’s ad- 
dress for me? After the Congress,°°> and particularly when the dai- 
ly *?3 comes out, Lafargue will be spending more time in Paris and 
the man will have to be referred to him and Guesde direct. 

I rather think I remember seeing Meyer“ in St Louis, but there are 
so many people of that name. I trust that Kugelmann, who is forever 
bragging about his connections, will be able to find something out. 

Pieper was at one time tutor to the Rothschilds in this country and 
is now a grammar school teacher in Hanover. Marx once —in 1867, 
I think —ran into him in the street, by which time he had become 
a bloated philistine. 

I completely agree that you should go on with the annual party 
conference. If only for constitutional reasons you, as an Executive, 
should adhere to it, otherwise what a fine pretext it would provide 
for malcontents. And it’s also important that once a year the party it- 
self should be able to express itself as a body; this is generally appli- 
cable but doubly so just now — vis-a-vis both the ‘Independents’ 43% 
and Vollmar. 

It is a great pity that you people should have been in such a hurry 
to put what I told you about Hyndman’? into the paper.*73 Let me 
therefore expressly point out once and for all that in future anything 
I pass on to you in private letters is intended solely for your informa- 
tion and, where necessary — subject to the usual reservations — for 
the correction and prevention of inaccuracies or misconceptions in 
the Vorwdrts; not for immediate publication, however, except when this 
is expressly stated. Otherwise I should have to keep my mouth shut 
about everything I could not actually substantiate, or else, in most 
cases, run the risk of having to betray my sources, thus causing these 
to dry up for the future. 

Basically the information as such is quite definitely correct, as every 
number of Justice goes to show; gone are the attacks on individuals in 

* Hermann Meyer-” See this volume, pp. 524, 529, 532 and 540-41. 

this country or on the Continent, nor is anything left of the Hynd- 
manian spirit. But it’s very possible that my information may have 
contained formal errors and that the mere threat of a resolution was 
enough to make Hyndman resign, etc. The only cause for regret is 
first, that this business will mean this and other sources on the doings 
of the Socia, Democratic Feperation ?° will be closed to us, secondly, 
that Hyndman’s position has been improved thereby and, thirdly, 
that any further attempt to put a stop to this can only improve it still 
more. 

In Justice there’s a piece by Hyndman expressing the expectation 
that you people would not print his letter, and to that extent he has 
made an ass of himself.°7* I shall try and get hold of a copy for you. 

I have written and told Kugelmann that, so far as J was competent 
to say, you were authorised to read the letters from Marx to him.'*% 
Also that he would be getting The Knight of the Noble Consctousness.* 

I have today received proofs of your article from K. Kautsky with 
queries about two passages.°7° 

I. There was nothing in the Daily News about the adoption in 
Glasgow of a resolution that delegates should after all be sent to Zu- 
rich, nor had Aveling heard anything of the kind, otherwise he’s have 
said so. He was intending to come here today but hasn’t turned up. 
Louise say that on her way here she had seen something of that 
nature in the Daily Telegraph. In the circumstances I advised 
K. Kautsky to insert the words: 2f the relevant newspaper report 1s true. 
That covers you completely. 

II. ‘The Independent Labour Party now coming into being — whose supporters 
assembled for the first time after the end of the Glasgow Congress to constitute them- 
selves—~’, etc., etc. 

I advised K. Kautsky at all costs to delete the words between 
dashes: ‘— whose ... constitute themselves —’. The Independent La- 
bour Party now coming into being over here is still very far from con- 
stituting itself, nor is it desirable that it should yet attempt to do so. It 
is not yet mature enough. The Inpepenpenr Lasour Party, whose ad- 
herents more or less constituted themselves a party in Glasgow under 
Keir Hardie’s chairmanship, is the sect founded by Autolycus (Joseph 
Burgess) of the Workman’s Times, a sect which so far boasts 2,000 
members and competes with the Social Democratic FEDERATION in re- 

2 K. Marx, The Knight of the Noble Consciousness. 

cruiting socialistically minded workers. At present it is no more the In- 
dependent Labour Party than is the Sociar Democratic Feveration, 
nor is it either better or worse than the latter. What will come of it re- 
mains to be seen, but on no account should we proclaim it as a matter 
of course to be the one and only genuine Independent Labour Party, 
otherwise we might burn our fingers badly. 

Since his election Keir Hardie has been pushing himself to the fore 
and putting on airs in a way that is both ludicrous and discreditable. 
Success has gone to his head and he will have to sow his wild oats for 
a while. He is evidently intent on pushing Burns into the background; 
the latter is behaving with great fortitude and restraint (he asked 
leave to call on me in order to consult me about the attitude he 
should adopt). I think it will all even itself out in the end — Keir Har- 
die is better than he makes himself out to be, but you should by no 
means conclude as a matter of course that someting is commendable 
because fe happens to be taking part in it. 

Otherwise I find your article quite unexceptionable — composed, 
dignified and emphatic. 

At Marseilles the Tranes Unions Congress (Congrés des syndicats) °7° 
passed a resolution which I had put to Lafargue,* namely that they 
should not take part in the international congress convoked by the TRaves Un. 
toxs but should invite the latter to attend the Zurich Congress.°*' This isn’t 
the exact wording which I have yet to receive. Liebknecht will prob- 
ably send it you as he had just turned up when Lafargue was in the 
act of writing. The Congress of the Workers’ Party °°° will adopt a 
similar resolution. I drew Lafargue’s attention to the fact that the 
TRADES UNIONS do not recognise the validity of Labour Party congresses 
and resolutions while according respect of a very different order to 
those of the trades unions. If you in Germany could get the trades un- 
ions to adopt resolutions along the same lines, this could not fail to 
make an impact over here; it’s something that should certainly not be 
neglected. 

You might send about 12 copies of your article to us for distribution 
to the papers over here. For their people very seldom understand 
foreign languages, and whether they would so much as look at it is 
a complete toss-up. To get anything into the press over here one must 
employ different methods. If, for instance, Aveling were to take the 

finished article to the Pall Mall,” he would probably get it in 7; 

* See this volume, pp. 533-35.-? The Pall Mall Gazette 

that same evening we should send copies to the other papers so that 
they would all be served at the same time and there might still be 
a possibility ofits getting a mention in one paper or another. But once 
one paper has discussed any such subject, none of the others will subse- 
quently take it up—such is the rule over here. That is why we, who 
are here on the spot, must be able to determine the moment of distri- 
bution. On the other hand you could certainly send copies, specially 
designated as coming from _you, to the French press; it might possibly 
have some pull over there, particularly since in France we haven't got 
a single daily in which we are able to publish anything. You could 
send it to L’Eclair (the paper most likely to take it), Le Figaro, Le 
Temps, Le Matin, La Justice, L’ Intransigeant, Le Parti Ouvrier (Possibilist) 
and Le Parti Socialiste (49, rue de Rivoli, Blanquist— weekly). 

Please let me know whether or not the Workman’s Times is still be- 
ing sent you by the editorial department. Here it is being said that all 
complimentary copies for countries abroad have been cancelled. If 
this is true, I shall send it to you instead of to Fischer who can read it 
at your house or after you have done with it. 

Well, I should have liked to write a word or two to your wife,’ but 
it is already past 9 p.m. and, contrary to doctor’s orders, I have al- 
ready spent over-long writing by lamplight. I have also had to write 
to Victor” and to Karl Kautsky which has taken me all day,° so 
please ask her to excuse me. But she will be getting a letter all to her- 
self from me. Till then, please give her my warm regards. 

Your 
General 

I have just heard from Louise that you have not been getting an of- 
ficial copy of the Workman’s Times for some while past. So that is one 
thing settled.