Correspondence Vol. 1, 1868-1886 [1]

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FREDERICK ENGELS PAUL AND LAURA LAFARGUE

CORRESPONDENCE VOLUME

1 1868-1886

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSE Moscow 1959

TRANSLATED BY Y V 0 N N E

K A P P

e>1f Finance in 1871. He had bairely ·established himself i n Bordeaux wihen ihe had t h e impudence to try and restore t h e former protective tariffs against Alsace. See Marx's denunciation of him i n The Civil War in France. (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Mos­ cow, 1 958, Vol. I, p. 508.) 3 From the Cri du peuple of April 1 0th, 1 884 (p. I/IV) : "The ar­ rests at Roubaix." "R oubaix, April 8th, 3:55 p.m. "Citizeness Paule Mink and Citizens Guesde, Dormoy and B azin, leave the police-station aft.er protestirng a gainst the arrest of their friend1s Merlin and F1arjat. They are f.o llowed ,by a croiwd of three 192

of the final scene. L ast Monday, Gues de, Paule Mink and I went to Gand at the invitation of the Socialists; w e vvere warmly welcomed; a t t h e G a n d public meeting I gave an h istorical account of the International. Splingard, a delegate to the Hague who, being in his cups, h a d twit­ ted Marx with not knowing French, was in the audience. I took the opportunity to attribute all the honour of the International to Marx, to attack the Proudhonists of the B russels p aper La Liberte,1 and to accuse them of being b ourgeois who had never understood anything about the working-cl ass movement. S pl ingard on hearin � these words coul d not contain himself; and h e did well to withdraw, for they were going to throw him out. He was as drunk at Gand as at the Hague; p erhaps he has never sobered up since 1 872?-At Gand we met two very remark­ able men, Anseele, the name of the other one is Flemish and not having seen it written I cannot r emember it; they knew Capital thoroughly and told m e that it was Marx and the Germ an p apers, Volksstaat, the Sozial­ Demokrat, etc., which h a d cured them of anarchism and bourgeois liberalism. B ax and Joynes2 were del ighted. Poor Joynes does not want to burden his conscience with the murder of animals nor his stomach with their flesh; but at Roub aix the bed bugs treated him l ike a common meat-eater*; they bled him vigorously; he had to abandon his bed. The French were hugely amused watching him eat slices of bread and butter. They were treated in a very friendly way. Love to everyone and good wis.hes to you, P. LAFARGUE

hundred rntton-maste:s a1nd foremen with the corr;plicity of the plain­ clothes police. I nsults continue ·all the way to thr: •railway station, where the congress delegates are courageously freed by the workers.'' 1 La Liberte had openly sided with the Bakllnists and, after the Hague Congress, had resumed their slanderous accusations of Marx's alleged didaiorship over the I nternational. 2 Delegateis from the Democratic Federation. 1 3- 1 967

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Dear Genea-'al , Paul hasn't l eft me room for much. He wishes you to send him a copy of the 3rd Ed. of the Kapital. The English delegates tol d me that Aveling was translating it. How is that? Affectionately your L aura.* 105. FREDERICK ENGELS TO LAURA LAFAR:GUE IN PARIS *

London, 1 81h April 1884 My dear Laura, B est thanks for your news about the chil dren which were very grateful to all of u s . We'll hope the new arrange­ ment may work at least for some time and without too much friction , though she ,looks, from what you say, a rough subj ect enough to create any amount of that. As to our "Socialist" group here, I too am of opinion and said so, that B ax and Av·e ling are the only ones worth h aving, they at l e ast s tudy with a will , though not always a well-directed one. But the worst is, this l ittle clique of public "mutual admirators" and at least partially secret "mutual detractors" (esp. Hyndman) are getting a regular nuisance through their mischievous gossip. First we hear from S . Moore that he has h eard in Manchester that Hynd­ man was busy translating the Kapital. This mystery we have as yet .not been able to s ift thoroughly but i·t will prob ably turn out a can,ard.1 Now, before we are well over that, those two busy-bodi es in P,a ris spread the report that Aveling w as at it! The fong and the short of this is as foHows . Aveling who studies the German text, has trans­ l ated a few ,p ages for his own b enefit. When Hyndman w a,s named as a p ossible oomp etitor in the fi eld, S am at the same time declared that his own transl ation w1a s going on very slow, and he would b e gl a d of some help. So Aveling 1 Fal.se rumour.-Tr. 194

was mentioned; I l:ooked over his work and found it utterly uselesis. He was however very eager, and so, on his meet­ ing S am Moor.e here l1ast week, it was arranged that h e shoul d try his hand a t the chapter "Der Arbeitstag,"1 this being ohiefly descriptive and free, oomp ar atively, from difficult theoretical p assages fo,r which A [veling] is totally unfit as yet, that is to say until he .has worked hims elf through the whole book an d understands it B ut at the same time I said tio S am that I ma de it a condition that you shoul d b e asked also to take a share in the work, of which S am was 'V·ery glad, and now I oome to ask you to choose one. The matter stiands at present as foHows : Sam i s now .doing the 1 st Abschnitt2 from the b egin­ ning; we h ave gone over .p art of this 1st chapter and it is very good, though we shall revise it again. He intends going on to the end, p age 1 27 (2nd edit. ) , and the most .d if­ ficul t p art (p. 22-44) we shall eac.h do indep endently and t hen comp are.-From :p. 1 28 to 22 1 (2nd Abschnitt and 3rd Abschn. chapters 5, 6 and 7) is oompleted. Chapter 8th we will let Aveling try. All the rest is op en to you to choos e from. I do not think you will like to take the n ext 4th Abschnitt, Koop eration,3 Teilung der Arbeit. . . 4 Maschinerie,5 ek 1p . 3 1 8-529 this being rather technical, and so is the 6th Abschnitt: der Arbeitslohn.6 The 7th : die Akkumul ation,7 I shoul d sup pose, w oul d suit you b est. But choose for yourself. Any technical terms for which it might be difficult to find the English equivalent in P aris, you might l eave room for, we oou l d hunt them up here or in Manchester and fill them in. As all p arts of. the transl ation ·p a s s through my hands, I can easily restore the unity of .

1 "The Worrking D ay."-Tr. 2 s 4 s 6 7

1 3"

P art.-Tr. Co-op eration.-Tr. Division of L abour.-Tr. Machiinery.-Tr. Wages.-Tr. The Accumulation (of Capital) .-Tr. 195

expression (the applka:Uon of ,t he siame technical ,terms throughout the book) . If you accept om p rop osal, as I hope you will, and choose a section for yourself, we shall h ave fulfilled at l east p arti ally Mohr's wish and have your name a nd yom work associated with this translation which, I a m oonvinced more and more every day, is an absolute necessity, if the p resent movement here is not to coll ap s e lik e a pdcked b al l b y Its own inanity; and we shall also be able to has1ten the publication. Tussy ha1d undertaken to hunt up all the quotations from Blue Books1 and to tran­ scribe the original p ass ages so as to avoid re-transl ation and errnrs u navoidably 1oonnected with it. She will afao sie e Kegan P aul as soon as possibl e, m aybe today ( the Easter holidays stop p ed action in that direction) , and arrange an interview for me with him when we hope we m ay b e able to settle business m aUers; we shall then also know whether there is any truth in the Hyndman r eport. So if you do s ay yes , at least something goo d will h ave to b e connected with the gossipy reports of B ax and Joynes; for to tel l you the t ruth I 1have no great faith in Aveling's present .attempts. Of Mohr's photographs there are about 450 small ones (cartes) 24/-per 1 00 and 250 l arge ones (cab inets) 50/-per 1 00 cost 1prke. I shall send you a good p arcel of them if you like as soon as I shaH have time to p ack them. At present I have still heaps of books to stow away. Sam left on Wednes day, Schorlemmer is still here till Monday. He sends kindest r egards by the miil lion. The copy 3rd edit. I senit to D anielson direct on 5th April registered and 1shou l d be gla d if P aul would mention this in his next l etter to him. Lop [ atin] ha d asked me to send it and given me the ad dress. Now I s hall have to w1r ite to P aul . So until next time I remain Your affectionate F . ENGELS

1 See Note 3 to p. 1 69. 196

106. FREDERICK ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE IN PARIS

London, April 18th, 1884 My dear Paul, A quarter to 5-hence: no time to waste ! My congratul ations on the success of your congress. The J [ournal de Roubaix1 produces clear evi dence of it in the diff er.ence between its reports of the first and the last s essions. The Germans dM right not to send a de1l e­ gate. The prolongation of the anti-soci alist law2 would have b een made too .easy for the government and the bourgeois. The moderates in our p arty (very numerous amongst the lea ders, very few when it comes to the rank and file which is excellent) woul d have exploited it ; it was a mistake which cou l d on no aocount be m a de. Ev.en initer­ national demonst rations have to be s.aarific.ed in such a case. How long b efo.re the 1r eturn of ilhe Ms. ·o f the transla­ tion3? This time, really, take pa l ns, I do beg of you. The thing absolutely must be well done or not at all. And when can the printing start?4 So that I can arrange to do some notes and the few words of introduction-if you l ike, write a preface and send it here. You asked that you s1houl d be given p recedence ov·er the German edit [ion] ; but I h ave the completed Ms. of the first p art of it and those Zmich f.ell ows print as s oon as the Ms. is in thei.r h ands. Wi·th this German tex1t and the English Capital to re1 From March 3 ! st to April 9th the Journal de Roubaix, the local bourgeois p aper, devoted a two-column article each day to the Socialist Congress, signed Alfred Messiaen. 2 The "Emergency Law·· (Ausnahmegesetz) against the Socialists had to be renewed every two years by a vote o f the Reichstag. 3 This probably refers to the translation Engels had made of Marx's letler to J. B. S chweitzer ( dealt with in the letter of March 1 1 th ) , whkJ1 L afargue wa1s 1supposed to be ;revi>S ing. 4 Of the Poverty of Philosophy.

197

vise, I :have my hands· full and I should therefore like to know how b est to arrange things to avoi d wasting time. For I must at long l ast get to the 2nd volume and here is Zurich announcing the need for a 2nd edition of my D uhringi and the 4th of The Peasant War2-further re­ visions and further prefaces to be done! And that's what the banning of my books in Germany has ;availed Mr. B ismarck and me! Old Wilhelm3 is more or l ess in extremis. He no longer r.eoognises the p eople who oome to s ee him, and he can no longer repeat the wor ds he h as been taught by heart in r eply to deputations. Nim has j ust returned from an errand, she ·s ends you her "loves"* in whatever quantity r equir·ed. With g ood wishes, F. E .

5 : 20 p .m. 107. PAUL LAFARGUE TO FREDERICK ENGELS iIN LONDON

Paris, 21/4/84 My dear Engels, We received your l etter .as· the Jews received manna in the desert. Thank you. It is impossibly hot-P aris is transformed with startl ing suddenness, the trees are covered with leaves, the sfr.eets flooded with blazing sunshine; we are in ful l summer. Helene did w el l to recover; upon my word, it wou l d h ave been too sad for her to be deprived of h er heavenly b eer 1 The 2nd edition of Anti-D iihring was to come out in 1 886.

2 The Peasant War was not republished then. 3 Wilhelm I, .Emperor of Germany. 198

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in weather like this. I f Aveling has recover'-

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