Letter from Friedrich Engels to Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky in New York, London, 9 February 1887. Written in English. Text from: F. A. Sorge (ed.), Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere (Stuttgart, 1906), pp. 250-251. Sorge prints the letter abridged. The dashes are his; […] marks further paragraphs he leaves out. Spanish translation
London, February 9th 1887.
Dear Mrs. Wischnewetzky.
I reply at once to your letter, postmark January 28th. The preface was sent on January 27th. — — — — — — — —
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Your fear as to my being unduly influenced by Aveling in my view of the American movement, is groundless. As soon as there was a national American working class movement independent of the Germans, my standpoint was clearly indicated by the facts of the case. That great national movement, no matter what its first form, is the real starting point of American working class development; if the Germans join it, in order to help it or to hasten its development in the right direction, they may do a deal of good and play a decisive part in it; if they stand aloof, they will dwindle down into a dogmatic sect, and will be brushed aside as people who do not understand their own principles. Mrs. Aveling who has seen her father at work, understood this quite as well from the beginning, and if Aveling saw it too, all the better. And all my letters to America, to Sorge, to yourself, to the Avelings, from the very beginning, have repeated this view over and over again. Still I was glad to see the Avelings, before writing my preface, because they gave me some new facts about the inner mysteries of the German party in New York. — — —
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
In the early hole-and-corner stages of the working class movement, when the working men are still under the influence of traditional prejudices, woe be to the man, who, being of bourgeois origin or superior education, goes into the movement and is rash enough to enter into money-relations with the working class element. There is sure to be a dispute upon the cash-accounts and this is at once enlarged into on attempt of exploitation. Especially so, if the “bourgeois” happens to have views on theoretical or tactical points that disagree with those of the majority or even of a minority. This I have constantly seen for more than forty years. The worst of all were the Germans; in Germany, the growth of the movement has long since swept that failing away, but it has not died out with the Germans out of Germany. For that reason Marx and I have always tried to avoid having any money dealings with the party, no matter in what country. —
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Had he tried to swindle the party, how could he do that during all his tour without his wife being cognizant of it? And in that case the charge includes her too. And then it becomes utterly absurd, in my eyes at least. Her I have known from a child, and for the last seventeen years she has been constantly about me. And more than that, I have inherited from Marx the obligation to stand by his children as he would have done himself, and to see, as far as lies in my power, that they are not wronged. And that I shall do, in spite of fifty Executives. The daughter of Marx swindling the working class — too rich indeed!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
Very truly yours
F. Engels.