| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 8 April 1891 |
London, 8 April 1891
Dear Sorge,
Today I am able to send you at long last a few new photographs; 2 small ones are enclosed herewith and a larger one (a so-called PANEL) is going off registered as a BOOK PACKET. They were taken this February and hence give a pretty accurate picture of the present state of affairs.
As to your course of Banting, gout is a perfectly normal consequence of an increased consumption of meat, eggs and other nitrogenous foodstuffs. In fact the sole function of these is to renew muscular flesh and other nitrogenous parts of the body (fibrin, in short all albuminous substances) and replace what has been wasted. If, however, you take more than is necessary for this purpose, they will be burned up in the body as normal nourishment for the replacement of body heat; the residue from the burning process consists largely of so-called uric acid which may appear in the body in greater quantities than can be excreted through the kidneys. In which case the surplus either lingers in the muscles or else forms crystals in the joints, and this is what is termed rheumatism and gout. You must either get more exercise or else change your diet and eat more bread, etc., and less meat and eggs. Beer you should certainly shun.
Thank you for your answer concerning the Avelings. The affair was at one time tentatively brought up over here, I no longer know by whom, and, lest anything precipitate should be done, I took it upon myself to consult you about it.[1]
Singer and Bebel have written to me in most affable terms.[2] Your German can never get accustomed to the fact that someone in office cannot lay claim to being handled more gently than anyone else. That, at bottom, is the main reason why offence was taken. Since I failed to respond to Liebknecht's pompous drivel[3] and took no notice whatever of any provocations, Liebknecht may imagine that he has won a great victory over me. He is welcome to that pleasure. In any case he will edit the Vorwärts out of existence for them soon enough and everyone is grumbling about it. Liebknecht is incorrigible and will remain so, to judge by the way he still seems to be conniving with Rosenberg in America. The decisive role in the party is devolving more and more upon Bebel and that is an excellent thing. Bebel is a calm, clear-headed thinker, and as a theoretician, too, he is in a quite different class from Liebknecht. But one can't just cast Liebknecht aside; moreover he still wields a good deal of influence, thanks to his expenditure of hot air and the vehemence of his tone at popular meetings, hence all these compromises.
Things are going well over here. Hyndman's attacks on Aveling may cost him very dear. Hyndman is incapable of assessing accurately his powers relative to what he aims to achieve. He thought he'd be able to do Aveling down and now he himself has landed in the cart. As a result of the last TRADES UNION CONGRESS in Liverpool[4] the majority of the London TRADES COUNCIL[5] has come round in favour of the LEGAL 8 HOURS DAY. Hyndman sought to play it off against the LEGAL 8 HOURS LEAGUE[6] but his plan miscarried; his Federation was represented on the LEGAL 8 HOURS COMMITTEE but he withdrew his delegates and wrote to the Trades Council demanding 2 separate speakers' platforms for the Federation at the demonstration in the PARK.[7] But the TRADES COUNCIL will probably turn this down flat, as has already been done by the 8 HOURS COMMITTEE, in which case Hyndman will find himself between two stools.[8] Aveling is being accorded votes of confidence from all the associations he works with, since Hyndman refuses to voice his accusations in public debate and will, after May Day, doubtless have to change his tactics. Over here he is the only trouble-maker who stands in the way. He has shown how useless a programme is — however right it may be theoretically — if it fails to relate to the real needs of the people. Though in this instance such people are Englishmen, they are almost as far removed from the genuine English movement as is the Socialist Labor Party in America.[9] The movement over here has come into its own by virtue of the new TRADES UNIONS, especially the GASWORKERS,[10] and of the agitation in support of a LEGAL 8 HOURS (Eight Hours Bill), the Avelings being in the forefront of both. There are, in both these spheres of agitation, many people who also belong to the SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION. But they are the very ones who are wriggling out of Hyndman's clutches and who regard the SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION as a negligible quantity. And, if Hyndman oversteps the mark in his squabble with Aveling, these are the very people he may have to reckon with.
In France, thanks to the split among the Possibilists,![11] our people also have the whip-hand in Paris just now. First the Allemanists[12] (according to Lafargue they're in the majority in Paris, but I doubt it) and then, eventually, also the Broussists, sent delegates to the May Day demonstration committee — i.e. they deigned to comply with a Marxist resolution. And, since the Allemanists want to chuck out the Broussists, our people find themselves in the position of acting as advocates of equal rights for the Broussists!! Best of all, our Frenchmen are employing exactly the same tactics vis-à-vis the Possibilists as those recommended by Marx to the Eisenachers for use vis-à-vis the Lassalleans[13] And so far with success.
The Paris miners' congress all but broke down over the Belgians' tomfoolery with regard to a GENERAL STRIKE.[14] So as to avoid this the English called for a vote on the basis of the number of working men represented. That would have given the English all but an absolute majority and here the others rebelled. I almost hoped that the Walloon colliers, who on this occasion were at the bottom of all the nonsense about a GENERAL STRIKE, might succeed in bringing about a GENERAL STRIKE in Belgium in favour of universal suffrage; they would be hopelessly trounced and that would put an end to the nonsense. But the others in Germany and France would have to take the consequences.
Schorlemmer was here for a week; he has grown very susceptible to changes in the weather, is contending with bouts of deafness brought on by a cold, and ought sometime to spend a winter in a warm climate. Sam is in Derbyshire and I expect him any day. But I doubt if he'll do any work while over here, as he must recoup his strength for another eighteen months on the Niger. Apparently he finds the climate out there very pleasant and grumbles about ours.
Warm regards to your wife.[15]
Your
F. E.
The duplicate portrait is for Schlüter, to whom please convey my regards.
First published abridged in 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 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time