Interview with Karl Marx, Chicago Tribune, January 1879

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Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 5 January 1879


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Source: Pamphlet by “The American Institute for Marxist Studies (AIMS), 20 East 30th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016, 1972, as “An Interview with Karl Marx in 1879,” first published in the Chicago Tribune n°6, January 5 1879. Edited by Thomas W. Porter (Northern Illinois University) Occasional Papers No. 10 (1972), price $1.00
Collection(s): Chicago Tribune
Keywords : Interview, Press, Biography

Introduction[edit source]

Introduction by the American Institute for Marxist Studies[edit source]

The American Institute for Marxist Studies (AIMS) is an educational, research and bibliographical institute. Its purposes are to encourage Marxist and radical scholarship in the United States and to help bring Marxist thought into the forum of reasonable debate to produce meaningful dialogue among Marxist and non-Marxist scholars and writers. Its policy is to avoid sectarian and dogmatic thinking. It engages in no political activity and takes no stand on political questions. To these ends it invites the support and participation of all scholars and public-spirited individuals. (Note from MIA)

In 1879 Karl Marx was interviewed in his London home by a correspondent of that most Republican of American newspapers, the Chicago Tribune. For many years the Tribune had been hysterically blasting both Socialism and the emerging Trade Unions (they were considered to be identical and each article invariably characterized Marx as the mastermind of world conspiracy).[1] Finding the only lengthy interview which Marx ever gave in such a conservative newspaper is fascinating but an even more interesting fact is that it was virtually unknown to Marxist scholarship until 1964.

The interview first appeared on Sunday, January 5, 1879, in the morning edition of the Tribune which had a circulation in excess of 33,000.[2] Within a week the article was picked up by two daily German-English working class newspapers, the New York Volkszeitung[3] and the Chicago Vorbote.[4] Both newspapers published an incomplete and inaccurate German translation which had been rearranged and rewritten for sectarian purposes. On January 11th, in Chicago, The Socialist, a weekly organ of the Socialist Workers Party, published the last paragraph of the interview.[5]Finally, in April, a Danish daily, The Social Democrat, published a translation of the article which had appeared in the Chicago Vorbote.[6]

Why Marx gave the interview to such a conservative newspaper is unknown. There are no known references to the interview in any of Marx’ or Engels’ papers and correspondence.[7] It is possible that Marx sought the interview in order to instruct American workers on the struggle of the German Socialists[8] but that seems highly unlikely. Marx was far more direct when he wanted to make a point. He had numerous contacts in the United States and while he may not have been in direct contact with-working-class newspapers[9] he could certainly have gotten an article published if he so desired. Most likely it was simply chance opportunity. With his mind occupied by German affairs,[10] perhaps Marx took advantage of the Tribune’s large circulation to speak to the American public.

Between 1879 and 1964 the interview virtually disappeared until its nearly simultaneous, but independent, revival by Karl Obermann and Louis Lazarus. Obermann found and quoted the single paragraph from The Socialist;[11] Lazarus listed the interview in a bibliography of Marx’ and Engels’ American Manuscripts.[12] Using the information supplied by Lazarus, Bert Andréas republished the full text of the interview in a German journal in 1965.[13] Having come across the article in its original [14 ]I felt that it was too valuable not to be more widely known. Mr. Andréas article – called to my attention by Herbert Aptheker, – was of great assistance to me in preparing this publication and his translation has been republished in the Werke.[14]

There are many fascinating aspects of the interview which touches on topics such as the role of violence, Lassalle and the Gotha program, Marx’s interest in and knowledge of the United States, and an evaluation of Bismarck’s politics. Another interesting feature of the interview is supplied by the correspondent himself, who reflects the provincialism of bourgeois America in his hostility towards and unfamiliarity with Marx’s ideas. This undoubtedly accounts for any inaccuracies and for the rather casual journalistic form of the text. Although Marx’s comments are obviously not reproduced in his own words the reporter nevertheless conveys the spirit and message of Karl Marx.[15] The following is transcribed directly from the original without any changes in text or format except the addition of explanatory notes.

Introductory note by MECW[edit source]

Marx's interview with the correspondent of The Chicago Tribune took place in the first half of December 1878. Despite the several inaccuracies of the correspondent, this document has some biographical interest.

The German translation of the text of the interview was published, slightly abridged, in the New Yorker Volkszeitung, No. 10, January 10, 1879 and reprinted by Der Vorbote, No. 2, January 11, 1879. The Socialist of Chicago (No. 18, January 11) reprinted the last part of the interview. The publication in Der Vorbote was used for the Danish translation, which appeared in the Social-Demokraten, Copenhagen, Nos. 84 and 85, April 9 and 10, 1879.

The Interview[edit source]

London, December 18 [1878] – In a little villa at Haverstock Hill, the northwest portion of London, lives Karl Marx, the cornerstone of modern socialism. He was exiled from his native country – Germany – in 1844[MECW 1], for propagating revolutionary theories. In 1848, he returned, but in a few months was again exiled. He then took up his abode in Paris, but his political theories procured his expulsion from that city in 1849, and since that year his headquarters have been in London. His convictions have caused him trouble from the beginning. Judging from the appearance of his home, they certainly have not brought him affluence. Persistently during all these years he has advocated his views with an earnestness which undoubtedly springs from a firm belief in them, and, however much we may deprecate their propagation, we cannot but respect to a certain extent the self-denial of the now venerable exile.

Our correspondent has called upon him twice or thrice, and each time the Doctor was found in his library, with a book in one hand and a cigarette in the other. He must be over seventy years of age.[16] His physique is well knit, massive, erect. He has the head of a man of intellect, and the features of a cultivated Jew. His hair and beard are long, and iron-gray in color. His eyes are glittering black, shaded by a pair of bushy eyebrows. To a stranger he shows extreme caution. A foreigner can generally gain admission; but the ancient-looking German woman [Helene Demuth] who waits upon visitors has instructions to admit none who hail from the Fatherland, unless they bring letters of introduction. Once into his library, however, and having fixed his one eyeglass in the corner of his eye, in order to take your intellectual breadth and depth, so to speak, he loses that self-restraint, and unfolds to you a knowledge of men and things throughout the world apt to interest one. And his conversation does not run in one groove, but is as varied as are the volumes upon his library shelves. A man can generally be judged by the books he reads, and you can form your own conclusions when I tell you a casual glance revealed Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray, Moliere, Racine, Montaigne, Bacon, Goethe, Voltaire, Paine; English, American, French blue books; works political and philosophical in Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, etc., etc. During my conversation I was struck with

His Intimacy with American Questions which have been uppermost during the past twenty years. His knowledge of them, and the surprising accuracy with which he criticized our national and state legislation, impressed upon my mind the fact that he must have derived his information from inside sources.[17] But, indeed, this knowledge is not confined to America, but is spread over the face of Europe. When speaking of his hobby – socialism – he does not indulge in those melodramatic flights generally attributed to him, but dwells upon his utopian plans for “the emancipation of the human race” with a gravity and an earnestness indicating a firm conviction in the realization of his theories, if not in this century, at least in the next.

Perhaps Dr. Karl Marx is better known in America as the author of Capital, and the founder of the International Society, or at least its most prominent pillar. In the interview which follows, you will see what he says of this Society as it at present exists. However, in the meantime I will give you a few extracts from the printed general rules of The International Society published in 1871, by order of the General Council, from which you can form an impartial judgment of its aims and ends. The Preamble sets forth “that the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves; that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule; that the economical subjection of the man of labor to the monopolizer of the means of labor – that is, the sources of life – lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence; that all efforts aiming at” the universal emancipation of the working classes “have hitherto failed from want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labor in each country,” and the Preamble calls for “the immediate combination of the still-disconnected movements.” It goes on to say that the International Association acknowledges “no rights without duties, no duties without rights” – thus making every member a worker. the Association was formed at London “to afford a central medium of communication and cooperation between the workingmen’s societies in the different countries,” aiming at the same end, namely: “the protection, advancement, and complete emancipation of the working classes.” “Each member,” the document further says, “of the International Association, on removing his domicile from one country to another, will receive the fraternal support of the associated workingmen."

The Society Consists of a general Congress, which meets annually, a general Council, which forms “an international agency between the different national and local groups of the Association, so that the workingmen in one country can be constantly informed of the movements of their class in every other country." This Council receives and acts upon the applications of new branches or sections to join the International, decides differences arising between the sections, and, in fact, to use an American phrase, “runs the machine." The expenses of the General Council are defrayed by an annual contribution of an English penny per member. Then come the federal councils or committees, and local sections, in the various countries. The federal councils are bound to send one report at least every month to the General Council, and every three months a report on the administration and financial state of their respective branches. whenever attacks against the International are published, the nearest branch or committee is bound to send at once a copy of such publication to the General Council. The formation of female branches among the working classes is recommended.

The General Council comprises the following: R. Applegarth, M.T. Boon, Frederick Bradnick, G.H. Buttery, E. Delahaye, Eugene Dupont (on mission), William Hales, G. Harris, Hurliman, Jules Johannard, Harriet Law, Frederick Lessner, Lochner, Charles Longuet, C. Martin, Zevy Maurice, Henry Mayo, George Milner, Charles Murray, Pfander, John Pach, Ruhl Sadler, Cowell Stepney, Alfred Taylor, W. Townshend, E. Vaillant, John Weston. The corresponding secretaries for the various countries are: Leo Frankel, for Austria and Hungary; A. Herman, Belgium; T. Mottershead, Denmark; A. Serrailler, France; Karl Marx, Germany and Russia; Charles Rochat, Holland; J.P. McDonell, Ireland; Frederick Engels, Italy and Spain; Walery Wroblewski, Poland; Hermann Jung, Switzerland; J.G. Eccarius, United States; Le Moussu, for French branches of United States.

During my visit to Dr. Marx, I alluded to the platform given by J.C. Bancroft Davis in his official report of 1877[MECW 2] as the clearest and most concise exposition of socialism that I had seen.[18] He said it was taken from the report of the socialist reunion at Gotha, Germany, in May, 1875[MECW 3]. The translation was incorrect, he said, and he Volunteered Corrections which I append as he dictated:[19]

First: Universal, direct, and secret suffrage for all males over twenty years, for all elections, municipal and state.

Second: Direct legislation by the people.[20] War and peace to be made by direct popular vote.

Third: Universal obligation to militia duty. No standing army.

Fourth: Abolition of all special legislation regarding press laws and public meetings.

Fifth: Legal remedies free of expense. Legal proceedings to be conducted by the people.

Sixth: Education to be by the state – general, obligatory, and free. Freedom of science and religion.[21]

Seventh: All indirect taxes to be abolished. Money to be raised for state and municipal purposes by direct progressive income tax.

Eighth: Freedom of combination among the working classes.

Ninth: The legal day of labor for men to be defined. The work of women to be limited, and that of children to be abolished.

Tenth: Sanitary laws for the protection of life and health of laborers, and regulation of their dwelling and places of labor, to be enforced by persons selected by them.

Eleventh: Suitable provision respecting prison labor. In Mr. Bancroft Davis’ report there is

A Twelfth Clause[22], the most important of all, which reads: “State aid and credit for industrial societies, under democratic direction.” I asked the Doctor why he omitted this, and he replied:

“When the reunion took place at Gotha, in 1875, there existed a division among the Social Democrats. The one wing were partisans of Lassalle, the others those who had accepted in general the program of the International organization, and were called the Eisenach party. The twelfth point was not placed on the platform, but placed in the general introduction by way of concession to the Lassallians. Afterwards it was never spoken of. Mr. Davis does not say that is was placed in the program as a compromise having no particular significance, but gravely puts it in as one of the cardinal principles of the program.”[23]

“But,” I said, “socialists generally look upon the transformation of the means of labor into the common property of society as the grand climax of the movement.”

“Yes; we say that this will be the outcome of the movement, but it will be a question of time, of education, and the institution of higher social status.”

“This platform,” I remarked, “applies only to Germany and one or two other countries.”

“Ah!” he returned, “if you draw your conclusions from nothing but this, you know nothing of the activity of the party. Many of its points have no significance outside of Germany. Spain, Russia, England, and America have platforms suited to their peculiar difficulties. The only similarity in them is the end to be attained.”

“And that is the supremacy of labor?”

“That is the Emancipation of Labor”

“Do European socialists look upon the movement in America as a serious one?”

“Yes: it is the natural outcome of the country’s development. It has been said that the movement has been imported by foreigners. When labor movements became disagreeable in England, fifty years ago, the same thing was said; and that was long before socialism was spoken of. In American, since 1857, only has the labor movement become conspicuous.[24] Then trade unions began to flourish; then trades assemblies were formed, in which the workers in different industries united; and after that came national labor unions[MECW 4]. If you consider this chronological progress, you will see that socialism has sprung up in that country without the aid of foreigners, and was merely caused by the concentration of capital and the changed relations between the workmen and employers.”

“Now,” asked our correspondent, “what has socialism done so far?”

“Two things,” he returned. “Socialists have shown the general universal struggle between capital and labor – The Cosmopolitan Chapter in one word – and consequently tried to bring about an understanding between the workmen in the different countries, which became more necessary as the capitalists became more cosmopolitan in hiring labor, pitting foreign against native labor not only in America, but in England, France, and Germany. International relations sprang up at once between workingmen in the three different countries, showing that socialism was not merely a local, but an international problem, to be solved by the international action of workmen. The working classes move spontaneously, without knowing what the ends of the movement will be. The socialists invent no movement, but merely tell the workmen what its character and its ends will be.”

“Which means the overthrowing of the present social system,” I interrupted.

“This system of land and capital in the hands of employers, on the one hand,” he continued, “and the mere working power in the hands of the laborers to sell a commodity, we claim is merely a historical phase, which will pass away and give place to A Higher Social Condition.

We see everywhere a division of society. The antagonism of the two classes goes hand in hand with the development of the industrial resources of modern countries. From a socialistic standpoint the means already exist to revolutionize the present historical phase. Upon trade unions, in many countries, have been built political organizations. In America the need of an independent workingmen’s party has been made manifest. They can no longer trust politicians. Rings and cliques have seized upon the legislatures, and politics has been made a trade. But America is not alone in this, only its people are more decisive than Europeans. Things come to the surface quicker. There is less cant and hypocrisy that there is on this side of the ocean.”

I asked him to give me a reason for the rapid growth of the socialistic party in Germany, when he replied:

“The present socialistic party came last. Theirs was not the utopian scheme which made headway in France and England. The German mind is given to theorizing, more than that of other peoples. From previous experience the Germans evolved something practical. This modern capitalistic system, you must recollect, is quite new in Germany in comparison to other states. Questions were raised which had become almost antiquated in France and England, and political influences to which these states had yielded sprang into life when the working classes of Germany had become imbued with socialistic theories. therefore, from the beginning almost of modern industrial development, they have formed an Independent Political Party.

They had their own representatives in the German parliament. There was no party to oppose the policy of the government, and this devolved upon them. To trace the course of the party would take a long time; but I may say this: that, if the middle classes of Germany were not the greatest cowards, distinct from the middle classes of America and England, all the political work against the government should have been done by them.”

I asked him a question regarding the numerical strength of the Lassallians in the ranks of the Internationalists.

“The party of Lassalle,” he replied, “does not exist. Of course there are some believers in our ranks, but the number is small. Lassalle anticipated our general principles. When he commenced to move after the reaction of 1848, he fancied that he could more successfully revive the movement by advocating cooperation of the workingmen in industrial enterprises. It was to stir them into activity. He looked upon this merely as a means to the real end of the movement. I have letters from him to this effect.”[25]

“You would call it his nostrum?”[26]

“Exactly. He called upon Bismarck, told him what he designed, and Bismarck encouraged Lassalle’s course at that time in every possible way.”

“What was his object?”

“He wished to use the working classes as a set-off against the middle classes who instigated the troubles of 1848.”

“It is said that you are the head and front of socialism, Doctor, and from your villa here pull the wires of all the associations, revolutions, etc., now going on. What do you say about it?”

The old gentleman smiled: “I know it.”

“It Is Very Absurd yet it has a comic side. For two months previous to the attempt of Hoedel, Bismarck complained in his North German Gazette that I was in league with Father Beck, the leader of the Jesuit movement, and that we were keeping the socialist movement in such a condition that he could do nothing with it.”

“But your International Society in London directs the movement?”

“The International Society has outlived its usefulness and exists no longer.[27] It did exist and direct the movement; but the growth of socialism of late years has been so great that its existence has become unnecessary. Newspapers have been started in the various countries. These are interchanged. That is about the only connection the parties in the different countries have with one another. The International Society, in the first instance, was created to bring the workmen together, and show the advisability of effecting organization among their various nationalities. The interests of each party in the different countries have no similarity. This specter of the Internationalist leaders sitting at London is a mere invention. It is true that we dictated to foreign societies when the Internationalist organization was first accomplished. We were forced to exclude some sections in New York, among them one in which Madam Woodhull was conspicuous.[28] that was in 1871. there are several American politicians – I will not name them – who wish to trade in the movement. They are well known to American socialists.”

“You and your followers, Dr. Marx, have been credited with all sorts of incendiary speeches against religion. Of course you would like to see the whole system destroyed, root and branch.”

“We know,” he replied after a moment’s hesitation, “that violent measures against religion are nonsense; but this is an opinion: as socialism grows, Religion Will Disappear.

Its disappearance must be done by social development, in which education must play a part.”

“The Reverend Joseph Cook,[29] of Boston – you know him –”

“We have heard of him, a very badly informed man upon the subject of socialism.”

“In a lecture lately upon the subject, he said, ‘Karl Marx is credited now with saying that, in the United States, and in Great Britain, and perhaps in France, a reform of labor will occur without bloody revolution, but that blood must be shed in Germany, and in Russia, and in Italy, and in Austria.’”

“No socialist,” remarked the Doctor, smiling, “need predict that there will be a bloody revolution in Russia, Germany, Austria, and possibly Italy if the Italians keep on in the policy they are now pursuing. The deeds of the French Revolution may be enacted again in those countries. That is apparent to any political student. But those revolutions will be made by the majority. No revolution can be made by a party, but By a Nation”.

“The reverend gentleman alluded to,” I remarked, “gave an extract from a letter which he said you addressed to the Communists of Paris in 1871. Here it is:

‘We are as yet but 3,000,000 at most. In twenty years we shall be 50,000,000 – 100,000,000 perhaps. Then the world will belong to us, for it will be not only Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, which will rise against odious capital, but Berlin, Munich, Dresden, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Brussels, St. Petersburg, New York – in short, the whole world. And before this new insurrection, such as history has not yet known, the past will disappear like a hideous nightmare; for the popular conflagration, kindled at a hundred points at once, will destroy even its memory!’

Now, Doctor, I suppose you admit the authorship of that extract?”

“I never wrote a word of it. I never write Such Melodramatic Nonsense.

I am very careful what I do write. That was put in Le Figaro, over my signature, about that time. There were hundreds of the same kind of letters flying about them. I wrote to the London Times and declared they were forgeries; but if I denied everything that has been said and written of me, I would require a score of secretaries.”

“But you have written in sympathy with the Paris Communists?”

“Certainly I have, in consideration of what was written of them in leading articles; but the correspondence from Paris in English papers is quite sufficient to refute the blunders propagated in editorials. The Commune killed only about sixty people; Marshal MacMahon and his slaughtering army killed over 60,000. There has never been a movement so slandered as that of the Commune.”

“Well, then, to carry out the principles of socialism do its believers advocate assassination and bloodshed?”

“No great movement,” Karl answered, “has ever been inaugurated Without Bloodshed.

“The independence of America was won by bloodshed, Napoleon captured France through a bloody process, and he was overthrown by the same means. Italy, England, Germany, and every other country gives proof of this, and as for assassination,” he went on to say, “it is not a new thing, I need scarcely say. Orsini tried to kill Napoleon; kings have killed more than anybody else; the Jesuits have killed; the Puritans killed at the time of Cromwell. These deeds were all done or attempted before socialism was born. Every attempt, however, now made upon a royal or state individual is attributed to socialism. The socialists would regret very much the death of the German Emperor at the present time. He is very useful where he is; and Bismarck has done more for the cause than any other statesman, by driving things to extremes.”

I asked Dr. Marx What He Thought of Bismarck.

He replied that “Napoleon was considered a genius until he fell; then he was called a fool. Bismarck will follow in his wake. He began by building up a despotism under the plea of unification. his course has been plain to all. The last move is but an attempted imitation of a coup d’etat;[MECW 5] but it will fail. The socialists of Germany, as of France, protested against the war of 1870 as merely dynastic. They issued manifestoes[MECW 6] foretelling the German people, if they allowed the pretended war of defense to be turned into a war of conquest, they would be punished by the establishment of military despotism and the ruthless oppression of the productive masses.[MECW 7] The Social-Democratic party in Germany, thereupon holding meetings and publishing manifestoes for an honorable peace with France, were at once prosecuted by the Prussian Government, and many of the leaders imprisoned[MECW 8]. Still their deputies alone dared to protest, and very vigorously too, in the German Reichstag, against the forcible annexation of French provinces[MECW 9]. However, Bismarck carried his policy by force, and people spoke of the genius of a Bismarck. The war was fought, and when he could make no conquests, he was called upon for original ideas, and he has signally failed. The people began to lose faith in him. His popularity was on the wane. He needs money, and the state needs it. Under a sham constitution he has taxed the people for his military and unification plans until he can tax them no longer, and now he seeks to do it with no constitution at all. For the purpose of levying as he chooses, he has raised the ghost of socialism,[30] and has done everything in his power To Create an Emeute.”

“You have continual advice from Berlin?”

“Yes,” he said; “my friends keep me well advised. It is in a perfectly quiet state, and Bismarck is disappointed. He has expelled forty-eight prominent men – among them Deputies Hasselman and Fritsche and Rackow, Bauman, and Auer, of the Freie Presse.[31][MECW 10] These men kept the workmen of Berlin quiet. Bismarck knew this. He also knew that there were 75,000 workmen in that city upon the verge of starvation. Once those leaders were gone, he was confident that the mob would rise, and that would be the cue for a carnival of slaughter. The screws would then be put upon the whole German Empire; his petty theory of blood and iron[MECW 11] would then have full sway, and taxation could be levied to any extent. So far no emeute has occurred, and he stands today confounded at the situation and the ridicule of all statesmen.”


H.[32]

Notes[edit source]

Notes from Editor Thomas W. Porter[edit source]

  1. ↑ During a period of labor agitation over unemployment the Tribune on December 25, 1873 published a page one, 4-column history of the Communist movement in Europe and America (which Marx was credited with founding). The article stated: “The principles and demands of these men are wild and subversive to society. Land will save us for a time but the cities must prepare to meet the dangers of Internationalism.” Then again on January 5, 1874 the Tribune wrote; “It is time that every state.. .go earnestly to work to prepare for the onset of the followers of Karl Marx, for they mean business, not in Paris and Berlin merely, but in New York and Chicago.” Philip Kinsley; The Chicago Tribune: Its First Hundred Years. Vol. 2 pp. 190-91, (Chicago, 1945).
  2. ↑ At this time the Tribune published a daily morning edition of 25,000 copies plus occasional special extra editions, and a Sunday edition which varied from 33,000 to over 50,000. The Sunday edition had 16 pages while the weekly paper had twelve. Although feature articles were commonly republished in subsequent editions, the interview appeared only once. The Tribune estimates that each copy sold was read by four people.
  3. ↑ January 10, 1879, Vol. II, #10, page 2, columns 4-6.
  4. ↑ January 11, 1879, Vol. II, #8, page 8, columns 2-6.
  5. ↑ January 11, 1879, Vol. I, #18.
  6. ↑ The Social Democrat appeared daily. It carried the translation under the title “A Conversation between Karl Marx and an American Correspondent” on the 9th and 10th of April, 1879, Vol. V, #84, page 1, columns 1-4, and #85, page 1, column 4, and page 2, column 4.
  7. ↑ Between November 28, 1878 and April 10, 1879 only six letters are known to exist between Marx and Engels, none of which mentions the interview.
  8. ↑ Karl Obermann tried to support this idea by suggesting that the interview was connected with the “Anarchist deviation; that became noticeable in Chicago at that time” (see page 67 of the article mentioned in footnote 11). The first stirring of the anarchist movement was found among the American Social Democrats during the summer of 1879 in Chicago; they later made themselves felt at the National Congress of the Socialist Workers Party in Allegheny, in December 1879.
  9. ↑ During the years 1876-1878 a number of German-English working class newspapers were established in the United States. Among those still active in 1879 on a daily basis were the Philadelphia Tageblatt, the New York Volkszeitunq, and the Chicago Vorbote. There were also two important English language weeklies, the Labor Standard in New York, and The Socialist in Chicago.
  10. ↑ In the last paragraph of the interview Marx discusses the expulsion of a number of “prominent men” from Germany and its implications. The expulsion was made public on November 30, 1878. The Postal service from London to Chicago at that time took nearly three weeks. Thus the interview must have taken place during the first week of December, 1878 otherwise the article could not have been ready for a January 5th deadline.
  11. ↑ Karl Obermann, “Die Beziehungen von Marx und Engels zur Amerikanischen Arbeiter bewegung in der Zeit Zwischen der I. und II. Internationale, pp.62-71 of the Zeitschrift fur Geschichtswissen-Geschichtswissen Berlin, 1964 #1. Obermann quoted the paragraph from The Socialist on page 66 of his article. After its publication this paragraph was included in the Second Russian edition of The Complete Works of !DOCTYPE, (Socineniya, Vol. 34, p. 404).
  12. ↑ Louis Lazarus, Second supplement to “Marx and Engels: American manuscripts and imprints, 1846 to 1898,” which is entry #E 33c in the Library Bulletin of the Tamiment Institute Library of New York, #40, May, 1964.
  13. ↑ Bert Andréas, “Marx fiber die SPD, Bismarck und das Sozialistengesetz:, in Archiv Fur Sozialgeschichte, Band S(1965), Hannover, pp.363-76.
  14. ↑ Interview mit dem Grundleger des modernen Sozialismus Besondere Korrespondenz der ‘Tribune’” Karl Marx. Friedrich Engels. Werke, Band 34, Berlin, 1966, text: pp. 508-516, notes: pp. 619-20, (Andréas’ introduction and notes are not included).
  15. ↑ Andréas goes to considerable length in both his introduction and footnotes to prove the authenticity of this interview. Although there is no mention of an interview in their correspondence Marx and Engels were writing articles and letters which cover essentially the same material. Their comments match completely. This also applies to articles and letters written after the interview proving that the correspondent could not have faked the interview on the basis of Marx’s earlier work.
  16. ↑ Marx was 61 years old having been born in Trier on May 5, 1818.
  17. ↑ Marx had a wide circle of friends in the United States and he corresponded regularly with many of them. F.A. Sorge, former Secretary General of the International, and G.J. Harney, the former Chartist leader, were particularly helpful concerning American affairs. because they sent government documents and legal texts to Marx. He also received official documents from Carroll D. Wright, Chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics. Marx required such material because of his work on volume two of Capital. See Letters: Marx to Sorge, October 19, 1877 and September 19, 1879; also, Marx to Engels, August 25, 1879.
  18. ↑ John Chandler Bancroft Davis was the American Ambassador in Berlin from 1874 to 1877. A discussion of German Socialism was part of his official report of February 10, 1877 to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. The report can be found in :United States State Department, Papers relating to Foreign Relations of the United States, Washington, 1877, #111, pp. 175-180.
  19. ↑ The Programme of the Socialist Workers’ Part of Germany was drafted early in 1875 and criticised by Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Programme on May 5th. The Programme was adopted by a Unity Congress of the Eisenacher and Lassalean Parties at Gotha on May 25, 1875. It consisted of a preamble in three sections plus a set of Socialist demands in two parts. Part A included six demands for the “foundation of the State”; Part B listed eight articles to be realized “within existing society.” It is these 14 demands which Marx has summarized.[*]
  20. ↑ This sentence included the words “with the right of initiating proposals and veto.”
  21. ↑ In its final edition the words “Freedom of Conscience” in article six were replaced by the “Declaration that religion is a private matter.’ In his Critique Marx said that “the workers’ Party ought to have expressed its consciousness of the fact that bourgeois ‘freedom of conscience’ is nothing but the toleration of all possible kinds of religious freedom of conscience, and that for its part it endeavors rather to liberate the conscience from the spectre of religion, But there is a desire not to transgress the ‘bourgeois’ level.”
  22. ↑ Another demand was included in the original programme but is missing above. It asks for “full self-government for all workers’ aid and friendly societies.” Andréas’ article, in trying to be closer to the original programme, changes the wording of the interview and lists 13 demands rather than 11.
  23. ↑ Ambassador Davis’ report does error by including a twelfth clause which reads, “State aid and credit for industrial societies under democratic direction.” Davis then went on to cite the reason for his inclusion of this as a clause rather than as part of the preamble. “In a speech made in the Reichstag on February, 1875, Count Eulenburg, the minister of the Interior, stated the latter point much stronger. He said that the Socialists demand the transfer of the means of labor to the ownership of the state, and the application and distribution of the results of labor to be regulated by societies for the common good.”
  24. ↑ The discovery of gold in California and an increase in railroad construction combined in 1850-51 to produce a sharp inflation of living costs. This provided the extra impulse for a fresh organizing campaign among workers and a movement to raise wages. Periods of depression, in 1854-55 and particularly the severe unemployment of 1857, dealt hard blows to the Trade Unions and many collapsed. Those that survived however were increasingly successful in keeping wages up. Despite the Civil War, national trade associations and city-wide federations continued to function and Unionization spread under the economic boom of the war years. ,
  25. ↑ The correspondence between Marx and Lassalle ends in 1862. In those letters known to exist the tactics ascribed to Lassalle above are not evident. According to Andréas: “Lassalles’ worker-agitation began with his lecture of April 12, 1862. Then on the following Monday his “Arbeiterprogramme” was first printed, it however still did not advocate state help for co-operative associations. Lassalle first made this point publicly in his Offnes Antwortschreiben dated March 1, 1863.”
  26. ↑ In his Critique of the Gotha Proaramme, Marx called this quack cure-all of co-operation “the remedy of the Prophet.”
  27. ↑ The Hague Congress of September, 1872 was the last full meeting of the First International. The Congress focused on a struggle over the power of the General Council. Marxists fought to hold the organization together while Bakunists wished to decentralize. This struggle showed the symptom of disintegration which would dissolve the International national as a coherent body by 1876. An anarchist element however struggled on until 1881.
  28. ↑ Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was a ‘bourgeois American feminist, business woman, and radical faddist. Marx described her as “a banker’s woman, free-lover, and general humbug.” Backed by Cornelius Vanderbilt she ran a brokerage firm, and a newspaper – Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly. In 1871 she attempted to seize leadership of the North American Federation of the International through her control of section 12 in New York. Section 12 was finally expelled from the International by the General Council as part of the struggle over Anarchism at the Hague Congress in May, 1872. Marx’s remark was made in May, 1872 and is in Documents of the 1st International (Moscow, 1964), V, 323.
  29. ↑ Joseph Cook (1838-1901) was a professional lecturer and evangelist. He held the Boston Monday Lectureship, begun in 1874, for nearly twenty years while also touring the United States and the world. Cook spoke on every conceivable topic concerning Religion and Science. His goal was to demonstrate that Christianity, including the Bible, is in complete harmony with modern scholarship. Cook’s lectures quickly became so popular with a broad middle class audience, who considered him an expert on labor and socialism, that they were republished in newspapers across the country. See: Boston Monday Lectures, 11 volumes. Houghton, Osgood, & Co., Boston, 1877-1888.
  30. ↑ The rest of the text is in a slightly altered form in The Socialist, Chicago, January 11, 1879, Vol. I, #18, printed under the title Karl Marx Well-Informed. Obermann republished this English text with a German translation, as a quotation on page 66 of his article mentioned in footnote 11.
  31. ↑ In his autobiography August Bebel, founder of the German Social-Democratic Workers’ Party, wrote: “67 of our well known fellow party members... within 48 hours,” (Aus Meinem Leber, Stuttgart, 1914, Vol, 3, page 24). Either Marx or the correspondent had confused the two numbers.
  32. ↑ According to the Research Division of the Tribune there is no clue as to the identity of the correspondent “H.”

Notes from Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 24[edit source]

  1. ↑ Marx left for Paris late in October 1843.
  2. ↑ The reference is to the report of the American Ambassador to Berlin J. Ch. Bancroft Davis dispatched to the US Secretary of State Hamilton Fish on February 10, 1877. The part of the report referring to the socialist movement in Germany was printed in the official publication: United States. State Department. Papers Relating to Foreign Relations of the United States, Washington, 1877, pp. 175-80.
  3. ↑ This refers to the programme of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany adopted by the unity congress in Gotha in May 1875.
  4. ↑ The first national trade union in the USA—the National Typographical Union—was founded in 1850. By die 1860s the country had a whole network of local trade union organisations. In August 1866 the National Labor Union was formed in Baltimore, and in December 1869 the Noble Order of Knights of Labor in Philadelphia, which on January 1, 1878 became a legal body. Both organisations, while experiencing a strong petty-bourgeois influence, nevertheless advocated social reforms, including the eight-hour working day, women's rights, and higher wages. The economic crisis of 1873 and the prolonged slump which followed were the causes for vigorous strike action of American workers, with its peak being the miners' strike in Pennsylvania (the Long Strike) of 1874-75 and the national railway strike of 1877.
  5. ↑ The reference is to the Anti-Socialist Law promulgated on October 19, 1878 and the introduction of a minor state of siege in Berlin
  6. ↑ On July 12, 1870 the Paris members of the International published in the Réveil an anti-war manifesto addressed to the workers of all nations, which was reprinted by Der Volksstaat, No. 57, July 17, 1870. A number of similar addresses were issued in France at that time. On July 16 a workers' meeting in Brunswick convened by the leaders of the German Social-Democratic Party issued an address in protest against the war preparations made by the ruling classes, and for solidarity with the manifesto of the International's Paris members. Workers' meetings in Chemnitz and Munich also adopted similar manifestos and resolutions.
  7. ↑ Marx quotes from memory his "First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War" written between July 19 and 23, 1870, and issued by the General Council as a leaflet at the outset of the war.
  8. ↑ On September 5, 1870, after the defeat of the French army at Sedan, the Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party with its headquarters in Brunswick issued a manifesto (Manifest des Ausschusses der social-demokratischen Arbeiterpartei. An Alle deutschen Arbeiter!) urging German workers to organise mass meetings of protest against the expansionist plans of the Prussian government. The Manifesto included parts of Marx's and Engels' "Letter to the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party" of August 22 and 30, 1870. On September 9, members of the Brunswick Committee, Bracke, Bornhorst, Spier, Kühn and Gralle, as well as a printer, Sievers, were arrested for publishing the Manifesto and in November 1871 brought to trial on the fabricated charge of disturbing public order.
  9. ↑ On November 26, 1870, when the German Reichstag discussed the question of credits for the war against France, Bebel and Liebknecht demanded that credits be refused and peace with the French Republic promptly concluded without annexations. The entire Social-Democratic group in the Reichstag together with Bebel and Liebknecht voted against the granting of credits on November 28. After the Reichstag session closed on December 17, Bebel, Liebknecht and Hepner were arrested and charged with high treason.
  10. ↑ On November 28, 1878 a minor state of siege was declared in Berlin. The next day 67 members of the Social-Democratic Party, including their leaders Auer and Fritzsche, received deportation orders.
  11. ↑ An allusion to Bismarck's speech at the 94th session of the Budget Commission of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies on September 30, 1862, Berliner Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 458, October 2, 1862 (morning issue).— Ed.
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