Bridlington Quay,
10 August 1881
Dear Mr Shipton,
I return the proof-sheet [1] altered as
you wish. The first passage you seem to me to have misunderstood and
the second alteration is merely formal. Anyhow, I do not see what
good such alterations can do if asked for on Tuesday, received here
on Wednesday, to arrive again in London on Thursday after the
publication of the paper.
But there is another thing. If such very mild and innocent
things as these begin to appear to you too strong, it must occur to
me that this must be the case, in a far higher degree, with my own
articles, which are generally far stronger. I must therefore take
your remarks as a symptom, and conclude that it will be better for
both of us if I discontinue sending you leading articles. It will be
far better than going on until, upon some inevitable point, we come
to an open rupture. Moreover my time will certainly not allow me to
go on writing leaders regularly, [2] and on this
ground alone I had come to some similar resolution to be executed,
as I then thought, after the Trades Union Congress. [3]
But the sooner I stop the better will be perhaps your position
before that Congress.
There is another point: I consider you ought to have sent me
before publication the copy or proof of the article on the Max
Hirsch Trades Unions in Germany, as to the only man on your staff
who knew anything of the matter and could make the necessary notes
to it. Anyhow it will be impossible for me to remain on the staff of
a paper which, without consulting me, lends itself to writing up
these Trades Unions, comparable only to those worst English ones
which allow themselves to be led by men openly sold to, or at least
paid by the middle class.
I need not add that otherwise I wish every success to The
Labour Standard and if desired shall now and then contribute
occasional information from the continent.
NOTES
From the MECW
[1] The reference is to Karl Kautsky's
article "International Labour Laws" published anonymously
in The Labour Standard, No. 15, 13 August 1881.
[2] In May-August 1881, Engels contributed
to the printed organ of the British labour unions The Labour
Standard, which appeared in London and was edited by George
Shipton. Engels' contributions were printed anonymously nearly every
week as leaders.
[3] The fourteenth annual British trades
union congress took place in London on 12-17 September 1881.
