The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 9, 1926, Page 13

ol Mrs | r was in the February of 1865 that I saw Karl Marx for the first time. .The International had been founded on the 28th of September, 1864 at the meeting in St, Martin’s Hall: I came from Paris in order to bring him a re- port of our progress; and our young connection was made in that same place. Mr. Tolain, now senator of the bourgeois republic and one of its representatives at the Berlin confer- ence, had given me a letter of recom- mendation. - I was 24 years old then; my whole Hfe long, I shall not forget the impres- sion which that first visit made on me. Marx was suffering at the time and working on the first volume of “Capital” which did not appear -until two years later; he feared that he would not be able to complete his work;. and he received young people with pleasure, for, said he, “I must bring up men who will continue the Communist propaganda after me.” Karl Marx is one of those rare people who could, at the same time, stand in the front rank of both sci- ence and public activity; he combined them so ardently that it is .impos- sible to understand him unless we conceive of him as a scholar as well as a socialist fighter. If he was of the opinion that every science should be cultivated for its own sake and that in no scientific. investigation must one be concerned about ultimate consequences, ,he .also believed. that the scholar must never cease to par- ticipate actively in public life if he did not wish to degrade himself; and must not always remain confined to his room or laboratory like a rat to its, cheese without mingling in the life and the social and political struggles of his contemporaries, “Science must not be an egoistic Pleasure: those who are so fortunate as to be able to dedicate thamselves to scientific purposes should also be the first to place their knowledge in seth dea pe eee ee eRe = + eget renee the service of mankind.”—‘“To work, for the world,” was one of his favor- fte expressions. He had not arrived at the Commu- nist standpoint thru sentimental con- siderations, altho he felt a deep sym- pathy for the sufferings of the work- ing classes, but. thru the study of history and political economy; he as- serted that every impartial spirit who _ ig not influenced by private interests and who is not blinded by class preju- dices would absolutely have to arrive at the same conclusions. But when, without any preconceived opinion, he studied the economic and political evo- tution of human society, he still, nev- ertheless, wrote with the decided intention of spreading the results of . Karl Marx ‘Personal Recollections his investigations, and with the firm and determined will to give a scien- tific basis to the socialist movement, which up to this time had lost itself in utopian clouds; he.only appeared pub- licly to work at the triumph of the working class whose historic mission it is to build Communism as soon as Jit achieves“the economic and ‘political direction of sociéty: just as the bour- geoisie, which has achieved power, has had’the mission to break the feu- dal chains which hindered the de- velopment of industry and rural econ- omy; to establish the free movement of products and people, the free con- tact between entrepreneur and work- er; to centralize the means of pfo- duction and exchange, te thus pre- pare, without becoming aware of it, ’ = = BFpuaifcje Weber yerfldren Maschinen, | ere By PAUL LAFARGUE He was a man, only taken all in all 1 shall never see his like. trata Marx’ spiritual life from its in- timate side. It was sitnated on the first floor and the broad window, thru which the room received its copious light, opened on the park. On both sides of the fireplace and opposite the window, ainst the wall, were book cases which were. filled with books ahd overloaded up to the ceiling with néwspaper parcels and manuscripts. Opposite the fireplace: and to one side of the window stood two tables full of<papers, books aNd. newspapers; in the center of the room and in favor- able light was the-very simple and MARX. even while chattering, he stépped in order to point ont a quotation or & number in the book itself which-he small work-table (three feet long, tWo|1.4 just mentioned. He was one with feet wide) and the armchair of wood; between the armchair and the book-| case, opposite the window, stood a leather sofa on which Marx stretched Bohemian Weavers Destroying Machines the material and intelectual elements for the Communist society of the fu- ture. : ‘ ARX did not confine his activity to the country in which he was born; “I am a citizen of the world,” ha said, “and wherever I am,'there I am active.” In fact, in every country to which events and political perse- cution drove him, in France, Belgium, England, he took an outstanding part in the revolutionary movements which were developing there. But he first appeared to me not as the untiring and incomparable social- ist agitator, but as the scholar in that study in Maitland Park Road where the party comrades flowed together from all parts of the cfilized world to consult with the master of socialist thought, This room is historic and one must know it if he wishes to pene- his study whose books and papers be- longed to him as much as his own ig! the arrangement of hig books mo external symmetry was followed: Quarto and octave volumes and pam- phiets stood side by side; he arranged his books not according to their size, but according to their contents. His books were spiritual tools to him and not objects of luxury. “They are my slaves and shall serve me according to my will.” He mistreated them with- out consideration for their size, their binding, the beauty of the paper or | printing; bent the corners, covered | the margins with pencil markings and underscored the lines. He did not put notes in them, nevertheless, he could not deny himself an exclamation mark or an interrogation point, at times when an author exaggerated, The sys- tem of underlining of which he made use, permitted him to find again the passage looked for in any book with the greatest ease. He had the habit of always re-reading his notebooks and the underlined passages in his books after an interval of years in order to well retain them in his mem- ory which was of an extraordinary keenness and exactness. Following Hegel’s advice, he had trained it from youth on by memorizing vetses in &@ language unknown to him, 5 uw Heine and Goethe, whom he often cited in conversation, he knew by heart; he always read poets whom he chose from all European literature; every year he read Aeschylus in the Greek original; him and Shakespeare he honored as the two greatest dram atic geniuses that humanity has pro- duced. He had made Shakespeare, for whom his veneration was untim- out from time to time in order to rest.) ited, the subject of searching study; On the mantelpiece lay still “more|he knew even his most insignificant books,” between the cigars, matches, tobacco containers, paper weights, photographs of his daughters, his wife, Wilhelm Wolf and Frederick Engels. He was a heavy smoker: “‘Capital’ will never net me as much as the cigars have cost me which I smoked while writing,” he told me; but he was a still groater waster of matches: he forgot his pipe or his cigar so often that, in order to light them afain, the match boxes were emptied in an incredible short time. Marx did not allow anyone to put his books and papers in order, or rather in disorder; and the existing disorder was only apparent: every- thing was really in its @esired place and, without looking, he always took the book or notebook that he needed; characters. The whole family carried on a veritable cult with the great Eng- lish dramatist; his three daughters knew him by heart. When, after the year 1848, he wanted to perfect him- self in the English language which he could already read before, he loeked for and arranged all of the expres- sions peguliar to Shakespeare; he did the same with a part of the polemicak work of William Cobbett whom he re, spected highly, Dante and Burns be longed to his favorite poets; he took great joy in hearing his daughters re cite or sing the satires: or the love- songs of the Scotch poet. _* *@ © (Second instaliment of this serles will appear in the next issue of this magazine). : _ A Lesson From the Holy Scriptures (From the Mexican satirical weekly “El Bonete”) Johnny, you ed lesson well. ut the bi also Hy ay back In as 1 Measure as you have paid.” Bo wwe ve @eod ena In extra 6. =, Cee ee ble. This Hurray for the bl- 6. 4 the life, _ Johnny, here is a letter, My gawd, what are’ you doing? ‘ Nothing, old boy, | am — putting the bib Inte ‘actice. just got re- " i nak wc me a an a an RE