The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 14, 1926, Page 7

if j ! t i Personal Recollections of Karl- Marx By PAUL LAFARGUE. VL Marx (who had begun by being one “of the radical leaders of the bour- geoisie, saw himself deserted as goon as his opposition had become too de- cided; and he was treated ag an en- emy when he became a socialist. Hunted and driven out of Germany after being insulted and calumniated. they organized a deadly conspiracy of silence against his. person and his works. They completely ignored “The Highteenth Brumaire”’ which proves that of all the historians and states- men of the year 1848, Marx was the only one who understood and clearly revealed the true character of the causes and results of the coup d'etat of December 2,°1851. Not a single bourgeois journal mentioned the work in spite of its actuality, “The Poy- erty of Philosophy,” an answer to the “Philosophy of: Poverty,” ag well as “A Critique of Political Economy,” were equally ignored. But the “Inter- national” grew and filled the world with the report of its deeds. Altho Marx held himself in the background and let others act, they soon discoy- ered who the director was; in Ger- many, the Social Democratic Party had been founded and raised to power which Bismarck wooed before he attacked. The Lassallean, Schweit- zer, published a series of articles which Marx found very noteworthy and which acquainted the working class public with “Capital.” On the motion of J. Ph. Becker, the congress of the International decided to draw the ‘attention of international social- ists to this work as to the Bible of the Working Class. After’ the uptising of March 18, 1871, in which they saw the hand of the International, and after the defeat of the Commune, the defense of which the general council of the Internation- al took up against thaunleashed bour- geois press of all countries, the name of Marx ‘became world-famous. Marx was ‘then récognized ag the undisput- ed theoretician of scientific socialism and as the organizer of the first In- ternational Labor Movement.” “Capi- tal” became the text bodk of the so- cialists of all countries;_all the social- ist and labor papers popularized its learned theories; and in America, dur- ing a large strike which took place in New York, they published passages out of it in the form of pamphlets in order to inspire the workers to hold out and to prove to them the fustifi- cation oftheir demands. “Capital” waa translated into the principal lan- guages of , Europe, into Russian, French, English; excerpts from it ap- peared in German. Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch. And as often as opponents in Europe or America at- tempted to refute his theories, the economists immediately found a s0- cialist answer which silenced them. In truth, “Capital” has today become what the congress of the International has called it, the Bible of the Work- ing Class. ‘ Marx’s active part in the interna- tional socilaHst* movement. was car- ried on at the expense of his sclenti- fic labors. The death of his wife and oldest daughter, Mme. Longuet, was supposed fo have been absolutely fatal for him. Marx was closely bound fo his wife by a feeling of deep attachment. Her beauty had been his joy and his pride; her ftender-heartedness and devotion of character had helped him to bear more easily the misery un- avoidably bound up with his agitated life as a revolutionary socialist. The suffering which brought Mrs, Marx to her grave undoubtedly also short- ened her husband’s life. During her long and painful iliness, Marx, spirit- ually fatigued as a result of the ex- citement and bodily exhaustion as a result of sleeplessness, lack of move- ment and fresh air, contracted pneu- monia which threatened to carry him off. On December 2, 1881, Mrs. Marx | died as she lived, a Communist and materialist. Death had no terror my her. When she felt that the last mo- ment had come, she called out: “Karl, my strength is broken.” These were her last clearly audible words. On December 5th, she was. buried in the Highgate. cemetery in the section _ of. the “damned” (unconsecrated ground). In accordance with the habits -of her whole life and those of Marx, they had carefully avoided making the burial a public one; only a few intimate friends accompanied the dead person to her last resting place. Before they dispersed, Marx’s old friend, Frederick Engels, spoke the following words at.the edge of the grave; "My friends! The noble-minded woman Whom we are burying was born at Salzwedel in 1814 Her father, the Baron of Westphalen, was soon thereafter stationed at Trier as government counsellor and made close friends with the Marx family. The children grew up together. The two highly talented natures found one another, When Marx. entered the university, the community of their future fates was already decided. “In 1843, after the suppression of the first Rheinisehe Zeitung which was egited by Marx for a time, the wedding took.place. From then on, Jenny Marx not only shared the fate, the labors and the struggtes of her husband, but she also took part in them with the greatest understanding, the most glowing passion. “The young couple went to Paris in voluntary exfle which all too soon became a real one. The Prussian gov- ernment persecuted Marx even there. I must add with regret that a man Hke Alexander Humboldt was active in effecting a deportation order. The family was driven to Brussels. The February revolution came. During unrest which broke out in Brussels, too, not only Marx was arrested; the Belgian government did not fail to also throw his wife into prison with- out any cause. i “The revolvtfonary revival of 1848 had already collapsed by the next year. New exile, first in Paris, then, as a result of renewed interference of the French government, in London, And this time, in fact, it was for Jenny Marx’s exile with all its ter rors. Nevertheless, she had overcome the material pressure under which she saw her two boys and one little girl sink into the grave. But the fact that governmental and bourgeois op- position, vulgar liberal and democrat, combined im.one .large conspiracy against her husband, the fact that they overwhelmed him with the most miserable ana vile calummies, that the entire press closed itselfto him, cutting off all defense on hig part, so that momentarily he stood defenseless before opponents which he and she scorned—that struck her profundly. And that lasted very long. “But not forever. The Eurépean proletarfat came into a position where : it could once more move iMmdepend& ently to some extent. The tnterna-é tional was founded. The class strug- gle of the proletariat pressed from country to country. And among the foremost fought her husband, him self the foremost. Then ‘began a Period of severe suffering for her. She lived to see the calumnies, which tained down pon Marx as thick as hail, dispersed like chaff before the wind. His teachings, which all te actionary parties, feudal as well as democratic, tried to suppress, were now preached from every roof-top, in every civilized country and in every educated language. She Itved to see the proletarian movement, with which her whole being was fused, shake the foundation of the old world from Rus sia. to America and, despite all resist ance, press forward ever more cer tain of ‘victory. And the striking proof of an indestructable life force which our German workers’ gave fn | the last Reichstag elections, was also | one of her last joys. “That whieh has been contributed by such a woman with such keen and critical understanding, with such de votion to the comrades of battle fn the movement during almost forty years—that has never forced its way into publicity, that is not written in the annals of the contemporary press; that, ome must experience himself. But this [ know: Just as the wives of the Commumist fugitives will often remember her, we others will often enough miss her bold and wise ad- viee—fhoid without ostentation, wise without the honor of ever forgiving anything. “IT do not need to speak of her per somal characteristics. Her friends knew her and will not forget her. If ever there was a woman who found her greatest happiness {fn making others happy, it was this’ womar.” : After the death of his.wife, Marx's! life was nothing more than a series of stofcally borne moral and physical sufferings which were only intensified when a year later Mme. Longuet, his oldest daughter, also suddenly died. He was broken and he never recov ered again. He expired, sitting before his study table, on March 14, 1883, in bis sixty-seventh year. Tw While Coolidge Tells the World About Economy. Cee ¥ 7 Rulocer INCREASE, .