The Life and Work of Friedrich Engels/Chapter 14
In London Again
Finally, at the end of September, 1870, having won over his wife, whose relatives were all in Manchester, to the idea, Engels removed to London. Here the division of labour between him and Marx took on a more definite character. Not a single piece of work by one or the other but was discussed by both before publication, but whilst Marx devoted himself mainly to a systematic working-out of their fundamental economic and philosophic theories, Engels undertook the carrying on of polemics and the discussion and solution of important questions of the day in the light of these theories. But how intimate was their co-work is proved by Engels' statement in the preface to the second edition of his Anti-Dühring:—
"The greater part of the point of view developed here was founded and worked out by Marx and only a small part of it by me. Its presentation has not been made without his knowledge. I have read the whole manuscript to him before publication, and the tenth chapter of the section on economics was written by Marx, and, apart from some superficial observation, was merely abridged by me. It was always our custom to assist each other reciprocally in our special fields."
Engels wrote an enormous number of articles and pamphlets on current controversies and questions of interest which we cannot even enumerate here. But many of them are not only of interest historically, but are even applicable to present-day problems. Such, for instance, is his historic treatment of the "Housing Question" which appeared originally in 1872, as a series of articles in the Volkstaat. It was a polemic against the small bourgeois followers of Proudhon and Muhlberger, and afterwards went through several publications in pamphlet form. Much of it is even applicable at the present time, and has actually been adopted by our comrades in Russia, as the following extract will show:—
"How can the housing problem be solved? In modern Society this question is solved like every other social question by a gradual economic equalisation of supply and demand. This, however, is a kind of solution which itself constantly creates the problem anew, that is, gives no solution. How the Social Revolution will solve this question depends not only on circumstances of time and place, but it is bound up with questions which go much further, amongst which one of the most important is the abolition of the distinction between town and country. As we are not interested in utopian speculations on the structure of future society, it would be more than a waste of time to dwell upon this point. One thing is certain; even now there are sufficient habitable buildings in the large town to relieve materially the real shortage of accommodation if sensible use were made of them. This, of course, could only be brought about by the expropriation of their present possessors, and by settling in them the homeless workers or the workers who are now living in overcrowded homes. And as soon as the workers win political power, such a measure, based on the best interests of society, will be as easily carried out as every other act of expropriation or commandeering is carried out by the modern state."
This passage is a very good illustration of Engels' forcible, clear, and popular style. It is also interesting to note, as illustrating the concrete way in which both Marx and Engels founded and tested their theories, that already in this work, as in all the subsequent work of Marx and Engels, he takes into account the experience of the Commune, the first attempt at full emancipation made by the working class, checking his theories, deductions, and predictions thereby.