Brentano vs. Marx

Marx quoted from The Theory of the Exchanges and not from The Morning Star. He confronts the claim that the quotation

was taken from The Morning Star with the incriminating gap in the parallel column. And now the sentence is nevertheless

to be found in The Morning Star, in fact exactly as in Marx, and the incriminating gap is Mr. Brentano's own invention. If

that is not "suppression" and "forgery", into the bargain, then these words lack any sense.

 But if Mr. Brentano "forges" at the beginning of the quotation, and if he now very carefully refrains from saying that Marx

"lyingly added" a sentence in the middle of the same quotation, this in no way prevents him from insisting repeatedly that

Marx suppressed the end of the quotation.

 In Capital the quotation breaks off with the passage:

 

"Whether the extremes of poverty are less, I do not presume to say."

 

Now in the reports in The Times and The Morning Star the sentence does not end here; separated only by a comma, there

follow the words:

 

"but the average condition of the British labourer, we have the happiness to know to be extraordinary" (in The

Times: has improved during the last 20 years in a degree which we know to be extraordinary) "and which we may

almost pronounce to be unexampled in the history of any country and of any age".

 

Thus Marx breaks off here in mid-sentence, "has Gladstone stop in mid-sentence", "making this sentence quite

meaningless". And already in his rejoinder (

Documents, No.7

) Mr. Brentano calls this an "absolutely senseless version".

 Gladstone's sentence: "Whether the extremes of poverty are less, I do not presume to say" is a quite definite statement,

complete in itself. If it makes sense, it makes sense when taken in isolation. If it makes no sense, no addition however long,

tacked on behind a "yet", can give it sense. If the sentence in Marx's quotation is "completely senseless", then this is not

due to Marx who quoted it, but to Mr. Gladstone who uttered it.

 To probe more deeply this important case, let us now turn to the only source which, according to Mr. Brentano, it is the

"custom" to quote, let us turn to Hansard, pure of all original sin. According to Mr. Brentano's own translation, it says:

 

"I will not presume to determine whether the wide interval which separates the extremes of wealth and poverty is

less or more wide than it has been in former times" -- full stop.

 

And only after this full stop does the new sentence begin:

 

"But if we look to the average condition of the British labourer", etc.

 

Thus if Marx likewise sets a full stop here, he does just as the virtuous Hansard does; and if Mr. Brentano makes this full

stop a new crime on the part of Marx, and claims that Marx has Gladstone stop in the mid-sentence, then he has relied upon

the "necessarily bungling newspaper reports", and he can only blame himself for the consequences. Thus the argument

collapses that Marx has made the sentence completely senseless through his full stop; this comes not from him but from

Mr. Gladstone, and let Mr. Brentano now correspond with him about the sense or nonsense of the sentence; we have

nothing more to do with the matter.

 For Mr. Brentano is anyway in correspondence with Mr. Gladstone. What he has written to the latter we do not learn, of

course, and we only learn very little of what Mr. Gladstone has written to him. In any case, Mr. Brentano has published

from Gladstone's letters two meagre little sentences (

Documents, No.16

) and in my reply (

Documents, No. 17

) I showed

that "this arbitrary mosaic of sentences torn from their context" proves nothing at all in Mr. Brentano's favour whilst the

fact that he indulges in this sort of ragged publication, instead of publishing the whole correspondence, speaks volumes

against him.

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 But let us assume for a moment that these two little sentences only permitted the interpretation most favourable to Mr.

Brentano. What then?

 "You are completely correct, and Marx completely incorrect." "I undertook no changes of any sort." These are the alleged

words -- for Mr. Gladstone does not usually write in German, as far as I know -- of the former minister.

 Does this mean: I did not utter the "notorious" sentence, and that Marx "lyingly added" it? Certainly not. The eight

London morning papers of April 17, 1863 would unanimously give the lie to such a claim. They prove beyond all doubt

that this sentence was spoken. If Mr. Gladstone made no changes in the Hansard report -- although I am twelve years

younger than him, I would not like to rely so implicitly on my memory in such trivialities which occurred 27 years ago --

then the omission of the sentence in Hansard says nothing in Mr. Brentano's favour, and a great deal against Hansard.

 Aside from this one point about the "lyingly added" sentence, Mr. Gladstone's opinion is completely inconsequential here.

For as soon as we disregard this point, we find ourselves exclusively in the field of inconsequential opinions, in which after

years of strife each sticks to his guns. If Mr. Gladstone, should he happen to be quoted, prefers the quotation methods of

Mr. Brentano, an admiring supporter, to those of Marx, a sharply critical opponent, then this is quite obvious, and his

indisputable right. For us, however, and for the question as to whether Marx quoted in good or in bad faith, his opinion is

not even worth as much as that of any old uninvolved third person. For here Mr. Gladstone is no longer a witness but an

interested party.

 

VII

I

n conclusion, let us go briefly into the question of what Mr. Gladstone said in that -- thanks to Mr. Brentano, now

"notorious" -- passage of his budget speech of 1863, and what Marx quoted of what he said, or else what he "lyingly

added" or "suppressed". In order to oblige Mr. Brentano as far as possible, let us take as our basis the immaculate Hansard,

and in his own translation.

 

"In ten years from 1842 to 1852 inclusive, the taxable income of the country, as nearly as we can make out,

increased by 6 per cent; hut in eight years, from 1853 to 1861, the income of the country again increased upon the

basis taken by 20 per cent. That is a fact so singular and striking as to seem almost incredible."

 

Mr. Brentano himself has nothing against Marx's quotation of this sentence, apart from the fact that it is allegedly taken

from The Theory of the Exchanges. But of Brentano's quotation it must be said here that it too is far removed from giving

"the real budget speech". He excises Mr. Gladstone's following excursus on the causes of this astonishing augmentation

without even indicating the omission with dots. -- Further:

 

"Such, Sir, is the state of the case as regards the general progress of accumulation; but, for one, I must say that I

should look with some degree of pain, and with much apprehension, upon this extraordinary and almost intoxicating

growth, if it were my belief that it is confined to the class of persons who may be described as in easy circumstances.

The figures which I have quoted take little or no cognizance of the condition of those who do not pay income tax; or,

in other words, sufficiently accurate for general truth, they do not take cognizance of the property of the labouring

population, or of the increase of its income."

 

There now follows the sentence which according to Mr. Brentano was "lyingly added" by Marx, but which on the

testimony of all eight morning papers of April 17 was certainly uttered by Mr. Gladstone:

 

"The augmentation I have described, and which is founded, I think, upon accurate returns, is an augmentation

entirely confined to classes of property." (The Times, The Manning Star, The Manning Advertiser, Daily Telegraph.)

".. is entirely confined to the augmentation of Capital". (Manning Herald, Standard, The Daily News, Manning Post)

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