KARL MARX

THE 'ECONOMICS' 3'174
ing and raising his voice to such a pitch that our neighbours were
scared by the terrible shouting and asked us what was the matter.
It was the inner struggle of the 'great' man bursting forth in shrill
discords. 1 "
()n the day of Lassalle's departure the landlord, tax collector and most of
the shopkeepers all threatened Marx with immediate reprisals if he did
not pay his debts. Lassalle noticed that something was amiss and lent
Marx £15 until the end of the year and anything more that Marx might
require, provided that Engels would guarantee the loan. Marx drew a
cheque for £60 on Lassalle. However, Lassalle wished first to be assured
that Engels was in agreement and this angered Marx so much that he
returned a very rough answer for which he half apologised in November:
'I think that the substance of our friendship is strong enough to stand
such a shock. I confess to you quite unequivocally that, as a man sitting
on a volcano, I allow circumstances to dominate me in a manner unfitting
for a rational animal. But in any case it was ungenerous of you to turn
this state of mind, in which I would as soon have put a bullet through
my head, against me like some prosecutor in a law court. So I hope that
"in spite of everything" our old relationship can continue untroubled.' 114
Thereafter the correspondence ceased though Lassalle continued to send
Marx his numerous publications.
In April 1864 Lassalle stated that he had not written to Marx for two
years as their relationship was strained 'for financial reasons'. Marx, however,
attributed the break to Lassalle's political views - with greater reason.
In the early 1860s the prosperity of Germany produced strong liberal
forces that considerably diminished the strength of the reaction that had
dominated the country throughout the 1850s. This opposition was
brought to a head by the refusal of the Landtag to vote the budget
necessary for a reform of the army, a refusal which led to elections in
May 1862. Lassalle campaigned hard and the radicals had considerable
success. During his stay in London Lassalle wished to obtain Marx's
backing for his programme of universal suffrage and state aid to workers'
co-operatives. Combined with his radicalism Lassalle remained in many
respects an Old Hegelian with an Old Hegelian's view of the state; he
had never been through the traumatically secularising experience of the
Young Hegelians. Thus his proposals could never be acceptable to Marx
who summed up his attitude to them in two letters written after Lassalle's
death. 115 Most importantly, Marx considered that any reliance on state
aid would enfeeble the proletariat's struggle for political supremacy. Lassalle's
ideas, according to Marx, were not based on any coherent economic
theory and involved a compromise with feudalism 'whereas in the nature