Page:Karl Marx The Man and His Work.pdf/75

Rh "Inaugural Address" and "The Civil War in France" are two historic publications and documents of the International Workingmen's Association of which he is the author, and which are remarkable sign-posts of the proletariat's march to emancipation. They are truly fitting supplements to the "Communist Manifesto." However, no one will ever know the volume of work performed by Marx as the so-called intellectual head of the International. Only a small portion of this activity is available in documents. As a leader, educator and counsellor of leaders, he performed invaluable services, not only while member of the General Council, but up to his death. To one unfamiliar with the conditions, the turbulent and primitive conditions that existed in the early days of the modern labor movement, no adequate conception of the colossal magnitude of this task can present itself. However, it is no exaggeration when I state, and my assertion is based upon the reports of men who for years lived in intimate association with Marx, that it was primarily this daily slew of details, which steadily kept pouring in upon him from every nook and corner of the globe and demanded his time and attention, that prevented him from devoting his undivided energies to the far more important scientific studies. Marx was a most conscientious student and advisor, and could devote days to research, in order to furnish an authentic reply to an inquiry. Aside from the historic causes cited above, here we have a tributary cause responsible for Marx's retirement from leadership in the International—a retirement that fell together with the disintegration of the organization. In just this energy-absorbing phase of Marx's activity we can also locate the reason why on the day of his death, March 14th, 1883, the second volume of "Capital" was still uncompleted, and the material for the third volume had been only collected and fragmentally suggested or roughly sketched in his note book. However, to again quote Klara Zetkin: "The principal work of Marx is comparable to a grand torso of antique art, which even in its mutilated form speaks more impressively