Page:Marx and Engels on Revolution in America - Heinz Neumann.djvu/8

 and Engels to Sorge, testify to this. The need for a centralized leadership for the International was always clear to Marx and Engels. The basic issue of the struggle between Marx and Bakunin was whether the General Council of the International should be merely a statistical bureau and general postoffice for the exchange of views of the various sections or whether it should be the instrument of international leadership; Bakunin stood for the former concept; Marx fought for the latter.

The First International ceased to exist with the resignation of Sorge from its General Council in 1873. It had completed its task—that of explaining to the working class the conditions and methods of its emancipation. The death of the First International did not, however, mean a death blow to the idea of a centralized leadership for the international movement of the proletariat. The Communist International, under the leadership of Lenin, has become the realization of Engels' hopes: "that the new International be not merely one of propaganda but one of action, built upon the undisguised and unadulterated principles of Marxism, Communism." The Communist International is the rightful heir of the First International Workingmen's Association.

Some of the letters quoted in this booklet were addressed to Mrs. Florence Kelley Wischnewetsky. This is Mrs. Florence Kelley, at present general secretary of the National Consumers' League. Born in 1859, Mrs. Kelley graduated from Cornell College in 1872 and upon her graduation went abroad and studied at Zurich and Heidelberg. While abroad she visited England and there came in