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.
Anti-Dühring or The Scientific Basis of Socialism
In 1875 Engels published his famous Anti-Dühring as a scientific supplement to the Vorwaerts. The following year it was published in book form, and later, a popular edition was issued under the title—
