Karl Marx: A Biography

38 KARL MARX: A BIOGRAPHY

so that I can review it. This question must be discussed dispassionately.

General and theoretical considerations on the constitution of the state

are more suitable for learned reviews than for newspapers. The true

theory must be expanded and developed in relation to concrete facts

and the existing state of affairs. Therefore striking an attitude against

the present pillars of the state could only result in a tightening of the

censorship and even in the suppression of the paper... in any case we

are annoying a large number, perhaps even the majority, of liberals

engaged in political activity who have assumed the thankless and painful

task of conquering liberty step by step within limits imposed by the

Constitution, while we, comfortably ensconced in abstract theory, point

out to them their contradictions. It is true that the author of the articles

on the juste-milieu invites us to criticise, but (i) we all know how the

Government replies to such provocations; and (2) it is not sufficient to

undertake a critique. .. the true question is to know whether one

has chosen an appropriate field. Newspapers only lend themselves to

discussion of these questions when they have become questions that

closely concern the state - practical questions. I consider it absolutely

indispensable that the Rheinische Zeitung should not be directed by its

contributors but on the contrary that it should direct them. Articles like

these afford an excellent opportunity of showing the contributors the

line of action to follow. An isolated writer cannot, like a newspaper,

have a synoptic view of the situation.^169

In mid-October, as a result of this letter, Marx, who had already effectively
been running the paper for some months, was made editor-in-chief.
Under Marx's editorship, the circulation of the paper more than
doubled in the first months. His personality was so predominant that the
censorship official could call the organisation of the paper simply 'a
dictatorship of Marx'.^170 In the last months of 1842 the Rheinische Zeitung
began to acquire a national reputation. Robert Prutz, himself a contributor
and later a prominent liberal politician, subsequently wrote of the paper:

All the young, fresh, free-thinking or (as the friends of the government

complained) revolutionary talent that Prussia and Germany possessed

took refuge here. Fighting with a great variety of weapons, now earnest,

now mocking, now learned, now popular, today in prose, tomorrow in

verse, they formed a phalanx against which the censorship and police

struggled in vain.. ,^171

And the editor appears to have been no less impressive than the paper.
Mevissen left the following vivid description of Marx at this time:
Karl Marx from Trier was a powerful man of 24 whose thick black hair
sprung from his cheeks, arms, nose and ears. He was domineering,
impetuous, passionate, full of boundless self-confidence, but at the same
time deeply earnest and learned, a restless dialectician who with his