DOC.
329
APRIL
1917
319
329. From Friedrich Adler
Vienna,
25 April
1917
Dear friend
Einstein,
I
received
your
printed-matter
package as
well
as
your
postcard
of
the
13th
inst.[1] A duplicate
of
my paper
was
sent
off
to
you
the
day
before
yesterday.[2]
You
can
keep
that
copy.
I
have been able
to
complete only
about
2/3
of
the
tract
now,
as
other
business
will
be
occupying
me once
again
in
the
next
4 weeks.[3]
I
believe,
though,
that
two
points
essential to
me
become clear in
this
section
already:
1)
Physical problems
exist
only
with
respect
to
“Copernican
coordinate
systems.”[4]
Therefore,
there
is
no reason
to
formulate
the
theory
more
generally
than
as re-
lates
to this manifold. The
“Copernican
coordinate
systems”
are
preferred
but
not
equivalent.
The
same
natural
laws
apply
in all
of
them,
but
in each
they
are
“primarily applicable”
to different
areas.
2)
In
the
equations
of classical
mechanics
there
can
be
no
dependence
of inertia
on
other
simultaneous
parameters
(gravitation).
In classical
mechanics,
inertia
char-
acterizes
the
prehistory
of
the
object,
it
is
evidence of simultaneous
dependencies
of
the
past;
it
appears
as an
initial
condition.
I fell
into
a
very
extensive
study
of
the
literature,
which has held
me
up
very
much,
but
now
I
am
quite
finished and
will
be able to
settle the
remainder
quickly
at
the
end of
May.
I
wanted to
get
the
assurance,
though,
that
what
I
am
saying
has not
already
been said. Yet
as
close
as
the
various sides
had
come
to
my
standpoint,
none
have all the
aspects
that
I
believe
must
be combined
in order to arrive
at
a
tenable solution. As
you
will
see,
to
me
it
is
primarily
a problem
of
classical mechanics. I also touch
briefly
on
your general
theory
in
the
introduction,
and
you
will
see
that
I
could
not
quite
clear
up
what
I call in
my terminology “independent
motion” with
respect
to
your theory.
I
would be
interested
to
know with which
interpretation
you
agree.
This
point,
which
seems
to
me
very essential,
is
ambiguous
also in
Schlick.[5]
Concerning
the
entire
paper,
I naturally
count
on
your giving
me
your
true
opinion
without
sentimentality
and also
about
whether
you
find
publication
worth-
while. In
any case,
I
am
already very pleased
with what
I
have learned for
myself
in
the
two
months
I spent
working on
it.
I shall
speak
with
my lawyer
about
your
kind
offer
in
your
last
postcard.[6]
As
I
could not review
some pages
of
the
duplicate-so
as
not to
delay
the
sending any
further-a
few
errors
distracting
to the content have remained:
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