Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1970. január-június (24. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1970-04-02 / 14. szám
DEÁK ZOLTÁN ÉLTETI A SZOCIALIZMUST ÉPITo MAGYAR NÉPET A MÁRCIUS HÓ 8-ÁN TARTOTT ÜNNEPI BANKETTEN j A jelenlévő második generációs magyarokra va- ' ló tekintettel, Deák Zoltán bestédének első részét | angolul mondta el. j Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, friends; I consider it a great honor to be able to speak to you on this festive occasion. It is a special privilege to speak from this platform which I share with so many distinguished guests. To the military historian, the driving out of the invading nazi armies from the territory of Hungary 25 years ago this Spring, was but one of the many outstanding achievements of the armies of the Soviet Union in World War II; to the people of Hungary, it turned out to be the most important single event in their tumultuous, mostly tragic, thousand-year history, since the establishment of their State by St. Stephan. ' It marked *the end not merely of a year of indescribable nazi horror and murder, of four years of a disastrous and dishonorable war, of 25 years of fascist terror but of centuries of unconscionable squandering of the national wealth, and the precious blood of the Hungarian people. In place of a hopeless past, the liberation of Hungary opened up boundless new vistas for the rebuilding of the nation, for the reorganization of their life, for the reordering of their national priorities and for the restoration of honor to the nation, and dignity to its citizens. Let us honor the memory of those who gave their lives so that the Hungarian people might have a new birth of freedom, and that the whole world could be spared from the nightmare of na- ziism; let us honor the heroism of hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers, the hundreds of Hungarian partisans and underground fighters, and our own fighting men, members of the United States Air Force, who lost their lives in aerial operations over Hungary. And we remember too in still aching agony, the martyrdom of thousands of Hungarian men, women and children, including most of the Hungarian Jewish community. It was a barren, desolate, utterly destroyed country, which the nazis and their Hungarian fascist accomplices left behind. Most of the factories were destroyed; those that remained intact were dismantled and the machinery removed to the West. All major bridges were demolished, most of the railroad-equipment was destroyed or removed from the country, the key railroad lines were torn up and the population was decimated, leaving the survivors struggling in stunned despair for the bare essentials to sustain life... It was a country which could well have posted on its gates, in the West, East, North and South, the somber warning of Dante, “Lasciate ogni speranza <— Give up all hope ye who enter here.” But the Hungarian people did not give up hope! With unbounded determination, with án unprecedented singleness of purpose, they set out to rebuild the beloved country, the rebuild the blown up bridges, the smouldering factories, the burned out schools, hospitals, and churches, to build a better, a more beautiful and, above all a more just society. To be sure, there were setbacks. And during a period of such unparallelled change and regeneration, it might well have been predicted. In a healthy and growing society, however, all obstacles become stepping stones to improvement and serve only to strengthen the peoples’ common dreams and commitment to progress. As a result of their heroic efforts toward reconstruction, Hungary became a predominantly industrial state, with 62% of its national income derived from industrial production, a percentage which surpasses that of the most highly industrialized Western-European nations such as West Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy! Its agriculture became largely mechanized, assuring a steadily increasing standard of living to its farming population. Above all, Hungary, through comprehensive social legislation and economic planning eliminated the evil heritage of the past, the great scourge of working people — fear of unemployment, fear of hunger, fear of illness due to inadequate medical care and shortage of hospital facilities, fear of poverty-ridden, forlorn old age. The Labor Code of Hungary states: “It is the right, duty and affair of honor of each citizen capable of working to work according to his abilities.” More than 97% of the population is covered by an all-embracing social insurance, including free health insurance. The doors of learning have opened wide to all, young and old alike, who wish to learn. There is a veritable renaissance in the search of knowledge, in literature, in the diffusion of art, opera, and theatre to the remotest areas of the country. The New York Times, in its Encyclopedic Almanac for 1970 uses the following criteria in assessing the social and economic welfare of a nation: 1. life expectancy of the average citizen; 2. number of inhabitants per hospital bed; 3. number of inhabitants per one doctor; 4. infant mortality; 5. percentage of gross national product devoted education and 6. the per capita income. How does Hungary measure up in these fields? In terms of life expectancy, which is 70 years, Hungary ranks with the most advanced and prosperous nations of Western Europe and North America. Hungary still has fewer hospital beds available to its population than the advanced nations of Western Europe — it has 8 hospital beds per 1,000 population, compared to 8 beds in Italy, and 10 in Great Britain. In contrast. New York City has only 4V2 beds for each 1,000 of its inhabitants, and New York State even less — only 2Vi beds for 1,000 people. As for the number of physicians available to serve the needs of the public, Hungary leads all major European nations. Statistically, one doctor there has only 509 persons to care for — the same proportion as prevails in New York State — as compared to one doctor for each 610 people in Fi’ance, 650 in Italy, 977 in England, and 1,810 in Mexico. As far as the portion of gross national product devoted to education is concerned, Hungary surpasses all European nations with the exception of Finland. It spends 5.4% of its gross national product on education as compared to 4.1% in England.and Italy, 4.7% in France, and only 1.3% in Spain. In terms of per capita income of its citizens. Hungary still has a long way to go before it will catch up with the advanced Western European nations, not to mention the United States. Yet, its accomplishments are creditable in this respect, too. The average per capita income in Hungary is $800.00 per year, which is equal to that of oil- rich Venezuela. It surpasses the per capita income of the inhabitants of such countries as Argentina, Brazil, or South Africa, all of which are incomparably richer in natural resources. In citing these figures, I do not wish to extoll Albők Bodor Ilonka énekszámaival szórakoztatja a Magyar Társaskör ünnepi bankettjén megjelent közönséget Fhotö: Horváth István any nation or people, over any other. I do not wish to prove the superiority of any political system, I do not wish to imply that Hungary has solved all her economic, or social problems. But I do wish to let the facts speak for themselves. The essence of my statement is that any nation, any people, given the conditions of peace and tranquility, given the opportunity to unfold — unhindered — its energies and talents to their full capacity, could accomplish similar miracles of national reconstruction without the need of infringing upon the sacred rigths or territories of other nations. ' It is up to the people of each nation to decide upon the road it wishes to take, the system it wants to apply in securing its domestic welfare, its national salvation... in harmony with the paramount objectives of world peace and security. Friends, the event we commemorate here today should be celebrated by the entire American people as well. We Americans, too, shared in the liberation of Hungary from naziism. The graves of American soldiers in Hungary testify to that. The billions of dollars this nation spent to defeat the Axis powers, the special effort with which the Hungarian-American community supported our country’s war effort testify to that. However, let us keep in mind that the great task of liberation is not yet finished. We helped liberate Hungary; we helped liberate Europe, but we left many areas in the political social and economic world unliberated. We did not liberate ourselves from the chains of racial prejudice. We did not liberate ourselves from the stranglehold of selfish business interests whose policies are rapidly making our cities, our nation yes, even our planet uninhabitable by destroying our natural environment and polluting the air we breathe. We did not liberate ourselves from the self-defeating chains of cold’ war hysteria which have cost us a trillion dollars these past 25 years and which place the very survival of our nation in jeopardy! ’ro strive with renewed determination to remove these obstacles to the well being of our nation and to the peace of the world is the best greeting we can send to the people of Hungary! And the best service we can render to our own people, to the people of the United States! • Tisztelt Ünneplő Közönség! Mindnyájan ismerjük nagy költőnk, Vörösmarty Mihály Szózatának e sorait: "S a sirt, hol nemzet süllyed el Népek veszik körül S az ember millióinak Szemében gyászkönny ül .. 25 évvel ezelőtt, 1944 telén, 45 tavaszán dermedt szívvel tekintettünk szülőhazánk felé: úgy nézett ki, hogy a költő kísérteties jóslata a beteljesedés hez közeledik, a magyar nemzet el fog süllyedni abban a sírban, amelybe urai bűnös politikája sodorta. f’akhogy “az ember millióinak” szemében nem ült gyászkönny. Egy olyan mozzanata volt az a történelemnek, amelyben, másik nagy költőnk Ady Endre lenyűgöző képét idézve: .. véresen loholnak Népóriások, századok, világok És trónok és ősi álmok remegnek... Mikor az ég piros sátra alatt Játszódnak le (véres) panorámák S mikor olyan kis gondja a világnak .. A nép-óriások, a szovjet nép, az amerikai nép, a kínai nép 1945 véres panorámájának tavaszán a náci szörnyeteg és japán szövetségeseik elpusztításának feladatával voltak elfoglalva és nem volt idejük könnyezni. Csak mi, amerikai magyarok könnyeztünk. A magyar nép az óhazában talán már könnyezni sem tudott: kiapadtak könnyforrásai. A nemzeti haláltól a szovjet hadsereg roppant •véráldozata, hősi felszabadító harca -fftentétte-mög :n .*?H' •• -* 14 AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ — HUNGÁRIÁK WORD Thursday, April 2, TÖ70.
