Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST MARGINALIZATION- BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR II. - Cultivating the land again - without the regional role
school. With this strategy, the deficit was reduced somewhat but the balance was hardly restored in the most ideal manner. Moreover, this result was achieved through veritably rigorous savings thus only one quarter or one fifth of the prewar amount was able to be spent on the renovation of the already very outdated buildings, on school supplies and on new library volumes. The stability of the College once again began to increase but its land management and agricultural endeavours in the region were insignificant and vulnerable. It is not a surprise that the effects of the global economic crisis entered within the walls of this institution, also. By 1931, the situation had become untenable. Below this specific year will be discussed in more detail as the College celebrated not only its four hundred years of existence at this time but also the opening of the English Residence as the hope for a new era. But the celebration of the glorious past and a hopeful future were accompanied by painful strictures. The debt of more than seventy-eight thousand pengős threatened to bring down the entire College. Therefore, the financial committee prepared a seven- year financial reorganization plan which targeted a reduction of debt by ten thousand pengős each year. As the Committee did not see any problems in its agricultural operations, they had to find another solution, which they formulated as: “we will do what everybody ebe does, beginning with the state: in order to have more income we must raise tuition fees and reduce personnel expenses.” Since the church district outrightly refused any possibility of more taxes and no other reserve of funds was found to be available in other foundations, the institution was essentially left to itself with this problem. Added to this was the severe drought the people in Patak were experiencing and thus feeling that ‘even the Heavens’ were punishing them, for, at the festive school year opening ceremony, it was not clear whether they would be able to feed everyone during the winter or not. During the belt-tightening period, they strictly monitored the improvements in efficiency within their own agricultural production activities. Very serious austerity measures were put into effect which touched upon the teachers and on the operation of the school. The consistent implementation of the program yielded significant results. By the summer of 1934, the deficit dropped to forty- seven thousand and, by June the next year, it was only twenty-three thousand pengős. The school’s leadership, however, stressed all along that the success of the entire debt relief operation depended mostly on external factors: if the average yields would rise in the coming years, then by 1937 the debt would be paid off, but if another crisis were to strike, the undertaking would end in failure. It was typical that the cultivating of the fields in Györgytarló still required further investment. As the school only took back the better lands at the outset, it was only able to gradually recover other areas which it had rented out. Thus, the school was forced to make an investment into property improvement every year. In 1934-35, the 2,209 acre plot of land in Györgytarló yielded nineteen thousand pengős of clear profit while the smaller 363 acre plot in Bálványos yielded ten thousand five hundred pengős of clear profit; the land in Istvánháza yielded six thousand eight hundred pengős of income for the College. In the school year of 1935-36, the state subsidy covered sixty-six percent of the total needed for teachers’ salaries; the state subsidy provided to the Theological Academy was four thousand one hundred fifty pengős. 191 Students of the People’s Academy at Sárospatak
