Fraternity-Testvériség, 1951 (29. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1951-02-01 / 2. szám

4

TESTVÉRISÉG

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1 IN PLAIN AMERICAN |

A monthly page conducted by Edmund Vasvary ==

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Thank God! We are in our new Home Office Building now, after several days of moving the tremendous accumulation of decades. Everyone is working again, and everybody is happy in the beautiful and spacious surroundings which — we think and hope — will be the final home of our Federation.

♦

When our faithful old co-worker, Mr. J. H. Zeitlin and his associate finished their work about the year 1950, I asked Mr. Zeitlin: “Now that you have a clear picture of the past year, what would be your message to our membership about the results, in one or two sentences?”

He replied:

“The year 1950 was a very, very successful year, in fact one of the best in the history of the Federation.”

Enough said.

♦

In January, 1951, the branches of the Federation sent to the Home Office the very impressive sum of $96,640.75. In this large sum there are some loan repayments, loan interests and the like, but the great bulk of it represents monthly dues. In fact: this is a new record for branch payments in the 55 year history of the Federation, this is the largest sum ever sent in by the branches in one month.

♦

It is very interesting to study the steady growth of the yearly amounts of branch payments. Seventeen years ago, at the deep point of the great depression (1933) the total for that entire year was only $143,- 529.02. Nine years later in 1944, we passed the half million mark. In 1949 the total was: $690,087.51, and in the past year, 1950: $727,227.59.

This final amount means that our Federation’s yearly income from the branches multiplied almost four times in fifteen years, since we have our Home Office in Washington, D. C.

♦

We are deeply grateful for the fact that at the time of writing these lines, we have not a single death case in the Korean war. There is, however, a missing soldier member: Stephen Demeter, 22 years old, Port Clinton, Ohio, Branch 292. We had a few “missing” cases in

the last war, but the boys fortunately turned up later, unhurt. We earnestly pray for the same outcome in the case of Steve Demeter!

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In honoring CHARLES EISLER, the well-known Newark, N. J. manufacturer with an honorary doctorate, the Bloomfield,

N. J. College and Seminary picked out of our Hungarian life a man well worthy of this high distinction. Few men in our Ame- rican-Hungarian history have given themselves to our special causes with more goodwill and generosity and few gained greater popularity in their communities. It was a fine idea to suggest his name to that venerable institution, which educated so many of our American-Hungarian leaders in more than 40 years. We heartily congratulate Dr. Charles Eisler and his new Alma Mater!

♦

The authorities are getting really tough with the IWO, the Communist “fraternal” association which has been listed as “subversive” (i. e. traitorous) by the Department of Justice — and the dissolution of which is urged by the Insurance Department of the State of New York. To save whatever could be saved, the officers of the Communist outfit tried to call a national convention in N. Y. City, but State Supreme Court Justice Henry C. Greenberg prohibited the holding of this convention, after the State Attorney General charged that the only purpose of the convention would be “to carry out the instructions of the Communist party.”

At present, the IWO is officially barred from doing any business except as permitted by the N. Y. State Superintendent of Insurance. If his department succeeds in putting the IWO out of business, its insurance affairs would be transferred to other insurance concerns.

At the end of January it was announced in Trenton, N. J. that the New Jersey State Banking and Insurance Commission had joined the State of New York in its legal effort to liquidate the IWO, assigning two top officials of the Commission to assist New York authorities.

Testifying before the N. Y. Supreme Court, a former Communist named Kornfeder, who was a member of the American branch of the Communist International, said that the IWO was formed by the order of the Third International,