Fraternity-Testvériség, 1957 (35. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1957-05-01 / 5. szám
FRATERNITY 15 During his early years in Toledo, Dr. Farkas also served on the law staff of the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in Toledo. Living on Toledo’s East Side, Dr. Farkas met Walter Brown, then Lucas County Republican Party Chairman. And Dr. Farkas was an untiring political worker among his countrymen when he was appointed Hungarian Manager for the presidential campaign of William Howard Taft. A life-long Republican, Dr. Farkas said he stayed with the party even after Chairman Brown, who went on to become postmaster general of the United States, joined Teddy Roosevelt in the Bull Moose movement. After the outbreak of World War I, Dr. Farkas said he broke all ties with his homeland when it sided with the Kaiser. The doctor sold U. S. war bonds in both world wars and won a government citation for selling several million dollars in bonds. By 1929 he was back in the newspaper business as editor, publisher and president of his own Hungarian-American weekly, named “Toledo” in honor “of my beautiful and wonderful adopted city.” He also began his free citizenship classes, in which he trained thousands of his Hungarian countrymen to qualify for U. S. citizenship. Dr. Farkas remembers with particular pride his long association with the late Grove Patterson, editor-in-chief of “The Blade”. “I would come to Mr. Patterson for help and advice. Once I was threatened with a lawsuit if I printed one particular story. I went to Mr. Patterson and told him about it”, Dr. Farkas recalled. “How’s your conscience, Geza?” Mr. Patterson asked. “Fine”, Dr. Farkas answered. “Then go home and write the truth.” Said Dr. Farkas: “I lost my best friend and Toledo its outstanding citizen when Mr. Patterson died.” In 1932, Dr. Farkas fought the hardest battle of his life after he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Doctors told him he was fortunate he wasn’t killed and that he would never walk again. Dr. Farkas said the injuries he received resulted in almost complete paralysis. “For five years I did nothing. Then, slowly, I taught myself how to walk again, first with crutches, then with a cane. In 1942, I threw the can away.” Completely recovered from his injuries, his greatest joy is playing grandfather to his famous son’s six children. His son, Andy Farkas, Washington Redskins football star for 15 years, is now an insurance executive living in Detroit. Impeccable in a light brown suit, dark four-in-hand tie, and a thin gold chain dancing against his vest, Dr. Farkas tersely summoned up his opinion of his adopted homeland: “America, there’s nothing like it in the world.”
