Fraternity-Testvériség, 1965 (43. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1965-08-01 / 8-9. szám
FRATERNITY 7 which he bequeathed to his city, Davenport, Iowa; and János Xanthus, who taught at the University of New Orleans and later worked for the U. S. Government exploring the Kansas Territory. A physician of distinction in the Army of the Potomac was Dr. Ignác Langer, who received citations from the State and War Departments. Miss Dobozy writes in detail of the great journalist, Joseph Pulitzer, who founded the New York Evening World and in 1903 the School of Journalism at Columbia University. It is there that the Pulitzer Prize, the distinction most coveted by writers in the United States, was established. We learn about Ferenc Molnár, our great Hungarian playwright, “who has delighted American audiences for years”, and about novelist Albert Wass, who “became professor of audio-visual language instruction at the University of Florida.” Maria writes about the motion picture industry which benefitted from the talents of Adolph Zukor and Michael Curtiz and a host of well known theatrical talent. Among the famous musicians and composers are Béla Bartók, Sigmund Romberg and Joseph Szigethi, to mention only a few, and among the great physicians are included Dr. Béla Schick and Dr. Albert Szent-Györgyi, and of the great physicists of all times, the world renowned Dr. Leo Szilárd, Dr. Edward Teller and Dr. Theodore von Karman. “There have always been outstanding individuals in history but none are so important as the masses of the people. What good is a general without an army? Or a factory owner without workers? America welcomed the immigrants, and, as Emil Lengyel wrote, ‘Strong muscles were needed to stand the heat of the furnaces, and bear the backbreaking toil of the sweatshop with its endless hours of soul-killing work. The newcomers were ready to do all types of unskilled labor. They settled in Ohio, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania areas . . . and these Hungarian settlements added to the prosperity and population of the city, and they added a Hungarian touch to the culture of the area.’ “At the turn of the century a strong nationalism brought the Hungarian immigrants closer together, and many new Roman Catholic and Protestant churches were founded along with many social, cultural and benefit societies, among them the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America, which was ‘small and weak in the beginning but it soon grew to be a huge organization, with one of its most noble endeavors, the Bethlen Home, a home for orphans and elderly people.’ “America is the land of opportunity and a melting pot of many varied cultures, peoples, languages and traditions which the settlers and immigrants brought with them. “And America welcomed them, for it needed them to till the land, extract the resources from the earth, and to build great industries to make America strong and prosperous. America offered the opportunity and was rewarded, for the Hungarians came willing to work and build. This did a great job. The Hungarian communities added flavor to the American culture and made a definite contribution to the melting pot. Without them American life would be different.”
