Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
Page 4 Verhovay Journal March 5, 1945 Verhovay Journal Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Ass’n OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 8502 West Jefferson Ave. Detroit 17, Mich. PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY THE Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association Managing Editor: JOHN BENCZE Editor: COLOMAN REVESZ Editor’s Office: 345 FOURTH AVENUE ROOM 805 PITTSBURGH 22, PA. All articles and changes of address should be sent to the VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION 345 FOURTH AVENUE, PITTSBURGH 22, PA. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and Canada _____________________$1.00 a year Foreign Countries _____________________________$1.50 a year ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT: P. O. BOX 7, WOOLSEY STATION — LONG ISLAND CITY 5, N. Y. Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Detroit, Michigan under the Act of March 3, 1879. Governor Martin Urges Observance of Hungarian Independence Day In a statement today, Governor Martin of Pennsylvania said: “Loyal American citizens of Hungarian descent will observe March 15, 1945, as Hungarian Independence Day to honor the heroes of 1848 who rose under the leadership of Louis Kossuth in the struggle to free Hungary from Austrian tyranny. “It is appropriate in the present tragic era of Hungarian history that this anniversary be observed by those Americans whose forbears sought liberty and opportunity in the New World. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania thousands of citizens of Hungarian descent have given and continue to give complete demonstration of their devotion to the American principles. They are giving patriotic support to every phase of the Allied war efforts while their sons and daughters serve in every branch of our armed forces. “I, therefore, urge all interested persons, groups and organizations to join in the observance of Hungarian Independence Day, March 15, 1945.” The Day of Liberty... Ninety-seven years Hungarian nation arose to shake off the shackles of slavery. The great Hungarian poet of that day. Petőfi, stirred the nation with his poem: “Arise Magyar...Thy country calls thee...The time is here... It’’s now or never...The time is here to choose: shall we be slaves or free? To the God of Hungarians -we swear: we shall not be slaves anymore!” Kossuth’s war for liberty started gloriously and it would achieved the fredom of Hungary had not Czarist Russia intervened. But the jo iCuLre 9[qnpiuuoj e juos jbzj 200,000 men against Hungary and, as a result, the war was lost and ended with the execution of 13 generals... History reversed itself. Hungary again was oppressed by its western neighbor, for an unarmed nation of seven million could not successfully resist a nation ten times its size and many more times powerful as far as equipment is concerned. Again Russia intervend but it was a different kind of Russia. The Russian armies came as liberators and if Russia will live up to her promises and to the provisions of tie reaffirmed Atlantic Charter, then Russia will have paid a debt of 96 years’ standing to Hungary. Hungary did not put up a fight MARCH 15, 1945 — ago the against invading Germany at this time, but that does not discredit Hungary’s claim of being a nation of freedom-loving people. In 1848 Hungary fought for freedom with every chance to succeed. Even though the Hungarian armies were in minority as compared with the powerful army of Austria, the enthusiasm of the soldiers and the genius of their generals made up for the difference. Kossuth would not have approved of the war, had he not believed that victory and liberty will be the reward of the uprising. But Hungary didn’t have a chance to successfully resist German invasion. Its mutilated boundaries offered no natural line of detense and the unarmed nation had no army to speak of. Under these circumstances resistance would have amounted to suicide, and national suicide does not lead to freedom, for a dead nation is not free: it ceased to exist. Therefore, 1942 cannot be compared with 1848.— It is a mistake to think of liberty as an independent entity, which is to be treasured even if it is the only possession of an individual or people. The ideal of liberty is propagated from a distorted point of view, when it is proposed as a GOAL which in itself will assure a higher type of living. Liberty is, indeed, the goal of every strugTHE REPORT OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE taken at the Home Office of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, 345 Fourth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa., at the annual audit held by the Auditing Committee from February 12 to 24th, 1945, incl. Present are: Joseph Bumbulucz, chairman of the Committee, Jolán Lucas and Ernest Kunstadt. It has been established during the examination that all monthly dues, received by the Home Office between September 1, 1944 and December 31st, 1944, all interests due on bonds and all other receipts have been deposited in Pittsburgh banks at regular intervals and, furthermore, that the official data published by the Home Office, in every respect render a true picture of the state of the Association. All bonds, deposited in the safety boxes at the Mellon Bank have been found as listed and it has been established that all coupons have bein cashed regularly and that such receipts have been entered in the books of the Association. The following is the statement of assets for the third auditing period of 1944: August 31, 1944 ______________________________________________________$6,467,164.64 December 31, 1944 ________-__________________________________________$6,632,032.41 Increase __________________________________________________________$ 164,867.77 It was established from the official documents pertaining to the Treasurer’s Department that investments have been made to the advantage of the Association as is proven by the Statement of Assets for the entire year of 1944: Assets as of December 31, 1944------------------------:---------------------------------$6,632,032.41 Assets as of December 31, 1943 _______________________________________$5,995,559.96 Increase in 1944 ______________________________________________________$ 636,472.45 In the course of the examination of the annual reports we have found that the financial status of our Association has been further improved by the well-planned and expert investment policy followed by the Supreme Treasurer. The Association received in monthly dues $1,153,312.28 of which $123,178.23 was paid out in sick benefits, $4,800.00 in maiming benefits, and $314,715.40 in death benefits. Of the latter, the beneficiaries of our heroic dead have received $56,673.06 during 1944. It is the result of conscientious medical supervision that only $4,056.64 has been paid out in death benefits after members whose membership certificates were in force for not more than two years. The development of our Association has been furthered by the increase in membership, too. The Juvenile Department had an increase of 813 members and the Senior Department increased by 1,759 members. Total increase in membership for the year of 1944 was 2,772 members. The data set forth above prove that, nothwiihstanding war-time conditions, the year ,1944 was one of the roost successful years in the history of cur Association. JOSEPH BUMBULUCZ, Chairman of the Aud. Comm. JOLÁN LUCAS, Member of the Aud. Comm. ERNEST KUNSTADT, Secretary of the Aud. Comm. gle of a freedom-loving nation, but it is only an intermediate goal, it is supposed to serve as a means towards the attainment of a higher type of existence for which freedom serves as a condition and not as the contents. People who believe in liberty for its own sake and not for what it should lead to, unknowingly pay tribute to the hobo., for he is a free man who considers independence and liberty the only contents of life. We fight for liberty because it enables us to develop a way of life which cainnot develop in slavery. No one saw this clearer than Kossuth, the greatest advocate of liberty. He wanted Hungary to attain freedom because he knew that only as a free people would Hungary be able to lead a life that was worthy of its traditions, abilities and national characteristics. He was the first to propose land-reform to assure a just distribution of the land...he wanted to extend the benefits of education to all clases...he wanted to give the vote to the Hungarian peasantry... in other words, he wanted the people of Hungary to attain what we know as the “American way of life.” Liberty, independence was to be the condition which, office realized, would have enabled the people of Hungary to develop into a democratic nation which would have attained security, equality, religious liberty, opportunity and education for all of its citizens. What the people of Hungary fought for in 1848-49, and what the Allied nations fight for today is not liberty in itself but what can be achieved by the conscientious use of liberty. That is why Roosevelt’s declaration of the Four Freedoms reveals more about the real understanding of the ideal of freedom than most of the books articles, and speeches that propound Liberty as the highest and final goal for any people. Liberty can be abused and has been abused by nerly all “free” people. In all such instances liberty resulted in the deterioration of moral standards, in the loss of spiritual values and, finally, in the collapse of the economic structure. It leads to insecurity, to recklessness, to national or individual suicide. Liberty means indepedence as far external powers are concerned. But internally, that is in their spirit, free people need to be bound to certain principles much more than enslaved people. It would be the greatest tragedy if freedom were to be given to the irresponsible, to the insane, to the unprincipled. In the newspapers of our country we often read articles that extoll liberty as the highest and final attainment of the individual and the nation. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the American tradition are their great arguments in opposing any infrigement upon the rights of any individual or any group. The writers of these articles forget that liberty is only the means for the attainment of a higher and better type of human existence. Hungry people are not free people. Unemployed people are not free either. America is free to provide its people with the best it has. It will remain a free nation only if it will use its liberty to keep the people free from the greatest tyrant of all: WANT. This is why we insist that the people of Hungary are a freedomloving nation. Because all through the history of that land the urge of the people for justice, equality, culture and security is noticeable. All nations on earth profess to love liberty. There isn’t one which would admit to enjoy oppression and slavery. But there is a fundamental difference between the evaluation of Liberty of the various people. For some, liberty means the right to oppress minorities. For others, it means the opportunity to attack their neighbors. In some nations liberty is used by the rich for their own aggrandizement to the detriment of the masses. And, finally, there are some nations that desire liberty for the betterment of their own folks. The love of freedom in itself doesn't mean anything: IT IS THE MOTIVE THAT COUNTS. On the 97th anniversary of Hungary’s Freedom Day it is a great satisfaction for us to know; that the love of liberty of Hungarians was motivated by humanitarian purposes which were identical with those of President Roosevelt when he first pronounced the ideal of the FOUR FREEDOMS G.M. 2/c GEORGE P. POLYAK has been in the Navy since April 1943, and has been in numerous engagements in the South Pacific. He is a member of Br. 356 of long standing. The price of freedom is a great price, but the thing we buy is greater. William E. Brooks Grant of Appomattox
