Verhovayak Lapja, 1945 (28. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1945 / Verhovay Journal
VOL. XXVIII. OCTOBER 10, 1945 NO. 19 Verhovay’s Sixtieth Anniversary Occasion for 6 Months General Membership Contest ALL MEMBERS ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE ---------- OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT -------— APPROACHING 60th BIRTHDAY Due to the happy coincidence of many fortunate events, the Verhovay approaches the 60th anniversary of its foundation at the time when the nation is engaged in peace-time conversion. The war came to a sudden hut victorious end. The flower of America is on its way back. The strain of anxiety has been lifted from the hearts of fathers, mothers, and wives. The steady flow of dreaded death-notices from overseas is subsiding. Joy fills the hearts of those whose loved ones already had returned. The happiness of certainty gives peace to those who are still waiting. The blood-shed has ended. The fires are extinguished. Bombs have ceased to explode and the chatter of machineguns has died away. Itt would have been difficult to make preparations for the 60th anniversary under war-time conditions. As long as millions of our beys were bleeding and dying on far-flung battle-fields, it would have been impossible to make it an occasion of joy. Mourning and anxiety would have cast its black shadow over the happiness and pride that is ours. But—that’s all over now. Peace is here. And the nation faces the challenges of peace-time. The time has come to make new plans. The road is open for expansion. Restrictions are lifted and the opportunities for taking up again, where we left off, our peace-time endeavours have arrived. The Board of Directors caught this new spirit of our time. Somehow it could be sensed that the Board felt the joy of being freed from emergency restrictions. As they met, we could feel the determination of their minds to start BUILDING without delay! Somehow, the Home Office Building of the Verhovay symbolized this BUILDING spirit. As soon as the war ended and the restrictions were lifted, work was started on the Building. By the time the Board arrived, the Home Office Building was just one great mass of old materials, to be discarded, all mixed up with new materials, to be used for the remodeling of the building. Not a day was lost! As soon as the light turned green, everything shifted into high gear. And the Board did not hesitate for a moment in catching up with the urgent spirit of our day. With daring and determination it decided to make the 60th Anniversary an occasion dedicated to the expansion of the Verhovay. DAYS OF JOY AND PRIDE go back to the 13 Hungarian miners of Hazleton who laid the foundation of what since that day has become the greatest and strongest American Hungarian fraternal organization. Through 60 years the Verhovay proved itself a pillar of society, a beacon of fraternalism, a champion of human brotherhood and an example of iiatriotic action. Very | few American fraternal organizations had been founded before the Verhovay. The 13 miners of Hazleton were pioneers of fraternalism at a time when few Amer-' icans realized its value and future. Since 1886 the Verhovay continued to grow. First there were a few members in Hazleton, then a few other branches were organized, then the fraternal idea started to spread, cross state borders, expand, until it became a SEVEN MILLION DOLLAR ORGANIZATION WITH 53,000 MEMBERS . .. But it isn’t the seven million dollars, nor the 53,000 members that lend this anniversary its real significance. Money itself is dead stuff, its value is determined by what is done with it. 53,000 members are a great number of people but, as a group, they are made important only by their activities. We all remember what the Verhovay had done during the long years of this war. But, perhaps, we don’t realize sufficiently that the present generation of Verhovayans only followed the example set by the generation of the founders. We haven’t been a brotherhood for four years, we have been that for sixty years. We haven’t served our nation for the last four years, it has been done for sixty years now. The Verhovay started out as a fraternal organization 60 years ago and since then not only its funds and not only its membership increased: its fraternalism grew and expanded to an even greater measure than either its capital or its membership. And that’s why May 31st and June 1st, 1946, will be days of Joy and Pride. ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM What do we aim to achieve by the anniversary celebration? Shall we be satisfied by sitting on our laurels and forget the future while admiring the past? By all means, No! There must be a program and the Board decided that it shall have two points. One refers to the past and the present. It is the Board’s desire to make this celebration a joyful occasion for as many fellowmembers as possible. May 31, and June 1, 1946, are going to be the Days of Joy and Pride for all members of the Association. On these days the 60th anniversary will be celebrated. Then our thoughts will The past will be served by reviving the memories and the attainments of the 60 years of our Association. The present will be served by celebrating the DEDIAilON OF THE VERHOVAY HOME OFFICE BUILDING in downtown Pittsburgh. All who will see it after the remodeling, (Continued on Page 2) VERHOVAY MEMBER APPOINTED TO U. S. SUPREME COURT Hon. Senator Harold II. Burton The attention of our readers is called to the item in the Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Meeting which deals with the appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court of Hon. Senator Harold H. Burton by President Truman. Senator Burton is a memj ber of Branch 14, Cleveland, 0.,,and has joined the Association many years ago. He is proud of his membership in the Association and, for that reason, we are extremely happy and proud over his ap- I pointment. We heard him state at the Convention of the American Hungarian Federation and then, again, at the Convention of the National Fraternal Congress, where he delivered the key-note address, that he is a fraternalist, a member of two Fraternal Associations, ! one of them being the Verhovay F. I. A. We join the Board of Directors in congratulating the new Supreme Court Judge upon his appointment to the highest judicial position in i the country. May God give him strength to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the precious Liberty of its people. TOLEDO'S VERHOVAY MEMORIAL DAY MOST IMPRESSIVE EVERT IN OUR HISTORY THIS REPORT SHOULD BE READ BY ALL MEMBERS OF THE VERHOVAY F. I. ASSOCIATION! We are honored by a report written on this most significant event in the history of our Association by Supreme Secretary Coloman Revesz whose impressions are set forth in a manner that demands every readers attention. However, we feel that an even more important feature should precede the story of Toledo’s Memorial Celebration which was attended by a great many American notabilities, among them no less a personage than GROVE PATTERSON, nationally known editor of the famous TOLEDO BLADE, whose significant EDITORIAL on this event appeared in his column, ‘ The Way Of The World” on October 2nd. It is our proud privilege to reprint this wonderful editorial the words of which should make every fellow-member as proud as we are since Hon. Grove Patterson honored us with this important editorial. THE WAY OF THE WORLD By GROVE PATTERSON “VERHOVAY” There is a national organization with a strong branch in Toledo which too few Toledo folks know much about. Fifty-three thousand people belong to it and they are all Americans of Hungarian descent. It devotes itself to the welfare of its members. Fiftynine years ago Verhovay was founded by 13 Hungarian miners in Hazleton, Pa. Jt has been a long road from the day of the 13 to the 53,000 of today, and it is a long road from the first assets of a few hundred dollars to the present $7,000,000 in assets. Where there is grief in Hungarian hearts and homes, Verhovay ministers. Six thousand of its members served in the late war and nearly 200 laid down their lives for the land which their fathers adopted. * * * m FROM THE DAYS SINCE COL. MICHAEL DE KOVÁCS, drillmaster, in jthe army of George Washington, led his troons to glorious victory and died in the doing of it, Americans who stemmed from the Magyars have been quick to fight in defense of America. Some years ago when for the first time I saw the city of Budapest, the colorful capital of Hungary, and learned a little about the history of that country, I have been able to understand why so many hundreds of thousands of those people have come to the United Stätes, why they have entered so heartily into the ways of democracy and why their spirits have flamed brightly in the love of liberty. In essence, the background of our two countries has been similar. W’e struggled for independence and won it. Hungary, through the centuries, has fought for independence and found little of it. But the earnest desire for freedom has been there. Watered by tears, it is alive to-day. * * * SUNDAY AFTERNOON I ATTENDED A MEETING sponsored by the Toledo-Branch of the Verhovay. One could not fail to be thrilled by the spirit and glow of American patriotism. The principal occasion of the meeting was the presentation to parents of six portraits of boys from this area who lost their lives in the war. It was an hour of grief and yet an hour of splendid pride. Our fellow-Americans love the land of their birth or the land of the birth of their fathers but they love, with a depth of emotion unknown to many Americans of the older stock, this country which has given them what the struggles of the past could never quite win. * * * BECAUSE THEY ARE THE KIND OF PEOPLE THEY ARE, because they value justice and independence so much, I predict a brighter day for Hungary. Hungarians had no sympathy with the Nazi form of government. They coil'd be expected to have scant sympathy with the people of any neighboring lands who sought to dominate them. A democratic people at heart, they will take their place in the ranks of democracy. The day will come when Hungary will be admitted to membership in the new World Organization. They will have a deeper appreciation cf the meaning and the far-reaching possibiiities of the World Charter than many nations which have come into it in easier fashion. Hungary has fought for freedom the hard way, but victory is ahead! * * * There are no words which could desenbe our gratitude to Hon. Grove Patterson for having made such a clear concise statement as to the creed of the Verhovay and the fundamental national characteristics of the Hungariah people as well as the loyalty of the American citizenry of Hungarian origin. We should like to have his editorial printed with golden letters and framed for every member of the Association in order that they may point to it whenever talking with others about our Association, and say: “THIS IS THE VERHOVAY.” (Continued on Page 4)
