Verhovayak Lapja, 1947 (30. évfolyam, 1-24. szám)
1947 / Verhovay Journal
‘VerhovayJournal VOLUME XXX * SEPTEMBER 10, 1947 51 NUMBER 17 WELCOME - DELEGATES TO THE XXL VERHOVAY NATIONAL CONVENTION The Rome Office of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance 4s* sociation takes great pleasure in extending a brotherly welcome to the 148 representatives of Verhovay’s 60,000 members, and to the members of the Board of Directors and the Auditing Committee, attending the XX/. National Convention of the Association, now in session. It was a great privilege to take part in the preparations for this great event which, coming only once in every four years, offers a rare but promising opportunity to the champions of Verhovay fraternalism for working together for the advancement of our great organization. Of course, not everybody thinks of the National Convention in terms of brotherly cooperation and united efforts. There are some who would prefer the National Convention to be an occasion for “reckoning”, a luscious “free-for-all”, in which everyone so inclined could air his pet peeves and induce others to drag over the coals certain scapegoats, selected in advance by those who would like to see their own choices occupy their places. Ours being a democratic organization, they are free to pursue their ambiguous goal prior to and. during the National Convention even though past experience affords them little hope for success. There always have been and always will be troublemakers, both within and without the membership of the Association. Trouble-making merely for the pleasure of stirring up turmoil is the pastime of the diseased mind-. Normal people have a purpose with making trouble, a purpose that cannot be served by peaceful and fair means. It cannot stand the light, it thrives only in the darkness of a stormy atmosphere. Frankly revealed, it would be defeated by the majority, hence, it cannot be revealed. Minority opinion is aggrandized by noise. Truth is silent. The facts speak for it. The friends of truth speak for it. But the sly innuendoes, false accusations, misrepresentations, shouted by the enemies of truth are its most powerful supporting witnesses. The elected representatives of the Verhovay membership are no greenhorns. They have seen enough of shadowy political intrigues to know the difference between truth and propaganda. Actually, the trouble-makers underestimate them if they think they can mislead them by simply misrepresenting the facts. Though only one of the delegates is “from Missouri”, they all have this in common: they believe what they see. They refuse to accept hearsay evidence no matter how “well-informed” its source may pretend to be. In fact, past experience proves that they always resent it if someone tries to make up their mind for them. That is something they prefer to do themselves. These delegates come to Pittsburgh to see and to work. To see with their own eyes and not with the prejudiced eyes of some outsiders. To work with, and not against, each other and their elected officers. Naturally, should they see anything objectionable, they will object. Bui they prefer to do their own objecting . . . This is the ivay it hás been in the past and there is no reason why it should be different now. And that is the reason why it still is possible to find talented, devoted and industrious people willing to engage in fraternal work. If the trouble-makers would attain their purposes every time, no honest person ivould be willing to work for a fraternal society. Why accept an appointment in ivhich ultimate dishonor would be the only reward of devotion and success? Knowing that sooner or later the troublemakers would find fault with and turn public opinion against even the most outstanding official, a self-respecting individual could not be induced to seek fraternal office and, as a result, the field would be left to opportunists who, having lesser sensibilities, ivould gladly forfeit honor for whatever selfish ends they may hope to attain during their tenure. The history of Verhovay's Conventions proves, however, that the troublemakers were never permitted to influence the law-makers of The New Verhovay Journal — 12 PAGE JOURNAL MAKES BELATED DEBUT AT XXL NATIONAL CONVENTION — Exactly nine months ago, in the December 11th, 1946 issue of the Journal we proudly announced the impending debut of the new Verhovay Journal which was to appear, beginning with the first issue in 1947, on 12 pages. This progressive step was taken by the Board of Directors in view of the considerably increased circulation of the Journal, which rose from 6,000 to nearly 15,000 during the last three years. Our happiness over the enlarged Journal, however, was to be short-lived. Two weeks later, already, we had to retract our announcement due to the acute paper shortage which made it impossible for our printer to secure the necessary quantity of newsprint. As a result, there was no change and the Journal continued appearing in its old form, on 8 pages. Eight months later, in August, we were informed by our printer, the Rapid Printing Company of Detroit, Mich., that the additional quantity of newsprint at last has been made available. This automatically carried into effect,our contract calling for the printing of a 12 page Journal with the columnar arrangement appearing in this issue. Thus it happened that the new Journal makes it debut at the XXI. National Convention. It is our sincere hope that the new Journal will be favorably received by the readers. However, progress had to be combined with economy and, therefore, as far as the contents are concerned, the Journal will not be as much larger as the 50% increase in the number of pages would indicate. The present columnar arrangement and the use of large type for a certain percentage of material reduces the increase of the volume of printed matter. As a result, the new Journal contains approximately 20% more printed matter than the old Journal. This, too, is a substantial increase which will be used toward the improvement and the enrichment of the contents of the Journal in accordance with whatever instruction will be issued by the National Convention. As heretofore the Journal will appear twice a month, on the second and last Wednesday of each month. Each issue carries a notice of the closing date of the following number. Contributors are urged, however, to submit their articles at least a few days before closing date because we cannot always reserve sufficient space for lengthy manuscripts arriving on the last day. Only brief notices should be mailed shortly before closing date. Contributions exceeding 1 column should be in the hands of the editor a week before closing date. We have various plans for improving the Journal with a view of making it a real fraternal magazine, of interest to all members of the Verhovay. An open forum discussion of these plans at this time, however, would serve no practical purpose since the future size, frequency of appearance and possible changes in editorial policy will be determined by the National Convention now in session. Whatever ideas, plans or suggestions we may have in mind, will have to be adapted to the instructions to be issued by the Convention. Leaving these matters pending the above facts are stated only for the purpose of explaining the sudden change of the physical make-up of the Journal. the Association in their decisions. The representatives of the membership did not expect miracles of their officers and workers. They alivays were willing to accord to those working for the Association as fair a treatment as they expected to receive from their own employers. And if the officers and workers of the Verhovay did not live up to the expectations of the membership, they ivere given an opportunity to explain their errors, failures or deviations from the rules. And if the explanations were satisfactory, they were accepted in confidence. This being so, the Association had no difficulty in securing the services of dependable, loyal and devoted officers and workers. Of course, they knew that from time to time they ívül have to account for themselves. Such accounting, however, is (Continued on page 2.)
