Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1955. január-június (4. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1955-03-31 / 13. szám
AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ March 31, 1955 BIRTHDAY OF FREE HUNGARY by István Rusznyák, M. D. Chairman, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest Liberty is a precious treasure to all peoples. But for us, Hungarians, who lived for centuries under tyrannical foreign rule, it is particularly dear. The best sons of our people fought for freedom: Janos Hunyadi, the outstanding European military leader of the 15th century: Miklós Zrínyi, poet and general; Ferenc Rákóczi, the leader of the struggle for freedom, in the early 18th century; and Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the War of Independence of 1848—49. Our greatest writers, artists and scientists, Balint Balassi, Sándor Petőfi, Attila József. Ignác Semmelweis, Lorand Eötvös, Ferenc Erkel and Béla Bartók fought with pen and with deeds to make Hungary a country of "happy and free people. The freedom we won ten year ago means infinitely much to us. It means the power of the people: democratic suffrage and a National Assembly made up of the people, of workers, peasants and intellectuals. It means our people’s democratic Constitution, which codifies the right to work, to recreation, to education, to health protection, and at the same time ensures the practical enforcement of thes rights. It means socialist law and order, the observance of which is guarded by our public- prosecutors and courts. The progress that has taken place since Liberation has brought for the one-time downtrodden Hungarian workers, deprived of all rights in the past, an end to unemployment, hundreds of new factories, and hundreds of thousands of new secure and healthful jobs. New Hungary has grown into an industrial country. Her manufacturing industry is producing three and a half times as Modern housing projects in a Budapest suburb much as in 1938. New industrial towns have been built, like Sztalinvaros and Komló. In such revitalized old industrial towns as Tatabánya, Győr, Salgótarján and Miskolc new, bright and airy residential quarters for workers have been established. For the Hungarian working class freedom means resorts on Lake Balaton, young workers in the university lecture rooms, and a thousand and one joys of culture and amusement.. With the liberty we gained ten years ago, a new life has dawned for millions of Hungarian peasants also. The Land Reform, for which they had yearned for generations, was carried through and liquidating the system of big landed properties which usurped half the tillable land of the country, it gave 1.8 million hectares of land to the peasantry. Thousands of new machines are working on our fields. The drought-ridden Great Plains are being made more fertile through an irrigation system. Electricity is being installed in hundreds of our villages, and hundreds of thousands of young people and adults are studying and acquiring culture in the newly-built schools : and cultural centers... All this has been achiev- ' ed for our peasantry by the ten years of* free- rdom. I am a physician and research worker. Thus, I am particularly impressed by the penetrating And inspiring changes which have taken place in the life of our intelligentsia. In the past of the '40 physicians who worked at my university hospital only 7 were paid. Today every single worker •át the No 1 University Hospital for Internal Diseases; which I head, and every employee of every single Hungarian scientific institution receives Á salary that.assures a decent standard of living. In the past is was difficult to secure scientific equipment, even if the cost would have been comparatively little. Today our People’s Democratic Government places all the instruments and materials we need at our disposal. Today our State spends two thousands times as much on subsidizing scientific research institutes as was done before Liberation! All cultural workers —whether they be village teachers or choir directors of the factory cultural centers, research scientists or engineers who design flats, bridges or machines—labor, enjoying the respect and affection of society. Hundreds of them have been honored with the Kossuth Prize or other Government distinctions, and many are memMedical Clinic of the Trade Unions in the provincial town of Kecskemét bers of village, municipal or county Councils or of the National Assebly. Scholars and scientists are doing their share in the all-out effort to enhance the well-being of our people, to improve culture and to provide effective health protection. They are unearthing the great traditions of our national literature, and as a result of their work, critical editions of the works of our greatest poets—Sándor Petőfi, Janos Arany and Attila -József—have been published during recent months. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is publishing—from the pen of our world-famous composer and musicologist Zoltán Kodály, twice awarded the Kossuth Prize—volumes of important collections of folk music which Béla Bartók and Kodály Zoltán had tried in vain to publish for decades before the Liberation. One of the main problems in the development of our national economy is the flourishing of agriculture. Our scientists are working persistently to this end as, for instance, Rezső Manninger, who has produced remarkable results in the control of contagious diseases in animals, and Kurt Sedlmayr whose achievements in the breeding of sugar beets and barley are noteworthy. Our foremost scientists and experts took an active Kimer Szadecky Kossuth-prize winner scientist in his laboratory with his assistant part in the elaboration of the programme for the development of agriculture. Much is being done by our scientists to develop our industry as well. Suffice it to mention the results Sándor Geleji has achieved in the mechanics of metallurgical engineering, the metallographic research done by József Verő, and Nándor Barany’s optical research. We Hungarian scientists believe that science must not be divorced from life, that its task is the service of the people, of mankind. These are the ends to which the theoretical work of our research workers contribute. Respect for theoretical research, for pioneer results based on independent study, is reflected in the Kossuth Prize of the highest class awarded to the wellknown Hungarian mathematician Frigyes Riesz for his achievements in functional analysis, or in the Kossuth Prize the physicist Pal Gombás won for developing a new-statistical nuclear theory. The most important problem which occupies the attention of us Hungarians is the idea of peace. We know very well that all our achievements up to now, our entire progress, are the fruits of peaceful creative work. We are fighting to preserve our present achievements and to ensure the opportunity for the continued building of our country when we are doing our best within our modest means to support the strivings of the peace-loving people of the world for closer international co-operation and for the peaceful settlement of problems. We Hungarian scientists profess with firm conviction that science must be in the service of understanding between the peoples and of peace. The Hungarian people celebrate the tenth anniversary of their liberation in the spirit of peace And it is in the spirit of peace that they aspire for new successes to make their life still more beautiful and happy and to advance their culture. POT-POURRI. . . (Continued from page 23) COMICS COST MORE THAN ALL TEXT BOOKS. More money is spent for comic books in the US each year than is spent for textbooks for all the the nation’s elementary and secondary schools, a Univ. of Calif, survey reported recently. ★ Congress’ Democrats and Republicans appear united in saving the country from Communists Next year they”l be busy saving it from each other. — Ima Washout. ★ TREATING WHOOPS. According to 3 doctors of Bklyn’s Kingston Ave. Hosp. a new intramuscular form terramyrin has proven helpful in- treating whooping cough. The doctors report that 40 children were given 3 injections of terramycin per day. Their temperature returned to normal in an average time of less than one day. None of the children vomited after the 2nd day of theatment. By the 3rd day, the doctors reported, the number of whoops had decreased and coughs had become less severe. ★ McCARRAN ACT DOESN’T COVER EX NAZIS When asked about the advisibility of the US tour of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a State Dept, spokesman said that officials saw no objection to the tour, since past membership in the Nazi Party does not bar admission to the US under the McCarran Act. Over 200 pickets marched outside Carnegie Hall in N. Y. on March 1 in protest against the orchestra’s performance there. ' THE LIFE OF RILEY Mrs. Harry W. Clarke Jr., an avid follower of the stock market —where she has done very well—has solved the problem of business and home duties by placing a stock market ticket in her 7-room apt. in N. Y. Now she reads the tape in comfort. The ticker is spending its third year in Mr. and Mrs. Clarke’s swank apt., which makes it nice for Wall Street friends who drop in for tea. It costs about $900 a year. (Fay) FIFTEEN countries have so far purchased the Hungarian newsreel of the recent European skating championships in Budapest. Purchasers included Britain, where it has been shown , in cinemas and on television.
