Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1986. január-június (40. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-01-02 / 1. szám
Thursday, Jan. 2. 1986. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ 15. Stories of our readers I ALEX ROSNER I A HERO OF AMERICAN LABOR (This is another essay from one who came from there to here. We hope this ongoing chronicle will blossom into a living record of the Hungarian - Americans who contributed to the making of America and of our newspaper.) I was born in Fiume when that city was still a part of Hungary. My father was a blacksmith in the Fiume shipyards. But, after the first World War, the city was annexed to Italy and work was given to Italian nationals. My father lost his job. Like so many other displaced people in Europe at that time, my father emigrated to the United States. In 1929, after becoming an American citizen, he sent for his family. His wife and two minor children came to join him. I was one of the two children. I found work in the south Chicago mill of Illinois Steel which lasted until the Wall Street crash. Then, like many young people in those days, I rode the rods of the trains, chased by railroad "bulls", making friends, seeking work and finding none. Then I met a barber, Mr. Petrks, who was the representative of Uj Előre in Chicago. Előre was the predecessor of Magyar Szb. Petras suggested I go to Cleveland where the paper had its print shop. Here I had the privilege to work under a very special person, Florian Paczier of Elsinore who, I am sure, will have fond memories of the lanky youngster who became an apprentice printer under his able hands. Unfortunately, there were no machines available during daylight hours in the print- shop and I had to work at night. Most of my schooling, with the exception of the first and second grade, was in the Italian language. So there was no single line without at least one or more composing errors. And many times the linotype was left in disrepair. The Uj Előre needed an experienced printer and our wonderful relationship was ended by mutual agreement. After leaving the paper, I returned to Chicago working odd jobs: washing, dishes, moving furniture. As a member of the Unemployed Council, I began my organizing career. President Roosevelt enacted the NRA which had what was then called "Section 7A". It gave the workers the right to organize. The steel workers were restless and I became one of the organizers of the newly formed Steel and Metal Workers Union affiliated to the TUUL (Trade Union Unity League). In 1936 I came to live in New York and found a job in a fur dyeing shop where the union had just lost a strike. I began to reorganize the shop. The agitation was too much for the employer and he signed up. I became the shop steward and later, the president of the Fur Dressers and Dyers Joint Board. I helped in an intensive organizing drive and, by 1938, the whole fur dyeing industry was organized. Later, the CIO was organizing the New York sanitation workers and 1 became its first organizer. During the second World War I served in the US Navy, as a gunner's mate second class on an ammunition ship, the USS Pennsylvania, in the north Atlantic. In 1948, when the CIO drive was over in sanitation, I was asked by Rákosi and Präger, then working for the paper, if I would take over management of the Hungarian Daily Journal. I agreed and, during the next eight years we went through very rough times. Because of financial difficulties it was reorganized into a weekly with its present name. In 1957 new problems arose and for the next eight years I edited and also worked in the composing room of the print shop. Other problems arose at the paper in the course of time and, in 1966, I resigned from the staff. After that I worked for Printers and Publishers, Women's Wear Daily and ended my career as a printer at the New York Post. All those years I was unable to save a penny. Now I live in a modest little home with the savings I earned since I left the Hungarian paper. Sometimes my friends ask me if I regret the time spent in organizing workers and serving the people. My answer is NO! They were the best years of my life. And it is with great pleasure - with a big grin on my face - I see now the land of my origin flourish and working at making a humane socialist system work. In my own modest way I continue to participate in the great fight to ward off another war. DEADLY CONNECTION (cont.from p. 14J visible or not ( and most of it is invisible), it is a horrible catastrophe. Perphaps the most horrible catastrophe of all is how it immobilizes us as a nation, how it has corrupted our morals and our morality and how it has dehumanized us and made us insensitive to the problems of humanity. In making this connection between the arms race and everything that is evil in this society, visualize in your mind the museum of Hiroshima, the museum that is witness to the tragedy on August 6, 1945 that killed thousands of people in one flash. Outside that museum is a rock and on that rock is a shadow and that shadow is all that remains of a human being that stood there at that moment of history. Unless we bestir ourselves, as sure as we are sitting here tonight, one day in the not too distant future, we will all be shadows on the rock. A STORK STORY The stork population of Hungary had decreased by almost 50% between 1958 and 1974. Later studies also showed a continued decline. When this news leaked out, the Hungarian people responded with appeals for action. Governmental authorities, in turn, responded with an official decree calling for the protection of storks, their nesting places, their eggs, and their young. The National Office for Environment and Nature Protection and the Hungarian Electricity Board developed a nest-supporting structure that could be fitted on top of electric utility poles. These were mounted on every pole that had once been HUNGARIAN LIBRARY The "Széchényi" Library is Hungary's national library. It was founded 183 years ago when the enlightened aristocrat, Count Ferenc Széchenyi, a man of great patriotism, donated to the nation his collection of European fame consisting of 13.000 printed books, more than 1.200 manuscripts, several hundred maps and a great many engravings. There has been an enormous increase in the stock of the library in the period of almost two centuries since those days. Today the library stock totals an approximate 6 million library units, comprising about two million books, 250.000 volumes of periodicals and dailies, about 600.000 manuscripts and 450.000 maps and engravings. In addition to them the national library also has some 10.000 gramophone records, 2,5 million posters and printed matter as well as several million microfilm pictures. It took a considerably long time and much work to rebuild the historic Royal Palace of Buda so that it could provide a suitable place for a modern library. This process of restoration had to face several unforeseeable obstacles, nevertheless even the exceptional difficulties cannot explain why the final completion of the library had to take so long, why the final deadline of its opening had to be postponed so many times. But finally on the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Hungary, the new home of the "Széchenyi" National Library was opened in the wing F of the Palace of Buda Castle. The storage rooms, which have a total shelf lenght of 75.000 meters are connected to the reading-rooms by a "Telelift" conveyor-belt system made in the Federal Republic of Germany. "Telelift" covers almost a kilometer, and the computerized containers automatically carry the books and periodicals to 56 "stations". This technical solution of book service guarantees that readers can get the books they want in three or four minutes. There are 'many novelties providing readers with comfort especially when we think of the earlier conditions. The central reading and information hall has a comfortable area of 6.600 square meters; this is where books, periodicals and dailies can be lent out. In the reading-room there are 70.000 encyclopaedias, dictionaries and other reference books, as well as many newspapers that can be freely used. The central reading- room can seat about 700 readers at a time. As a comparison: in the old building the - total capacity was 160. With the new exhibition rooms and lecture halls, the national library will be able to perform a significant cultural role in addition to properly fulfilling its basic function of library service, scientific work and the preservation of its valuable collection. Zoltán Eros occupied by storks. It worked like a charm. Since "Stork Protection Years 1980-1981", the stork population of Hungary has increased by almost 6,000 stork families and this rate of growth is continuing! MENTION OUR PAPER TO YOUR FRIEND
