Fraternity-Testvériség, 1960 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1960-05-01 / 5. szám

4

FRATERNITY

Lánchid and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Left of the Bridge)

He established the first steam-mill. He started horse-racing to improve Hungarian breeding methods and practices by competition. He wrote in one of his letters: “Some of my friends would surely not like it if they found out that it was really they, and not the horses, that I endeavor to train . .

Another of his innumerable deeds was the betterment of the Hungarian transportation. Most of the innovations made in steamship navigation are connected with Széchényi’s name.

In order to improve waterways, he started the regulation of the lower Danube (Vaskapu) and the unruly river Tisza. Through the latter task large tracts of fertile land were gained for farming.

He established the Danube Steamship Company.

He fought for his ideas with his excellent pen also.

His best known three works are: CREDIT, LIGHT and STADIUM.

In the first, he clearly and frankly expressed that Hungary “has but two enemies: PREJUDICE and CONCEIT.” He mercilessly attacked the “obsolete and rusty” feudal system and laid the blame for the pitiful

state of the country on the shoulders of the noblemen. In 1830, when

this book was published, it worked like a bombshell. Volumes of the CREDIT were publicly burned in some places. But the thought of betterment was planted in the mind of the youth and was brought to fruition in the following decades, as he envisioned in the conclusion of his great work:

“The past has slipped out of our grasp, but we may yet own the future. Why should we bother then with useless reminiscences? Instead, let us work for a glorious dawn for our homeland through determined patriotism and faithful unity. MANY THINK THAT HUNGARY IS A THING OF THE PAST; I LIKE TO BELIEVE ITS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS LIE IN THE FUTURE."

Széchényi was no politician. Unfortunately for him, he had to face