Fraternity-Testvériség, 1961 (39. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1961-03-01 / 3. szám

FRATERNITY

OFFICIAL ORGAN OF HUNGARIAN REF. FEDERATION OF AMERICA Editor-in-Chief: George E. K. Borshy. — Managing Editor:

Joseph Kecskemethy. — Associate Editors: Emery Király and László L. Eszenyi. — Chief Contributor: Alexander Daroczy. Published monthly. — Subscription for non-members in the U. S. A. and Canada $2.00, elsewhere $3.00 a year.

Office of Pubication: Expert Printing Co., 4627 Irvine St., Pittsburgh 7, Pa. Editorial Office: Kossuth House, 1801 “P” St., N. W., Washington 6, D. C.

Volume XXXIX MARCH 1961 Number 3

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON STATUE IN BUDAPEST

Address by Prof. August J. Molnár, February 20, 1961, at the Columbia University Club "First Annual George Washington Awards Dinner" — sponsored by the American Hungarian Studies Foundation and the Institute

Fifty-six years ago, a week today, on February 13, 1905, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Budapest Washington Monument Association was chartered. At the charter meeting the great editor-publisher of the Hungarian daily, “Szabadság”, Tihamér Kohányi, who was a giant of endurance and steadfast spirit, as president of the association, reported that there was over $2,500 on hand and nearly $1,000 pledged to erect a statue of George Washington in Budapest.

A year and a half later, in September 1906, the George Washington statue was unveiled in the City Park in Budapest as the gift of “the Hungarians of America to the memory of Washington.”

However, before this great feat — for it was that in many ways —- could be achieved, earlier years were filled with painstaking effort in winning approval for the idea in Budapest and receiving wide support in America. It was no mean achievement.

The idea of erecting a statue to the memory of Washington in Budapest sprang into being prior to the unveiling of the statue of Louis Kossuth in 1902 in Cleveland. This thought of Kohányi was made public in the same year. A booklet was published in English and Hungarian by the American-Hungarian daily, “Szabadság”, in 1902, reproducing copies of many, many letters received by Kohányi from prominent American figures, praising and supporting the idea; governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, judges, editors, including William Jennings Bryan and former President Grover Cleveland, wrote glowing words about the plan.

The idea caught the imagination of the thousands of Hungarian immigrants and fired the will of American-Hungarian businessmen. These Hungarians in America were devoted citizens of their new land, but they also had a love and concern for the land of their birth.