Verhovayak Lapja, 1940. július-december (23. évfolyam, 27-52. szám)

1940-12-26 / 52. szám

1940 December 26

13-lk Oldal

Verhovayak Lapja

COMMON GROUND PUBLISHES ITS SECOND ISSUE

The Winter number of Common Ground, published this month, contains a wide variety of material of special interest to Americans of foreign birth or descent. Like the first, the second issue of this new quarterly magazine published by the Common Council for American Unity (formerly the Foreign Language Information Service) features articles and stories by writers from many different groups, designed to make all Americans better acquainted, despite differences of background, race arid religion, with the almost infinite variety of their fellow Americans.

Lola Kinél tells the story of Jozefa Kudlicka, beloved of Polish-Americans. The boyhood of William Saroyan, in the Armenian-American colonies of California, is described by John Fante, a new writer of Italian ancestry. Younghill Kang, born in Korea, tells of the influences that gradually made him into an “Oriental Yankee.” Mary Barnsley’s “Life With Father-in-Law” is a record of adjustment and understanding between an immigrant Italian and his third-generation American daughter-in-law. P. B. Stoyan recounts the story of Mathias Gubec, a Croatian hero, and finds inspiration in it for his transplanted countrymen. “Bohemian Echoes,” “Two New Englanders,” “The Chinese States of America,” “Citizen Einstein,” “Lil* Yokohama” and “A Man Must Have a Country” are titles of other articles.

A frank discussion of racial prejudice is contained in an article by Dr. Henry A. Davidson, who finds most prejudices based on illusion but productive, unless they are checked, of an emotional civil war which can greatly hamper the creative energies of the country. “We all came from somewhere,” he concludes, “And if we let the gears of our diverse cultures mesh together, we shall also be going somewhere, as a country and a culture.” Marian Schibsby analyzes the new Nationality Code, recently adopted by Congress, which goes into effect January 12, 1941.

Significant editorials from the foreign language press, notes on the work of a wide variety of organizations, reviews of interesting books, all find their place in the 100 and more pages of this attractive new magazine, which is edited by Louis

Adamic, himself, a foreignborn American.

Common Ground, according to its editors, desires not only readers, but significant material. In a recent statement, its editors declared: “We want explorations in self-criticism on the part of different national, racial, and religious groups; personal analyses of what it means to be a Catholic, a Swede, an Armenian, a Jew, etc. in America now; stories of places founded or settled by national or religious groups. The hope and adventure and color inherent in Plymouth Rock have been repeated in settlement after settlement across this great continent. These stories lie buried in old newspaper files, in the archives of local historical societies, in the memories of the few remaining old settlers. They need to be re-evoked, repainted and hung in our minds beside the great initial pictures in the founding of the country.”

Subscription to Common Ground is $2 a year; single copies 50 cents. Subscriptions or material can be addressed to: Common Ground, 222 Fourth Avenue, New York City.--------------o-------------FOR COMFORT

The following precepts for those who wish to cultivate calmness and selfpossession, to live longer and enjoy life more fully, were recently published in the masonic News of Montreal, Canada:

Learn to like what doesn’t cost much.

Learn to like reading, conversation, music.

Learn to like plain food, plain service, plain cooking.

Learn to like fields, trees, woods, brooks, fishing, rowing, hiking.

Learn to like life for its own sake.

Learn to like people, even though some of them may be as different from you as a Chinese.

Learn to like to work and enjoy the satisfaction of doing your job as well as it can be done.

Learn to like the song ot the birds, the companionship of dogs, and laughter and gaiety of children.

Learn to like gardening, carpentering, puttering around the house, the lawn and the automobile.

Learn to like the sunrise and sunset, the beating of the rain on roof and windows, and the gentle fall of snow on a winter day.

Learn to keep your wants simple. Refuse to be owned and anchored by things and the opinions of others.

700 YEARS IN WATER DAGGER SHOWS NO RUST

A dagger which had been buried in the mud of the Danube ever since it was dropped overboard by a knight going to or returning from the crusades possibly 700 years ago, was found to have been of such marvelous steel that it does not show one spot of rust.

The handle bears the characteristic crucifix engraved on all such weapons of the crusading knights. It has been presented to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.

TEAMWORK NEEDED

There has been considerable press comment of late concerning differences between the Dies Committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to some observers, men associated with the Dies Committee have prematurely publicized findings concerning fifth columnists and saboteurs, and thus have seriously hampered secret activities of the FBI.

It would certainly seem reasonable to expect a legislative committee investigating subversive activities to cooperate with an established branch of government armed with police authority. The fine work of the FBI in fighting criminality in the past is well known. The Dies Committee has done important work in unearthing those who would undermine this country and its government.

One of the tragedies of the present controversy is that, long enough continued, it could lessen the confidence of the public in both groups, and thus actually aid those subversive elements which seek a fertile field in which to operate. That must be prevented.

As a high official has said of FBI work, “The enemy does not know our actions and cannot anticipate a time when he might plan his devious task with a minimum chance of danger. The effectiveness of our activities would be hindered unless our work were conducted - with the utmost secrecy.” No one can deny that. Both the Dies Committee and the FBI should so correlate their functions as to enable each to produce maximum results— with neither treading on the toes of the other. Above all, there should be no competitive basis between these two agencies.

CREATING ESTATES

“Yesterday life insurance was protection, and its motive fear; today insurance is investment, and its motive the creation of an estate,” says an authority.

That indicates the remarkable change that has taken place in life insurance in late years. It used to be that the great majority of life insurance payments went to beneficiaries of the dead. Now well over half of those payments go to living policyholders.

One big reason for this change has been the progressiveness of the industry in framing policies which can meet more and more needs. There are many forms of contracts, and it’s an unusual man who can’t find one which suits him. Protecting dependents is just one of life insurance’s jobs today.--------------O-------------THE LEGEND OF “THE BRIDGE OF GOD”

The Mohegans called it the Bridge of God, for, as the legend goes, they were pursued by a hostile tribe, and on reaching the gulf found themselves on the edge of a precipice that was too steep at the point to descend. Behind them was a foe; before them, the chasm. At the suggestion of one of their medicinemen they joined in a prayer to the Great Spirit for deliverance, and then they looked about them, there stood the bridge which spans Clear Creek, Va.

It is two hundred and

fifteen feet above the water, and is a solid mass of rock forty feet thick, one hundred feet wide, and ninety feet in span. Thomas Jefferson owned it; George Washington scaled its side and carved his name on the rock a foot higher than any one else.

Then one day a youth came who wanted to cut his name above Washington’s, and found, to his dismay, when half-way up, that he must keep on, for he had left no resting-places for his feet at safe and reachable distances. Up and up he climbed, cutting handhold and foothold in the limestone until he reached the top, in a fainting state, his knife-blade worn to a stump.--------------O-------------**... There is all the more reason ... for the surviving free peoples to keep their eyes open when new assurances come from Berlin, Rome or Tokyo. Whoever imagines that Hitler’s ‘new order’ offers any basis for peace is shutting his eyes as disastrously as the Poles and Norwegians, the Dutch and Belgians, the French and British who once trusted in his promises... No amount of planes and guns and tanks will defend us unless awareness goes constantly with them.”—The New York Times.--------------O-------------Curved to fit the wrist, a miniature camera invented by a resident of Watertown, N. Y.,is marked with numerals and hands to make it resemble a watch.