Verhovayak Lapja, 1941. január-június (24. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1941-04-10 / 15. szám

all of us. In this speech he asked us not to forget the country of our birth and the mother tongue so dear to us.

“I do not doubt,” said Dr. Homan, "that those of our Hungarian blood living in foreign parts fully appreciate the fact that they belong together. We know that the American Hungarian press and especially the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association do everything to keep Hungafian consciousness alive, to nurture the Hungarian tongue and nationality in our brethren torn from us, and to acquaint them with Hungarian culture. For this we ask of the valiant members of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association as well as our brethren living in foreign lands and over the seas.. .to serve hereafter with the same fidelity manifested heretofore, with Hungarian honor and work. Let them be most faithful to their second homeland which gives them their daily bread, but let them not forget their first homeland now nor in the future, nor the Hungarian brethren living inside the close Trianon borders and beyond them . ..”

Since two years ago many things have happened, but the voiced word has always reached us when the honor of our Nationality was concerned, the land of our birth or the dear mother tongue. We have remained the "cock of the walk” and wish to remain so now also, when the sad way of the times has appreciably become difficult for our Nationality, and no less a factor is concerned than that she will lose her most precious treasure: her liberty and independence!

In the witches’ labyrinth of politics, those who to the shame of the ivorld permitted our Nationality to be swept into the Nazi mire of shame, did not find the way out. The responsibility for this is due the ringleaders— burdens them. We feel this over here and do not pass judgment with even one solitary word on our Nationality, but break a rod over the heads of those who lost their faculty of judgment just when there was the greatest need for it, and proved to be without backbone just when they should have stood their ground with adament firmness.

We see clearly what happened on November 20, 1940 in Vienna in that Belvedere Palace of mournful memory. No profuse notice was necessary. Sorrow settled in our hearts. We remembered every shame of the imperialist epoch. Let us not mince words: THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT SOLD OUT OUR NATIONALITY. Dr. Bálint Homan enjoined upon us so nicely not ever to forget our land of birth or our Hungarian brethren living in the close Trianon borders. Nor did we forget!

The Hungarian nation was never a craven nation, cowering into a corner, if the rights of men and the progress of culture demanded of her that she defy the enemies of progress.

We Hungarians who immigrated to America can not shut our eyes now either, when the Axis powers in their efforts utilize and wage the most sewage methods of destruction against the rights of man, found in the democracies.

This great-hearted country, the gates of which opened to us immigrant Hungarians arriving with empty knapsacks, is the last citadel and fortress of democracy in the whole wide world.

The President of this our new country, Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he called the attention of the people of The United States to the efforts of the Axis powers, at the same time spoke indirectly to us, too, and he does not expect more from us than from any other honorable citizens of this country, which is nothing less than that we step forward to the defense of that democracy according to our ability, the goodness of which we have felt since we stepped over here, and through which we are the sharers of all those liberal rights permitted to us by the democratic idea which

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shares with us equally a livelihood, an prosperity.

The American-Hungarian Federation, the supporting members of which are the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, the American-Hungarian Reformed Federation and the Bridgeport Society, as well as similar societies, parishes and the Hungarian press, did not hesitate to act after the proclamation of the President, and the Managing Committee of the Federation assembling in Washington tendered the head of this country in writing the declaration in ivliich is expressed the fact that we cere aware of the fettered situation hindering our brethren living in the Old Country from expressing the truth, encircling their actions with a forest of bayonets. In our declaration we expressed, that we deplore the action of the HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT IN THAT IT HAS HUMBLY BOWED BEFORE THE MIGHT OF THE AXIS POWERS and stood on their side, who, according to our honest convictions, are striving for the destruction of the liberal rights of man.

We Hungarians living here and concentrated in the American-Hungarian Federation made a vow that we would remain true to the democratic principles to our deaths, and everything we have we offer for the consummation and accomplishment of the plans of our sublime-souled President!

It is my holy conviction that precisely with this did we perform a great service for our Hungarian brethren living inside the close Trianon borders, as well as those outside of it, and our faith is strengthened now by our branches also, from among which, exactly the largest one in the country, namely Branch 36 of Detroit, Michigan, a few days ago we received a resolution which was formulated at the beginning of the year and which reads as follows:

"Branch 36 of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, located in Detroit, Michigan, at their regular meeting held on the 5th of January, unanimously resolved to address a statement to the Supreme President of the Association and the Board of Directors, for the purpose of requesting them to take steps without delay towards bringing to the attention of the Government of The United States and through the press to the attention of the American public also, whereby we the American-Hungarian members in the bosom of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, not agreeing with the policies of the Hungarian Government, wish to express complete fidelity and cooperation with the politics of the President of our adopted Country, The United States, relative to the foreign affairs problem. At the request of the meeting of Branch 36 of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association, held on January 5, 1941, Julius Macker, President, Stephen Lukacs, Secretary.”

Lo, even this resolution proves that we acted correctly, and we did everything which we could for our Hungarian brethren.

—JOSEPH DAR AGO.

COMES EASTER!

(March 21, 1940 Issue of Verhovayak Lapja, Page 1)

When I write these lines, Lent is still in its most severe phase. On the tables of those of similar faith with myself, namely Roman Catholics, is steaming the Lenten soup, and on their plates creaks the raw sauerkraut ringed around with onion slices ...

Let us suppose that it would not be necessary to display our faith with such leannesses, since time eased the binding command of Lent, and owr American situation is such too that we need not, fear for the honor of Easter in event that the ham hanging in the

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pantry arrived at its destination sooner than when the “Alleluia,” heralding the beginning of the holiday, sounded! Still we wish ourselves into this leaner phase of nourishment, since custom compells us as well as the soul.

To us comprising the masses, the sole assurance hidden in the mysteries of Easter are especially awaited, since it encourages us with resurrection, us to whom life is but a drawn-out death from the tatters of the swadling clothes to the covering with the decayed boards of the coffin ...

What is it that is ours? ...

Ours is the desperate lesson of the teaching, the only undeniable justice—that we shall die!

Would we topple with a sound mind into the yoke which we must draw, if the conviction did not ripen in us that after this present life will come a happier, better life in which the most unfortunate, the ones suffering the most here, will receive there the majestic pecce, surpassing even the most daring imagination? ... I say no! In most of us there would not be the necessary strength to traverse that road, which, beginning with our birth, winds to the grave, if we did not have faith in a resurrection and in the strong conviction that the sufferings of Christ and his victory over everlasting death redeemed us from that which causes the greatest fear in our souls... the thought of complete annihilation.

I know and together with me many know the heartening thoughts in the theory of materialism and strength. What could I bring up to oppose this—that the generated strength is again in turn drawn to the ivorld globe, which is the same as the considerable matter comprised of infinitesimal molecules. I still maintain in view of this that this theory does not lead to the Alleluia singing resurrection, which without any reasoning the fated man of the Christian World finds more satisfactory.

We have faith, and faith demands sacrifices at all times. It is for this that even when we have nothing to fear from the pressure of'■ Archimedes we still make sacrifices with fasting, to our faith in resurrection.

The thought of the future, promising resurrection, hects my brain ... I feel also that I should pray to the hearts and souls with touching pleas, strength to which could be given by those who in life and in its fate are of my class: whose name is "WORK”!, and the muscles of whose arm are their sole heritage. But beside the harnessed natural power, these also shrivel up to nothing.

It would be my plea that they all would feel and desire with me that Easter should bring a true resurrection here on earth, and there be no everlasting fast made of the lives of peoples! After the length of the fast, Easter tnust come, because it is written that “there were seven lean years and seven fet years.”

I know that my voice is weak and can not reach the ears of those who are not close to me, therefore, I raise my voice only to those who understand me through the ties of blood and tongue.

I ask those who are called upon to keep the faith among us that on the dawn of Easter they do not hide it from before their eyes, with the tenderly woven trunk-hose of the prince, and that they do not dispel the divine mystery of the Resurrection with the glorification of the frailties of Francis Joseph.

We Verhovays are part of those fifty million "subjects” made happy, who took the vagabond’s staff into our hands as a result of the Habsburg Dynasty’s “sublime” and "glorified” rule.

Do not, because it is an attack against the honor of the American, but especially the faith of the Verhovay Hungarians, tempt it at the coming of Easter! Since we live in the faith of our fathers and, being honorable

April 10, 1941

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