Verhovayak Lapja, 1944 (27. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1944 / Verhovay Journal
Page 2 Verhovay Journal October 12, 1944 British and so forth. Pegler blames the immigrants for the ills of this country, Coughlin the British and the Jews. But Hungarians who have suffered so much oppression, will always sympathize with the Jews who had suffered even more oppression. And, given opportunity, one like the other always will look first after his own interests and for that no one can be blamed. But the least blame should fall upon those who, even before they were born, have been condemned to make their living in the face of racial prejudice and unscrupulous baiting.-----------------V----------------' F 1/C FRANK HOLOZSI is a member of Branch 356, Detroit, Michigan. He joined the Navy in July, 1943, and was recently home on a 30-day furlough when he became engaged to Barbara Nyeste. Small Boy—What are you crying for? Companion—The doctor took one of my teeth out. Small Boy—Pooh! That’s nothing, my mother takes all hers out every night and she doesn’t cry. New Name! Joe—You know it’s a pleasure to ride around in those lazy cars they sold just before rationing went in. Bill—What do you mean “lazy cars”? Joe—You know, the shiftless kind! TO THE CONTRIBUTORS The English Section is published the SECOND and LAST Thursday of every month, and the Thursdays preceding them are the final dates. Contributions intended for the October 26th issue should be in before or on Oct. 19th. Contributions should be typewritten. Use one side of paper only, and double space. Since the Journal cannot be enlarged at present, the Board of Directors ordered that contributions be confined to TWO COLUMNS each, that is 1200 words, or 6000 letters. Address contributions to VERHOVAY JOURNAL, ENGLISH SECTION, 345 Fourth Ave., Pittsburgh 22, Pa. Truths Versus Half-Truths Beware of false prophets from Central Europe who pervert facts to their own secret ends By STEPHEN HUZIANYI From the Danubian Basin a secret weapon is being launched against Americans that may decide the war long after the weapons have been silenced and armies have ceased to deploy. This secret but by no means new device is PROPAGANDA and may well destroy again, as in 1919, the structure of peace in Central Europe by an arbitrary reshuffling of boundaries based on lies and falsification of history. The sly agents who direct Central European propaganda against us are here in our midst. They wear the disguise and protective coloring of allies and friends of the United States but machinate against the long-term welfare of Americans and the world at large. They spread propaganda for a new and powerful world state, _ a Slav empire, in a cunning and innocent manner by filling columns and pages of ostensibly disinterested and respectable magazines and periodicals with seemingly “impartial” and '‘analytical” essays and articles. I will use excerpts from these articles to show samples of the lies and distortions of the truth with which we are being bombarded. We hope that Americans will learn to recognize these hifalutin and documented “analyses,” “editorials,” “criticisms,” etc., no matter in which high-sounding magazine or periodical they find them, as just so much sophisticated baloney and plain hooey. POINT 1 — (Part 1) — INSTALLMENT II *'.. .Magyar nationalism awoke in the realm of the Habsburgs. So did Slovak nationalism in northern Hungary, encouraged by the literary activities of Stur and Húrban...” —Pan-Slav Propagandists This is one of the many misleading statements by Pan-Slav propagandists and is meant to be just that. Magyar “nationalism” certainly owed nothing to the Habsburgs and antedated the Habsburg by centuries. First, the centuries old conflict between the Magyars and the Habsburg degeneracy had its cause in the fact that Magyar nationalism was cohesive and its spirit imbedded in its people, as contrasted to the adhesive and easily assimilated Slav sections. Second, if for purposes of argument and persuasion you call the Slovak, Rumanian or Serbian phenomena “nationalism,” you may do so with virtual impunity. There are no established laws or penalties for the violation of semantic rules to deter you. But it is nearer the truth, much nearer, to call the Slovak, Rumanian and Serbian political renascences within Hungary as SECTIONALISM, exploited by the Habsburg powers to suppress Magyar aspirations for independence. Aside from these points, the Pan-Slav propagandists do not show us in the slightest degree how this so-called “nationalism” originated in each section within Hungary, and what part citizens of Hungary and the Magyars themselves took in encouraging Slovak, Rumanian and Serbian cultural activities. For each of these groups I will show how this sectionalism budded into “cultural aspirations” which later merged into what we today know as nationalism. To omit this information is to give only half the truth—which is just What the pro-Slav group does, thereby giving us a complete distortion of facts and keeping us purposely in the dark. SLOVAK SECTIONALISM The nationalistic urge swept Europe when Napoleon started expanding his frontiers. The German states, then not yet united, were led and influenced by literary men like Lessing, Herder, Schiller and Goethe. At the German university of Jena at that time were some Hungarian citizens of Slovak birth, preparing for the ministry, when this nationalistic fever spread on the continent. Two ambitious men, Kollar and Safarik, saw in German nationalism a similarly beneficial plan for the Slovaks of Upper Hungary, merging into a greater concept of pan-Slav nationalism. In 1837 Kollar expounded his views in a book in German “Ueber die literarische Wechselseitigkeit zwischen den verschiedenen Staemmen und Mundarten der Slavischen Nation” (On Literary Reciprocity Among the Various Branches and Idioms of the Slavic Nation). The propagandists carefully neglect mentioning this, as they do ajfeo the fact that the literary efforts of the Slovaks were subsidized by the Magyars. “A band of (Slovak) patriots with Fandli, Bajza, and Bernolak at their head took hold of the language that had been somnolent for eight hundred years, and began to ‘mould it to literary uses. Bernolak (born October 14, 1762) issued the first Slovak grammar and compendious Slovak dictionary. Benefactors came forward, chief among them being Cardinal Primate Alexander Rudnay, who generously aided the literature which was being ushered into life.” (THE SLOVAKS OF HUNGARY, by Thomas Capek, 1906, Member of the New York Bar.) Mr. Capek, a Slav, also writes: “Many books printed in the ‘bernolacina’ were issued at the expense of Alexander Rudnay, Cardinal Primate of Hungary, who is famous for his words! Slavus sum; et si i» cathedra Petri forem, Slavus ero! (I am a Slav; and also in St. Peter’s pulpit I will be a Slav!)” Slovak sectionalism later grew into nationalism through the various Slovak societies, as at the Catholic College at Nagyszombat where Bernolak headed the “Society for Slovak Literary Art,” with branches in Nyitra, Besztercebánya, Eger and Rozsnyo. The Protestant Slovaks formed their own “Institutum Linguae et Literaturae Slavicae.” And the Evangelical Lyceum at Selmecbánya, where the “Slovak Literary Society” was organized, es-John Bencze Anniversary Contest Winners Originally, the contest was to have fifteen winners. However, due to the fact that there were several ties and that the splitting of prizes would not have been entirely fair, the number of winners has been raised to twenty so that all those who are entitled to a prize on the basis of their production may receive one. (lAnong the winners there are several full time Branch Manager organizers. Those men have a quota to fill. They participated in the contest only with that amount of insurance written which is over and above their prescribed quota. They have written much more business than is shown in this report where only the amount exceeding their quota is shown. According to the conditions of the contest, each one thousand dollar insurance figures with one thousand points —six “A” or four “B” juvenile term policies also figure as a thousand points. The number of points shown on the schedule of winners is computed on this basis. The list of the winners of the John Bencze Anniversary Contest follows: 1. Ernest Kunstadt, 164, Chicago, III. _____ 17,750 points 2. John Zakopchan, 87, Passaic, N. J._____15,000 points 3. George Jávor, 17, Lorain, Ohio ________ 14,000 points 4. George Mészáros, 34, Pittsburgh, Pa. ____ 10,000 points 5. Nick Palla, 130, East Chicago, Ind._____ 9,000 points 6. Louis Gall, 482, Red Dragon, W. Va.___ 9,000 points 7. John Korosfoy, 369, Alliance, Ohio ___ 8,750 points 8. Albert B. Ari, 417, Trenton, N. J. _____ 8.250 points 9. Coloman Palangi, 83, New York, N. Y. __ 7,500 points 10. Frank Lengtyel, 220, Conneaut, Ohio____ 7,250 points 11. Stephen Szucs, 20, Fairport Harbor, O.__ 7,000 points 12. Elizabeth Chont, 511, Detroit, Mich.____ 6,250 points 13. Louis Balogh, 45, Cleveland, Ohio _____ 5,500 points 14. Ignatz Finkelstein, 89, Homestead, Pa.___ 5,500 points 15. Charles Young, 383, Buffalo, N. Y._____ 5,500 points 16. Nicholas Vago, 66, New Castle, Pa.____ 5,500 points 17. Stephen Lukacs, 36, Detroit, Mich. ____ 5,250 points 18. John Gyiraszin, 500, Detroit, Mich. _____ 5,000 points 19. Michael Puskas, 518, New Brunswick, N. J. 5,000 points 20. Valentine Csete, 120, Perth Amboy, N. J. 4,750 points We express our pride and our appreciation for the achievement of the contestants. We congratulate them and assure them of the lasting gratitude of the entire organization. * * * SPECIAL THANKS ARE EXPRESSED BY OUR SUPREME PRESIDENT, MR. JOHN BENCZE, to all those who participated in the Anniversary Contest launched in his honor. Deeply moved, he noted the great efforts made by the hundreds of contestants who have done their utmost to make this movement a success. To each and every Branch Manager who has sent in hut a single application he says “Thank you.” Mr. Bencze has many pleasant memories in connection with his fifteenth anniversary but not one of them surpasses the pleasure caused by the spirit of the Branch Managers and Convention Delegates as it found expression in their labors throughout the contest, and in its results. tablished a chair for Bohemian-Slovak language and literature. This was under the leadership of Ludevit Stur, whose followers are known as the “sturstina.” These were only a few of the leading Slovak societies which developed and prospered in Hungary but which, under the cloak of cultural activities, were forging the chains of pan-Slavism in Central Europe. So, with all this freedom that the Magyars permitted the Slovaks to exercise as citizens of Hungary, the special pan- Slav group, as party to a planned poltical program for the advancement of pan-Slavism, sings the same familiar laments contained in articles appearing in our American magazines alld periodicals of the last several decades. These writers, like the group now, distorted truth to suit their politics. The Slovaks had grievances, they said among other things, because they could not go to a railroad station in Hungary and ask for a ticket in Slovak. Would a Slovak from, let us say, Whiting, Indiana, think of going to the Union Station and in Slovak ask for a ticket to Pittsburgh? Chances are they’d say: “Talk English, brother; can’t understand you.” And would this same Slovak, who knows fair English but does not want to speak it, then run to London, wave his arms, beat his chest and wail piteously: “I am persecuted. The Americans are oppressors of my people. I cannot buy a railroad ticket at the depot if I speak Slovak.” Propagandists now talk the same lingo as those earlier writers did. As was the case no less in Hungary, if an American of Slovak parentage wishes to speak Slovak in his home, or to his kin, it is his undeniable privilege—but he certainly will endeavor to speak American when he is mingling with the American public! Installment III in next issue.
