You will say to the Hungarian Government that such a report has reached
us, and inquire whether such a flag, so inscribed, has in fact been sent
to go on a tour through this country.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Ambrose to
Mr. Hay.
New
York, August 26,
1902.
Dear Sir: A delegation of Magyars from
Hungary is on its way to the United States with the Hungarian
national banner to be presented to the Hungarians living in the
United States. The banner is the gift of the “Hungarian National
League,” and it was sent here for the purpose, as the official and
unofficial press of Hungary expresses it, “to preserve Magyars
living in foreign lands for their native country.” Inscribed on it
are the words “Be dauntlessly loyal to your fatherland, oh, Magyars”
To defray the expenses connected with the making of the flag, the
minister president of Hungary, Kalman Széll, contributed $500. A
Government official, a gentleman by the name of Zseny, heads the
delegation to the United States, and in New York City another
official of the Austro-Hungarian Government, namely, the
consul-general, Dessewffy, joined with his entire staff the
reception committee which is to receive the flag with appropriate
honors. A remarkable feature of this is that the flag is not
intended for any one in particular, but is presented to all the
Hungarians living in the United States, whether naturalized citizens
or not. To better accomplish the object for which the flag is being
sent here, namely, “to preserve the Magyars living in foreign
lands,” and “to foster in them a love for their fatherland,” the
flag is to travel from one Hungarian colony to another to give all
of them an opportunity to touch its sacred folds. “The Hungarians
living in the vicinity of New York,” says the Hungarian newspaper,
Magyar Hirmondo, under date of August 14, instant, “will participate
in this holy effort with flaming patriotism, unselfish enthusiasm,
and this celebrated day [meaning the day of the arrival of the
banner in New York City] of the Hungarians of America will be worthy
of their name and patriotism.”
Sir, I myself am a native of Hungary, and I view this adulation of
the Hungarian national colors in the United States with a mixed
feeling of humiliation and shame. Like all other immigrants from the
Old World, the Hungarians came to the United States to stay and to
found homes for themselves and children. And if they came here to
stay permanently and to cast their fortunes with the rest of the
people of the country, what feeling other than that of sentiment can
they have for their fatherland after their expatriation? The
amalgamation of the Hungarian immigrants living in the industrial
centers of the East is slow enough as it is, and now comes this
disturbing element to retard it. Sir, I happen to be the president
of the National Slavonic Society of the United States of America.
This society has a membership of over 13,000, all of whom, with very
few exceptions, are natives of Hungary. A clause in the by-laws, and
one on which we lay much stress, is “That all members should become
citizens as soon as entitled thereto.” How can we hope to accomplish
much in this direction, and make good American citizens out of my
countrymen, if the Hungarian National League, and through it the
Hungarian Government, is allowed to meddle with us? Hungarians can
not pay homage to two flags—to their own and that of their adopted
country—and be loyal to both.
I protest against this insult to my American citizenship. The
American flag is good enough for me and it should be good enough for
everybody. Under it we have found material prosperity, freedom, and
equality. I am a Hungarian Slovak, and there are some 300,000 of my
countrymen in the United States. Most of them work in mines and
factories in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut,
and New York, and many other States, and they earn wages that they
never could have made under that Hungarian flag. Hungary boasts of
free press and free speech, and yet Slovak journalists are immured
in jails every now and then for defending their
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people against Government oppression.
Was ever a Slovak newspaper writer sent to prison in the United
States for similar reasons? Hungary points with pride to her
Parliament in Budapest, and yet the Government has seen fit to close
the door of that Parliament to 300,000 of Slovaks till 1902 by
manipulations that every lover of freedom would be bound to condemn.
Slovaks may speak their mother tongue in their adopted country
without restraint and hindrance. They may build churches here, found
schools, organize political, literary, and benevolent societies, and
provide reading printed in the mother tongue for their enlightenment
and education. Most of these things they may not do in their old
home, under the very flag which they now send us to revere.
Once more I enter my protest on behalf of my fellow-countrymen
against paying homage to this foreign nag. It is un-American. It is
disloyal.
I am, etc.,
