Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

BARNA ÁBRAHÁM33 “We could all show some villages that became wealthy or even flourishing,thanks to the priest, the schoolteacher and some other leaders. In contrast, wecould name such villages that degenerated and got to the margins of the abyssmainly because of the faults of their leaders.” Romul Simu, Comuna “Viitorul:”Sfaturi ºi pilduiri pentru înaintarea unui sat prin sine însuºi (The commune“Viitorul” [Future]: Advice and examples for the advancement of a village byits own forces) (Sibiu, 1907), p. 1. The first step was to persuade the people toattend church; the religious education for children and the forming of a churchchoir were followed by the establishment of a school for adults, and only afterthe dissolution of the darkness in the peasants’ heads could the priest set to themodernization of the economy. The savings bank was the signpost of the bourgeoisway of living and the means of procuring modern machines, improvedgrafts, seeds and breeding animals: “Step by step we will urge everybody to usethe money rationally, not for hospitalities, funeral feasts, confectioned clothesand a lot of useless and often unnecessary things, but for things that make thefarmer’s wealth and improve him spiritually, too.” Simu, Comuna “Viitorul,” p.30.34 M. M. Jude and N. Cordoº, “Prima reuniune de agriculturã la românii transilvãneni”(The first agricultural reunion of the Translvanian Romanians), ActaMusei Napocensis 13 (1976), pp. 523-533.35 Earlier, he was the editor of Telegraful Român, afterwards he taught atRãºinari, and, eventually, he became the inspector of the “Transilvania” insuranceassociation and one of the founders of Albina, the most important Romanianbank in the province. He had a crucial influence upon the financial institutionof Rãºinari, which started immediately to stagnate after his departure,and finally went bankrupt in 1881. See Bujor Surdu, “Societatea de pãstrare ºiîmprumut din Rãºinari” (The savings and credit association of Rãºinari), ActaMusei Napocensis 3 (1966), pp. 317 and 322-323.36 Surdu, “Societatea de pãstrare,” pp. 327-32837 “A nation can become free and independent only to the extent it can manufactureand sell some products”, since “industry is the center, which, like the Sun,diffuses light and warmth upon all agricultural goods; no serious developmentis possible without it and the whole economic activity of a nation turns aroundit, like the planets turn around the Sun.” See Nicolae Cordoº, “Problemaindustrializãrii în paginile revistei ‘Economul’din Blaj (1873-1880)” (The problemof industrialization in the review “Economul” from Blaj, 1873-1880), ActaMusei Napocensis 13, p. 533.38 Cordoº, “Problema industrializãrii”, p. 534.39 “We will go to Romanian shops, we will give our crucers into our sons’ handsand from the profit no synagogue will be built, no enemies of the nation will befed, but such sons will be supported who have the nation and the church attheir heart, and, from the money received from the Romanian nation, a nationalwealth will emerge.” B...a, “Cei mulþi înainte!” (Go ahead, multitude!),Revista Orãºtiei, 28 October 1895, p. 2.40 Revista Economicã underlined not so much the aestethic, rather the financialaspect of the problem: “Romanian money moves to foreign pockets. But ifsome Romanian girls could be sent abroad with scholarships to learn the art ofmechanical weaving, it would be possible to found some factories of our