Nase Novine, September 30, 1981

              с ф. U
,- -л ,_
'- -С
ч , .I- -
1-2- NASE NOVINE, July 2, 1981
PROF. DR VLADISLAV A. TOMOVlC DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY, BROCK UNIVERSITY,
AND PROF. NICHOLAS KOSANOVICH TESLA MEMORIAL SOCIETY
(Continued from last edition)
The scene was like this: In this
wooded area there was this old
historic farmhouse on one side and
a little road or pathway in between;
as I recall there was a two car
garage. I believe that only one car
was in there. The facts are a little
hazy but I will get them up-to-da- te
and cleared up. as best as pos-sible.
Remember, this was 30 years
ago, so don't hold me to a
photographic memory. I was
definitely on the scene. The F.B.I,
was there and they had gone
through all of the searching and
checking already. Rogel was crying
and was walking around the garage
which had been totally burned to
the ground. Around the periphery
of the garage were bits of white
paper that were charred at the
edges. John was trying to salvage
the papers if at all possible. He
was hoping to look at some
significant pieces of writing that
Adamich would have typed on
them. Adamic files were all up
above the garage; they were all
lined up. in file cases around the
whole wall-book- s, pamphlets and
newpaper clipping and some of
his own rough drafts. His stutio or
workshop was above the garage
itself. The area the fire had started
was oil soaked rags were all over
the area. They were ignited and
burned out and charred the whole
area. There were some embers still
burning red. The foundation of. the
garage was burned. The house
whose front entrance leads into the
little road which leads into the
garage across the road. The house
was built in reverse on a steep
slope, so that the kitchen was at
the rear end of the house. It was
two stories high. Beneath the
kitchen was a basement of sorts
and the oil tank that was used to
heat the house was located there.
Louis Adamid body was found
immediately as you enter the
house directly above, upstairs.
This was the front of the home.
Oiled soaked rags were located all
around the house. Well, it took a
lot of rags; the kind that mechanics
use to clean grease from their
hands. Most of these rags were
intact, except in the rear, the
double storey part which was the
kitchen. These were burned.
Obviously, the garage was set on
fire way in advance of the house. It
started in the rear of the house, but
the firemen were able to put that
fire out. Louis Adamic was lifeless
by the time I arrived, and taken
away. I saw the photographs that
the F.B.I, took at that time.
As I reel I, he was on the edge, the
long side edge of the bed where
one takes off his shoes and puts on
his slippers. It seemed like he had
been there and he fell to one side,
as I recall, his right side. He was
lying on the bed with his feet on
~ the floor. Nex to him was a rifle. It
was a single shot rifle, if my
memory serves me right. It was a
22 caliber rifle that is used in
hunting rabbits. I know, because I
have experience with firearms
shooting deer, etc. in the Min-nesota
forests. I know my firearms ~ very well, Remington repeaters and
others. He had a hole in his
head-fro- m the pictures. We didn't
get an autopsy report at the time.
The immediate reaction was that
he commited suicide. The
suspicious thing to me was that he
was wearing khaki trousers and no
oil spots on them at all. One would
be bound to get a smidge if one
was handling so much oil soaked
rags. He wore tennis shoes and
there was no oil spots on them
I either. You know how oil of any
kind shows up; most of my
birthday neckties were smudged
with oil and it showed up im-mediately.
There was nothing on
his hands either.
Later, in trying to reconstruct and
rethink the sequence of events, he
could have had time to change his
original clothes and lay them
where the clothes could burn down
with the garage and put on clean
clothes and wash his hands and
still kill himself later.
So, for the first two or three years
or so, I strongly suspected murder
because of the violent nature of
characters and people that were
going around-simila- r to the ter-rorists
of today. These terrorists of
today are much more sophisticated
than thirty years ago. An Iranian
ex-minis- ter was shot by a terrorist
who was dressed in an American
postal workers uniform. This is
how they operate doday. This man
was able to escape and leave the
country, go through Immigration
without being apprehended. So, he
must have had help from some-body.
In Louis Adamic case, it was much
more crude, but very violent. Those
were the times of what is known as
the McCarthy period. They were
unsettled times with very violent
elements put into play.
I will name some of them,
particularly the Ustashi from
Croatia. They weren't bashful or
civilized at all. They were terrorists
of the worst kind and still are. They
have subsided somewhat, but still
we read of highjacking planes by
them, setting bombs at airport
lockers, etc. Then, there were the
Chetniks and the Belogradists —
the former are Serbs and the latter
are Slovenes. Later, I had began to
feel, it could have been one or the
other-si- x of one or six of the other.
It could have been suicide or it
could have been a political crime.
The more time that passes, it
seems to me that the poor man was
much more depressed than we
realized. There weren't enough
people around him who unders-tood
the real basis of his depres-sion.
We see students in the
Universities, who are successful
commit suicide. They don't even
show any signs of doing that at the
time.
Sometimes people commit other
acts of terrorism and they all say,
"Why he was such a peaceful boy
or man."
The fact that Adamic was an
intelligent man which he certainly
was; had a great sensitivity and
dedication to mankind. I think that
within his being there was a
struggle which had demoralized to
the point of esasperation. He saw
so much terror and destruction
around the world and in America.
That is why, in my judgement,
Adamic was so demoralized that he
had given up hoe for the future
course of man.
We needed Louis Adamic after
World War II when we were putting
the pieces together in this world.
We needed this mind and spirit
before we got in Korea and before
we got Inot Vietnam. He wanted to
build better relations with Eastern
and Southeastern Europe.
Especially now, he could have
been a good beacon to give his
thinking on what the Polish coal-mine- rs
are trying to do. He would
offer such an understanding to
mitigate the differences between
nations. There is no peace without
understanding. Adamic's Nation of
Nations philosophy could have
been most useful in the world. He
saw it in America, almost of a
quasi micro-cos- m form. He saw
this as other nations contributing
to make our nation great through
the migration of those peoples.
It is our nation that can reverse or
reciprocate and give a better
standard of living, a better sense of
ideas, a sense of freedom and
human dignity to other countries.
Also, later we were to find out that
the Third World countries, which
Tito organized into a powerful
political independent force, suffer
from the basic needs of life.
Hunger is common. We could help
raise their living standards and
help to reduce poverty, disease,
illiteracy and ignorance.
This brought about ignorance,
superstition and prejudice which
cause a lot of trouble today.
Louis Adamic could have played
an important role in bridge the
communication gap of the major
powers and the so-call- ed non--align- ed
third world countries to
alleviate the antagonisms,
hardships and hatred that we see
today.
DR. TOMOVlC:
This brings us to your very long,
rich and positively productive
political career. I know that the
people of Minesota and of all
ethnic and religious backgrounds
appreciated your almost three
decades of service to them and to
your country. I wonder if it is
appropriate to ask you what is the
most single event during these
years of your political in Washing-ton
would you single out, as well
as, what do you remember best
from your International political
and social contacts?
JOHN A.BLATNIK:
Doctor, you have asked me two
questions and the first one is a
difficult one. There is no single
event but a whole series of
experiences from a background of
the foreigners of these different
nationalities that make up northern
Minnesota. These were the Finns,
the Swedes, the Norwegians, the
various ethnics of Yugoslavia, the
Italians and some of the Irish. We
used to tease the Irish because we
liked them. A common form of
teasing was: if there were five jobs
available, the Irish would get three
out of five. One of the ethnic slurs
that I didn't appreciate in those
early days as a boy. We were called
"Hunky".
Now I realize the importance of the
ethic of work, the family love and
respect, the need for an education
and a sense of obligation to duty. It
fs no small wonder why people of
all of these nationalities volunte-ered
for the armed forces and for
combat duty during WW II.
The person that seems to have
impressed and influenced me more
than any other is Louis Adamid.
There were many others who come
to my mind, but, the search for my
roots and my fokls origins bring
me to Adamic and his Two Way
Passage. My two way passage was
through the Armed Forces as a
volunteer. This wartime experience
left a deep imprint on me of the
character, resiliency and struggle
for a better was of life to influence
my life style, political orientation
and public acitivity for the 30 years
that I had served my district as a
Minesota congressman. [
I emulated Adamic in patriotism.
He was a volunteer in World War I.
He inspired me very much. He had
insight and understanding which
later proved to be correct and true.
The other man that I really came to
admire but it took some time. He
was Harry Truman. He was such a
self confident man. I never- - will
forget him.
I had barely come to Washington
from World War II. It was from a
war-tor- n bleeding Yugoslavia.
Europe was devastated and ap-parently
much od the Soviet Union
and Japan. Truman was denigrated
by the power brokers as a "bankrup
haberdasher, a stooge of the
Pendergast machine. This plain
speaking simple man had no
degrees from the large universities.
He didn't go to an Eastern Estab-lishment
school. He was rdidiculed
by the press.
Others who left an imprint on me
were some teachers and educators
back home. People like J. P.
Vaoughan and E.R. Stephenson.
They were superindents of scholls.
It saddened me and made me very
angry, because I saw what they
were trying to do to Truman. This
poor honest guy who didn't know
what was going on in the world as
a Vice-Preside- nt under Roosevelt.
He didn't even know of the exis-tence
of the Manhattan Project or
the atom bomb. Truman found out
the day he was sworn in as
President after the tragic death of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
Hot Springs, Arkansas.
But, getting back to this man
Truman. He had patience and vever
lost it. He lost hist patience only
once, that is when a music critic
subliminally critisised Margaret
Truman's singing in a political
sense. Truman became very irate
and wrote a letter to his secretary
and used the plain language of
every day to tell him what he
thought of him. He called him a
S.O.B. for doing that to his
daughter. Later on, we found out
that is how he felt about his
country. He knew American history
better than most Americans
realized. This so-call- ed "bankrupt
haberdasher" and "stooge of
Pendergast" gegan to grow and
influence people with his wisdom,
not only in the U.S., but also
throughout the world. It would be
pure guessing to define the post--wa- r
era and a single outstanding
person who had lived and influenc-ed
the course of events.
One other man, who was a close
personal friend of mine from the
University of Minnesota was
Hubert Humphrey. We grew up
together in politics. He almost
became President of the U.S. I
worked with him from about 1940's
to 1978, that's 38 years which is a
long time.
Then there is Tito. I didn't get to
know him personally until after the
war. I had met and known most of
his top leaders from Kardelj and
Krajger. Then, I had the experience
of meeting and fighting side by
side with Peko Dap6evi6, Comma-nder-
in-Chief, who led the rag-ged
Partisans all the way from
Belgrade right into Trieste. I
walked in Trieste with him, fought
all the way with him from building
to building, house to house
fighting all the way.
To make a long story short, as
extremely important Trieste was to
Tito, that he told me about it in
1949 and alwasy held to this
policy, "Never, as long as I am the
head od State and leader of the
Yugoslav people, will I permit, and
the people themselves would not
want to do this is impose our will
upon our neighbours in spite of the
fact that Yugoslavia was encircled
i by many unfriendly neighbors.
This was when Stalin had tried to
intimidate and bring Yugoslavia
under his hegemony and beome
his vassal. This was a courageous
man, who knew the strength of the
Red Army and widespread de-struction
and disease in his own
country, stood up to Stalin.
The peoples of the Balkan pe-ninsula
have fought fratricidal
wars, wars of attrition and were
exploited by the major powers in
dividing them into hostile camps.
There were the uprisings of the
Serbs, Slovenes, Macedonians,
Croats against the Turks, Austi-an- s
and the Germans for hundreds
of years. Marshall Tito organized
these people into a cohesive force
and successfully the Fascist
oppressors. He built it into a
modern country. The word 'balk-aniz- e'
lost its etymological
meaning.
Tito initiated the organization of
the undeveloped countries known
as the "Third World" and "Non--aligne- d
Nations" into an influenc-ia- l
world political force. He has to
be one of the most memorable
people who played an important
role in influencing the course of
history and my philosophy.
Like Truman, he was called a
stooge of Stalin and a puppet
which he never was. His first
obligation was to his people, the'
Yugoslav people. Tito did this with
no outside help like the Polish
coalminers. He stood up to Stalin
and who perhaps was next to Attila
the Hun, one of the meanest and
cruelest man in history. Tito
brought his country to a position of
world leadership and world res-pect.
When I saw the outpouring of
world leaders at his funeral, the
biggest funeral of a statesman in
the twentieth century, of which I
had the privilege to be part of the
United States delegation to attend.
It reminded me that Tito was like
Truman for that part of the world.
There were so many of the heads of
government present at the funeral.
NICHOLAS KOSANOVICH:
would like to thank you very
much for your commentary of
! almost a half centruy of experience
on the world scene which was
focussed especially in America and
in Yugoslavia, of which you,
Vladislav Tomovid and I are
members and officers. I am
convinced that ethnicity, especial-ly
Yugoslav ethnicity is the bridge
that brought us together and men
od similar desires.
These words are of historic
significance, not only to me, but
for posterity.
VLADISLAV TOMOVlC
Thank you very much Mr. Blatnik,
this was one of the greatest
experiences for me. I am not a
professional interviewer, but, I
would like to record oral history of
our people who have made it in the
professions and life endeavours.
Thank you very much and I wish
you all the best of luck and good
health for many years to come. I
am sure all Yugoslavs and not only
Slovenians are proud of you.
rra K. JCX ЖД C 1 fl fl fl . ,XjB
шИШшши!
- vn"rs-:- ;