Anton/Antal "Toncsi" Székács

Székács Antal*, kereskedő, felsőházi tag,

szül. Budapesten 1863. Tanulmányai elvégeztével belépett apja cégébe, a Schwarc-fóle üvegnagykereskedésbe, melynek jelenleg főnöke. 1916,a Kereskedelmi és Iparkamara alelnökévé választották.A kurzus alatt kibuktatták, 1924 óta ismét kamarai alelnök. Mint a magyar kereskedelem egyik kiválóságát 1927. felsőházi taggá választották.

Translation:

SZÈKÀCS Antal, dealer/trader, member of the Upper House of the Parliament; born in Budapest 1863. After completing his education he entered the firm of his father, the large glassware trading company “Schwarc”, of which he is presently the director. In 1916 he was elected as the vice-president of the Chamber of Trades and Industry. Between two elections, he has lost his mandate. But since 1924, he is vice-president of the Chamber again. As one of the outstanding personalities of the Hungarian trade, in 1927, he was elected as a Member of the Upper House.

Translation of 1935 Almanac Bio

SZÉKÀCS Antal (Deputy of the Chamber for Trade and Industry of Budapest)

He was born in 1863 in Budapest. He is a Roman Catholic, advisor of the Kingdom (Court) and an en gross trader (wholesaler). After finalizing his high school, he has studied at the Academy of Trade. He has made extended learning pathways, and has stayed, often several times, in most European countries. His broad professional knowledge was often used by several Governments. During WW I, as a delegate of the Government, he has spent a longer time period in Belgium that was occupied at that time. In the Hungarian industry, he earned merits/recognition by introducing two, up to then neglected methods: the mechanical production of glass bottles and the fabrication of car (or coach) bodies/frames. He is a member of the Chamber for Trade and Industry of Budapest since more than a quarter century. He was the first person who has opposed the city works politics of the Capital. During WW I he became the leader of the Chambers subgroup, dealing with ensuring food supply to the population and with social-politics. He has also achieved to activate a large part of the workers against the exaggerations of the (Government’s) bound/planned production directives. After the war, when HEINRICH Ferenc – the vice-president of the Camber’s group of commerce – became elected as a Minister of the Hungarian Government, he followed as successor. But this mandate has lasted only a short time, because the re-organized Chamber, in 1920, strongly influenced by the prevailing political streams of the time has elected somebody else as the Chamber’s vice-president. Then he kept more distance to this lobbying organization, until, in 1925, after an unanimous voting for his person, he took again the chair of the Chamber’s vice-president leading the group of commerce. On his initiative the National Creditors’ Protection Organization was founded, he has also created the institution/profession of the sworn-in controllers and he was a strong promoter of the Hungarian Economics Research Institute. Beside numerous articles, appearing in the daily press as well as in professional journals, he has also authored several studies, and he has also written a book on the reforms/developments of the research in trade and commerce. He is the president of the National Creditors’ Protection Organisation.