Coalmines, care and Chorin-cheque

One of the most important investments the Chorins made was the Salgótarján Quarries and the related enterprises. What the Deutschs meant to Hatvan or the Weiss family to Csepel was the Chorins to Salgótarján and the surrounding area. The two Chorins brought jobs, money and development to the region.  
Chorin Sr. increased production volume and the number of workers, which rose from 1,300 to 13,500, tenfold between 1891 and 1910. Ferenc Jr., had cement, brick and glass factories, metal works and power plants built. By 1920 the number of villages and towns that purchased electricity from the company had reached 139.
The company generously provided for the workers and the population of the area. 2944 residential apartments were built for some ten thousand workers. The company also managed 17 schools for 1,600 children. The first hospital of Salgótarján was built by the company in 1870. This medical center was gradually extended over time and two sub-hospitals and 14 outpatient centers were also built. These provided care for 1,901 patients in 1942. The Chorins built the Salgótarján high school in 1924 and later donated it to the town. In the town of Dorog, not only did they build tenements for the workers, but also donated to the construction of the Catholic parish church and the vicarage. The company covered the rent, heating and lighting costs of the priest’s house.
The Chorins contributed substantial parts of their fortune to causes they found important. They donated generously to the foundation of the famed literary periodical Nyugat. The younger of the Chorins financed a number of newspapers opposed to the extreme right ideologies gaining momentum in interwar Hungary. Charity, just like in other capitalist families of the time, was an important part of everyday life. The Chorins contributed to various different causes: alleviation of poverty, assistance to victims of floods and welfare of orphans.
The younger of the Chorins routinely helped writers, poets, and not only those close to him ideologically. Kálmán Sértő, a talented author who ended up on the extreme right also benefitted from the funds of the Jewish financier, just like others. As a contemporary wrote on Chorin in 1929: “Chorin, Chorin and again, Chorin, no matter what and unconditionally… everyone counts on and counts with him. He is a fact of life”. This did not change in his exile in the US. His most famed beneficiary was no other than Regent Miklós Horthy himself. The former ruler of Hungary would have found himself in serious financial trouble, had Chorin not sent him paychecks monthly to his exile in Portugal.