1903–1905 He was chairman and board member of several financial institutions (e.g., the Hungarian Industrial and Commercial Bank) and many industrial companies but resigned from all of his memberships before he was appointed as Prime minister. In this period of time, he managed to get the remains of prince Francis II Rákóczi repatriated from Turkey and interred in the St Elisabeth Cathedral of Kassa, today Košice. Target of Leftist and socialist circles On 19 April 1904, a nationwide strike of railroad workers broke out, which paralyzed the Hungarian economy. Tisza solved the crisis quickly but drastically: the organizers of the strike got arrested, and the participant railway workers got recruited into the Hungarian Honvéd army. Besides parliament introduced a Bill increasing the number of draftees and the police came down heavily on peasants for taking part in a Socialist gathering in Bihar, leaving 33 dead and several hundred wounded. Target of anti-Semite circles Tisza often used his influence in parliament to grant titles to wealthy Jewish families; especially for successful industrialists and bankers, of whose lives he thought had set a good example to the people worth following. Many of the young middle-class families were Jews or baptized Jews. Tisza often gathered influential men of Jewish extraction around himself as advisors. He even offered many positions in his cabinets to Jews. His first appointment was Samu Hazai as Minister of War. Two years later he picked János Teleszky as minister of finance. The third Jewish member of his cabinet was János Harkányi, minister of trade. Tisza appointed Samu Hazai as Minister of War during his second premiere. They all served for the duration of Tisza's seven years in office. The Liberal Party passed legislation for the Jewish emancipation in 1867 and appointed many Jewish origin MEPs to parliament (both to the upper and lower houses). In return, many Jews supported the party. Many districts of Budapest, where Jews made up half of the voters, reliably voted for the Liberal candidates. Similarly to the policy of his father, István Tisza allowed the unrestricted immigration of Jewish refugees from the Russian Empire, who fled from the Tzarist pogroms. His philosemitic political attitude made him a target of anti-Semite politicians and political circles. Target of radical nationalists At the beginning of the 20th century, only 54.5% (1910 census) of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary considered themselves to be Hungarians. The Tisza's