The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-07-07
WHAT THE FLAG MEANS.

AnS Ao6 IVA "h1Nu shV hCiOSo
for which they died, is the symbol o
all we are, of all we hope to be. 1t i.
the emblem of equal rights. 1t mean:
free hands, free lips. seIfgovernmen,
and the sovereignty of the individual
It means that this continent has been
dedicated to freedom; it means univer.
sal education, light for every mind,
Knowledge for every child. 1t means
that the school house is the fortress OF
liberty. 1t means that government
derive their just powers from the con
sent of he governed" that each man
is accountable to and for the govern
ment; that responsibility goes hand in
hand with liberty. It means that it is
the duty of every citizen to bear his
share of the public burden, to take part
IN the affairs of his town, his county,
his state and his country. 1t means that
the ballot box is the ark of the covenant
that the source of authority must not be
poisoned; 1t means the perpetual right
CT peaceful revolution. 1t means that
every citizen of the republic, native or
naturalized, must he protected ut home,
in every State, abroad in every land, on
every sea. Itmeans that all distinctions
based on birth or blood have been Danish
ed fri m our laws, that our government
shall stand between labor and capital;
between the weak and the strong; be
tween the individual and corporations;
between want and wealth, and give and
gauranee simple justice to all. 1t means
that there shall be legal remedy for
every wrong; 1t means national hospit
atty; that We must welcome to our
shores the exiles of the world, and that
We may not drive them back. Some
may be deformed by labor, dwarfed by
hunger, broken in spirit, victims of tyr.
any and caste, in whose sad faces may be
read the touching record of weary life,
and yet their children, born of liberty
and low will be symmetrical and fair,
emblems of supreme will, of nations
power. Peneath its folds the weak must
be protected and the strongest must obey.
1t shields and canopies alike the Hottest
and the rudest hut. That FLAG
was given to the air in the revolutions
darkest days. 1t represents the suffering
Of the past, the glories yet to be, and like
the bow Of Heaven it is the child of
storm and sun. This day is sacred to
the great heroic host who kept this flag
above our head, sacred to the SCARED |
and manned, sacred to the wives who
gave their husbands, to the mothers who |
gave their SONS. Here in this peaceful
land of ours, here where the sun shines,
where flowers grow, where children play,
millions of armed men battled for the
right and breasted on thousand fields
the iron storm of war. These brave, and |
Incompatible men. founded the first
republic, they fulfilled the prophecies,
they brought to pass the dreams, they
realized the hopes that all the great and |
good and wise and just have made, and |
bad since man was man. But what of |
those who fell? There is no language to |
express the debt we owe, the love we
bear to all the dead who died for US
Words are not barren sounds. We can
but stand aside their graves, and in the
hush and silence feel what speech has
never told. They fought; they died;
and for the first time since man has kept
record of events, the heavens bent
above and doomed land without a serf.
l servent or a slave.