Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-25
Hewitt and the Flag,

- hO VA ~ Va piS Soaii
try except New York, and by no other
mayor except Abram S. Hewitt, would
the question of permitting a foreign flag
to float over a public building on some
such spec ial occasion as the observance
OF an anniversary by citizens of foreign
birth, have provoked so earnest and
general a controversy as it has in New
York. As it is the first time, SO far as
W. are aware, that this question has
been discussed, and as it really involves
a principle and possesses a general in
t%erest, q review of the matter will be
timely. On the 18th inst. the board of
aldermen of New York passed resolu-
tions requesting the mayor to permit a
flag to be placed at half mast
on the city hall on the day
of the German emperor's funeral, and
the national, state, municipal
and Irish national flag to be placed at
full mast on st. Patrick's day. Com
pliance with this request vas made to
the extent of displaying the American
flag on the occasions named in the reso-
l%utions, but the mayor would not per-
NIT the Irish flag to be flown above the
city hall.
At the last meeting of the board of
aldermen Mayor Hewitt sent to that
body a message giving his reasons for
his action, and they are worthy of at
ton. He noted in the first place that
there vas discrimination in the resolu-
tions, the German flag not being men,
toned, and he thought it to be his plain
duty not to give any cause of offense to
the German residents, who are as
numerous as those of Irish birth. But
this was not the chief or most import
ant reason for his action. He had previ-
ously declared his unwillingness to per-
NIT the flag of any nationality ex-
cept our own to float over the city
hall, and had attested his sincerity by
declining to allow the British, German,
French and Italian flags to be unfurled
over that public building on occasions
celebrated by these several nationali-
ties. They would have had just ground
of offense if discrimination had been
made in favor of their Irish fellow citi-
zens. The refusal in all cases, however,
was based upon a principle which in the
opinion of Mayor Hewittis unassailable.
That principle Is that the flag is the
symbol of sovereignty, and wherever
that sovereignty peculiarly has its
home, as in the public buildings where
the functions of government are exer-
cised, only one jurisdiction can be rec
ognized and suffered to prevail. 'Over
them should float" says Mayor Hewitt
''only the flag of the country to which
they belong. So sacred is this right,
that the flag OF the foreign minister or
consul, floating over his domicile
in a foreign land, converts it into the
soil of the country which he represents.
The display of a foreign dag over a pub
lie building is therefore in direct con
tradiction Of the fundamental principle
of home rule which every intelligent
citizen advocates" He defends his
action, also, on grounds of public policy
and true patriotism, both OF which, he
insists, require that the flags of foreign
nationalities shall not be placed on an
equality with the ensign of our common
citizenship. IF it be right" says the
mayor of New York, ''that Ireland
should be governed by Irishmen, as
France is governed by Frenchmen, and
Germany by Germans, then it is equally
true that America should be governed
by Americans, and that so far as the
| flag is the, symbol OF home rule, it, and