The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-20
THE NEW OLD FLAG.

The recent addition of a forty-fifth star
TO the national flag as the symbol of Utahs
admission into the sisterhood of the Uni
ted States gave rise to a multitude of
suggestions concerning a change in the
plan of formation of the stellar field of
| the American banner. Secretaries Her
bert and Lamont have adhered, however
to the long-accepted design, simply alter
| ing the number of stars in one of the
rows and arranging the long and short
| rows alternately. In this connection, it
may not be generally known to the Amer
lean people that the plan thus preserved
by the Federal government did not orig
mate in revolutionary days with George
| Washington and Betsy Ross In the orig
| inal American flag. both the stars and
the stripes necessarily stood for the total
| of states. Even when Vermont ION March
| A., 17SD and Kentucky ION June l, 1870 were
! admitted into the union. no differentia-
| ton of the thirteen original states was
attempted in the flag. The Stripes as well
as the stars were increased to fifteen.
1t was not until the year lS1S twenty
| four years later that the stripes were
| reduced TO thirteen and made typical of
the pioneer colonies. Tennessee, Ohio,
Louisiana and Indiana had been incor-
porated into the federation. 1t was nee
essary to devise some plan for the rep
resentation of new states other than
by the addition of new stripes and new
stars-partcularly new stripes. Senator
Peter Wendover, from New York, in
troduced the resolution providing for the
appointment of a committee to consider
the alteration of the flag system. He
also called upon Captain Samuel c. Reid
to suggest a new scheme, and thus gave
him the opportunity to become the father |
of the American flag in so far as the |
significance of the stars and stripes is
concerned.
Captain Reid. who was then in Wash |
ington, was a noted American naval |
hero. He was famous for his defense of |
the privateer General Armstrong in |
Fayal Roads The naval battle which |
he fought in this brig at Fayal In the |
Azores Islands in September, 1914, was
one of the most remarkable exploits on |
record He suggested to Wendover and
congress the retention Of the original
Thirteen Stripes and the addition of an
extra star for each new state to be adj
mitted TO the union
II - CURIOUS 10 note, though, what a |
debate was occasioned in the house by
the suggestions. In fact an entirely new
design came near TO being adopted.
This other style of national standard
thus contemplated was to have been
composed of the emblematic representa-
ton of the national escutcheon, quar-
tered upon 1t. Thus, the stars, white
on blue field and then twenty in num-
Der, were to be in the upper left hand
quarter; the Goddess of Liberty on
white field, was to stand under the stars:
the eagle was 10 find place in the upper
right hand quarter; and the thirteen
alternate stripes of red and white were
TO be under the eagle. What a clumsy
flag this would have been! All honor to
gallant Captain Reid who restored the
thirteen stripes, gave a new glory to the
stars, and preserved for America the most
beautiful banner among all the nations
of the world!