Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1897-01-20
PATRIOTISM AND THE FLAG.
Danger that the Flag May Become
Merely Fetish.

in the public schools of the United
States. To the end that it might be en-
couraged, many of the schools have
been provided with flags, and in a con-
siderable number formal exercises take
place from time to time, when the flag
Is paraded, saluted, and the pupils
pledge allegiance to It. The sight Is
always impressive and gratifying.
Yet it may properly be asked whether
there be not some danger lest the enthu-
siasm thus aroused expend itself upon
the sign rather than upon the thing
Signifed; that is to say, whether our
patriotic endeayors may not, unless
wisely directed, produce a sentimental
attachment to an emblem instead of
creating type of civic life whereby the
emblem Is genuinely glorified. 1t Is of
the highest Importance that our chill
dren and youth should be taught that
the nation expects them to devote prop
erty and life, if need be, to her defense,
and that they must regard the integrity
OF the state as their peculiar care. But
the possible danger which turks in
teaching patriotism primarily by means
Of this beautiful symbol Is that 1t en-
courages the pupil to look for an inter-
national rather than a domestic field
wherein to display his devotion. When
a Spanish mob, incensed by what it
considers bitter provocation, tears the
Stars and Stripes to pieces, or an Irish
poet sings of bastard freedom" and a
'fustian flag" he is duly reused. The
flag seems to him to have been immedi-
ately and grossly insulted, and he re-
sents the insult but so long as it waves
undisturbed by any hostile hand or
mocking word, he is tempted to feel that
1t is safe, even though corruption, greed
and partisanship bear sway under its
very shadow He Is so convinced that
where the sign Is deliberately dishon-
ored the thing signitied must be insult
ed as to take for granted the wholly diff
ferent proposition that so long as the
flag Is outwardly respected the state
must be secure.
Under scarce any form of government
can this fallacy produce more lamenta-
BILE results than in a great republic. 1t
was long since wisely observed that
1.-The danger to small republic comes
from without; to great republic 1t
comes from within" Indeed, any one
who rereads the knights" of Aristo-
phanes must be struck with the cogent
application of its sarcasm to latter-day
politics. Mutatis mutandis, Cleon and
the Sausage-seller are with us still,
striving as best they may to outbid each
other In the favor Of Demos making
small account, to be sure, Of what De-
mos really needs, but fertile in devices
for pleasing his ear, tickling his palate,
fostering his self-love, and befogging
his judgment. Now, as then, too, each
Is prodigal of protestations that he and
he alone is truly loyal to the good name
of his master, and that If Demos will
but put the household quite unreserved-
~ into his keeping, he will give especial
attention to it's social dignity and influ-
ence among the neighbors. One remem-
bers the eulogy upon Col. Yell of Yell
vile, that though it was true his books
did not balance, none could doubt that
his heart beat warmly for the native
land" 1t serves to remind us that the
deeper mans hands go into the public
pocket, the louder may become his vo-
alterations of devotion to the flag, and
the fiercer his Indignation against any
who may insult 1t. Nothing indeed, can
suit his purposes better than to foster
n worship of the sign so blind and fatu-
Gus as to brand rs unpatriotic all in
quiry into the reality signified.
1t Is a matter of commonest expert
ence that the higher the moral quality
of any emotion, sentiment or theory of
life, the more dangerous the husk of it
Is likely to prove when emptied of ethi-
cal content. There is distinct ten
dency in some quarters to-day to treat
everything as glorious which the flag
can be made to cover, and to denounce
as unpatriotic all critical inquiry into
the real ethical conditions of national
life. The mass of Americans have yet
to realize that patriotism Is less an im-
pulse than a duty, and that the man
who makes most searching inquisition
into the failings and possible iniqulties
that mar our public life, pleading for
simple, unamblguous public speech,
and the sternest and most uncompro-
missing integrity in public act, may
prove to be truer patriot than he
whose love of country never goes be-
yond the flag, which he bespatters with
tawdry adjectives, and degrades by
meaninglessly Haunting 1t in the face
of sister nations.-'"The Flag-a Sym
boil or Fetish" in the Century.
Some Good Tattooing.
Why should we not all of us be iden-