The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-01-04
AND THE FLAG.
Danger That the Flag May Become
Merely a Fctish--ThC Domestic
Field and Not the International Is
the Best for the Display of Loyalty
nmd Devotion to the Country.

Much has been said within recent years
about the teaching of patriotism in the
public schools of the United States. To
the end that it might be encouraged,
many of the schools have been provided
with flags, and in a considerable 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 gratify-
ing.
Yet it may properly be asked whether
there be not some danger lest the enthusi-
asm thus aroused expend itself upon the
sign rather than upon the thing signihed;
that is to say whether our patriotic en-
deaVors may not, unless wisely directed,
produce a sentimental attachment to an
emblem instead of creating "A type of civic
life whereby the emblem is genuinely
gloriiied. 1t IS of the highest Importance
that our children and youth should be
taught that the nation expects them to
devote property 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
encourages 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 con-
sders bitter provocation tears the Stars
and Stripes in pieces, or an Irish poet
sings of "bastard freedom and "fustan
flag" he is duly reused The flag seems
to him to have been Immediately and
grossly insulted and he resents the in
suit; 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 partisan
ship bear sway under its very shadow
He is so convinced that where the sign is
deliberately dishonored the thing signi-
fled must be insulted as to take for grant
ed the wholly different proposition that so
long as the flag is outwarCtiy respected
the state must be secure.
Under scarce any form of government
| can this fallacy produce more lamentable
results than in great republic. 1t was
| ger to small republic comes from with
| out; to great republic it comes from
| within" Indeed, any one who re-reads
| the "Knights" of Aristophanes 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
| Demonstrating small account, to be sure
| of what Demos really needs, but fertile
in devices for pleasing his ear tickling his
ging his judgment. Now, as then, too
each is prodigal of protestatons that lie
| and he alone is truly loyal TO the good
name of his master, and that if Demos
will but put the household quite unre-
servedly into his keeping, he will give es-
| pecial attention to it's social dignity and
influence among the neighbors. one re-
members the eulogy upon Colonel Yell
| of Yellvile, that though it was true his
| books did not balance, none could doubt
| that his heart beat warmly for his native
! land 1t serves to remind us that the
| deeper a mans hands go into the public
| pocket, the louder may become his vo.
| alterations of devotion to the flag, and he
tierCer his Indignation against any who
| may insult it, Nothing indeed, can suit
his purposes better than to foster a wor
| ship Of the sign so blind and fatuouS as tC
| brand as unpatriotic all inquiry into the
| reality signiiied.
1t is a matter of commonest experience
! thatthe higher the moral quality of any
emotion, sentiment or theory of life
the more dangerous the husk of it is like
! ly to prove when emptied of ethical con
tent. There is a distinct tendency in som,
! quarters today to treat everything &.
| glorious which the flag can be made tC
coVer, and to denounce as unpatriotic al
critical inquiry into the real ethical con
| Gi':cr7 Of national life. The mass o
| IN rriCans have yet to realize that pa
| trtGt'sm is less an impulse than a duty
| and that the man who makes most search
| ing inquisitiOn into the failings and pos
| sible iniquties that mar our public life
| pleading for simple, unamhiguous pubic
| speech, and the sternest and most un
| compromising integrity in public act, may
| prove to be truer patriot than he who's,
| love of country never goes beyond tn,
| Nag, which he bespatterS with taWdrN
| adjectives, and degradcs by meaningless
| haunting it in the face of sister nations
| 1.-THE Flag-a symbol or Fetish" in tn,
| December Century.