The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-05-17
THE SUPPLY OFFLAGS.
Millions of Them in Demand and yerv
Few Are on the Market.
Correspondence of the Boston Transcript

Correspondence of the Boston Transcript
Washington, May 10.
There is flag famine. Ten million
editions of Old Glory are said to have
been sold since the battleship Maine was
blown up, and such a scarcity of bunting
exists that even the War Department is
having trouble to procure a sufficient
supply. Flags wear out pretty rapidly,
and the number required annually for
various purposes by the Covenant is
astonishing. One firm makes all the
flags for public buildings all over the
United States, under contract with the
Treasury Department, as well as for the
revenue cutter service. The navy man
ufactures most of its own flags at the
Brooklyn Navy Yard, but the code sig
nails are purchased outside, Uncle Sam
furnishing the bunting. These signals
consist of nineteen flags of different
shapes and colors. They form sort of
alphabet, and with them whole Ian
guage has been made mp. SO that vessels
can talk with one another at a distance
of miles as plainly as it they spoke Eng
fish. This is the international Ecode.
which sailors of all countries compre-
bend.
The business of making American
flags employs thousands of people, nearly
all of them women and girls in various
parts of the United States. Hundreds OF
thousands of them are manufactured
every year in the city Of Philadelphia,
but there are flag towns" in
New England also which contribute
largely to the patriotic output. Most OF
the bunting, which is "sheer" woollen
material, comes from New England; it
is OF a loosely-woven texture SO that the
wind may blow through it. The stiff for
the finest flags reaches the fag-makers in
big rolls-some red, some white and
some blue. The blue, of course, is for
the union in the corner, while tie red
and white are for the stripes
Each roll of red or white bunting is
wound as tightly as possible, and is then
placed under q razor-edged knife, by
which 1t is cut into q series of measured
slices like piece of meat. Each slice,
on being unrolled. is long strip exactly
the width of the flag -stripe that is
wanted. The strips are next cut into
flag that Is to be, and are sewn together
by machinery. with the blue union" in
one corner. The white stars, however,
are sewn upon the union by hand, and
this work has to be done with the greatest
care, each star being first basted ION and
then having its edges turned under be-
fore the final sewing is performed. The
stars are cut out of white linen. and
sewed upon each side of the blue field;
they are made very simply, with pair of
scissors and tin pattern.
This is the way in which the very best
flag are turned out. The kind next in
quality are the so-called woven flags
which are produced complete by a loom,
thirteen stripes, union and all. Flags
OF this sort come from the loom in con-
tlnuous strip or piece, which is thereupon
cut up into separate editions of the
national colors, the latter being hemmed
and thus finished as fast as they are
emitted from the machine. No particu-
lar skill, such as is needed in the other
case for making the copies of Old Glory
symmetrical and perfect, is here required;
the machine does it all. The material,
however, is the same and it may as we'll
be explained right here that bunting is
the best stuff for flags because it is soft
ana does not whip" in the wind like
stiff material; besides, it holds it's color
well.
One may pay anything from one cent to
$3.50 for flag of the United States. The
latter price will buy beautiful silk flag
twelve by eighteen feet in size. The
cheapest flags are stamped on muslin with
the colors red and blue, and are then
tackled or pasted upon q stick; they are not
guaranteed to wash. OF that kind is the
little penny flag which the small boy
wears on the lapel of his coat. Such flags