The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-12-08
rh, Significance of Our Flar.


II might love that flag more if l saw
it less" good American said recently.
He was offended by the frequency
with which our national banner is
Haunted from every schoolhouse and
every public building, to say nothing
of many private houses. The Ameri-
can use of the flag is peculiar. In
no other country is a parallel to be
seen to this lavish display. The first
thirteen years of my life We're spent
under the British government, and in
that time 1 saw the Union Jack but
twice, and then at the head of the
recruiting parties during the Crimean
war. When l saw America on the
glorious Fourth, l wondered at the dis
play of patriotic bunting quite as much
as at the glorious persistence of noise,
dear to a boys heart. And when the
Civil war came, the city seemed to
have put off it's ordinary colors, and
to have become red, white and blue,
says Robert Ellis Thompson in the
Saturday Evening Post of Philadel-
phia.
There is much, however, to be said
for the American abundance of the
flag. 1t is a sacrament of the national
life-an outward and visible sign Of the
inward grace of nationality The ma
ton is an unseen thing, making itself
outwardly visible through such SYM
bols. ",rhe kingdom of heaven is
within you," some one quoted to Fred
erick Maurice. Eyes. and so is the
kingdom Of England" he answered.
So is the American republic. But it
naturally seeks expression i'll symbols,
and the flag, with us, takes the place
of many symbols which are possessed
by other countries, but not by us.
Kingship is symbol with which we
dispense, although the disposition to
fuss over our presidents personally has
grown of late years, and is essentially
monarchical tendency.
In most countries, soldiers and pub
lie edifices, and every official except
those Of the municipalities, represent
the nation. With us, this is reversed.
The public officials, buildings and
troops are commonly those Of the state
in which we live, and for the state we
row feel only a modified and limited
patriotism. For twenty years no body
of United States troops was seen in my
city, and when they did appear, in
dirty and travel-worn uniforms, the
popular interest in them far outran
anything we had felt in our state
militia.
The flag stands for the nation 1t is
the symbol of the bond which unites
Florida, from Campobello Island to the
Golden Gate. 1t stands for that his
toric past whose life we share through
participation in the life of the nation.
1t identifies each of us with the whole
American people, near and far, past
and present, and even yet to come. Its
forms are not things of beauty, for the
straight line is not the line of beauty.
But they have historic sense which
more than compensates for their lack
of grace.
1t speaks of the past, when the thir-
teen feeble colonies arrayed themselves
against the first empire of the world,
and made the unlucky number forever
fortunate. 1t speaks of the present,
when the handful of corn on the tops
of the mountain has grown to be for
est like the cedars of Lebanon. It
tells us of the triumph, of growth, of
unity in willing submission to the law
full authority Of free government.
Let it wave in the daily sight of every
American citizen, for it's significance
is as inexhaustible as it is broadly
democratic.
c%o~