Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1906-08-31

the Presentation Of the Ameri-
can Flag to the War Department,
for Macdonoush National Park.
The patriotic celebration in connection
with the presentation of the American
flag which Is TO be raised over Crab
Commodore Macdonough's victory over
a superior British squadron on Septem-
Der II, 1914, and which by recent Act
of Congress is to be converted into
park, to be known in future as Mac
donough National Park, took place at
Cliff Haven. The proceedings began
with patriotic songs by members of the
Assembly in the Auditorium, followed
by the reading of an original patriotic
poem on Commodore Macdonough by
the author, John Jerome Rooney of New
York. Short speeches followed by Rev.
D. j. O'Sullivan, member of the YER
mont Legislature; Representative Sibley
of Pennsylvania; and the Rev. Thomas
Mcmillan, G.. S. p, who spoke of the
late DIR. George F. Bixby, editor of the
Plattsburgh Republican, to whose efforts
the beginning of the movement was ow-
ing. Rev. John Talbot Smith, IL D.,
president of the Catholic Summer School,
then made the presentation address.
DR.. Smith said:
mo work more commends itself to the
mind of the patriotic than that of locat-
ing, restoring, revivifying the scenes of
our past history. We are equally the
children of the past and the present.
Our past explains us, and either iusti6es
or condemns us. The Catholic Simmer
School takes its share in the good work
by its successful efforts to commemorate
the victory of Commodore Macdonough.
The little island where his sailors and
the sailors of the vanquished fleet repose
together in the repose of death, is now
become the property of the Government.
An appropriation of money will convert
it soon into a national park, and here
after it will be cared for by the Garrison
of Plattsburgh. In commemoration of
the event, the whole affair is brought
to an appropriate conclusion by the pre-
sentation of this flag that it may be
raised on the island.
1t is with deep and varied emotions
that men behold the flags of their ma
tions. 1t is a symbol of thousand
things that cannot be named in speech.
1t typeifies both the good and evil in
the history of the nation and the race,
for men cannot escape the crimes of
their nation any more than they can be
denied its virtues and successes. The
American flag stands for more than our
successes and our virtues; it stands also
for our weaknesses and our sins. But
this may truly be said of it, apart from
its sins and its honors, in the world
today it represents peace, not war:
arbitration, not battle; development, not
conquest; defence of its own against the
aggressor, not aggression upon the peace
full but defenceless. Above all, it does
not stand for that hateful and terrible
force in modern society, war.
There are few evils more wanton, few
more fatal to the millions, few that
minister to the pride of useless aris-
tocracy more than war. The people
suffer most from it. They furnish the
soldiers who brave the hardships of cam
paigns, perish on the field, die in the
hospitals, or return home from them
invalids. They pay the costs of the
war in taxation, they bear its sorrows
in their grief over lost husbands, fathers
and children. They suffer all the pain,
and get neither advantage nor glory.
The wars of the past, for the most part,
have been crimes against humanity.
The soldier is at this moment the burden
of Europe, and indirectly the burden of
America. The militarism of Europe is
a crime second only to war itself If
the flag of our country represented no
more than war and battles and armies,
it would not be worth an instant's re-
spect.
We have entered upon a new era in
this great republic. Its greatness is not
its material wealth and opportunity, but
its new spirit. 1t recoils from war. 1t
has abolished the soldier of European
militarism, and in our country we have
no standing army, and we have no cap.
able fleet. We shall never have any
unless barbarism gets its foot in again
through our own grossness. We have
an army, fleet and military estab-
lishment, but they represent neither con-
quest nor absolutism. They are the
right arm of the law, they are the de-
Tenders of the constitution, of the pro-
cess of law, of the order within, and
of the defence without. AS such we
venerate them and we honor them. In
any other capacity we would scorn
them. The flag of this nation has not
the blood of the conquered to stain its
shining folds Nav il Il 0at forever over