The National tribune., 1910-09-29
Report of Committee on Prevention OF
Dissertation of the Flag.

3. Tew. Mrs. Ida A. Oldroyd ana MIS-.
Ida ]. Hart, all Past Presidents of De-
partment of Potomac, and the Depart
ment President, Mrs. Nora &. Atkinson,
Were complimented many times on the
completeness of the report and the
amount of information contained in it,.
The report was in part as follows:
Office of Chairman, National Tribune
Building, Washington, d. c., Aug.
81, 1910.
Georgia Wade Mcclellan, National Sec
retary, w. r. C.
Madame: The Massachusetts COnsti-
tuition of 1880 declared that this is "a
Government of laws and not of men;
in other words, men are not law unto
themselves. but are subject to laws
made by majority for the government
of the whole.
And this is why 10000 loyal, pa
triotic women and several hundred
thousand veterans of the war of the
rebellion are protesting against the hu-
initiating uses to which few lawless
men are subjecting the Flag; few
men whose moneyed interests and busl-
ness greed have swallowed up all pride
of country and Constitution, and whose
only concern for the Flag is selfish
desire to see how far they can proSti-
tute its bright colors to base uses. In
their nefariouS schemes they have been
aided and abetted by Government Off
cials either too ignorant or too careless
to care for the degradation they were
bringing upon the country's emblem.
/ am now reporting to you for third
time as Chairman of the National Com
mittee on Prevention of Dissertation or
the Flag. You have hOnored me high
ly, ladies of the Convention, and l rem
der to you my thanks thrice over for
the honors thrice conferred.
We, your committee, do not bring to
you much garnered wheat, perhaps; yet
if you will bear with me little L think
| can show you that we are eating into
the monster of greed and selfishness
which has done more to tarnish the
Flag than all the years of horrible war
did
1 worked indefatigably for a hear
ing, but Congress was so absorbed in
other things that it seemed impossible
to get an hour of the time of the Com
mittee on Judiciary.
April 1 received from Judge ]. A.
Goulden, of New York, notice Of a COM
mittee meeting April 8, and request for
me to get some influential people to at
tend.
L notified my Department President,
Mrs. Nora B. Atkinson, and steN, all
the members of my committee, Past
National President Kate B. Sherwood,
Maj. Mawson, Commander of the De-
partment of the District of CO.
lgmbia Spanish Spa pr.N;dnnt War Veterans; ct ms:
Seventh Street National Rank, a Son of
the American Revolution, whose uncle,
S. S. Cox, introduced the first Flag bill
in Congress, and dozen others. Then
L invited Representative Washington
Gardiner and several other members of
the House and the members of the /.
w. B. Flag Association.
They We're All There.
The hearing was held before the SUBJ
Judge Moon, of Pennsylva
mia, presiding. 1t was by long odds the
largest and most enthusiastic commit
tee meeting we have ever had. Nearly
a dozen speeches were made. The
Chairman, Judge Moon, said what nc
other Chairman of the House Commit
tee has said before: Il am firmly of
the opinion that we should have Ma
tional statute protecting the Flag from
desecration."
L am afraid you will think l have
brought you only handful of schaff;
but, indeed, ladies of the Convention,
we who live at the seat of war and
have watched with anxious eyes and
aching hearts the unspeakable degrada-
ton to which the Flag has been sub
jected in years past, knOw-we know,
ladies-that there is a change for the
better
The Chairman of your National Com
mittee did not originate the work, and
never drafted flag bill in, her life. She
has no desire to assume virtues that
she does not possess, and even less de-
sire to reap where she has not sown.
Mrs. President, legislation for pre-
vention of desecration of the Flag is
older than the w. r. c., and the first
strenuous objection to the use of the
Flag as an advertising medium dates
back to our great Lincoln. During the
heated political campaign of 1S60-61-62
the Flag was found to be a fine medium
for political advertising, and it was
used very widely. President Lincoln
and Secretary of State Seward sent to
Congress an earnest protest against this
desecration of the Flag, and suggested
some law to protect the National EN-
biem from degrading uses. Nothing
ever came of it.
Four other Presidents. Grant, Cleve-
land, Harrison and Mckinley, were
strongly opposed to using the Flag in
any other than a legitimate way, and
protested against improper uses. Gen.
Grant was deeply outraged when he
found that his name was printed on a
Flag hung across the street in his home
taken down and his name removed. He
said: There is no name so great that
it should be placed upon the Flag of
our country
President Roosevelt strenuously op-
posed ignoble use of the Flag and said
to me: Il shall be glad to approve
proper laws for protection of the Flag"
President Taft said a few months
ago: There ought to be strong laws
against improper uses of the Flag"
The very first legislation-or attempt
ed legislation-to prevent desecration
of the Flag was IN the shape of a bill
introduced of his own volitiOn by Hon
5. $. Cox, of New York, April Is, 1873
but 1t failed of passage. Jan. Z, 1880,
a MIR. Barbour of New York introduced
such n bill, but il died the death Since
then from one to half dozen bills have
been introduced at every term of Con-
gress, but they have all gone back to
the paper mill to be ground into pulp
to make more paper on which to print
more bills, and so on ad infinitum.
While this is true and seemingly
mighty discouraging, / am quite sure
that if you will scan the results of the
quiet work of all these years you will
agree with me that whole lot has
been accomplished. Great reforms can
not be achieved in a week or a wear.
We are now 100000 900 of people One
million aliens land upon our shores
each year. A million people is a heap,
let me tell you. Our own are not too
well informed as to the Constitution
and their rights under il, and what can
you expect of gang of half-baked for
eigners alien to our customs, our Ian