The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1916-06-15
jim FINCH Will
Be ORATOR AT
FLAG DAY FETE
Elks Will Hold Services In
Courthouse Square at
$3.50 p. m. Tomorrow
MAYOR AND CIVIC
ORDERS COOPERATE
School Children Will Rec Give
Small Flags and ParasOls
From Elks Lodge.

James Finch of Fornfelt, former
Circuit Judge, and a lawyer known in
all parts of Southeast Missouri, will
be the principal orator at the Flag
Day services to be held tomorrow aft
ernoon under auspices of the Elks'
Club.
Efforts to get into communication
directly with Mr.. Finch were made by
the committee in charge Of the Elks'
services, but owing to the fact that he
has been in Chicago attending the
Republican national convention, they
were unable to reach him.
However, by communicating with
Mrs. Finch and a brother of Mr..
Finch, his assent to speak in the Cape
for the Flag Day services was OBJ
tanned.
Mr.. Finch's reputation as an orator
is Statewide. He presided at the aft
ernoOn session of the Republican rally
in the Cape on February % last. His
Grafton will be on the Stars and
Stripes.
The services will be held at $50
o'clock tomorrow afternoon at the
bandstand in Courthouse square. The
Flag Day services are a part Of the
ritual of the Elks' lodge, but when it
was suggested that because of the fact
that President Wilson issued a nation
al Flag Day proclamation several days
ago, the Elks' affair be made one Of
public Importance in this city, the idea
was carried into execution.
The cooperation of Mayor Rage on
the part of the city. Of the Commercial
Club, the Retail Merchants Associa-
tion,, and various other public and
semi-public institutions have been OBJ
tanned by the Elks.
Mayor Kage tomorrow will proclaim
in The Tribune the Flag Day services,
and will request business men to close
their establishments during the time
the services are in progress. A SINH
ar proclamation with like requests
will be made by the Commercial Club
and Retail Merchants Association.
Music will be furnished by chOruses
frcm both the Normal School and the
parOchial schools, and the public school
children will be present in large num-
bers to sing.
The members Of the Elks' lodge viii
present each school boy with an Amer
lean flag, ard each girl who attends
will be given a paper parasoI of a
design emblematic Of the Stars and
Stripes.
A. p. Stewart will read the PYesi-
Tents Flag Day proclamation, and an
address, "Thc Elks' Tribute to the
Flag" will be read by Il. F.. Dearm6rt.
Former Judge Firch will deliver his
Grafton, and Rev. J. ]. Clopton will
read a history of the national banner
of the L. S. A. In brief the history
of the flag is as follows:
"The history Of the American flag
began with the landing of the May
lower in 1920. The first Colonial flag
was known as the Kings coGlra,
combining the red and white crosses
Of England and Scotland upon an in
ner field of blue. During the memor-
able struggle of the Colonists to estab-
fish themselves, various attempts were
made to evolve a general flag emblc
matte of their cause, but nothing def
mite resulted. The animating senti-
ment of the father of the republic was
that of freedom, and in support there
of the word Liberty" was emblazoned |
upon many of the flags employed in |
those early days.
so great was the prejudice against |
England and the trappin%s of royalty |
that the use of the "King's cOlors"
became intermittent, and was finally
Similar prejudice devel
3ped against the crimson banner sub
adopted by the mother coun-
;ry and known as the Cromwell flag"
In the year 1907 the Colonists selected
! red flag as their ensign, bearing in
he upper corner the green symbol Of
l pine tree on a white field. This
banner was in popular favor for many
years and is thought to have been the
me carried by the Americans in the
,attle of Bunker Hill
''In 1875 flag was designed for the
Continental army and navy, showing
thirteen alternate, stripes of red and
White, corresponding to the number of
he colonies, with, an azure field in the
inner corner, bearing the red cross of Il