The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-04-24
THE FLAG.
From the Savannah Press.


The Savannah Press has received the fol
lowing communication:
SAVANNAH, Ca, April II, 1917
To the Editor of the Savannah Press
Sir: In the columns of your valuable
paper please explain each part of "Our
Flag" Thanking you, | am, sir,
A GRAMMAR SCHOOL PUPIL.
The Savannah Press never assumed any
task more willingly than this. 1t is good to
know that a grammar school boy is interest
ed in the flag, because the school boy of
to-day is the citizen of tomorrow, and a
patriotic school lad will make a patriotic
man.
The American flag was designed shortly
after the conclusion of the American Revo-
luton.
June IA, 1777, the United States Con-
gress passed resolution declaring that "the
flag of the thirteen United States be stripes
alternate red and white; that the union be
thirteen stars, white in blue field, repre-
senting the new constellation" In 1894
Congress decreed that after May /, 1895,
the flag of the United States be fifteen
stripes, alternate red and white and that
the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue
held. This change was made to mark the
admission of Vermont and Kentucky into
the Union. The stars and stripes were then
equal and star and stripe were to be add
ed with the admission of each new state,
1t was realized, however, that the addition
OF stripe for each new state would soon
render the flag too large, and resolution
was accordingly passed by Congress April
/, 1918, reducing the number of stripes
TO thlrteen-representing the original I'm
ION, and making the stars twenty in num-
Der. 1t was further enacted that a new star
should be added for each new state adj
mltted into the Union. The flag now con-
talns forty-eight stars, corresponding to the
forty-eight states.
According to tradition the first flag
known as the "Stars and Stripes" was made
by Mrs. Betsy Ross, of Philadelphia.
The blue field in which the stars appear
denotes fidelity, the red courage, and the
white stripes faith and truth
The first flag was made in Philadelphia
by Mrs Betsy Ross, who completed it I'M
der the direction of those who designed it.
John Adams is said to have been the one
to suggest the stars and stripes They were
probably suggested to him by the coat of
arms of George Washington The first
time the American flag was displayed at a
military post was at Fort SCHUYLER, near
Rome, N. Y, in August, 1777. John Paul
Jones and his Ranger carried the flag first
upon the seas on an armed craft. This was
IN June, l777. 1t was unfurled at the bat
tie on the banks of the Brandywine Sep
tem6er l, 1777. 1t saw its first foreign serv-
ice June %, 1878, when Captain Rathbone
of the American sloop of war Providence
captured Fort Nassau, New Providence, Ba-
hama Islands.
Great Britain got its first view of the flag
IN 1852, when George III acknowledged the
independence of the United States and the
whaling ship Bedford first displayed the
trl-color of the new republic in a port of
Great Britain on February 8, 1888.
We have written thus at length about the
flag and what it stands for and how it came
INTO being because we want to encourage
young America to study the Stars and
Stripes and understand what living under
It's protecting folds means to one with red
blood in his veins. The flag has never been
used as an emblem of oppression. 1t has
extended its sphere of influence and use
tulness to the world in many ways, but
never in a spirit of conquest.
Nor has the American flag ever been
turled IN permanent defeat. 1t it a glorious
bit of bunting at all times and we trust its
record in the future will be as clean and
unsullied as it has been in the past.