New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-25
The Flag

In perfect world there would probably
be no Diamond Jim Brady to translate the
flag into sapphires and rubies and dia-
monds to wave upon his bosom. There
might be no dance halls where they sing
"The Star-Spangled Banner" to ragtime.
There surely would be no newspaper to
cover its pages with flags as business
trick to conceal pro-Germanism, very
much like the grocer who puts shiny
apples on top of the barrel to hide the
rotten ones beneath.
Living in an imperfect world, we have
all this and more. Every wave of patriot
ism brings such wretchedness. 1t is as if
some very sacred thought Of our lives was
being taken out of its dim, religious atmos-
phere and turned into vaudeville joke.
We resent the whole idea of publicity. We
feel little self-conscious and ashamed
when expected to stand in a theatre for
"The Star-Spangled Banner We blum
der in displaying the flag. All our Ameri-
can distaste for style, for ritual, for the
rigmarole of respect, comes to the surface
and we tingle with discomfort. Why can't
we be left alone to love our country in
peace? Certain refined souls even go so
far as to originate real and lasting dis
gust. Their grief can be heard now. If
this awkward, public, vulgar thing is pa
triotism, they want none of it.
Perhaps all this shows a loftiness Of
spirit. 1t may suggest to some that we
are too near the millennium to bother with
anything less than humanity. But also it
may mean only that our patriotism has be-
come little remote and perfunctory-not
an outworn creed but a neglected one, neg
lected for lack of'opportunity 20 live it in
our everyday lives. To be sure, in theory,
every time citizen pays tax or fills out
an income tax blank he ought to do so
thankfully, gladly, praising God for the
opportunity to do little something for his
country. But such is not the way of human
nature and never has been. In church, for
another instance, it is not putting money in
the plate that renews ones faith.
The clear call that has lately come to so
many Americans suggests where the truth
lies. When the German Ambassador was
handed his passports, queer, forgotten emo
tions toward our country welled up in most
of US. Fragments of old memories fiocked
| in. memories Of Civil War stories heard in
/ childhood, of ragged banner at the head
of a Grand Army parade, of a monument
Bennington in a midsummer noon or
/ Capitol Hill by night or Concord Bridge
of the harbor and Liberty seen from a
homeward bound steamer deck, whether
( America was an old home reganed or a
new land of dreams. The stuffiest and
most cynical Of US have had these moments.
And the unity Of them is not hard to find.
/ It is the America Of great hours and great
deeds that binds US together and speaks to
l our hearts. In that remote corner of us
where the fame of patriotism burns 1t is not
the business Of making money or piling up
comforts or any material thing that counts.
/ Plain. old fashioned courage and sacrifice,
the spirit of rating the whole life we live
as nothing and less than nothing. unless it
counts for right, Is the fiery heart Of things.
/ Day by day imperfect human nature
slumps far below such heights, goodness
knows. We love country much rs we
1 love a child or a wife, cxtravagantly at
times, bickeringly and cautiously at others.