The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-15
CONCERNING THE FLAG
BY Frederic j. Haslin. Director
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
Washington. ID. G.

of speech: for battle flags are going
out of use. In former wars the nag
was used as a rallyinS point ana as an
Indicator of the center of attack, out
this use has no place in trench anu ar
tillery fighting
When asked if the American army
would carry flags in this war: the
war department declined to say rags
were widely used during the spanish
American war, it asserted, but so Ior
as this war was concerned no final de-
cision had been reached. 1t ADMITTED
that flags were supposed to be out OF
date in Europe. Since 1879, at the
battle of Isandhlwana, when two brave
and valuable soldiers lost their hVes IN
attempting to rescue the British col
ors, Great Britain is reported to nave
barred use of the flag in battle.
In spite of the part that our army
may also fight without flag, the nag
factories in the United States are
speeding up their output. The COM
mercial establishments, of course, are
swamped with tremendous demand
from patriotic civilians but the gov
eminent factories are also overworked.
For the flag has many uses other than
in battle.
The government has two flag max
ing factories-one for the army and
one for the navy. The army plant IS
attached to the Philadelphia depot,
while that of the navy is on the third
floor of the bureau of equipment
building at the New York navy yard.
The navy at all times requires a lot
| more flags than does the army. In
addition to the Stars and Stripes in
various sizes, every ship must carry
nearly $50 different flags of other ma
| tons, the material and making of
which costs Uncle Sam approximately
50, per ship. Every time a United
| States battleship calls at a foreign
port, it must display it's good manners
| by flying the flag of that particular
nation along with the Stars and
| Stripes.
The making of this large number of
| naval flags even in peace times keeps
a force of fifty women and several
men busy, and now that we are to
| have a thousand wooden ships to be
| tagged the force has been increased.
| Moreover, the price of bunting has
gone up, so that the government flag
| bill this year is going to be enormous.
| All of the bunting for government
| flags comes from Lowell, Mass. where
| there are three large factories devoted
! to the manufa cture of this fabric.
| When it arrives at the flag factory it
! is put thru various tests to determine
| its quality. First it is soaked in soap
and water; the next day it is soaked in
salt water, and the third day it is hung
! out in the air, where it remains for
| ten days. For thirty hours, at least it
Z
! When it thus becomes apparent that
| the bunting will not run" or fade, a
strip two inches wide of the warp is
put in machine and submitted to a
pulling strain of So pounds, which
tests its tensile strength.
On the floor of one of the rooms in
the factory are chalk mark lines and
metal markers on which the flags are
measured and cut out. They are
sewed on regular sewing machines,
fitted with electric motors, and the
stars are cut by a special machine
invented for that purpose. Thirty feet
long by nineteen feet wide is the
largest flag made by the government,
which is the United States Ensign No.
! Hosting $40 to manufacture Other
! flags, such as the Presidents flag,
! bearing special and intricate designs.
are even more expensive and require
weeks of patient work to embroider
and finish.
The present standard flag of the
| United States consists of thirteen red
and white stripes, with a blue field in
the upper left-hand corner containing
| forty-eight white stars placed in six
rows of eight each. This description
may seem trifle unnecessary to the
average American patriot who has a
perfectly good American flag hanging
from his front window, but it is well
to recall the fact that this arrange
ment was authorized by the secretary
of war as late as 1896. Before that.
| designs of American flags were legion.
For years they had been the confusion
and despair of foreigners. Indeed, N
1S47, the Dutch government inquired
politely: What is the American
| 1ag?"/ Ten years later, nine diff
observed on one day in the harbor of
New York.
Even now, it is disconcerting to note
TIE opinion Of some foreigners con-
corning it. Mr. Frederic Harrison, for
| example, says something to this ef-
feet: when the United States decid-
ed to adopt flag after the ancestral
emblem of their chief they committe1
an absurd blunder. Than the Stars
and Stripes, nothing more grotesque
confused and unheraldrical can be
Granting Mr.. Harrison the right to
his opinion, he is nevertheless wrong
concerning the origin of the American
flag, according 70 the best evidence
that extensive research has brought to
light. The flag was not modelled
after the ancestral emblem" Of
George Washington, but after the flag
of the Dutch republic.
We have absolute records to tell us
when the American flag was adopted
and what it was then supposed to be
The thirteen war vessels, which ther
constituted the Colonial navy, were de-
sirous of a flag to use in foreign wa
tiers, so on June IA, 1777-the same
day that John Paul Jones was APP
pointed captain of the Ranger-the
Continental congress passed the fol-
lowing resolution: Resolved, That the
flag of the thirteen United States be
thirteen stripes. alternate red an6
white; that the Union he thirteen
stars, white in a blue field, represent
, ing a new Constellation.
+, This. however. says nothing abou
how the stars should be placed. The
: flag designed by Washington and made
, by Betsy Ross contained a circle O.
stars, but there is no evidence to prove
that this was the flag generally used
In fact, from what evidence has beer
gathered together. it is practically Ger
! tain that the first American flags useC
, had no stars whatsoever. In "a bool
of photographs of extant flags used OF