Arizona republican., 1919-08-25
MONDAY MORNING. AUGUST 25. 1919
Flags and Flags

A few days ago following the capture by Mexican bandits and the holding of them for we took accession refer the last previous tme in 1904 that an American citizen held for ransom, Ion I or dicars captured by Raisu Kybele bandit and the energetic steps taken by President Roosevelt for his relesae. The demand made first upon the Sultan of Fez who claimed sovereignty the rebel chief whom he was unable to control Application also made by our state department to France which claiming paramountcy in Morocco.
 Neither the sultan France at first very much concerned. It seemed to them be good deal of fuss that President Roosevelt was making over a single private citizen But the president ordered all American warships in that part of the world to be assembled before Tangier, and arranged for such re- Inducements might be necessary. It then that Rooseveltian message sent, Perdicars alive or Raisuli dead" The sultan then perceived that if something not done there would be American invasion. France could not estimate the calamity that might attend such disturbance president be about to start in that inflammable part of the world-al for one lone American citizen The sultan induced to pay the ransom demanded by Raisul and Perdicaris was conducted by the bandit who him with the greatest kindness back to the seashore.
 Perdicaris describes his return
 It was pitch dark long before we got near Tan gier and I did not the flag. I had hoped to do that afternoon, waving the Brooklyn and the Olympia. But what did when nearing the town after midnight, as I struggled out of the mule litter which my Wazani friends friends had so kindly brought to me, to mount the black horse to escape from the crowd the signal lights the
 astheads of the frigates announcing return, and then I whispered to my self:
 Thank heaven, ii is THAT flag, and THAT people-aye and THAT president, behind THOSE frigates, thousands of miles away who have had dug out from amongst these Kabylesi THAT flag and otherlH
 ."rhat I should feel grateful to the friends who have intervened actively and constantly behalf and to the authorities at Washington who in structed the admirals in command of the cruisers and battleships now lying in Tangier bay to insist upon my release. is natural enough. How could any American fail to be deeply touched and most pro- foundly grateful at such proof of his country's soctude for the welfare of it's citizens and for the honor of the flag"
 The emotion that flag produced in Perdicars has not been by any other American in recent certainly by American citizens in Mexico who had gone there at time when the American government threw protection about citizens wherever they hap pened to be There were thousands of them some of them small farmers some capitalists, of them workmen They felt safe in Mexico as if they were in the United States For were they not yet in the shadow of the flag?
 They were shortly to be dsilusoned and to learn that flag under American government and flag under another may be two very different things it may be an emblem of power and majesty. emblem of weakness and dishonor They told by the new secretary that the flag could not protect them that their safety lay in sedaddng and skulking out of Mexico Of the thousands of Amer jeans in Mexico in the last six years not has sue cessfuly the protection of the American flag Men have been massacred and have been raped almost under it's dropping folds Those who have succeeded in making their way out of Mexico and have seen the Star and Stripes floating again on American soil over custom house, or postoffce from pole at some outlying army post, have not the beautiful thing that .erdicaris saw in the Bay Tanger the other side of the world. They will it. The flag will always be to them what they it to be in Mexico, a useless helpless dropping thing