Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-06-14
A PIECE OF BUNTING
THAT CAUSES A THRILL
Loyalty TO the Flag ls Loyalty to a
Symbol That Stands for the Forces
That Have Made us What We Are

That Have Made Us What We Are
TT THE extreme internationalists could
i have their way such things as the Flag
and Flag Day would cease to be significant
Of anything.
They would have US believe that national.
ism has been outgrown and that IL was never
anything but paroChialism on a large scale.
They are only superfcially right; therefore
they are fundamentally wrong
Internntionalism is a reaction against
Chnuvinism. that narrow. bigoted hatred Of
everything foreign which has been fostered
BY demagogues seeking votes and has made
II difficult for broader. minded meu TO deal
justly with other nations.
This feeling long before tho name FOR II
was invented was responsible for much of
tho misunderstanding among nations.
Tho languages Of tho world are full Of
terms descriptive OF foreigners that are based
on the assumption that man Of o differ
ent race and different nation is something
less than human. sort Of a monstrosity.
HIS speech is regarded as o meaningless
jnbber even though II has been used TO
express some Of the sublimcst thoughts with
which the human race has been inspired.
OF course. intelligent men revoltcd against
such narrow mindcdness. But with that
curious and fatal inability to see the whole
of n question, what is merely a product Of
ignorance has been assumed to be the prod
uct Of nationalsm that is. a product of the
love of people for the country in which they
have been born and reared
This love and loyalty is one Of the finest
manifestations Of the human spirit. It has
its foundations in those qualities which
make an orderly society possible and enable
men TO work together in masses for COM
mon cause
There are subtle ties among men who have
bad common experience. The graduates
OF every high school know this because they
have q different feeling for their classmates
from that which they experience when they
meet a man who was not in the same school.
This feeling binds Baptists to Baptsts
and Catholics to Catholics and Methodsts
to Mcthodists and Presbyterians to Presby-
terians and Republicans to Republicans and
Democrats TO Democrats and Americans to
Americans and Engishmcn to Englishmen
and Frenchmen to Frenchmen and Germans
TO Germans and Chinese to Chinese. And
Americans Of British. German, Italian or
Scandinavian descent feel toward the coun-
try Of their ancestors q tenderness which
they do not feel toward any other foreign
country. They are good Americans, but
they are human beings first, possessed Of the
fine human loyalties which make il impossi.
bic for them to forget the sources from
which they sprang
How deep this feeling lies in him has been
discovered to his surprise by many an
American in n foreign land. He has taken
his love for America rs matter Of course
and has given little thought TO it. But
when he sees the Stars and Stripes in Mon
treal or London or Paris or Rome or Vienna
Rarlip n shin bo l.. A.. IIoJ
and the tears come unbidden to his eyes,
and he begins to wonder what it all means.
The internRtiOnalists would tell him that
II means nothing except that he is q stupid
fool with no more intelligence than the
beasts that perish
But there Is something more to II than has.
entered the comprehension OF the men who
would abolish all nations. It is family
loyalty on larger scale.
Patriotism is to nation what the mother
instinct is TO a family. II keeps the or
ganization together
Nations have developed out of disorgan-
ized masses Of men because there was
need for them just as the family developed
in prehistoric times, because of the self
protective instinct of the group
II sounds fine when a man says that his
interests arc not confined by any national
boundaries, but that he is citizen of the
world The German Socialists were In the
habit Of talking in this way before the war
began, but when they were called upon to
decide whether they would be citizens OF the
world or citizens Of Germany, the old basic
instincts asserted themselves and they cast
in their lot with the country in which they
had been born. Their theories broke down
whom brought into contact with hard facts
So when we show our respect for the Flag
today on the anniversary of its adoption we
arc paying tribute to a symbol that stands
for the finest qualities in human nature
the qualities that grow out Of loyalty to the
forces that have made us what we are
We must always hold the Stars and
Stripes in higher esteem than any other
national banner, but that need not blind us
to the fact that the flags of the other ma
tons are also symbols of splendid ideas
1t is out Of this respect for the qualities
Of other nations that a better international
understanding will come. Then patriotism
will not be condemned by impractical and
superficial theorists as the emotion of
ignoble minds and life on this old planet
will be relieved of some of its distressing
complications.