The Meaning of the Flag
By Editor
In every city and town, in every village and hamlet, from public building and private residence the Stars and Stripes has been flung to the free breezes on the memorable Fourth. It has been cheered and saluted and affectionately called "Old Glory." The eyes of the old veterans have moistened as they have gazed upon its rippling beauty, and their voices have trembled suspiciously as they have recounted the struggles at Antietam, Lookout Mountain, Gettysburg, Richmond, or some other battle. The flag is beautiful in design and in its blending of color. "When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white
With streakings of the morning light.
Then from his mansion near the sun
She called her eagle bearer down,
And gave into his mighty hand
The symbol of our chosen band." Thus sang T. Buchanan Read. But it is not of the colors or the beauty of their blending that we wish to speak. It is not the thirteen stripes for the thirteen original states, and the forty-eight stars for the present number, which suggest the great growth of the nation. These are fitting and proper. But the Stars and Stripes has a deeper meaning. The flag stands for equality, for civil and religious liberty, for freedom of conscience. The weary watchers of Europe’s lands of tyranny saw in it a beacon beckoning to a better day, a harbinger of hope to the oppressed. Standing for that, it is worthy of regard. Representing a government or state which stands for civil and religious liberty, it is worthy of honor. Standing for any government, it should be respected for government’s sake. It said to the individual that the medieval tyranny of the Old World was cast off, and that civil freedom was born anew; the inalienable rights of man—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—were recognized. It said to the individual that priestly fetters, religious proscription, persecution for conscience’ sake, union of church and state, were in the past. Since that first flag was flung to heaven’s free breezes, there have been foul blots upon its beauty. It has in many cases been used to protect and shield local tyranny and intolerance. There are those who would make it the symbol to the world of that to-day in the church-and-state régime, the Christian citizenship movement, which they are promoting, and saddest of all they are pushing it forward in the name of Him who preeminently stood for individual soul freedom. Mistaken, self-deceived they are who are doing this; so the intolerant and persecuting have ever been. The worst of it is they are deceiving others. When that glorious banner, in which was swathed the new-born liberty of the West, is made to stand for tyranny and oppression of any sort, it becomes a symbol of oppression. They bring reproach upon it who demand that the child at school must salute it or the anarchist shall kiss it, both of which have been compelled in this "land of the free." In God’s providence the flag is designed to be neither fetish nor idol, but a symbol of that freedom and equality which, if conserved and guarded by the government, will in their own intrinsic worth and beauty win the respect and honor of all. Wo worth the day when Columbia yields to the soothsayers who are luring her away from her basic ideals. When that time comes, the beautiful flag becomes at best a tricolored piece of bunting, at its worst a symbol of tyranny. May love for the principles of freedom stay the hands which would blemish its beauty.