Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1929, Page 92

. - R ——" S = b S—— THE WN“AY QTAR WAQHING’TO'N’.V leerty Gives Force to Flag Day The Story of The Star Spangled Banncr—FEmblem Adopted m 1777 Is Figure in First Officral Annual Obserc- ance in 1915— Represents Loolution of Symbolic Devices Used T hrough the Ages. : BY ANDREW STEWART. N June 14, in the year of grace, 1777 the Congress of the United States adopted the Stars and Stripes as the offjcial flag of our country. It was solemnly “Resolved, That the flag of the United States be 13 stripes, alter- nate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars, white in a blue ficld, representing 2 new con- stellation.” In 1915 President Wilson, by proc- lamation, established, in commemoration of that event, June 14 as National Flag day, to be set apart for paying homage to this emblem sym- bolic of the rights and liberties of our péople. The President said: “It has, therefore, seemed to me fitting that I should call your attention to the approach of the anniversary of the day upon which the flag of the United Statés was adopted by the Congress as the emblem of the Union, and to suggest to you that it should this year and in the years to come be given special significance as a day of renewal and reminder, & day upon which we should direct our minds with a special desire of renewal to thoughts of the ideals and principles of which we have sought to make our great Government the embodiment. * * * Let us on that day rededicate,” oureslves to the Nations, ‘one and in- separable’ from which every thought that is unworthy of our forefathers’ first vow of inde- pendence, liberty and right shall be excluded, and in which we shall stand with unitedghearts for an America which no man can correct, no influence draw away from its ideals, no force ‘divide against itself, a Nation sgn~'ly di- The Rattlesnake flag, which was carried by American tinguished among all the nations of mankind for its clear, individual conception, alike of its duties and its privileges, its obligations and its rights.” [‘HE sentiment of devotion to the flag, thus given exalted expression, is entirely in keep- ing with the traditions of the race, for, as far back as man has been able to delve in the his- tory of human affairs, evidences have been found, whether as delineated on paper, parch- ment, bark or stone, or disclosed by the mute testimony of tokens of man's handiwork ex- humed upon the sites of his primeval abiding places, that there has always existed in man, possibly because most of his knowledge comes to bim through the medium of his eyes, an jr- resistible impulse to set up and reverence, in common, emblems symbolic of his beliefs, his undmons and bis allegiances. Thf$ impulse or instinct, whichever it mny be called, is found demonstrated, for instance, in the discovery of strange symbols in explorations along the Nile and eisewhere in the land of Egypt, that cradie of civilization; tokens of un- doubted national or religious significance, in vogue so long before history was written that their meanings have become forever lost and may not now be even conjectured. We read in th: Bible that the Israelites rey- erenced significant emblems, as also did the Persians. Assyrian standards have been ex- humed upon the site of the lost city of Nineveh; the sacred symbols of the Greeks are well known to the s‘udent of ancient lore, and the D. C, | JUNE 9, m—mn'r 7. The original * standards of Rome were carried in triumph &rquind the world. "Archeological research in regions nearer (o us has revealed that the original inhabitants of - North' 'America held in homage distinctive tribal dévices, and the buried cities of the Astecs, whose histories are lost in the mists of remote ages, Lave yielded to the explorer what are undoubtedly patriotic symbols; among these, semblances of the eagle with outstretched wings recurring throughout the architectural remains of that remarkable, vanished race. *"'THe present-day aboriginal American has, as hifided down from generations of his fathers passed away, symbols of lineage. These are “totems,” exemplified in the sign of the wolf, thé bar and other animals of the chase. The savage of the African jungle pins his faith to many curious and bizarre fetishes. ' “Although in remote times drapery was occa- sionally used for standards, it was probably not until' the Middle Ages that it became the spe- cidl'material for fashioning ensigns, and it was not until the development of the art or science of Heraldry that the flag as now used took form." It has been held probable that the wav- ing flag was introduced by the Saracens, and its present-day form originated probably in the sixth century in Spain. TQE earliest flags were almost wholly religious ..In character and some of their devices have found their way, coming down through the ¢enturies, into the designs of flags of the pres- ent dav Xn feudal times, before the great middle class of soeicty had developed an entity, a fiag, be it @ pennon, a banner or a standard, was gen- erally either of religious significance, or was little. mo=2 than a type of military insignia of arm d vessels during the period from July 6, 1776 to June 14, 1777. Star Spangled Banner.” heraldic import, having a personal relation to some leader or his house. In the dawn of the age of chivalry, long be- fore Willilam of- Normandy, in 1066, sailed across the British Channel, smote the Saxons hip and thigh, and conquered England, it was the custom of both knights and their retainers to wear in the field, extending from neck to knee, over their armor, a garment called a surcoat, or jacque. Upon this jacque, both on breast and back, were emblazoned the knight's armor- ial bearings, a conventionalized design descrip- tive of his lineage. Thus was the knight, otherwise fully masked by his poundage of steel, identified; amd thus were his followers distinguished, as are soldiers of the present day by their uniform. During .the Crusades the warriors of many nations were banded together in a common cause, and the need therefore arose for a dis- tinetive - badge - of broader significance than fealty to some one leader, a badge that sheould show allegiance to a whole nation. What more natural than' that each nation should select, as its token, some particular form and color of the cross -upon which the Savior suf- fered, or the Christian martyr expired, since they were engaged in the enterprise of rescu- ing the Heoly Sepuilcher from the infidel? As wearers of the sign of the cross, inscribed on surcoat and shield, and exemplified in the hilts of their swords, the warriors became known as “Crusaders™ or cross-bearers, and the mission in which they were e'nlls&ed became known as the “Crusade.” - . The English cms.der showed as his distine- tive emblem the. red cross of St. George, a eross of Greek design. The cross chosen by the French crusader was also red: that of the men of Planders was green; the German cross was black, and that of Italy was yellow. AS far back as the end of the fifteenth century the seamen of th: Cinque Ports (five senports)‘-—nasungq Sandwich, Hythe, Romney, Dover; also, later, Winchelsea and Rye—on the east coast of England, from among which seamen’ the Eng]lth marine forces were up to that time largely recruited, wore a white surcoat bearing the red cross of St. George, and in ttnnsfen'ing troops across the Channel in the incessant wars between Britain and the continent, it'is'said that it grew to be custom to display. abo e the ship's bulwarks ome of these surcoats, or jacques, upon a spear or staff, as a to‘k‘;n to proclaim the nationality ef the voyagers. . In time the jacque gave way, possibly in a spirit, of economy qQr .as being more easily handled, to a piece of cloth or flag, carrying the flaming . cross, and the name of “Jacque” or “Jaeck,” was transferred to the flag. The staff on which it was raised was then called a “Jack- staff.” | This white flag bearing the emblem of the cross of, St,, George, composed of two bars, the one perpendicular, the other crossing it transversally, became in time the English na- tional flag or jack. This is one version of the genesis of the union jack. Aecording to another, the term jack was derived from the name of James I, King .of both England and Scotland, whe or- dered, by proclamation the union of the fiags, and who always signed his name, “Jacques.” The .red, cross of St. George flew at John Cabot’s masthead as he discovered the Amer- ican continent in .1497; it was also the flag flown by Capt. John Smith at Jamestown, Va, in 1607, and was. carried in the Mayflower to Plymough, Mass., in 1620. When the jack of Scotland, a blue flag bear- ing the white saltir or stirrup-shaped, diagonal- barred cross .of St. Andrew, and the Irish jack, a white flag with the red saltir cross known as the cross, of St. Patrick (although St. Patrick never bad a cross), were combined with the English jack, as they are in the British flag to- day. and have been since 1801, the coalition be=- came knawn as the union jack of Great Britain and. Ireland, and the part of th: national eol- ors eccupied by it is called the union. There are two points 9 ™t this flag that are of spe-