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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 6. 1940 ■.tWB-M. '1 ' Urges a Citizenship Recognition Day As the Opening Ceremony in the 1940 Celebration of National Flag Week DISPLAY IT r respect it APOSTROPHE TO OUR NATIONAL FLAG BY WILLIAM T. KERR, PHILADELPHIA Founder and National President, American Flag Day Association Pride of all America Admired by all the World! Floating o'er every school house. On every hill-top. In every valley and plain. Liberty's School.Master! Tyranny's scourge at all times In every clime and nation. Laughing to scorn the teachings of Monarchy's "Divine rlght w ! Setting at naught the claims of princes and potentates! Standard of Freedom . civil and religious! Emblem of a United people, the greatest and grandest Nation sun e'er sfcone o'er: knowing no master. Fearing no king. Kneeling to none but Almighty God! Marking the pathway for Other nations to tread! The beacon light of civilization! ■OLD GLORY" We salute thee! There Is no stain on any stripe In all thy years of life! The lustre of thy stars Shines out more brightly as Time rolls on! Born June 14, 1777 Midst Cannon's roar and blast of musketry! Standard of Washington! of Lincoln! and all the long line of America’s Patriots who gave their lives In war and spent their strength In peace for Righteousness. Foreign foes throughout great wars fell neath they withering glances While mistaken brethren who for a time forgot thee Now love thee all the more! ••••• Proudly aloft thou wavest, welcoming freedom-loving seekers but crying ■Back" to every foe of America's greatness, ■Our free Institutions, handiwork "of our Illustrious forefathers / "Must not be destroyed, HANDS OFF!" Beautiful starry banner! there Is none fairer or grander Anywhere. We rejoice with thee on this thy natal day. Long may thy stripes and stars Fly to the breeze, bidding defiance to thy foes, proclaiming Liberty! Long may thou vigil keep O'er millions patriots homes, Stamping Indelibly, deep Into the minds of all, THAT FREE AMERICA, Than which there Is None greater now In.all the earth. WILL YET GREATER BE, when every son and daughter of thy soil, and every other In our midst shall know naught save ONE GOD! ONE PEOPLE! ONE LANGUAGE! AND ONE FLAG "OLD GLORY"! Yours and mine. ••••* TEACH ITS HISTORY*. PROCLAIM IT TO ALL in Picture, Song and Story, LET NONE FORGET ITS COST In blood! and tears! and untold sacrifice. 'OLD GLORY" SPEAKS: "Americans, WHAT you are I AM, Don't let the red Flag of Communism or Anarchy Supplant Me . By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) PURRED on by what William T. Kerr, founder and, since 1898, national president 2^ e American Flag Day associa tion, calls “the affronter^ of all the forces of un-American ism, those groups who support Atheism, Communism, Bolshev ism, Nazism, Fascism and other foreign isms,” the association is urging every community in the United States to celebrate Flag Week this year with patriotic programs and is suggesting a new Flag Week feature — the observance of a Citizenship Recognition Day. The plan for this observ- ^ ance is as follows: On the Saturday preceding Flag Day, that is, on June 8, each com munity will hold a patriotic parade with the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Boy Scouts and all pa triotic, fraternal, civic and service organizations partici pating. After the parade there will be a meeting at which will be assembled all the young men and women who have become or will become of voting age this year and all adults who in 1940, prior to or on June 8, have become Amer ican citizens through natural ization. During the program, or at its conclusion, every one present will, repeat the pledge taken by the new citizens or “The Pledge to the flag” used in the public schools—“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” In this public recognition no dis tinction is to be made between the youth born on American soil and those who will become citi zens by naturalization of them selves or their parents. The spirit of the occasion will be “We are all Americans.” The recognition of naturalized new citizens is not a new thing, since federal judges in various communities, notably in the East, have done it with small groups in their courts at the time the for mer aliens became American cit izens. But a general community assembly of newly made, foreign- born citizens and the youth of vot ing age, particularly associating it with Flag Day, is an innova tion. In presenting this plan for a Citizenship Recognition Day, the president of the American Flag Day association points out that no other time seems so ap propriate as during the celebra tion of Flag Week with its climax of the nation-wide observance of Flag Day. “Native Americans who be come of voting age are accus tomed to taking their voting priv ilege as a simple matter of course, a kind of inheritance,” says Mr. Kerr. “They do not seem to realize that they have, perhaps through no particular merit of their own, received the highest American privilege, mak ing them the political equal of the most favored person in the land. Holding a Citizenship Rec ognition Day offers an opportu nity for emphasizing their re sponsibilities as citizens which so many of us overlook.” A Greater Significance. In view of the present situation in Europe—the extinguishment of human liberties and the oppres sion of smaller nations by the armed might of totalitarian gov ernments—citizenship in a nation “with liberty and justice for all” should mean more than ever be fore. For this reason the cele bration of Flag Week this year has an even greater significance than in years past and 1940 seems an appropriate time for inaugurat ing an observance of Citizenship Recognition Day as an integral part of it. If, as has been suggested, it is observed on Saturday, June 8, it will be the opening event in the celebration of Flag Week along with the patriotic-religious serv ices in synagogues on that day, to be followed by similar services in churches on Sunday, June 9. Chief among the latter is the an nual service held at one of the principal Revolutionary war shrines—the chapel at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. Many Sunday schools will also hold loy alty Flag Week programs in con nection with the observance of Children’s Day on June 9. The American Flag Day asso ciation, the proponent of a nation wide Citizenship Recognition Day, is the pioneer organization formed to popularize the observ ance of the birthday anniversary of our flag. It was founded in Pittsburgh in the midst of the Spanish-American war and Mr. Kerr was elected its president, an office he has held ever since. An employee of the freight traffic de partment of the Pennsylvania railroad, he has devoted all of his spare time to promoting the ob servance of Flag Day and to hav ing it designated as a national holiday. When Mr. Kerr was a young boy, a railroad engineer told him the story of Betsy Ross and the early history of our flag. Inspired by this and aided by his mother and his father, a veteran of the Union army in the Civil war, he began making plans for a move ment to recognize officially the birthday of the flag on a nation wide scale. The eventual result was the organization in 1898 of the American Flag Day associa tion, a non-partisan, non-sec tarian, non-racial, non-profit asso ciation, devoted solely to the pa triotic work of honoring the Stars and Stripes on its birthday. A Legal Holiday? Since that time it has worked persistently to popularize the cus tom of displaying the flag on June 14 and to have Flag Day made a legal holiday. Some resistance has been encountered, according to Mr. Kerr, because some busi ness men think that we have too many holidays in this country. They point out that June 14 lies between Memorial Day on May 30 and Independence Day on July 4 so that two legal holidays within a little more than a month should ■ be sufficient. However, Mr. Kerr and his as sociates believe that the observ ance of the birthday of our flag is justified by its historic signify icance—the formal adoption of v the Stars and Stripes as the em blem o£ the new nation on June 14, 1777. “We are learning a new understanding and new ap preciation of the flag,” says Mr. Kerr. “We are not looking upon it as a waving banner that leads us into battle, nor an emblem of war, but more as a symbol of achievement, progress, helpful ness and friendship. In the light of events in recent years the waving of our flag has come to signify the glories of peace and the joys of friendship rather than the accomplishment of war.” As the result of the efforts of this association, in 1938 Flag Day was made a legal holiday in Pennsylvania, the state which, because of the action of the Con tinental congress 163 years ago, can be regarded as the “birth place of Old Glory.” Massachu setts and Connecticut have stat utes requiring their governors to issue Flag Day proclamations but these two and Pennsylvania are the only commonwealths which officially recognize Flag Day. The national observance of the day—though not as a legal holi day—is due to President Wood- row Wilson who on May 13, 1916, issued a proclamation designat ing June 14 of each year as Flag Day. It has been so observed since that time. Although vari ous persons have, from time to time, been designated as the “originator” of Flag Day, it is doubtful if that title can justly be awarded to any individual, since several Americans have contrib uted to the idea. Undoubtedly the work of Mr. Kerr, since the founding of the American Flag Day association in 1898, greatly stimulated popular interest in the celebration and he, therefore, has a claim to some share in the title. Where Statues Wore Hats! Mystery of Easter Island Science Finds Creators of Intricate Script Were ‘Long-Eared’ Artists. O N EASTER DAY, 1722, the Dutch Admiral Roggeveen landed on a small Pacific island, which he named after the day. He must have thought that he was landing in a nightmare, for the shores were ringed with gigantic stone statues, wearing tall red hats, and standing on high plat forms with their backs to the sea. And the whole island was literally covered with statues 1 They still stand there today. Later visitors made further odd discoveries. It seemed that the inhabitants had suffered a devour ing national passion for sculpture. Hardly a boulder or an outcrop of rock had not been turned into an enormous bust, a fantastic head One Step The sublime and ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step below the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.—Thomas Paine. with enormously long ears. At the same time, they discovered wooden tablets and other objects covered with a complicated script. This started a series of the most extraordinary theories, including suggestions that Easter island had been occupied by Red Indians, Egyptians, and the lost tribes of Israel. But nobody managed to put forward a reasonable explana tion of how this diversity of races got there, or went away when their work was done! Long-Eared Artists. Then science took a hand. First of all, local legends were investi gated, and the islanders told of a migration in the past from a dis tant island in the west. Proof came from one of the Gambler islands, over a thousand miles away, in the form of another legend. It told of a defeated chief setting sail to find a new home for his people. Local legend also told of two distinct races inhabit ing Easter island, the “long ears” and the “short ears.” And here again, science found the proof; for skulls found on Easter island show Gems of Thought 'T'AKE warning by the mis- -*• fortunes of others, that oth ers may not take example from you.—Saadi. Life is a series of surprises, and ivould not be worth taking or keep ing if it were not.—Emerson. The winds and waves are al ways on the side of the ablest navigators.—Gibbon. Better by far that you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.— Christina Rossetti. We win by tenderness; we con quer by forgiveness.—Frederick W. Robertson. that migrants came, not only from the Pacific islands, but also from the Australasian islands. The “long ears” were the art ists. It was their tribal custom to stretch the lobes of their ears, and they wore hats for ceremonial purposes. They were the cre ators of the intricate script which cannot be read, but, defeated by the “short ears,” they have faded 'away and left no one to tell their story. So far science can speak with authority, but science cannot say why the islanders who migrated to Easter island should have pro gressed so far beyond those of their race who inhabit other islands. | NEW HIGH LEVELS t ZofZ, CRUDE RUBBER ADVANCED WITHIN THE PAST 60 DAYS WHILE YOU CAN STILL GET STANDARD TIRES AT 'THESE /*■ \ LOW PRICES M / / y«r. > / / The world-famous reputation of these tires, backed by Firestone’s name and lifetime guarantee, is proof of their extra quality and extra safety! Don’t take chances! 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