THE BUILDER February 1915

THE FLAG OF PEACE

'Tis said that the Flag of our Republic was born in 1777, but that
cannot be true. It was stitched into form at that time, in a little
back parlor, but he who would know its origin must look far into
the dim, pathetic, aspiring past. It was woven on the Loom of Ages-
-woven of the dreams and heartbeats of humanity, of the warp of
sorrow and the woof of hope--by a Great Hand stretched out from the
Unseen. All those who on red fields of war died that their sons
might be free; all who in dark prison cells suffered for the rights
of man; all who in the long night of tyranny toiled and prayed for
a better day, added threads to our Flag. It floats to-day in the
blue sky, swayed by happy winds, held aloft by innumerable hands of
the living and the dead, at once a history and a prophecy.

In old mythology Minerva and Ceres presided over the laboring
classes --robed in flaming red, and that color became their emblem;
but it was an emblem of blood-making, not of blood-letting;
symbolizing the victories of peace, not those of war. Color in
ancient Rome separated plebeian from patrician--blue the color of
the aristocracy, white the war symbol, and red the emblem of labor
and peace. All these colors are blended in our Flag, making it the
sanctifying symbol of Unity, Fraternity, and Good-will among men.
So may it ever be--Flag of Freedom and Friendship--woven of "the
mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and
patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this
broad land," proclaiming the time-glorified principles wrought out
by the tears and prayers of our fathers.

Let all those who stand under it join hearts in one faith, join
hands in one purpose--for the safety and sanctity of this Republic;
for the rights of man and the majesty of law; for the moral
trusteeship of private property and public office; for the
education of the ignorant; for the lifting of poverty, through
self-help, to comfort; for the dignity of the home and the laughter
of little children; for social beauty, national glory, and human
welfare. Long may it wave, rendered for all ages holy by the faith
of the men who lifted it up, and the valor of the men who defended
it in an hour of madness and peril. May it never again float over
a field of war, but ever and forever over scenes of peace, honor,
and progress. 
--J. F. N.
