FLAG LEGISLATION AND OBSERVANCE DAYS
Legislation concerning the flag and special observance days takes on the characteristics of other laws passed since 1917. One of the first “flag laws” was passed in 1918 by Maryland. This law declared as the purpose of its enactment that “the love of liberty and democracy, signified in the devotion of all true and patriotic Americans to their flag and to their country, shall be instilled in the hearts and minds of the youth of America.”[295] Two years later, when the tide of legislation for encouraging patriotism was at full flood, a law embracing all schools through institutions of higher learning passed the legislature. By this statute all public and private schools, with the exception of professional schools, were required to open their exercises “on at least one day of each school week, whether morning, afternoon, or evening, with the singing of the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’”[296]
Reverence and respect for the flag was the purpose of Oklahoma’s statute in 1921. To insure obedience to the law, which was applicable to all public, private, parochial and denominational schools, the penalty of imprisonment or a fine could be imposed upon an offender. “Any teacher,” affirmed the law, “neglecting to display said flag or carry out said ceremonial, or any person forbidding or hindering the display of said flag or the carrying out of said ceremonial shall be subject to discharge or removal and shall also be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not less than sixty days and not more than six months, or both.”[297]
Minnesota, in passing “An act to provide for the teaching in all the common, graded, and high schools of this state of exercises tending to promote and inculcate patriotism,” was actuated by a like motive in 1917. Here a half hour daily must be devoted to patriotic exercises in all public schools, and every teacher should, by special exercises and by the teaching of subjects especially suitable, encourage and inculcate the spirit of patriotism. Such exercises were to consist of the singing of patriotic songs, readings from American history and from the biographies of American statesmen and patriots.[298]
Of slightly different character was the agency for propagating patriotism devised by the Alabama legislature in 1919, by which was established the “Alabama Patriotic Society.” This organization, non-political and non-sectarian, essayed as its objects “to stimulate patriotism among the people; to teach the fundamental principles of American institutions, or free government; to develop in the hearts and minds of Alabamans a deeper love of country and reverence for the American flag; to expound the underlying principle of self-determination; to immortalize the heroes who have brought fame and renown to Alabama by reason of their courage and leadership in all the great wars, in which Alabamans have engaged; to teach the people to love their State, to respect her laws and to support the Constitution of both the State and Federal Government; to bring the people together to the end that unity of purpose and solidarity may be promoted; to hold discussions of patriotic and political questions affecting the general welfare of the whole people, and to issue educational pamphlets and matter to aid in carrying the purpose of the society fully into effect.”[299]
In North Carolina, October twelfth has been set aside for appropriate exercises in the public schools “to the consideration of some topic or topics” of state history.[300] In Oklahoma, November sixteenth has been designated for a like purpose in order to teach “loyalty and patriotism” to state and Union.[301]
Since 1918, the date November eleventh has become the occasion for a commemoration of the general rejoicing which was caused by the signing of the Armistice. In the state of Washington, the law has ordained that it shall be “the duty of each teacher in the public schools ..., or principal in charge of the school building, to ... present a program of exercises of at least sixty minutes in length, setting forth the part taken by the United States and the state of Washington in the world war for the years 1917-1918, and the principles for which the allied nations fought, and the heroic deeds of American soldiers and sailors, the leading events in the history of our state and of Washington Territory, the character and struggles of the pioneers, and other topics tending to instill a loyalty and devotion to the institutions and laws of our state.” West Virginia also has recognized Armistice Day as a time fitting for “appropriate ceremonies.”[302]
A joint resolution of the legislature of Maryland in 1920 memorialized the President of the United States to designate November eleventh of each year as a day for national thanksgiving. This day, the General Assembly believed, had been “made sacred to the hearts of the American people, in that it was the day on which the world’s greatest tragedy was arrested and the awful pull at the people’s heart strings relaxed,” and on which “there terminated that war which overthrew the inhuman monster who laid blood-hands upon nearly every home of a peace-blest earth.” The world was further assured on this day, the lawmakers declared, that “the struggle of democratic nations for liberty and for righteousness had triumphed over the kultur and the crime of the scientific barbarians, and that autocracy and diabolical tyranny lay defeated and crushed behind the long rows of white crosses which stretch across Europe....” The legislators desired that the day should be the occasion for “strengthening of those noble sentiments of patriotism common to the American people, and to the love for the cause for which the sons of Maryland fought and gave their lives in the World War,” and it was recommended that the schools observe the day in a “fitting and impressive manner.”[303]
An act amending the law relating to holidays in Wisconsin, in 1923 set aside Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays for commemorative exercises in the public schools of that state.[304] North Dakota took similar action, adding October twelfth and November eleventh for observance except in communities where special exercises were held.[305] In Michigan, in addition to observance days previously prescribed, Roosevelt’s birthday, October twenty-seventh, and “Liberty Day,” November eleventh, have been designated for “proper and appropriate commemorative ceremonies.”[306]
South Dakota, in 1921, declared that Memorial Day should also be known as “Citizenship Day” in that state, at which time each citizen who had become twenty-one years of age during the year, or who had been admitted into full citizenship of the United States during that period, should receive a “citizenship certificate signed by the Governor, attested by the Secretary of State, and countersigned by the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of the County in which such citizen resides.” The certificate included the name, age, and residence of the citizen, who also received a “manual of citizenship” containing “the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and of South Dakota,” and “non-political axioms and discussions of the principles of popular citizenship.”[307]