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Show FLIERS DECORATED public v. Ill convey him to his resting place. Tills decorating of Wright brothers broth-ers is a good occasion for tiding a general view of the living Americans raosi the French government has nr.med to the Legion of Hjnor. The :. ion constitutes an order like the an-cicn" an-cicn" order of kaiglrhood. with its ch'evaiers and (heir officers, commanders, command-ers, grand officers and grand Croix. Foreigners who are named to the Legion Le-gion of Honor are these whom the French government recognizes hav6 deserved well of France or of all humanity. hu-manity. Naturally those who catch most easily the eye of government are those t WRIGHT EROTHERS HONORED EY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. Washington's Birthday Marked by the Bestowal of the Red Ribbon of Legion of Honor Upcn American Amer-ican Inventors. The French government has been the first of the nations to officially re& ognize and honor the maker of a flying fly-ing machine and the men thus distinguished dis-tinguished are the two plain, unassuming unassum-ing but busy Americans the Wright brothers. It would seem that the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor was well bestowed, for the achievements of these two men has set all the airship air-ship builders of the world agape with wonder and envy. But what will the red ribben mean to Wilbur and Orvilie Wright? Just what it means to the other Americans who have received it from the French government. It is first and last and all the time an honor which a great nation confers for some special reason. Napoleon created the Legion of Honor first of all for the members of his army. It was to be his reward of merit. He carried around with him on his persen half a dozen of the little crosses which constituted the decoration; decora-tion; and in the smoke of battle pinned now one and now another on the breast of some soldier he had caught in the very act of heroism. In times of peace he found that this same decoration dec-oration excellently took the place of the old orders of nobility, and he conferred con-ferred it on civilians, especially on officeholders, of-ficeholders, to recompense them for faithfulness to his interests. All the French governments since Napoleon, in spite of new revolutions, have found the Legion of Honor useful use-ful for what they call "honorific distinctions." dis-tinctions." It is the republic's only way of doing what King Edward does when he singles out a man fov knighthood or the peerage. Among Frenchmen the military legionaries le-gionaries still enjoy something of the original privilege of the order a small pension and free tuition of their daughters daugh-ters at -the schools founded for that purpose. But for civilians and for foreign legionaries the cross and red ribbon is the highest honor within the gift of the French government and that is enough. During his life the legionary, le-gionary, with the red ribbon in his buttonhole, Will be honored by authorities au-thorities frcm policemen up, and if he dies in France the soldiers of the re- Orville Wright. who, front their official position, conn into direct contact with government-diplomats government-diplomats who please in delicate negotiations nego-tiations or who have long represented their country with honor in Francei and of late those who have had high positions in the world's fairs where France has shown. Then there are men of science recognized already by the French academies or university, and, of course, men of world wide distinction dis-tinction like Edison and the Wrights, whom the French government for the credit of France holds to honoring After these, until lately, it seemed as if American artists resident in Paris would carry off about all the remaining remain-ing red ribbons. Within fifteen years' time a greai change has been wrought. The French government has more and more con ferred its coveted decoration on American Ameri-can business men, Americans in plain commerce and industry and finance. |
