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Show SIMPLE RULES OF FLAG 'ETIQUETTE (From Pathfinder Magazine) , June 14th marks the 159th an-! niversary of the unfurling of thej ' Stars and Stripes. There are but j few citizens and school children who are unfamiliar with the history his-tory of our flag, said to be tha third oldest of the national standards stand-ards of the world. Briefly stated, the standards which our flag of ( today follows were authorized by ! Continental congress on June 14, 1777. It then contained 13 stars i and 13 stripes. A star and a stripe for each state was decreed when j Vermont (1791) and Kentucky I (1792) were admitted to the Union, j Admission of more states, how ever, proved this procedure im- practical and in IS 1 8 an act of congress gave us the standard for our flag of today which is a stripe for each of the original states and a star for each, making up the present Union the star to be added on the -1th of July following ' admission as a new state. Thus, jour fla;.1; now contains 13 Mripes i and 48 stars. Our national anthem, odopted as such by congress in 1931, was inspired by the flair and written in 1S12 by Francis Scott Key. Since there is nothing distinctly novel or new to be added to flag history it is the purpose of the ensuing paragraphs to set down some of the more important rules of showing respect to the flag. Most of the states have laws governing treatment of the flag hut the only federal statutes pertaining per-taining to this subject merely authorize display of the flag on Mother's day; provide dismissal of government employees for criticizing criticiz-ing the flag in an abusive or violent manner in time of war; prohibit use of the flag for advertising adver-tising purposes or as a trademark; ; and provide penalities for mutilation mutila-tion or desecration of the flag in the District of Columbia. Ac'cord- j (Continued on last page) u Flag Etiquette (Continued from first page) ing to an executive order issued by President Taft in 1912 the proper proportions for a flag of the na- ; tion are as follows: Hoist (width) S 1; fly (length) 1.9; hoist of union (field of stars) 713; fly of union 0.76; and width of stripes 113,1 seven red and six white; and diameter di-ameter of each star .0G1. In the absence of federal regulations regula-tions the flag rules of the army were accepted as the standard of flag etiquette by the patriotic organizations which have sponsored sponsor-ed a universal flag code adopted at the' flag conference held in 1923. . Fiags may be displayed every day and it is urged by such organizations organiza-tions that patriotic holidays especially especi-ally should be so observed. In the army the flag is hoisted briskly at sunrise every day of the year, regardless re-gardless of the weather, and lowered low-ered slowly at sunset. While the war department advises that it is not improper to fly the flag at night over civilian property such procedure is seldom followed except ex-cept in time of war. The rule of day display is followed by the government except at the capitol where the two flags over the east and west fronts are flown night and day the year round and the flag over the house and .senate wings are flown continuously while congress is in session; and at the congressional library where the flag flies from sunrise until 10 p.m., the closing hour. On Memorial Memor-ial day the flag should fly at half-mast half-mast from sunrise until noon and at full-peak from noon until sunset. sun-set. In hoisting the flag to half-mast half-mast it should be always hoisted first to the peak and then lowered to half-mast. It "should again be raised to peak before lowering it for the day. Under no circumstances circum-stances should the flag be allowed to touch the ground or to trail in the water. Perhaps the most finely split rules, certainly important, are those governing the display of our flag in conjunction with those of other nations or political divisions. An easy rule to remember is that our own flag always occupies the honor position on the right, should lead in a moving procession and that another flag is never hoisted aboue our own. Flags of two or more nations displayed together should be flown from separate staffs, at the same height and of the same size; the national flag to |