CONTROVERSY: Old Glory & Something Blue

A blue & white flag flapped quietly last week beside the Stars and Stripes, on flagpoles here & there throughout the land. But in other towns, officials nervously stood by the halyards, ready to hoist or lower away as embattled clubwomen and veterans’ organizations argued.

It was U.N. week (see INTERNATIONAL) , and hundreds of earnest men & women had made plans to fly U.N. flags; governors had issued the appropriate proclamations. At the suggestion of a National Grange publicity man, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had mailed out information on kits for making homemade U.N. flags to sewing circles from Maine to Yakima, Wash. They were told that U.N. flags should be displayed on a level with—but to the left of—the U.S. flag, and should be about the same size. The League of Women Voters pestered town councils to get the flags flown at city buildings and schools.

“U.N. Is Un-American.” But the Daughters of the American Revolution were alarmed. Their president general, Mrs. James B. Patton in Washington, declared that the U.N. flag should be displayed only at U.N. meetings, and never above, or in equal prominence with, Old Glory. Ex-Marine Charles C. Rails, national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, also viewed Agriculture’s efforts darkly. “Could there be more significance in this effort to ‘sell’ the U.N. flag as a symbol to supersede the American flag?” he demanded.

In Los Angeles, a clutch of angry, elderly demonstrators stormed a U.N. flag-raising ceremony. They chanted “U.N. is un-American,” wagged U.S. flags in the faces of sheepish councilmen. The Chicago Tribune discovered a lady sewing on a U.N. flag, and the anti-U.N. fervor swept Tribune-land. Illinois V.F.W. and American Legion posts passed resolutions. The Aurora city council banned the U.N. flag from public buildings because “Russian Communists remain in the United Nations.” In Highland Park, the local D.A.R. insisted that the U.N. flag come down. It did. The Parent-Teacher Association insisted it go back up. Town officials asked the Army at Fort Sheridan for guidance, who asked Fifth Army headquarters in Chicago, who asked the Pentagon.

No Confusion. In Groton, Conn., the town’s board of selectmen refused to accept a U.N. flag from the local League of Women Voters because of “the general objection of the American Legion.” Retorted the local V.F.W. commander: “If U.S. troops in Korea have no objection to fighting under both flags, I see no reason for objections at home.”

The South felt it no problem. Said Atlanta’s Mayor William B. Hartsfield: “We have not run into any confusion because we are familiar with correct flag protocol. We fly the Confederate flag on a separate pole on Confederate Memorial Day, and we’ll fly the U.N. flag the same way.”