3¢ FROM STEERAGE TO CONGRESS 
happiness. Antietam, Fair Oaks, Shiloh, Gettys- 
burg! Like the battles of the Punic Wars and the 
field of Leonidas, some of these may be forgotten in 
the thousands of years to come; at least their iden- 
tity may be lost upon the topography of battle. 
True! But Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of 
freedom to the slave—thig will thrill the human 
heart until Niature’s clock strikes the last hour of 
time. Look where you will, the mission of our flag 
reveals itself in the solution of problems that make 
for the betterment, for the uplifting of the race. 
When the plain people of all the earth, of every 
clime and race and tongue, were seen crowding the 
ocean’s pathways leading to the promised land of a 
new dispensation, then a great problem came. How 
to remove the barriers which prejudice, the ambi- 
tion and tyranny of kings had erected? How to har- 
monize and unify where centuries of strife had nur- 
tured only hatred? The solution of this problem 
was to be worked out in the valleys of the Connecti- 
cut and the Hudson, in the shadow of the Alleg- 
henies, and out upon the great, silent prairies of the 
West. America, true to the mission of the flag, to 
the genius of her people, began to grapple with the 
problem, and at last the light broke in. The school- 
house was planted upon all the hillsides and in every 
valley of the great Republic. Education solves the 
problem. All our varied nationalities have been 
welded and blended into one mighty unit of patriotic 
American “citizenry.” We are no longer English, 
Irish, German, Scandinavian. Under the folds of 
the great flag we are nothing unless, one and all, 
heart and soul, we are Americans!’’ - 
‘“Spread eagle talk,” the reader will say. Well, 
every word came from the bottom of my heart and 
I merely expressed what is in the hearts of most 
of our adopted citizens. They look upon the Ameri- 
can flag as an emblem of everything that is good 
and grand and noble;as-amemblem not only of lib-