of the great principles which we stand
associated to promote. I for my part rejoice that we belong to a country
in which the whole business of government is so difficult. We do not
take orders from anybody; it is a universal communication of conviction,
the most subtle, delicate, and difficult of processes. There is not a
single individual's opinion that is not of some consequence in making up
the grand total, and to be in this great cooperative effort is the most
stimulating thing in the world. A man standing alone may well misdoubt
his own judgment. He may mistrust his own intellectual processes; he may
even wonder if his own heart leads him right in matters of public
conduct; but if he finds his heart part of the great throb of a national
life, there can be no doubt about it. If that is his happy circumstance,
then he may know that he is part of one of the great forces of the
world.

I would not feel any exhilaration in belonging to America if I did not
feel that she was something more than a rich and powerful nation. I
should not feel proud to be in some respects and for a little while her
spokesman if I did not believe that there was something else than
physical force behind her. I believe that the glory of America is that
she is a great spiritual conception and that in the spirit of her
institutions dwells not only her distinction but her power. The one
thing that the world can not permanently resist is the moral force of
great and triumphant convictions.

THE MEANING OF THE FLAG

The following address on the Flag was delivered by President
Woodrow Wilson from the south portico of the Treasury Building,
Washington, D.C., June 14, 1915.

MR. SECRETARY, FRIENDS, AND FELLOW CITIZENS:--I know of nothing more
difficult than to render an adequate tribute to the emblem of our
nation. For those of us who have shared that nation's life and felt the
beat of its pulse it must be considered a matter of impossibility to
express the great things which that emblem embodies. I venture to say
that a great many things are said about the flag which very few people
stop to analyze. For me the flag does not express a mere body of vague
sentiment. The flag of the United States has not been created by
rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of
rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and
nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It
is