ity of American
citizenship.

Very lately a unique exercise has been added to the course in these
schools, that lays hold of the very marrow of the problem with which they
deal. It is called "saluting the flag," and originated with Colonel George
T. Balch, of the Board of Education, who conceived the idea of instilling
patriotism into the little future citizens of the Republic in doses to
suit their childish minds. To talk about the Union, of which most of them
had but the vaguest notion, or of the duty of the citizen, of which they
had no notion at all, was nonsense. In the flag it was all found embodied
in a central idea which they could grasp. In the morning the star-spangled
banner was brought into the school, and the children were taught to salute
it with patriotic words. Then the best scholar of the day before was
called out of the ranks, and it was given to him or her to keep for the
day. The thing took at once and was a tremendous success.

Then was evolved the plan of letting the children decide for themselves
whether or not they would so salute the flag as a voluntary offering,
while incidentally instructing them in the duties of the voter at a time
when voting was the one topic of general interest. Ballot-boxes were set
up in the schools on the day before the last general election (1891). The
children had been furnished with ballots for and against the flag the week
before, and told to take them home to their parents and talk it over with
them, a very apt reminder to those who were naturalized citizens of their
own duties, then pressing. On the face of the ballot was the question to
be decided: "Shall the school salute the Nation's flag every day at the
morning exercises?" with a Yes and a No, to be crossed out as the voter
wished. On its back was printed a Voter's A, B, C, in large plain type,
easy to read:

"This country in which I live, and which is _my_ country, is called a
REPUBLIC. In a Republic, _the people govern_. The people who govern are
called _citizens_. I am one of the people and _a little citizen_.

"The way the citizens govern is, either by voting for the person whom they
want to represent them, or who will say what the people want him to
say--or by voting _for_ that thing they would like to do, or _against_
that thing which they do not want to do.

"The Citizen who votes is called a _voter_ or an _elector_, and the right
of voting is called the _suffrage_. The voter puts on a piece of pap