---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Crellin, Charles G.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 9
published: 1917-07
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Charles G. Crellin, "The Flag," *Improvement Era* 20, no. 9 (July 1917): 757–758.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2009unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2009unse
start_page: 757
end_page: 758
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-07)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2009unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Flag

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<!-- Source heading: The Flag. -->



1777-1795
Thirteen  Stripes,  Thirteen  Stars
1795-1818
Fifteen  Stripes.  Fifteen  Stars
The  Flag
(Selected)
Stars  of  the  early  dawning  set  in  a  field  of  blue,
Stripes  of  the  sunrise  splendor,  crimson  and  white  of  hue ;
Flag  of  our  fathers'  fathers,  born  on  the  field  of  strife,
Phoenix  of  fiery  battle  risen  from  human  life,
Given  for  God  and  freedom  sacred  indeed  the  trust
Left  by  the  countless  thousands  returned  to  the  silent  dust.

<!-- page:758 -->



July  4,  1912
Thirteen  Stripes,  Forty-eight  Stars
l-'lai:  of  a  mighty  nation,  waving  aloft  unfurled,
Kissed  by  the  sun  of  heaven,  caressed  by  the  winds  o'  the  world;
(Greater  than  kingly  power,  greater  than  all  mankind,
Conceived  in  the  need  of  the  hour,  inspired  by  the  Master  Mind.
Over  the  living  children,  over  the  laureled  grave,
Streaming  on  high  in  the  cloudless  sky,  banner  our  fathers  gave.
Flag  of  a  new-born  era,  token  of  every  right
Wrung  from  a  tyrant  power,  unawed  by  a  tyrant's  might:
Facing  again  the  menace  outflung  from  a  foreign  shore,
Meeting  again  the  challenge  as  met  in  the  years  before;
Under  thy  spangled  folds  thy  children  await  to  give
All  that  they  have  or  are  that  the  flag  they  love  shall  live.
Port  Huron,  Mich.  — Charles  G.  Crellin.