My Fellow-Citizens: We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought, and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable men of the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For something for which it has never sought the fire before? These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it is we seek to serve. PRESIDENT WILSON, _Washington, Flag Day, June 14, 1917._ [Illustration] _YOU DARED TO FIND US OUT!_ _Baron Von Rautenfels (Diplomatic Messenger from Berlin to Norway): "Not how the bombs came here, but that you dared to open my luggage, is all that matters to Germany."_ * * * * * The police on Saturday arrested a certain Baron von Rautenfels, who declares that he was born in Finland, but is now a German subject, and two Finlanders. At their lodgings and in the luggage of these persons the police found nearly a ton of explosives of a very powerful variety. Part of these explosives was made up to resemble coal briquettes, and was all ready to be mixed with the coal in ships' bunkers. The baron's luggage also contained cigarettes and tobacco mixed with carborundum, which can be used to ruin engines or machinery. The baron and the other arrested persons declare that the bombs and other explosives were to be used in Finland. _Christiania, June 24, 1917._ [Illustration] _FRATERNIZING ON THE GALICIAN FRONT AS GENERAL BRUSILOFF UNDERSTANDS IT_ * * * * * M. Kerensky (the Russian War Minister) and General Brusiloff have organised a new offensive in Galicia which has had a magnificent success, a tremendous blow being struck at the enemy. The news of victory has transformed Petrograd, and the pessimism that was paralyzing the people has given way to a flood of eager patriotism. _Times Correspondent, Petrograd, July 4, 1917._ [Illustration] _THE FALL OF THE CHILD SLAYER_ * * * * * Three airships only were able to approach the outskirts of London.