The Flag That Was There

While Hurricane Hazel buffeted Washington one day last fall, a man appeared on the roof of the U.S. Capitol, and struggled to the flagpole over the west entrance. Working in the wind and rain, he ran down the American flag, took a brand-new one from a box and ran it up the staff. Then he quickly lowered it, raised the old flag and, clutching the new one, crept back downstairs. All year long, U.S. Capitol policemen go through this same ritual. They are fulfilling requests from Congressmen for flags that have "flown over the Capitol." Police Private Dix C. Boone (the Capitol's flag-raising specialist) spends as much as two hours a day, raising and lowering 40 or more flags.

Congressmen have sent worn and tattered Capitol flags to friends for decades. But the practice of running flags up the staff for a moment and then lowering them on a mass-production basis was an innovation of the late 1930s, its author a Congressman impatient at waiting for one of the regular flags to wear out. After World War II, a few newspaper feature stories spread the word, and the souvenir flag market has now gone wild. More than 1,000 flags have been dispatched to congressional constituents in 1954, compared with 46 in 1941.

The obliging Congressmen pay $6.50 (the price at the congressional stationery store). A new flag of the same make that has never flown over the nation's Capitol costs $13.70 retail.

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