Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 58, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1917 — Flag Cannot Be Printed In Newspaper, Is Ruling. [ARTICLE]

Flag Cannot Be Printed In Newspaper, Is Ruling.

Des Moines, la—The practice of certain newspapers ’in parading _ .thfi American flag in their columns in red, white and blue or in more modest black ink, received a jolt _ there when tne lowa department of justice gave out an opinion that such papers are violating Hie federal law. The statute on which the opinion was based provides that no flag or representation of a flag shall be printed or stamped on any article of merchandise. The opinion was baged on a feeling that newspapers which decorate their front pages day by day with representations of the flag are'doing so without any especial patriotic motive but -more for commercial or “circulation” purpose sand accordingly the attorney general takes the ground" that the federal statute applies.