confer citizenship as a degree upon those who in this school shall have made themselves fit to receive it. In a country like America, to conduct a course of training leading to the degree of citizenship, is not only appropriate but a paramount necessity. The poet Byron said the glory of America lies in the fact that "America is unkinged, unchurched and unsoldiered." Here every man is king over himself; every man is a policeman in plain clothes. Democracy is the rule of brother citizens over themselves. It is obvious that the success or failure of our experiment in democracy depends primarily on the intelligence and character of the average man. It is also obvious that citizenship in America is not only a big responsibilty, but a high honor. When, therefore, a young man or woman arrives at twenty-one and enters into full citizenship, it is an event which we ought not to permit silently to pass by unrecognized, as we now do. It is an event, the importance of which should be made conspicuous and celebrated by a public ceremony which shall be a real festival of citizenship. It is highly suggestive that when Paris and London recently desired to honor President Wilson, they conferred on him the title "Citizen of Paris," "Citizen of London." They could think of no more distinguished honor to bestow on the head of this great Republic. In order to placard this significant fact before the eye and make it still more impressive, the very hand some gold emblem, presented to our President by the City of London, is reproduced in this book by the President's special and cordial permission. America's welfare depends most of all on the degree to which we are able to make citizenship to be and to be recognized as the highest of human honors. To help achieve this end is the purpose of the proposed commencement ceremony of Citizenship Clubs. The act of conferring citizenship as a degree on the newly naturalized and the newly enfranchised alike, will stimulate those receiving it to value it at its true worth. It will mean also a revaluation of citizenship for many adults, to whom it has become a commonplace possession. It is hoped that in every community this annual festival will become its biggest social event and most inspiring public ceremony. A BADGE OF HONOR In order to accentuate the meaning of citizenship and the importance of preparing for it, it is suggested that when the degree of citizenship is conferred, each one receiving it should be presented with a medal in recognition of their achievement. When one has completed a course of study, or done a piece of public work, or served for a period in a war, it is quite in accordance with human nature for him to want a token of recognition to keep as a memorial. He does not render the service for the sake of the token, but he enjoys having it. What would be a good token appropriate for this purpose? It is gratifying to discover that we have one ready made to our hand, as if it had been designed today for the use of Citizenship Clubs. It is the Coat of Arms of the United States, which is likewise the Coat of Arms of every American family. Almost immediately after the Declaration of Independence was passed, that is, on the afternoon of July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to prepare a design for it. But from that day to this the reverse side has never been used. No die for it has ever been cut by the Government. While both sides are significant for our purpose, it is the unused and forgotten reverse side which has pointed application to Citizenship Clubs. In the United States the Coat of Arms is also used as the Nation's Seal in its official business by order of the President. The Secretary of State is its custodian and it is affixed only to documents which bear the President's signature. At the time the Great Seal was adopted, June 20, 1782, two sides were provided for by the creating act. The reason for the two sides was the fact that it was then the common custom among nations to use a pendent seal of wax with an impression on either side of it. But in attaching such a seal to a treaty, the wax would inevitably break, if it were unprotected, so it is enclosed in a metal box usually of gold or silver, highly ornamented, and this is at tached to the treaty with ribbons. This makes a cumbersome document. Our practical Yankee instinct for efficiency led us to abandon its use. With the exception of a brief period of thirteen years, the Government has used, both for treaties and all other State documents, only one side of the Seal, affixing it directly to the paper itself. Because only the obverse side of the Seal has been employed in sealing documents, as well as for other reasons, the reverse side has never been engraved by the Government. It has a singular history. It was prescribed as part of the Seal by the original Act of 1782, but went unnoticed. When the Act of 1789 continued the Seal as prescribed by the Continental Congress, the reverse side was not designed or cut, and when the Act of 1884 made an appropriation "to obtain dies of the obverse and reverse" of the Seal, the Department of State did not cut the reverse side, but left this part of the law unexecuted, as the original law had been for a hundred years. Because a thing has not been used for more than a hundred years is no reason why it should not be utilized, whenever an appropriate use for it has been discovered. It is hoped and believed that a most fitting use for the reverse of the seal is now discovered in connection with the Citizenship Club Movement. When the Continental Congress made the obverse of the Great Seal to be the national Coat of Arms, it was the intention that it should be |