1902 a service commemorative of the soldier-sailor dead was instituted for the use of corps located near large bodies of water. It is also customary to include children in this service, and the spectacle of a large number of little ones, their tiny hands strewing the waves with flowers, is very touching and beautiful in its suggestiveness. The National Chaplain reported $14,187.37 expended for Memorial Day in 1903.

In 1893 the field of patriotic teaching was entered upon, the incentive having been previously furnished by the Department of Indiana. Comrade Wallace Foster of that State had been an active promoter of the teaching of patriotism among the young. In that work he was intimately associated with Col. George T. Balch, of New York City, the pioneer in the work. (He it was who originated the Balch flag salute, so generally in use in the schools of the country: "We give our heads and our hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag.")

Comrade Foster urged upon the W. R. C. of Indiana the importance of patriotic teaching. Mrs. Julia S. Conklin, then president of that Department, adopted his suggestion

with such enthusiasm and so impressed it upon her associates, that at the next National Convention Indiana offered the following resolutions (drawn by Comrade Foster), which were unanimously adopted:

"Whereas, It is essential to the future welfare and good citizenship of our country that the children of our land be taught to reverence the American Flag, the emblem of our liberty, and to respect the principles for which our veterans gave the best years of their lives-many of them life itself; and

"Whereas, The present system of foreign immigration, and the large per cent. of foreigners of all grades of society who are

admitted to citizenship in these United: States, and the foreign ideas of government being promulgated throughout our country, are doing much to lessen the hold our institutions have upon the minds of the young; therefore,

"Resolved, That we strongly urge the adoption of some form of patriotic teaching in our schools, by which to counteract these influences.

"Resolved, That each Department President instruct the Corps Presidents in her department to appoint a committee of influential ladies belonging to her Corps, to petition the county and city superintendents and teachers to recommend the adoption of some form of patriotic salute to the American flag, to be introduced into the morning exercises of the public schools.

"Resolved, That we urge each member of the Woman's Relief Corps to adhere strictly to the patriotic teachings of our Order, and endeavor to inculcate lessons of patriotism and loyalty among the young in the communities in which they live."

During the three years following, bills were introduced into the Legislatures of many States, and resulted in the placing of flags over schoolhouses and other public buildings. In some States the last day of the school session before Memorial Day was set apart for patriotic exercises, and this custom is now almost general. Most of this has been brought about by the efforts of the G. A. R. and W. R. C.

Flags, patriotic primers, Declaration of Independence charts, oleographs of the Stars and Stripes and other patriotic pictures have been presented to thousands of schools. all over the land, by the local organizations of the W. R. C. In 1895 the national convention voted toconfer upon Comrade Foster the complimentary title of "Woman's Relief Corps Sponsor for the American Flag."

A work to which the W. R. C. hasdevoted much attention is the promotion of the observance of Flag Day, Peace and Arbitration Day,. and Citizens' Sunday.

ing. The convention of 1897 voted that an officer be appointed in each Department, to be known as the patriotic instructor, whose duty shall be to superintend all lines of patriotic instruction. Later, this move was amended to include, National, Department and Corps instructors, all of whom are now obligated with other officers of the Order, and are systematically and successfully working together in the interest of patriotic teaching. A flag salute is used at all gatherings of the Order, and all obligations, whether of membership or office, are taken under the folds of the American flag.

Probably the work which will longest stand as a memorial of the Woman's Relief Corps is the

improvement of the Andersonville Prison Park property. Thousands of the survivors of the prison at Andersonville, Georgia, and their friends, who visited that memorable spot after the war, expressed regret that some steps were not taken to purchase the grounds and beautify them, as a perpetual memorial to the heroes who suffered there.

that the property now consists of eighty-one and a fifth acres, including the stockade, or prison grounds, with all the forts and earthworks surrounding it, and a strip one hundred feet wide leading to the public roadway and railway station.

A substantial fence now surrounds the entire property and a nine-room residence has been erected, which is