(From the proceedings of the Chicago City Council, February 15, 1928, p. 2155)

Alderman Mose presented the following ordinance:

Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Chicago:

Section 1: That Section 1017 of The Chicago Municipal Code of 1922 be and the same is hereby amended to read as follows:

“1017. The Chicago municipal flag. The Chicago municipal flag shall be white, with two blue bars, each taking up a sixth of its space, and set a little less than one-sixth of the way from the top and bottom of the flag, respectively. There shall be two bright red stars with sharp points, five in number, set side by side, close together, next the staff in the middle third of the surface of the flag.”

Section 2: This ordinance shall be in force and effect from and after its passage and approval.

Unanimous consent was given to permit action on said ordinance without reference thereof to a committee.

Alderman Mose moved to pass said ordinance.

The motion prevailed, by yeas and nays as follows:

Yeas– Coughlin, Anderson, Jackons, Cronson, Grossman, Meyering, Govier, Rowan, Wilson, Hartnett, McDonough, O’Toole, Moran, Coyle, Ryan, McKinlay, Prignano, D. A. Horan, Cepak, Toamn, Arvey, J. H. Bowler, Sloan, Maypole, A. J. Horan, Clark, Smith, Petlak, Kaindl, Nusser, Mills, Adamowski, Rings, Chapman, T. J. Bowler, Haffa, Loescher, Feigenbutz, Nelson, Hoellen, Massen, Frankhauser, Mose — 43.

Nays — None.

(from the Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb 3, 1928)

Word that Mayor Thompson has ordered preparation of an ordinance to change the stars in the municipal flag from six point to five point yesterday drew a protest from the flag’s designer, Wallace Rice. Mr. Rice designed the flag in 1917 at the request of the mayor, he said. It is now planned to change the stars so that they will conform to those in the national flag, it was stated.

“I purposely made the stars six pointed,” Mr. Rice said yesterday. “Five point stars are the symbols of states and could manifestly have no place in a municipal flag. Mayor Thompson is making not only himself but the flag ridiculous by ordering the change.”

There are two red stars in the municipal flag and two blue stripes on a white background. The stripes, the color, and the stars all have a detailed symbolism, each point of the stars representing a distinct characteristic of the city, Mr. Rice explained.

The proposed ordinance is to be presented to the city council on Feb. 15, it was reported.

Just as a point of reference, the following are the charities I’m supporting this year through my employer’s United Way campaign. We’re able to designate any 501(c)(3) charities along with or instead of the United Way on our form, so I’m taking advantage of this.

• Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
• Chicago Historical Society
• Heifer Project International
• Amnesty International USA
• Doctors without Borders USA

Anyway, if you felt like kicking in a few dollars along with me, that would be cool.

In Wallace Rice papers, Newberry Library, Box 5, Folder 119

Bell Telephone System
Technical Publications
June 1930
Mongraph B-491

The Words and Sounds of Telephone Conversations
by N.R. French, C.W. Carter, Jr, and Walter Koenig, Jr.
American Telephone and Telegraph Company

“A study of the kind and frequency of occurrence of words and simple speech sounds obtained from telephone conversations on toll circuits terminating in New York City.”

From a 1928 letter by Wallace Rice to a Mr. Ettleson:

To return to the six-pointed stars in the Chicago municipal flag. By the terms of the competition under the rules laid down by the Chicago Flag Commission in 1917, the use of religious symbols, which included the cross, the star and crescent, and the two triangles, one reversed and superimposed, was barred, for obvious reasons. [1] The five-pointed star, symbol of a soverign State, was also considered out of place, for reasons which I hope have been made equally obvious here. Chicago is a city.

After more than four hundred designs had been made by me, I finally struck upon such a six-pointed star as had never appeared in any flag before, peculiarly and singularly a Chicago star, made by a Chicagoan for his greatly loved city, by an American in the tenth generation in this country, whose ancestors had fought against Great Britain, for the most American of American cities. It differs from all other stars in use in European heraldry and in State and National flags and coats-of-arms, and is specifically for and of Chicago and nowhere else on earth because its points are straight and not like the usual heraldric etioile curved like flames, and because these points subtend an angle of only thirty degrees, instead of the sixty degrees subtended in the star made by superimposing a triangle.

1. According my copy of the rules, on file at the Chicago Public Library’s municipal reference collection, no rule specifically bars religious imagery.