Southington, Connecticut school children pledge their allegiance to the flag, in May 1942.
Posted on 12/23/2013 4:38:40 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
On this day 71 years ago -- December 22, 1942 -- Congress got the United States out of what had turned into an unexpectedly embarrassing situation.
It concerned the Pledge of Allegiance -- specifically, something called the Bellamy Salute.
Most people today have likely never heard of it, but the Bellamy Salute was once a constant part of the country's life.
Until 1892, there was no such thing as a Pledge of Allegiance.
Daniel Sharp Ford, the owner of a magazine called Youth's Companion, was on a crusade to put American flags in every school in the country. He sensed that the U.S. needed a boost of patriotism. Keep in mind: Not even 30 years before, the Civil War had still been raging. National unity was a fragile concept.
As part of the campaign, Sharp gave an assignment to a member of his staff: Francis J. Bellamy, who was an author, a minister and an advocate of the tenets of Christian socialism. Sharp asked Bellamy to compose a Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Bellamy wrote it, and it was published in the magazine.
It didn't take long for the Pledge to become wildly popular, even omnipresent. At schools, at campgrounds, at public gatherings, in Congress, people routinely faced the flag and pledged their allegiance to it.
Because, inherently, there is something physically awkward about people simply standing in place, their arms hanging limply by their sides, staring at a flag and reciting a pledge, it was decided that devising a salute would be appropriate.
Instructions for carrying out the salute were printed in the pages of Youth's Companion. The gesture came to be called the Bellamy Salute, in honor of the Pledge's author.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Southington, Connecticut school children pledge their allegiance to the flag, in May 1942.
Silly String is illegal in Southington, CT; it annoys the cops.
The Fig Leaf posoe...
Bellamy belonged to that group of "Christians" who believed the communitarian aspects of Christianity were good, but that we needed to get rid of all the superstitious bits. You know, deities, life after death, that sort of thing.
What is it with Socialists and their Fascist salutes ? I wonder how come they don't bring it back for schoolkids to salute Der Fuehrer Zero.
...and my variation? Check tag line...that’s how I say it now.
... so Bellamy was a Unitarian?
I had heard the right arm raised toward the flag referred to as the “Roman salute” & that it was discredited over here first through its use by the Italian fascisti (1920’s) & then later by the Nazis.
Pretty amazing if those schoolchildren were saluting the U.S. flag that way after Pearl Harbor.
Only during the Apple Harvest Festival.
It was FDR who popularized the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the alternative to the ‘Bellamy salute’. The Bellamy salute does indeed date to the popularity of the Progressives in the 1890s. It does not actually trace to ancient Romans.
Perhaps the date of the picture is misidentified? 1920s maybe?
There might be FReepers old enough to remember if the raised arm was still used during WWII.
this post, with it’s attempt to liken the pledge to the nazi salute brings to mind one word: baloney.
someone’s trying to demonize those who endorse the pledge, see the earlier story about the KKK calling for impeachment.
LOL!
Sorry but it's true. The Bellamy salute, the Fascist salute, and the Nazi salute were all patterned after the Roman or "republican" salute. If it's any consolation, we were first.
Since Bellamy was around several decades before Fascism, it isn't really fair to call his a fascist salute. It was a motion that was in the air at the time, and was thought, inaccurately, to be the ancient Roman salute.
Think about what the pledge says. One country, indivisible. It feels like a statist mantra when stripped of its patriotic nostalgia and looked at objectively. Who said we’re indivisible? Why didn’t the founders institute a pledge?
I had a history professor in the 1970s who said it did survive into the 30s but rapidly fell out of favor with the rise of the Axis. My parents were both born around 1920 and had never mentioned the difference/change from their youth.
Right. That was exactly the point. Bellamy was a commie. His brother Edward Bellamy was the author of Looking Back, the wildly famous 19th century utopian fantasy novel about how wonderful it's all going to be in the socialist future where there is no crime or war or hunger and people don't work much.
I prefer the American’s Creed over the Pledge. First off, it was written by a true Patriot William Tyler Page, not a socialist minister. Secondly, I think it encapsulates America and what it means to be an American far better. Here it is for those interested:
I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.[
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.