The pledge of allegiance was the origin of the
salute of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party
(Nazi Party) because Francis Bellamy was a self-proclaimed
national socialist who promoted “military socialism”
(a Bellamy term). To promote militarism, Bellamy's pledge
of allegiance began with a military salute.
The military salute was held
for the phrase “I pledge allegiance” and then the right
arm extended straight outward toward the flag for the rest
of the chant. Historic photographs are linked at
http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html
The first description of the
pledge had the palm of the hand turned upward for the
straight-armed gesture. The gesture changed in
use, growing into the "Heil Hitler" (the Hitler Greeting or Hail
Hitler) appearance because of the military salute (palm down)
extended casually straight toward the flag.
James Bailey Upham made a suggestion
to Bellamy of the gesture. Upham’s suggested gesture included
the palm upward as if saying “Here is the flag.” It
was because of the inclusion of the military salute that the
pledge evolved into the Nazi-style. Bellamy liked the military
salute because Bellamy's cousin Edward Bellamy was the originator
of "military socialism" as a political philosophy, and Francis was
Edward's biggest fan and cohort.
Bellamy even used military groups
to promote the pledge, including the Grand Army of the
Republic, a group of Northern Civil War veterans.
Upham was also familiar with
Bellamy's "military socialism" dogma because Edward
Bellamy, cousin and cohort to Francis, had written of it in
the international bestseller "Looking Backward" in 1888, and
both Bellamys had been openly involved in the national socialism
movement and the "Nationalist" magazine.
Edward Bellamy was a bitter West
Point failure but he loved Prussian militarism and the
educational system. According to Tom Peyser "On his deathbed,
he wiled away the hours by arranging tin soldiers along the folds
of his coverlet." That would interest all who loathe the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, because Prussia led to the formation
of the German empire, and after World War I, Prussia continued to
exist as the largest Land (state) within the Weimar Republic and under
the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. After World War
II it was dissolved by decree of the Allied Control Council in 1947.
Even with the palm turned upward,
people would later see the relationship to the National
Socialist German Workers' Party and that is why the straight-arm
salute was disfavored in 1942, and the hand-over-the-heart
was adopted. (On June 22, 1942, the pledge was included in the U.S.
Flag Code, but Congress gave it the modern hand-over-the-heart
gesture. There is probably one overriding reason why Congress
interfered: to make everyone drop the straight-arm salute, which
was becoming very embarassing and very revealing. The US had entered
WWII on December 7, 1941 against Japan after Pearl Harbor. On December
11, 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States and
the U.S. declared war on Germany and Italy.)
It is interesting to note that
Upham's father had operated a school in New Hampshire
that included Roman and Greek classics and Upham had attended
that school. It is not clear how this might have
influenced the “Roman salute” myth that eventually arose about
the straight-armed salute.
Upham was the head of the premium
department of the Youth’s Companion Magazine and was also
a junior partner in its firm, the Perry Mason Company of Boston,
which was owned by Daniel S. Ford, uncle-by-marriage to Upham.
Ford had supported churches
where Francis Bellamy preached socialism. Ford was attracted
to socialism and was interested in the Social Gospel which,
to his friend Francis Bellamy, meant Christian Socialism.
At his death Ford bequeathed almost one million dollars to the
Baptist Social Union of Boston, and that money was used to build
Ford Hall, the meeting place of the Ford Hall Forum, which still
exists. In leaving money to the Forum, Ford said that the Social
Union and the nation should foster closer personal relations between
Christian businessman and the workingman because of the latter's
"religious indifference, his feverish unrest and his belief that businessmen
and capital are his enemies.”
Before Bellamy worked for the
Youth’s Companion, Upham had promoted the use of the Flag
in government schools. In 1891 and 1892, Upham coordinated
a national celebration of Columbus focused on government schools
and a flag ceremony with the as yet unwritten pledge (Columbus
"sailed the ocean blue" in 1492). Upham wrote many drafts of
a pledge and asked for comments from the magazine’s staff. He
was never happy with his drafts and he asked Bellamy to take over.
The only well known flag salute
at that time was Colonel Balch's salute, written in 1889.
That salute went as follows: "We give our heads and our
hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one
Flag." During the speel, the youngsters would point at
their heads, their heart and then at the flag. Thus, Balch’s
chant ended with a straight arm pointing at the flag. Balch
had first used his pledge on Flag Day, June 14th, in his free kindergarten
for New York City's poor and immigrants where he served as a principal.
It seems to have become a daily salute in the classroom for all
of his students.
Bellamy and Upham wanted a better
pledge.
When Bellamy finished writing
the pledge in August, 1892, he showed it to Upham.
The pledge still did not have a salute. Upham came to
attention, snapped his heels together and chanted, "I pledge allegiance
to my flag," and he stretched out his right arm and hand with palm
up while he recited the rest of the pledge.
Later, the first program for
the pledge stated: “At a signal from the Principal the
pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag.
Another signal is given; every pupil give the Flag the military
salute - right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the
forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands;
one Nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." At the
words, "to my Flag," the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward,
towards the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation.;
whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.
Because of Bellamy’s military
socialism and his addition of the military salute, the
pledge’s salute evolved into the Nazi-style salute.
Government schools teach that
the pledge was created to sell flags to schools and Francis
Bellamy is described as an advertising pioneer. That
is a whitewashed piece of the whole story. A better description
is that Bellamy was a propaganda pioneer, comparable to Leni
Riefenstahl.
Germans learned bad American
behavior via old films, via WWI, and via the widespread
use of the straight-arm salute by German-American groups (including
the German American Bund) in the USA, and from Germans who
were educated in the USA or resided in the USA, and vice versa.
It led to its adoption later by the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party (Nazi Party).
http://rexcurry.net/pledgebund.html
Even if Hitler (or anyone else)
misunderstood the salute to be an old Roman salute (and
it is not clear that Hitler believed it to be an old Roman
salute), that would not alter Hitler's (or anyone else's) knowledge
that the salute was in widespread use in the USA (from 1892).
Anyone who thought it was an old Roman salute, also thought
that it was an old Roman salute used throughout the USA. The
part that was correct was that it was a salute used throughout
the USA.
Bellamy believed that government
schools with pledges and flags were needed to brainwash
children to embrace nationalism, militarism, and socialism.
Bellamy wanted the government
to takeover everything and impose the military’s “efficiency,”
as he said. It is the origin of the modern military-socialist
complex.
Bellamy wanted a flag over every
school because he wanted to nationalize and militarize
everything, including all schools, and eliminate all of the
better alternatives. During Bellamy’s time the government was
taking over education.
Bellamy wanted government schools
to ape the military. Government schools were intended
to create an “industrial army” (another Bellamy phrase,
and the word “army” was not metaphorical) and to help nationalize
everything else.
That is one of many reasons why
Francis Bellamy and his also-famous cousin Edward Bellamy
are known as the "American Hitlers" and as the first "American
Nazis."
http://rexcurry.net/pledge1.html
Germany and the entire world
is owed an apology for the horrid influence that government
had inside the U.S. in promoting socialized schools, military
socialism within government schools, the creation of industrial
armies, and daily robotic pledges of allegiance in military
formation with the infamous straight-arm salute.
http://rexcurry.net/pledgeapology.html
