The shocking history of the Pledge of Allegiance is at http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-pledge.html (with frightening historical photographs) and for fascinating information about symbolism see http://rexcurry.net/book1a1contents-swastika.html       Hear audio on worldwide radio at http://rexcurry.net/audio-rex-curry-podcast-radio.html

There is a lot of evidence supporting Dr. Rex Curry's work showing that the swastika was used by the National Socialist German Workers' Party as alphabetic symbolism for overlapping "S" letters for their "socialism." During its history, the States Steamship Company States Line used the swastika as alphabetic symbolism. See below or at
http://rexcurry.net/states-steamship-company-states-line.html

A site on the internet that sells WWII items offered for sale a house flag bearing a swastika. The site also showed silverware and added: "This silver is extremely rare with these particular markings, as the swastika became politically incorrect with the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany. The States Lines logo was changed several times in the following years. First to a cross within a circle -- which was still too closely reminiscent to the swastika design, then to a much more acceptable seahorse. The old silver was either destroyed or sold off. Some pieces were picked up by crew members of the German-American Bund who worked as \stewards - there are documented cases of espionage agents and German sympathizers among the crew - used and kept over the years. One of the more famous of these espionage groups was the Duquesne Spy Ring. Thirty-three spies were arrested and convicted in 1942 of espionage activities, many of them working for various cruise lines plying the Atlantic, acting as couriers to take information back to Germany."

The seahorse symbol was also an "S" shaped symbol for the line. States Line used the seahorse logo from the "early 1900s", but apparently not on its flag until at least the late 1950s. The flag was blue with a red seahorse on a wide, wavy white band that runs horizontally across the flag and the words "States Line" are added in red flanking the seahorse.

States Steamship Co., San Francisco (originally Portland, Oregon) (1921-1979) was founded by the lumber merchant Charles Dant of Portland to handle his lumber schooners as well as the vessels he had leased from the U.S. Shipping Board for his Columbia Pacific Steamship Company. Columbia Pacific, founded in 1919, operated from Portland to the Far East and Europe. In 1928, Dant dropped the Columbia Pacific name and operated everything under the name States Steamship Co, or States Line. The line never really grew very large. SS ended its European service by the 1930's and eventually focused mainly on service to the Philippines. It suffered from strong foreign competition and the failure of its owners to make the shift to containerization in the 1970s. High fuel prices in the late 1970s finally drove the company into bankruptcy.