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
edward bellamy 
francis bellamy 
rex curry 
libertarian 
pledge of allegiance 
swastika 
