The Pledge_ A History of the Pledge of Allegiance - Jeffrey Owen Jones [25]
He was not long out of a job. Daniel Ford, a member of the Dearborn Street Church who had followed Bellamy to Bethany because he was sympathetic to the minister’s philosophical beliefs and his oratory, offered him a job at the Youth’s Companion. He saw talent, pluck, and practical energy in the raw-boned preacher from western New York. He had witnessed Bellamy get the new church built, he had heard his homilies and read his essays. And Ford had seen Bellamy hold his ground with the hidebound church hierarchy, even though it cost him his livelihood. He wanted to help Bellamy, and Ford, the hardheaded businessman, saw something in Bellamy he believed could help him.
As Bellamy moved on to the world of journalism, he took with him his passion for social justice and love of America; the ability to work within the confines of a structured institution (like the church) and get things done; and a great intellectual energy. He was committed to restoring American “principles” and “ideals” and would apply these considerable skills to that task.
5. A NATIONAL CELEBRATION
Diligent by nature, it was Bellamy’s habit to tackle any task set before him with energy, determination, and high expectations. And whatever emotions roiled within him during this major career change, outwardly he conveyed confidence and determination as he undertook the task of organizing a nationwide salute to the discovery of America.
He already had a sense of the obstacles ahead of him. Coordinating the details and getting cooperation from all the necessary parties toward a single national event involving thousands of schools and millions of people would be no small feat.
It was the spring of 1892, with the October anniversary of the Columbian landfall fast approaching. Bellamy knew there was no time to stand on ceremony. He wrote two lengthy memos to his boss explaining what he had been doing and proposing a bold plan to keep “the Press” interested. So far, he told Ford, the Clipping Bureau had already found two hundred editorials about the October event. But “the fire is slackening.” The second memo, especially, is a peek into the mind of a marketing man—no detail is unimportant. “It seems to me we shall want both a Morning and an Afternoon Celebration—each for different purposes,” he tells Ford. “You see, we ask the schools to celebrate the Day, and we also ask the people to make the schools the center of Celebration. This double purpose cannot be accomplished at a single session, except in rural schools where the school-house is the great rallying place of the people. In towns and cities two occasions will be needful.” Bellamy suggested that the schools have “their own exercises—for which we will furnish the program” and that “the citizens’ celebration take place in the largest hall in the town, preceded by a procession in which the older pupils will be escorted by the veterans and by other organizations, this Afternoon Celebration to be distinctly keyed on the Public School note. Consequently, we shall need at least three varieties of Program. . . .”
But the real beauty of this six-page typewritten letter to Ford, dated April 18, 1892, is Bellamy’s second section, “Pushing the Movement.” It is here that he justifies Ford’s confidence in giving him such a large responsibility. “The work thus far done has only launched the movement,” Bellamy writes. “It requires a great deal more to make it an assured success.” His analysis is straightforward and to the point. “General local apathy must get such repeated shakings that every locality will at last wake up and produce at least one man who will say, ‘This thing must be done here.’ ” Bellamy then proceeds to outline a four-point plan for “repeated shakings,” ending with what he warned was the “main dependence” for success: the press. “Success hangs on the amount and continuance of newspaper talk.”
Newspaper talk? A thoroughly modern publicist at work.
Bellamy indeed