The Pledge_ A History of the Pledge of Allegiance - Jeffrey Owen Jones [43]
Following the 1924 conference, the flag code was published in the Boy Scout handbook. The American Legion distributed six million pamphlets on flag etiquette to schools, churches, and public officials nationwide. A total of fourteen million pamphlets were distributed across the country.
In 1925, the Ku Klux Klan (with a membership of four million) endorsed the Flag Code and regularly instructed its younger members on flag etiquette. Prospective members swore an oath of allegiance to the flag and the U.S. Constitution, and they made a strong, clear link between religion and flag devotion. At its peak (in the mid-1920s), the Klan readily used the flag as part of its ritual. And on August 9, 1925, forty thousand hooded KKK members walked down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., holding thousands of American flags aloft. Aside from some of the more visible flag-burning incidents during the 1960s, this march remains one of the most visible reminders of the perils of elevating the flag to hyper-symbolic status.
“ ‘Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,’ ” went the lines of John Greenleaf Whittier’s famous 1864 poem, “ ‘But spare your country’s flag,’ she said.”
A heated debate arose during the 1930s over the salute’s resemblance to that of the Nazis’, both the DAR and the U.S. Flag Association reacted poorly, dismissing the concerns. The Pledge had become such an important piece of American life, such a potent symbol of nationalism, that it could not be allowed to be tainted by the Fascist association.
The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) successfully saw the Flag Code passed into law. On June 22, 1942, the U.S. Flag Code became the law of the land. A joint resolution passed by Congress made the code Public Law 829 (Chapter 806, 77th Congress, 2nd session). The law sets out the rules for use and display of the flag, conduct during the playing of the national anthem, and the words of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag (Bellamy’s) to be recited. The flag code also contained the raised-arm salute (as prescribed during the 1924 Flag Day conference). And despite the controversy among the general public, there was no discussion about the appropriateness of that salute within Congress.
With this act, the federal government had finally made the Pledge of Allegiance an official U.S. slogan, and guaranteed its part in the mainstream of American life. But was it Bellamy’s Pledge?
*In fact, the term “melting pot” came into common use thanks to Israel Zangwill, whose 1908 play by that name attracted some attention at the time, including from Theodore Roosevelt, who attended its opening in Washington, D.C., in 1909. Says the hero of the play: “America is God’s Crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming . . . Germans and Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and Russians—into the Crucible with you all! God is making the American.”
*A variation on the salute protocol was given in a 1912 book called Flag Day: Its History, Origin, and Celebration as Related in Song and Story: “1. Eyes on flag, right hand touching forehead, face uplifted: ‘I pledge allegiance.’ 2. Right arm waving outward and upward, palm up: ‘To my flag and the country for which it stands, One nation, indivisible.’ 3. Expansive gesture, both arms waving out. ‘With liberty and justice.’ 4. Hand brought down to side: ‘for all.’ ”
7. WHO WROTE IT?
One day