Who made the pledge?

Answer 1

Francis Bellamy, authored the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. He was a former Baptist minister who preached that Jesus was a socialist and advocated income taxation, central banking, nationalized education, nationalization of industry, and other tenets of socialism. His challenge was how to replace the federalist view of the country (where states and individual rights were sovereign) with a nationalist one that would pave the foundation for a central socialist government.

The "one nation, indivisible" wording was especially important to Bellamy for achieving his vision of socialism through a consolidated, monopoly government. He even considered adding the the socialist bywords, "fraternity and equality", but knew that state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.

Re-education of the public would prove difficult. But if American youth could to be taught "loyalty to the state", it would pave the way for the socialist utopia that was described in his famous socialist cousin Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backward". The place to start would need to be primary education. The public schools could be used teach blind obedience to the central state. They planned a "National Public School Celebration" in 1892, which was the first national Propaganda campaign on behalf of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a massive campaign that involved government schools and politicians throughout the country. The government schools were promoted, along with the Pledge, while private schools, especially parochial ones, were criticized.

Students were taught to recite the Pledge with their arms outstretched, palms down and then up. This was the custom in American public schools from the turn of the twentieth century until Hitler began using for his National Socialist (Nazi) party to drill loyalty into his followers. He got it from the Italian fascists, who much admired - you guessed it - American schoolchildren doing it for decades previous. Then around 1950, public school officials suddenly decided that the salute was in bad taste and changed it to the familiar hand-over-heart salute, while keeping the rest of the socialist-promoting Pledge ritual intact.