WEBVTT - Short Stuff: The Pledge of Allegiance 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:06.920 Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:10.000 there's Jerry. Just as it should be, short stuff. Let's go. 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.680 Do you remember the Pledge of Allegiance by heart? I do. 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:15.880 I was at a city council meeting the other day 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.440 and I, um, as you do said it. Yeah. I 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:21.520 was like, oh, I'm a little rusty. It's been a while. 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:23.639 I know I did the same thing. I went to 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:24.520 say it in my head and I was like, I 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.160 think I'm getting some of these words wrong. But this 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:29.040 is about the Pledge of Allegiance. I think we should 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.519 I'll just read it real quick so everyone knows what 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:34.720 we're talking about. This is this is what we do 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.559 in our country. Everybody every morning when we wake up. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.120 When you wake up, the loud speaker in everyone's house 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.200 commands you to rise and say the pledge. I pledge 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:51.519 allegiance to the flag of the United States of America 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:57.000 and and to the Republic for which it stands, one 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:03.240 nation under who, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:08.840 for all all everybody. That was the most bizarre rendition 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.320 of the Pledge of Allegiance. I've ever heard in my life. 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.440 That's right, and as it turns out, as we will see, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:18.680 the Pledge of Allegiance was a marketing tool. It was, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.080 it really was. It was an add on for sales 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:29.880 for a little um magazine called The Youth Companion, which 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.039 just is not a good name for a magazine. But 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:35.160 it sounds that. I know it's not, but that sounds 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:41.960 so Nazi, it does. That sounds it sounds blandly menacing 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.520 somehow right. But it was edited by a guy who 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.440 was the opposite of blandly menacing, a guy named Francis 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.560 Bellamy Um or he was a Yeah, he was an 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.160 assistant editor at the time, and his last name might 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.280 sound familiar. His cousin, Edward Bellamy wrote a very famous 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:05.800 utopian novel called Looking Backward, and Looking Backward was basically 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.120 about how you know, by the year two thousand, inequality 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.919 will have been done away with and people won't work, 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:14.240 will retire at forty five and have a life of leisure, 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:15.799 and things are just gonna be a lot better than 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.240 they are now. And one of the ways that they 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.080 were going to get better, according to Edward Bellamy and 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.600 his cousin Francis, who's the main character in this story, 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.600 is through Christian socialist values, and so Francis Bellamy was 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:34.120 a Christian socialist. Josh, it's a socialist. Who's a Christian? 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.959 That's right. It was a group of people who said, 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.680 you know what, we can get a equitable society. We 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:47.400 can go further as a people through Christian values and 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:52.120 uh being christ like who we can all agree was 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:58.799 probably a socialist. Oh, most decidedly. Everybody knows that. So 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:02.280 at the time, and this is the eight nineties, um, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:07.040 when our story really is set. Um, there was a 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.240 huge influx of immigrants in the United States and it's 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.560 very much like it is today. There was a lot 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.560 of division over you know, is that a good thing? 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.200 Is that a bad thing? Are they going to take 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.560 over you know, our jobs? Are they going to drive 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.480 wages down? Um? It was a time of great change 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.239 for the United States. There was a huge amount of inequality, 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:30.200 just like there is today. It's it's I don't want 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.120 to say, a mirror image of our our time, but 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.560 there are a lot of similarities. And so Francis Bellamy 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.800 was like, I believe that having immigrants is a good thing, 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.320 but I also believe that they should become members of America. 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.920 They should become Americanized. And one of the ways that 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.320 one of the ways he um, he thought that that 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.640 would be a good A good way to carry that 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:59.040 out is to um to basically inculcate their children in school, 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.560 in public school. Yeah, startom early. Uh. It's an old trick, 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:05.600 the oldest trick in the book. Yeah, it really is. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.640 This is not like radical innovative thinking, No, get get it, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.040 going with the kids and you got them. Um. This 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.720 was a big deal though, because um, pre Civil War 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.280 there wasn't some big, huge public school system. It was 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.719 it was post Civil War eighteen seventies and eighties when 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.080 you really started getting the ramp up in public schools 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.600 and the idea that hey, we've got all these kids 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.080 trapped all day long. Yeah, we can do whatever we want. 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:33.600 We can we can do whatever we want. We can 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:36.680 make them good citizens as well as educating them, and 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.440 we can do it all. Hey. I read this article 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.200 years back. I don't remember when, but it basically said 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.240 that the public school system, I guess, starting about this time, 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.920 it was training kids for the sole purpose of going 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:54.640 to work in factories like mindless busy work, um, sitting 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.720 still in quiet for eight hours. That Yeah, that that 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.279 was ultimately what they were what they were teaching kids 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.360 to do. And I was like, wow, that was an 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:07.840 eye opening thing to read. Wow. So sorry to blow 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.440 your mind like that, Chuck. But um, around about this time, uh, 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:17.160 the Colombian Exposition was about to happen, and we know 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.680 that um by its other name, the World's Fair of Chicago. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:25.479 That's right. It was at marked the fourth anniversary of 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:31.120 Columbus's first New World Journey. And so the Youth Companion, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.800 the magazine that we've mentioned, and Bellamy, they said, hey, 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.280 we can really um get involved in this thing, and 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.240 we can really ramp up the patriotism if we team 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.960 up with some civic groups and we can sell a 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.320 lot of American flags, we can get a lot of 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.960 new subscribers to our magazine. We can make some serious coin, yeah, 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:52.960 make some big money basically. And so we're going to 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:58.120 print a program, a patriotic program for these schools all 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.840 over the country that kids can recite on this date 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:07.040 on October, which was the big celebration day nationally for 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.440 the Colombian celebration. And they said, Bellamy, you go right 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.560 this thing, go put something together. Yeah, and he did. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:19.080 He came up with plays patriotic songs, um ways to 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.800 uh um uh honor. Well, I don't know what the 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:28.080 word I'm looking for is. I don't know. I guess 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:33.440 profiles of Civil War heroes. It's just typical patriotic American stuff. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:35.839 But one of the things, just one of these things 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.479 that we're part of this big whole program and wasn't 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.320 meant to be some standout thing like it became, was 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.560 a Pledge of Allegiance. And it was kind of like 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.000 the one that we have today, but a stripped down version. 0:06:48.200 --> 0:07:13.440 And we will really get into it right after this message. Alright, 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.400 So it's uh right, I got this big celebration going 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.080 on honoring the great, great Christopher Columbus, who did everything 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.440 the right way. I love that guy. Everyone does. And 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.080 there was already a Pledge of Allegiance in eighteen eighty five. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.200 We should mention which came about for the very first 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:38.920 Flag Day celebration. Poor George George T. Balk Or Balch. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.880 It's probably marked from birth. What was that name? Yeah, yeah, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.160 it was never gonna work out for him. He actually 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.160 wrote the first Pledge of Allegiance and in some schools 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.680 they were doing this and it said, I give my 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.760 heart and my hand to my country, one country, one language, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.520 one flag. Not bad. The whole thing on us reads 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:05.800 like a yawn. No, it didn't in Bellamy. I mean, 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.160 Bellamy could have just republished this, but he's like, I 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.000 can do better, he said, he called it childish. Yeah, 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.840 he did. So he wrote his own pledge, a new 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.520 pledge of allegiance, and it said, I pledge allegiance to 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:21.320 my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.120 indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And so in 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:32.040 all of the schools that got this UM program recited this, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:33.760 I guess all at once. It was kind of like 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.440 the predecessor to Hands across America or something like that. 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.320 And Bellamy said, um, he was. He was pretty proud 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.240 of it. But apparently he was going to add liberty, equality, 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.880 fraternity at the end, like the French slogan, um, the 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.160 French republic slogan. But he's like, it's too fanciful, so 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.280 he just left it, left it as is. That's right. 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:57.520 And he also Chuck recommended a way to salute the 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:03.800 flag during the Pledge of allegiance. Dud didn't he sure did? Um, 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.760 I mean there's no other way to describe the Bellamy 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:12.640 salute other than a Nazi salute, an upside down Nazi salute. Yeah, 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.520 but this was, um, this was way way way before 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.640 that came about. So obviously there was there was no 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:22.320 Nazi salute. There were no Nazis. No. But apparently that's 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.600 so rather than you know, just imagine the Nazi salute, 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:30.160 but rather than um, your your palm down, your palm 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.960 is up kind of like almost like you're like a 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.960 backup dancer, like like given it to the to the 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.599 lead dancer at the front, but then you got to 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.400 do both hands and start them at your waist and 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:45.439 bring them up rights. Have you ever seen that dream 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.520 Hands video. No, I'll send it to you, and you're 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.920 gonna love it. It's like an instructional dance video for 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:59.400 you know, upward bound kids, and uh, it's I'll just 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.360 send it to all right. But anyway, so, it wasn't 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.360 until nineteen forty three that we ditched the reverse upside 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:10.240 down Nazi salute to the flag. Until ninety post war 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.920 people were doing that, actually, not post war Perry War. Yeah. 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.240 I think nineteen twenty three though, was when they had 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.240 the first revision to the not lyric, but I guess 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.679 you could sing it. Um. At the National Flag Conference, 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:31.480 delegates there said that my flag. They said, you know, 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:36.400 this little vague, and we don't want anyone thinking that 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.760 immigrants are talking about their home countries flag. So they changed. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.400 So they changed it to the flag of the United States. 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.080 Then I think about a year after that tagged on 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.240 of America, just so everyone knew what was going on, 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:55.959 and so um, everybody went bonkers for this pretty pretty 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.640 much out of the gate. UM school started reciting it, 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.120 like said, they were reciting the other pledge before. Now 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.080 they picked up this new one. And UM in New 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.680 York became the first state to make reciting the pledge 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:14.280 in schools compulsory, which is a whole different jam than 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.160 everyone just saying the pledge is part of this. You know, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:25.240 um uh this to Christopher Columbus, right, And so very 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.439 quickly after that, especially around World War One, at the 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:32.000 beginning of the US's involvement, UM, more and more states 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:37.520 started requiring compulsory pledges in schools too. That's right. And 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.360 you know, it's it's no coincidence that those aligned with 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:47.040 moments of political and and certainly warlike upheople in this country. Yes, 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:51.800 and then yeah, we gotta mention and under God because 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.400 I think you noticed it and never said that up 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.120 until this point in the podcast except at the beginning 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.200 when I read it right. That didn't come about until 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.360 are I know Eisenhower said, you know, he's the Knights 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.079 of Columbus said you know what, Dwight, maybe you should 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.200 throw under God in there, and he did, and they said, Um, 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:14.520 I think the quote was, uh, they felt that schools 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:18.000 in the United States were under threat of infiltration by 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.720 godless communists, so let's just throw that in there. And 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:26.360 I wonder if they're going to further change it too, 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:34.240 Uh highly divisible instead of indivisible. So so divisible, yes, Um, 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:37.079 there was. There's been a couple of Supreme Court cases 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:41.000 about it, too, Chuck when UM States passed it as compulsory. 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:45.120 Now it's compulsory typically for teachers to lead the pledge, 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.120 but not for students. That's not how it always was 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:53.199 UM until ninety three, students were compelled to say the 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.200 pledge as well. But then in three in the case 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.800 West Virginia Board of Education versus Barnett, which involved some 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.600 hope has witnessed children who were like, I'm not supposed 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.640 to be doing this. It's a religious thing, um, students 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.439 who are Finally, the Supreme Court said no, you can't. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.040 You can't force anyone to say the pledge. That's right. 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.440 So that's it for the Pledge of allegiance. Huh Yeah, 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.120 good stuff. Thanks to Dave Rouse, our old, our old 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.880 pal there. And that's gonna be uh, this is hot 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:23.280 off the presses. This is going to be on the 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.600 house Stuffworks website. Yeah, so good. Check it out at 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:28.680 house Stuff Works and in the meantime, Short Stuff is out. 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.320 Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.079 How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.000 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:41.240 listen to your favorite shows.