TWO LITTLE WORDS.(the Pledge of Allegiance loses "under God")

COMMENT

ODD BALL

VISITING DIGNITARIES

ABOUT TIME DEPT.

THE FINANCIAL PAGE

The Pledge of Allegiance--much in the news just now, on account of a soon-to-be-overturned court decision declaring its "under God" clause unconstitutional--has a curious history, one that encapsulates many of the oddball contradictions of American life. The original author of the Pledge, one Francis Bellamy, called himself a Christian socialist. Some people might detect a contradiction right there. But in 1892, when Bellamy came up with his epic one-liner, socialism--in its main American variant, at least--was a genteel movement of reformist uplift, like temperance. Bellamy himself was a Baptist minister, and a holder of one of the most famous names in America: his first cousin was Edward Bellamy, whose utopian novel of 1888, "Looking Backward," was one of the three biggest best-sellers of the second half of the nineteenth century. (The two others were "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Ben-Hur.") "Looking Backward," whose mock preface is dated "December 26, 2000," envisions a future America that has peacefully evolved into a paradise of fairness, prosperity, and fraternity.

In 1891, Francis Bellamy left a Boston pulpit to work with an admirer of his, the publisher of The Youth's Companion, a mass-circulation family magazine devoted to instilling virtue in young people. The magazine was spearheading a campaign for patriotic observances in the schools, keyed to the quadricentennial of Columbus's voyage. Bellamy joined in with gusto. "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," published in the September 8, 1892, issue, was one of his contributions. He was thirty-seven.