Honk If You Love Bumper Stickers

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

It’s election season and political bumper stickers are out in force. They’re taking over my office too. We were recently donated 20+ bumper stickers for local, state, and federal elections from the 1960s through the 2000s. Kennedy for President! No, vote Bob Dole! Either way, there’s nothing quite like advertising your politics on your vehicle.

 

Bumper sticker from our recent donation

Americans have been using their vehicles to display signs and other advertisements for longer than those vehicles have been cars. Business would hang ads off the back of their wagons. When cars first came along, they didn’t even have bumpers! The first car to have bumpers was the 1927 Ford Model A. During the 1930s and 40s, car owners experimented with hanging wooden, metal, or cardboard signs with wires and twine off of their back bumpers, much as they had with wagons.

The bumper sticker as we know it today developed shortly after World War II thanks to the confluence of several new innovations. In 1935, Ray Stanton Avery invented the first pressure-sensitive self-adhesive labels, a.k.a., stickers. During the early 1940s, Bob and Joseph Switzer, owners of Day-Glo Color Corp. began working on daylight fluorescent pigments for use in signage and high-visibility safety gear. It all came together in 1946 when Forrest P. Gill, a screen printer in Kansas City, Missouri, combined Avery’s stickers with the Switzer brothers’ fluorescent paint to create the first bumper sticker, then called a bumper strip.

The first group to latch on to the new “bumper strips” was the tourism industry. Hotels and tourist sites would print bumper stickers with their logos and stick them to their guests’ cars. While a lot of car owners wouldn’t be cool with that today, it was a great way to make sure that folks all over the country knew their name. These early stickers were primarily printed on paper which tended to wear off pretty quickly. By the 1950s, most bumper sticker manufacturers were printing on vinyl, which was way more durable.

The first political bumper stickers were used by Dwight D. Eisenhower in his 1952 campaign against Adlai Stevenson. Cars throughout the country featuring his iconic “I Like Ike” helped drive him all the way to the White House. From then on, bumper stickers became a mainstay of American political campaigns. While today there are bumper stickers advertising everything from babies on board to religious affiliations, political advertising is the most prominent use of the medium. 

More of our new bumper stickers

 Growing up, my family never used political bumper stickers because my mother was a Federal employee and they are strongly discouraged against advertising their political affiliations. In 1964, authorities at the Elmira Reformatory barred the display of political bumper stickers in the prison parking lot. At the time, William Ciuros Jr., a Reformatory guard, was running for state senate on the Democratic ticket and many of his fellow guards supported him. The New York State Department of Corrections threatened to bring disciplinary action against any employee who parked a vehicle sporting a sticker for Ciuros or anyone else on State property. 

Car in Reformatory parking lot from Elmira Star-Gazette, July 10, 1964

 Whatever your political affiliation and however you choose to display it, your vote counts! Make sure you vote this election!  

The Iroquois Confederacy: The Original American Federalism

 By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, let’s all take a moment to acknowledge that Chemung County is on Seneca land. The Seneca are one of the five original members of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.  Haudenosaunee is the name they gave themselves which means “People of the Longhouse,” while Iroquois is a name given them by the French which has no clear etymology. The Confederacy is the oldest continuous democratic republic in the history of the world. They served as a model for the Founding Fathers when crafting the United States Constitution.

 

Although no one is sure of the exact dates of its founding, the Iroquois Confederacy is well over 500 years old and pre-dates the European conquest by generations. The time prior to the creation of the Confederacy is known as the Dark Times, when the five nations of the Iroquois were almost continuously at war. Along came a man known simply as the Peacemaker who helped to unite the warring nations along with his allies, the great Chief Hiawatha and Jigöhsahsë, the Mother of Nations. Together, they created an entirely new system of government with an oral constitution known as The Great Law.

Under The Great Law, the original five nations of the Haudenosaunee (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca) agreed to make collective decisions regarding war, diplomacy, and trade, all while each nation retained autonomy over their own region. The members of each clan of each tribe selected a chief to represent them at the regular meetings held in Onondaga territory near what is now Syracuse. The Haudenosaunee are matriarchal and the women of the clan retain the ultimate power to nominate or remove a chief from office. The representatives from the tribes were divided into two groups, the Elder Brothers (Mohawk and Seneca) and the Younger Brothers (Oneida and Cayuga) with the Onondaga serving as serving as a sort of negotiator between them. When the Tuscarora joined the Haudenosaunee as refugees in 1722, they joined the Younger Brothers. In order for any decision to be made or law to be passed, it first had to be approved by the Elder Brothers, then the Younger Brothers, before being confirmed by the Onondaga. If any parties disagreed on the decision, the proposal would not pass. Although I used the past tense, it should be noted that this is still exactly how the Haudenosaunee government works to this day.

 

Prior to the Revolution, the colonies really did not get on, despite all being offshoots of the same British government. Whenever the Haudenosaunee wanted to make a treaty or trade agreement with the colonials, they had to do it with each individual colony. At one such treaty meeting in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1744, Onondaga chief Canasatego decided to point out how silly this was saying:

"We heartily recommend Union and a good Agreement between you, our Brethren. Never disagree, but preserve a strict Friendship for one another, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. Our wise Forefathers established Union and Amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable; this has given us great Weight and Authority with our neighboring Nations. We are a powerful Confederacy; and, by your observing the same Methods our wise Forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh Strength and Power; therefore whatever befalls you, never fall out one with another."

 

Canasatego’s words lit a fire in Benjamin Franklin’s brain. He cited the Confederacy as inspiration for his 1754 Albany Plan for a unified colonial government. The idea initially failed to gain traction, but he brought it up again in 1777 when the Articles of Confederation were drafted, and again in 1781 during the Constitutional Convention. In 1988, Congress passed a resolution specifically recognizing the contributions of the Haudenosaunee in the creation of the US Constitution. 

Haudenosaunee Flag

 

Some ideas in the US Constitution shares with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy include:

·         The centralized government handles issues of war, diplomacy, and trade while individual states retain autonomy over daily affairs

·         Political leaders are chosen by and from the people

·         Political leaders can only hold a single office at a time

·         There is a mechanism for the review and removal of corrupt, incompetent, or otherwise unpalatable leaders

·         A system of checks and balances prevents any one party from having unilateral control

The Bachelor Governor

by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Back in the day when our building housed the Chemung Canal Bank, there were apartments for rent on the top floor. A quick look around reveals about 5 rooms and a common bathroom. These rooms haven’t been rented for years, they now store documents, publications and educational items for the Historical Society. If the walls could talk they would surely share some great stories. One I tried to track down is the story of one of the building’s more famous renters. The story of two-time elected New York governor David Bennett Hill.

David Bennett Hill 1843 - 1910

David B. Hill was born in the village of Havana in Schuyler County in 1843. The settlement was known as Catherine’s Landing until the mid-19^th century, when the name changed to Havana. It changed names a third time at the end of the century to what we now know as Montour Falls. David was the youngest of five children born to Caleb and Eunice Hill. His father had been captain on a canal boat and now ran a carpentry and joinery business. His mother managed the family household. David showed an early intellect and attended nearby Havana Academy. At seventeen he left to take a clerking job with a law office in the village. His employer was so impressed that he was encouraged to pursue law as a career. At twenty, Hill moved to Elmira to work for lawyer Erastus P. Hart and to pursue his legal studies. He passed the law exams in 1864 and was admitted to the bar, opening a law office in downtown Elmira. Later that year, Hill was appointed Elmira’s city attorney and became known as a successful and charismatic lawyer.

David Hill never married, but his life was full. Besides his law work, he was an active member of the Democratic Party. In 1871 and 1872 he was elected to the New York Assembly to represent Chemung County.  In the mid-1870s, to further his political agenda, Hill along with other associates purchased the Elmira Gazette newspaper. Begun in 1828, the paper was first published weekly before becoming an everyday paper. While John Arnot Sr., one of his associates, sold off his interests before 1880, it wasn't until 1906 that Hill finally sold the newspaper to Frank E. Gannett.

In 1877 and 1881 Hill was appointed president of the Democratic state conventions. In 1882 Hill was elected mayor of Elmira by a wide majority of voters. At just thirty-nine years old, 1882 also brought another opportunity his way. Hill was nominated as running mate to Buffalo’s mayor Grover Cleveland in his bid for governor. The 1882 election saw an unprecedented number of votes cast and the ticket of Cleveland and Hill won by plurality. Hill left Elmira and moved to Albany to be lieutenant-governor. Our collection contains a printed speech Hill gave which includes a copy of a note Cleveland wrote congratulating Hill:

After two years, Grover Cleveland ran for higher office and was elected 22nd president of the United States of America. Seeing his chance, Hill then ran for state office and won. He was elected the 29^th Governor of New York and served from 1885 to 1892.

In New York the Democratic party of the 19th century was heavily controlled by Tammany Hall, a political pressure group out of New York City. This group had a big influence on politics in the city and the state, and while it advocated for social reform, it also became known for rampant greed and corruption. 

As governor, Hill was known for his interest in labor issues and working conditions. He introduced legislation to deal with child labor age limitations and working hour reforms for women and those under 18.

He also signed a bill in 1885 that established 715,000 acres of wild Forest Preserve which later became known as New York’s Adirondack Park.

New York's Adirondack Parks

Looking to run for higher office, Hill sought the 1892 democratic presidential nomination. His platform supported bimetallism, a monetary standard looking at two metals, typically gold and silver, instead of the singular gold standard which was eventually adopted. However, Cleveland soundly defeated Hall on the first convention ballot. The two were now polarizing figures in the party, each with their own set of loyal followers. Hill's group went by the name The David B. Hill club. Denied the nomination, Hill ran for the US Senate. He was elected and held this office from 1892 to 1897. Not content, he ran again for NY governor and this time was not successful. This political cartoon plays up the unlikely possibility of any partnership of Grover and Hill.

"The Funniest Thing Out - Dave and Grover on the same platform."

Though Hill never ran for public office again he was considered for the 1900 Democratic ticket's Vice Presidential position. In the end, the party nominated Adlai Stevenson.

Hill never returned to live in Elmira. In 1910, he died of a kidney condition at his country home Wolfert's Roost outside of Albany. He was buried in Montour Cemetery nearby family members.

Governor Hill's Wolfert's Roost

Checking City Directories for the years Hill lived in Elmira I found no evidence that he lived on the third floor at 415 East Water Street. He did rent a room at 93 Lake Street around the corner. 

We are still looking for who might have rented rooms in the building.

Win with Willkie

 By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

Can anyone remember the last time a presidential candidate visited Chemung County? It wasn’t in my lifetime, that’s for sure. There have been a few vice-presidential candidate visits including Richard Nixon in 1952 and Spiro Agnew in 1972, but we haven’t merited top billing in a while.

The last presidential candidate to visit our fair county was Wendell Willkie (1892-1944). In 1940, he ran on the Republican ticket against the Democratic incumbent Franklin Roosevelt. Willkie was a corporate lawyer and life-long Democrat who had helped on various political campaigns, but had never run for office himself. Due to his corporate leanings, he became increasingly displeased with Roosevelt’s New Deal and was actually involved in a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority. In 1938, several of his friends began urging him to run for president on the Democratic ticket. Once it became clear that Roosevelt intended to run for a third time, Willkie registered as a Republican and put himself forward as a candidate in that party instead. 

Wendell Willkie, 1940

 Wendell Willkie was unexpected as far as Republican presidential candidates go. Not only was he, as mentioned, a lifelong Democrat, he was a political outsider who had never run for nor held political office. He didn’t even bother to run in the primaries, he just put his name forward at the Republican convention and won the nomination mostly based on his image as a pro-business moderate who could bring over disillusioned Democrats. He ran on a platform of keeping some of the more popular New Deal programs, while simultaneously instituting pro-business reforms to get the economy rolling. Although he initially came out in support of the US getting involved in the war in Europe, he took an increasingly isolationist tack once it became clear that polled better.

On September 12, Willkie launched a whistle-stop tour by train. Between then and November 2, he reached 31 of 48 states. On October 25, he hit Elmira. At the Erie Railroad station, he was met by a reception committee comprised of Senator Chauncey B. Hammond, Mayor J. Maxwell Beers, and City Manager Ralph Kebles, as well as local Republican Party officials Charles Perry and Alexander Falck. A crowd of some 200 people awaited Willkie as he exited the station and got into a car accompanied by his wife, Edith. 

Wendell Willkie and the Elmira welcoming committee

 

Wendell & Edith Willkie in the car from the station

Willkie’s motorcade took him to a raised platform with a canopy at the corner of Church and Main Streets. Somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000 people braved the damp to listen to him speak. According to the paper, he mostly focused on his economic platform designed to unleash the country’s full economic potential and on the dangers of the national debt and fascism. After speaking, he signed autographs for a bit before hopping back on the train. 

 

The crowd gathers to hear Willkie speak

In the end, Willkie lost his presidential bid by about 5 million votes. His supporters, mostly white, affluent, and suburban, were no match for Roosevelt’s working class, multi-ethnic coalition. Gracious in defeat, Willkie accepted a position as Roosevelt’s personal envoy to Great Britain at a White House party on the eve of the president’s third swearing-in. He ran for president again in 1944, but failed to clinch the party’s nomination and died not long after.

Absence Makes the Vote Go Yonder

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

President Trump has claimed that universal mail-in ballots will mean that no Republican will ever be elected again, but the original absentee ballots were introduced by Republicans in order to ensure their victory in the 1864 election. Between 1862 and 1864, every state in the Union except Illinois and Indiana passed a bill allowing active duty soldiers to cast ballots in their home election districts. Democrats pushed back, citing the potential for fraud and abuse. Nine state supreme courts heard cases regarding the constitutionality of the laws and they were ultimately struck down in four states. All told, approximately 150,000 out of 1 million Union soldiers voted in the election of 1864 under the new absentee voting laws. Lincoln carried a whopping 78% of the soldier vote, although, in the end, he probably would have won without them anyway.

New York passed its absentee voting law in April 1864. The rules were byzantine to say the least. In order to vote, a soldier had to authorize someone in their home district to cast their ballot on their behalf. In addition to their completed ballot, each soldier needed to sign a document granting power of attorney to a registered voter back home. The document needed to be signed by them, the surrogate voter, a witness, and their commanding officer. New York State dispatched representatives to military encampments to oversee the process and ensure the ballots made it back to their home districts.

New York State soldiers have voted in every war since. In the 1898 election during the Spanish American War, it wasn’t until December that the soldiers’ votes were counted, mostly because it took so long to ship them from Hawaii and the Philippines. By then the process had changed somewhat. Instead of having surrogate voters, soldiers would fill out and seal their ballots in a special envelope. All the ballots for the regiment would then be collected by the commanding officer, sealed inside a special pouch which was then sent to the secretary of state. The secretary was then responsible for sending off the competed ballots to each voters’ home election district to be included in the count.

 

Official war ballot, 1898

In the election of 1917, the soldier vote played a decisive role in two contests in the county. When the polls closed on election day, George A. Douglas, candidate for alderman in Elmira’s 10^th ward, and his opponent were neck and neck with 401 votes for Douglas and 402 for his opponent. Then they counted the soldiers’ absentee ballots. Eight of the fourteen ballots were for Douglas, pushing him over the top. In Big Flats, Democrat Dan Lloyd and Republican John Markle had tied in the race for Assessor. The town’s two soldier voters won Lloyd the election. Chemung County’s soldier voters also voted overwhelmingly in favor of the amendment for women’s suffrage with 76 ballots in favor and 16 opposed. The ballot initiative still failed in Chemung County by 798 votes, but points for effort or at least feminism.

 

Alderman George A. Douglas, Elmira's 10th Ward

In 1919, a ballot initiative for civilian absentee voting was passed. Starting in 1920, voters who knew they would be out of town on election day owing to duty, business, or occupation could cast their vote by mail. Those permitted to vote absentee were subsequently expanded to include voters out of town for any reason as was as those too ill or infirm to make it to the polls; those caring for someone who is sick or physically disabled; residents or patients of a Veterans Health Administration Hospitals; people in jail awaiting trial; and people in jail for convictions other than felonies. Today, every state in the country has absentee ballots and several western states vote entirely by mail.

Although some have argued that absentee voting grants Democrats an advantage, a recent study by Stanford University showed that the party affiliations of absentee voters do not differ significantly from other voters in their states. Despite certain claims about fraud and abuse, voting by mail is actually quite safe. A study by the Washington Post found that, in 20 years and 250 million mail-in votes, there have been only 143 criminal convictions related to fraudulent absentee ballots.

If you are a resident of New York State and need to apply for an absentee ballot, you have until October 27 to request one from your local board of elections. Once you’ve filled your ballot out, you have until November 3^rd to either mail it or drop it off at the board of elections or any polling site. Remember to vote in this and every election.

NOTE: THIS BLOG WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED IN 2020 AND THE GENERAL ELECTION DATE FOR 2024 IS NOVEMBER 5TH.

Wrong Side of History: The Anti-Suffragists

 By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

2020 marks the 100^th anniversary of the passage of the 19^th Amendment, which granted American women the right to vote. Since I’ve already written about the suffrage movement here, here, and here, I thought I’d write about the movement’s dark sister: the anti-suffragists. 

It probably comes as no surprise to hear that there were many men opposed to women’s suffrage, but I was shocked (shocked!) to learn there were women opposed to gaining the vote. The Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association of Chemung County was founded by Mrs. Grace Alden Gregg for the express purpose of ensuring that the 1917 referendum to gain New York women the vote failed.  Gregg was the wife of attorney William W. Gregg, and, while she didn’t work, she was heavily involved in charity and social work through the First Presbyterian Church and the Y.W.C.A. She was joined in her fight against women’s suffrage by Mrs. M.H. Murphy, Mrs. H.H. Hallock, Mrs. W.W. Cole, Miss Helen McCann, Miss Flora Gannett, and Miss Mary Potter. Like Gregg, Murphy, Hallock, and Cole were the wives of well-to-do men and actively involved charity and social clubs.  Potter had been a schoolteacher and principal from 1873 to 1913, and regularly wrote educational articles for the Star-Gazette on various cultural and historical topics.

When the first women’s suffrage initiative appeared on the ballot in 1915, the majority of Chemung County voters were in favor, even though the referendum ultimately failed statewide. Throughout 1917, the anti-suffragists worked hard to change their minds. They took out advertisements in the local papers asking people to vote No. Mary Potter wrote a series of op-eds. They brought the famous anti-suffragist Miss Lucy Price to Elmira to speak to various men’s clubs and organizations. Every time the suffragists held a rally, the anti-suffragists held a counter rally. When the suffragists opened a booth at the Chemung County Fair, the anti-suffragists got a booth directly across from them. They even challenged suffragist leaders to a public debate which was politely declined. The Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association of Chemung County enjoyed community support, receiving $264 in donations, plus free space for meetings, free advertising on streetcars, and the use of 5 cars lent by local businessmen.

So, what were their main arguments against suffrage? Part of it was timing. In her op-eds, Potter specifically argued that the nation’s efforts should be focused on the war and that suffragists were an unpatriotic distraction. A lot of the argument against suffrage focused on traditional gender roles and a deep seated fear of change. Women, the anti-suffragists argued, were domestic angels who would be sullied by the nastiness of politics. Encouraging them to enter the public sphere could lead to the destruction of social norms which protected respectable women from rape and prostitution. Moreover, demanding the vote was tantamount to saying that the men in women’s lives were unable to properly represent women’s interests. Several anti-suffragists also claimed it was undemocratic to force the vote on those women who did not want it.  

As silly as some of those arguments seem now, the Women’s Anti-Suffrage Association of Chemung County’s campaign actually worked. On Election day, November 6, 1917, Chemung County voted No on women’s suffrage, even as the rest of the state voted yes. Despite having lost the battle, some of the local anti-suffragists refused to give up on the war. Gregg, Murphy, and Gannett represented Chemung County at the national meeting of the Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage in December 1917 in Washington, D.C. and continued to work against the national suffrage amendment. It wasn’t until the 1920s, after the passage of the 19^th Amendment, that Mrs. Grace Gregg finally bowed to the force of history and registered to vote.

Old news: The Pledge of Allegiance

by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Flag with 45 stars from 1896

Once again, controversy over saying or not saying the pledge of allegiance is in the local news . For most of us, it’s a ritual we learned as young children, reciting it each morning in school. This practice didn’t start when the United States became a country but began a hundred years later in the 1890s. Using the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s landing in North America as inspiration, a magazine publisher set about looking for more subscribers. He promoted installing flags in every classroom and commissioned a pledge to recognize the event. Today a version of that original pledge is recited every morning in schools across the nation.

1892 was a presidential election year. Four years earlier, President Benjamin Harrison had won the electoral vote but had lost the popular vote to Grover Cleveland. Both were running again. Many in the US were experiencing economic prosperity as the country slowly recovered from the Civil War. Others, not so lucky, resented many of the immigrants brought in to work in the new factories. Columbus Day was primarily celebrated by Italian American and Catholic communities, both groups viewed with suspicion at the time. The climate was ripe for magazine publisher Daniel S. Ford to promote the idea of national unity.

Originally Ford had hoped to become a Baptist minister. Instead, he went into business with Baptist Rev. Dr. John Olmstead and published a weekly religious newspaper, The Christian Watchman & Reflector. The paper became such a success, they bought another publication called Youth’s Companion. This magazine was one of the first American publications written for children. It was known for its strident religious and moral instruction.

When the partnership dissolved, Ford drew the shorter straw in a contest. He now became the sole editor and owner of the modestly successful Youth’s Companion. Determined to make it more of a success, he changed its content to appeal to wider audiences by featuring popular writers like Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson. He increased readership by offering prizes to those who sold the most subscriptions, and to reach even more people he hired his nephew-in-law James B. Upham to be in charge of circulation.

In addition to this business skills, Upham was known to be interested in promoting children’s patriotism. With Ford’s approval, he used the model of subscription incentives to start a campaign of placing a US flag in every school classroom. He encouraged students to request cards from the magazine to sell to their classmates for a dime a piece. By purchasing a card, buyers received “one share in the patriotic influence of the school flag” and with three hundred cards, earned a flag for their school. To add flourish and create more of a ceremony, Upham asked staff writer Francis J. Bellamy to write a short patriotic pledge for students to memorize and recite. Bellamy, in addition to being a journalist, was a Baptist minister and well-known Christian socialist. He wanted to include words like equality and fraternity, but these were soundly rejected on the reasoning that superintendents would never support words recognizing African Americans or women in 1892.

Bellamy’s finished pledge was twenty-two words that students could recite in under fifteen seconds. The Youth’s Companion edition of September 8, 1892 featured this pledge in anticipation of the upcoming anniversary.

Candidates President Harrison and Cleveland quickly endorsed Ford’s campaign to introduce the national flag and pledge into all schools to recognize Columbus Day. Perhaps they feared if they didn’t, voters might see them as unpatriotic. Thus for the first time on Columbus Day, 1892, the pledge was recited by thousands of school children. Despite the patriotic rush, it took another fifty-five years before Columbus Day became an officially recognized national holiday.

By the time each classroom in Elmira displayed a US flag, it was 1925. The local campaign was led by Mr. O. Wendell Hogue, Director of Grades for Elmira schools, and head of the Americanization Committee for the American Legion. By then, the original pledge had been changed. In 1923 “my” flag became “the flag of the United States” to eliminate fears that immigrants might pledge to their nation of origin instead of their new nation. Also in 1923, the American Legion led a movement to adopt a US Flag Code. This offered civic expectations on how to display and treat the national flag. In 1942 “of America” was added to the words “United States.”

Other adjustments included how the flag was saluted. Before the 1940s, students recited the pledge while standing. They extended their right arms straight ahead, pointing their fingers upwards in the direction of the flag. It was known as the Bellamy salute. In the mid-20^th century, the posture began to resemble images of Nazis honoring Adolf Hitler.

The US was on the verge of entering WWII and Congress quickly adopted the American Legion’s flag code, and changed the way to salute. When reciting the pledge, people were asked to stand and place their hand over their hearts, as we do now.

For decades people have raised objections, some feeling they are unfairly forced to recite the pledge. Perhaps the most recent change made in the 1950s has created the most friction. It was then during the cold war era, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for the phrase “under God” to be added to the pledge.

Today’s version of Bellamy’s pledge contains thirty-one words.