We've all heard the story about some state legislature declaring that pi equals 3. The October number of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly contains the following passage from a 1918 letter from the Panola County Council of Defense to the state council:
In answer to your Bulletin No. 56, the Panola County Council of Defense begs to suggest the following: An act of Congress declaring the German language extinct or dead, and providing further teaching of other foreign languages for the purpose of history only and this not being taught in detail but the mere historical fact that other languages are spoken and exist.Posted by Ben Brumfield at November 3, 2005 01:06 PM