Initially, the NSL worked to indoctrinate school children and the public. Under the guise of encouraging the teaching of US history, the league worked to eliminate the teaching of foreign languages, especially German, and later Russian. It encouraged physical education in schools as a means of "strengthening American manhood" for war. By advocating civil defense, the league proselytized for more defense spending and a stronger national military. It opposed women's suffrage, which it viewed as a part of a "wave of effeminacy" threatening the nation.