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From 1914 to 1917, the preparedness and peace movements disagreed over how to keep the United States out of the war. Preparedness advocates believed that increasing the size and strength of the armed forces would discourage Germany from antagonizing the United States. The peace movement countered that expanding the military was the first step toward entering the war. The founding of the Woman’s Peace Party in January 1915 revealed the pivotal role of women in the peace movement. That same year, Broadway lyricist Alfred Bryan (1871–1958) penned this wildly popular song, available as sheet music or a phonograph recording, that expressly linked motherhood with pacifism.
Respectfully Dedicated to Every Mother—Everywhere
I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier
Ten million soldiers to the war have gone,
Who may never return again.
Ten million mothers’ hearts must break,
For the ones who died in vain.
Head bowed down in sorrow
In her lonely years,
I heard a mother murmur thro’ her tears:
Chorus:
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy,
Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away,
There’d be no war today,
If mothers all would say,
I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
(Chorus)
What victory can cheer a mother’s heart,
When she looks at her blighted home?
What victory can bring her back
All she cared to call her own?
Let each mother answer
In the year to be,
Remember that my boy belongs to me!
(Chorus, sung twice)
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