Antiwar Song Stirs Peace Movement

ALFRED BRYAN AND AL PIANTADOSI, “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)

Despite overseas adventures in the War of 1898 and subsequent interference in Latin American affairs, many Americans embraced the tradition of isolationism. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, peace advocates resisted the interventionists’ cry for the beginning of war preparations. A song by Alfred Bryan and Al Piantadosi, published in 1915, captures the spirit of the peace movement.

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:

I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier,

I brought him up to be my pride and joy.

Who dares to place 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.”

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 years to be,

Remember that my boy belongs to me!

“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” lyrics by Alfred Bryan, music by Al Piantadosi, 1915, Library of Congress, Music Division.

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