I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier

"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" is an American anti-war song that was influential within the pacifist movement that existed in the United States before it entered World War I. It is one of the first anti-war songs. Lyricist Alfred Bryan collaborated with composer Al Piantadosi in writing the song, which inspired a sequel, some imitations, but also a number of scornful parodies. It was a hit in 1915, selling 650,000 copies. Its expression of popular pacifist sentiment "helped make the pacifist movement a hard, quantifiable political reality to be reckoned with."

The song gives the lament of a lonely mother whose son has been lost in the war, however it's sung by men;;

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy

She comments on the irony of war being between different mothers' sons, killing each other with muskets. Conflict between nations should be resolved by arbitration, not by the sword and the gun. Victory is not enough to console a mother for the loss of her son, and the blighting of her home. War would end if all mothers said they would not raise their sons as soldiers. The song thus apparently connects the suffragist and pacificist movements.

The somber nature of the lyrics also reflected the neutrality mentality that was common in the United States in early 1915.

"I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier" helped solidify the anti-war movement enough to make it politically relevant on the national stage. The song was in the top 20 charts from January to July 1915 and reached number 1 in March and April. The song's success and its resulting political strength brought supporters to the pacifist movement whose main priority was other issues.Unreconstructed Southerners appealed to popular distaste for the war in Europe in order to argue that the Civil War had been no more justified, and suffragists joined the peace movement because of its political potential and leverage in the campaign for women's right to vote. As with the later 1930s hit "God's Country", it shows that American popular music "generally reflects the isolationist tendencies of the public" and that pro-war songwriters were rarely successful.

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Wikipedia