{"id":1574,"date":"2017-11-09T12:22:20","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T01:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/?page_id=1574"},"modified":"2022-12-15T14:20:29","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T03:20:29","slug":"songs-and-the-conscription-debate-in-world-war-i","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/songs-and-the-conscription-debate-in-world-war-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs and the conscription conflict in World War I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Music was an important part of\u00a0cultural life\u00a0in Australia during World War I.\u00a0Brass bands played at recruiting events and marched enlisted soldiers off to war. Where a full band could not be found, a simple drum and fife band might suffice. The National Anthem (God Save the King at this time) was sung at public events and in schools, to inspire patriotism. Its shortened version was often played at the beginning of concerts, or at the cinema, as a mark of loyalty and respect. It was customary (even obligatory) to stand for the anthem.<\/p>\n

At a popular level there were songs for all occasions – stirring songs to encourage patriotism (‘Australia Will be there’), sentimental songs to console those at home (‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, ‘Send Me Away with a Smile’), even a few\u00a0humorous songs like ‘Oh\u00a0it’s a\u00a0 Lovely War’, carefully composed to avoid the censor and first performed on the vaudeville stage.\u00a0 People heard these songs in the music halls, or if they were lucky, on the new phonographs,\u00a0but most probably\u00a0learned them\u00a0around the piano in their own and others’ homes.\u00a0There was a\u00a0strong trade in sheet music during the war.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Songs associated with the conscription debates<\/h3>\n

We know a little about the songs sung at conscription meetings, although more about those sung by the ‘No’ side, than the ‘Yes’.\u00a0That is because the details of ‘No’ meetings and demonstrations were often recorded by plain-clothes policemen in the audience, looking for proof of sedition. Their laboriously hand-written notes are preserved in the archives and they include references to the songs\u00a0they heard.<\/p>\n

Newspaper accounts sometimes mentioned that songs were sung at pro-conscription meetings.\u00a0 They included the stirring song of loyalty to Empire ‘For auld lang syne, Australia will be there’, written for the AIF in 1914 by Walter William (Skipper) Francis and performed\u00a0for the King\u00a0in 1915. Pro-conscriptionists sometimes disrupted anti meetings by singing this song loudly, along with ‘Boys of the bull dog breed’.<\/p>\n

Supporters of the ‘No’ campaign had access to a range of socialist songs, imported into Australia with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). They included ‘Solidarity Forever’ and the ‘Red Flag’, songs that continued to serve the labour movement for many decades. The IWW or Wobblies made great use of song to stir their supporters and to unite them in the workers’ cause.<\/p>\n

Amongst women of the anti-conscription movement the most effective song of the war was undoubtedly the American anti-war song ‘I didn’t raise my son to be a soldier’. It was often sung at the start of meetings of the Women’s Peace Army by socialist feminist singer Cecilia John<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Her fine contralto voice stirred listeners so effectively that government banned the singing of this song for the duration of the war. Those who persisted in singing it could be arrested – and were.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The recordings –\u00a0The Victorian Trade Union Choir<\/h3>\n

The Victorian Trade Union Choir very kindly recorded some of these songs for the exhibition A Nation Divided: The Great War and Conscription<\/a>. <\/em>The recordings can be accessed here.<\/p>\n

The lyrics as recorded are reproduced below.<\/p>\n\t

The Red Flag<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lyrics by Jim Connell<\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/The-Red-Flag.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nThe people’s flag is deepest red,
\nIt shrouded oft our martyred dead,
\nAnd ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
\nTheir hearts blood dyed its every fold.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nThen raise the scarlet standard high.
\nWithin its shade we’ll live and die,
\nThough cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
\nWe’ll keep the red flag flying here.\nLook round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
\nThe sturdy German chants its praise,
\nIn Moscow’s vaults its hymns are sung
\nChicago swells the surging throng.
\nIt waved above our infant might,
\nWhen all ahead seemed dark as night;
\nIt witnessed many a deed and vow,
\nWe must not change its colour now.\nIt well recalls the triumphs past,
\nIt gives the hope of peace at last;
\nThe banner bright, the symbol plain,
\nOf human right and human gain.\nIt suits today the weak and base,
\nWhose minds are fixed on pelf and place
\nTo cringe before the rich man’s frown,
\nAnd haul the sacred emblem down.\nWith heads uncovered swear we all
\nTo bear it onward till we fall;
\nCome dungeons dark or gallows grim,
\nThis song shall be our parting hymn.\n\t

Australian hymn of freedom<\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Australian-Hymn-Of-Freedom.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nArouse ye mothers of the free,
\nStand loyal to your trust,
\nLest all that stands for liberty
\nBe ground into the dust;
\nAnd the future of this country
\nThat should be great and grand,
\nShall be burdened with the sorrow
\nCaused by a tyrant band.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nMothers, wives and sisters of Australians
\nWould you have your kinsmen bond or free?
\nVote No! Preserve their liberty,
\nFor “Yes” would mean our slavery,
\nAnd all the little children
\nWould future conscripts be
\nShall we permit this passively?
\nVote No! No! No! No!
\nAustralia will be free
\nAustralia will be free.\nNow raise the slogan valiantly,
\nAnd all assist to see
\nThat where men fought as free men
\nStill free men they shall be;
\nAnd the struggles of your fathers
\nShall not have been in vain.
\nLet us preserve our freedom
\nOr Australia’s honour stain\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\n\t

For Auld Lang Syne, Australia Will Be There<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Walter William (Skipper) Francis<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Australia-Will-Be-There.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nThere has been a lot of argument going on they say
\nAs to whether Dear Old England should have got into the fray,
\nBut Right thinking people
\nAll wanted her to fight;
\nFor when there’s shady business
\nBritannia puts it right.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nRally round the banner of your country,
\nTake the field with brothers o’er the foam
\nOn land or sea, wherever you be
\nKeep your eye on Germany,
\nBut England home and Beauty have no cause to fear
\nShould Auld acquaintance be forgot
\nNo! No! No! No!
\nAustralia will be there
\nAustralia will be there.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nYou’ve heard about the ‘Emden’ that was cruising all around,
\nIt was sinking British shipping where’ere it could be found
\nTill one fine summer morning,
\nAustralia’s answer came:
\nThe good ship ‘Sydney’ hove in sight
\nAnd put the foe to shame.
\nWhen Old John Bull is threatened
\nBy Foes on land or sea,
\nHis Colonial Sons are ready
\nAnd at his side will be
\nFrom Africa, India, Canada
\nCome men to do or die,
\nAnd Motherland is glad to hear
\nAustralia’s Battle cry\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\n\t

Solidarity forever<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Solidarity-Forever.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nWhen the union’s inspiration through the workers’ blood shall run
\nThere can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun.
\nYet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?
\nBut the union makes us strong\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nSolidarity forever, Solidarity forever
\n<\/em>Solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong!<\/em>\nIs there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
\nWho would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might
\nIs there anything left for us to do, but organize and fight?
\nFor the union makes us strong\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nThey have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn
\nBut without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn
\nWe can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
\nThat the union makes us strong\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nIn our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold
\nGreater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand fold
\nWe can bring to birth the new world from the ashes of the old
\nFor the union makes us strong\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\n

For the union makes us strong!<\/p>\n\t

‘I D<\/strong>idn’t Raise My Son to be a Soldier’<\/strong><\/p>\nComposed by Al Piantadosi, lyrics by Alfred Bryan
\n(Original version ‘I Didn’t Raise My Boy to be a Soldier’)\nhttp:\/\/www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/I-Didnt-Raise-My-Son-To-Be-A-Soldier.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\nOnce when a mother was asked would she send
\nHer darling boy to fight,
\nShe just answered ‘NO’
\nAnd I think you’ll admit she was right.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nI didn’t raise my son to be a soldier,
\nI brought him up to be my pride and joy:
\nWho dares to put a musket on his shoulder
\nTo kill some other mother’s darling boy?
\nThe nations ought to arbitrate their quarrels,
\nIt’s time to put the sword and gun away,
\nThere’d be no war today if mothers all would say
\nI didn’t raise my son to be a soldier.\nAll men are brothers, our country, the world;
\nThe glories of war are a lie:
\nIf they ask us why
\nWe’ll just tell them that mother’s reply.\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\n\t

The lyrics of some other popular songs, not recorded follow here.<\/p>\n\t

Keep the Home Fires Burning<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Composed by Ivor Novello, lyrics by Lena Guilbert Ford<\/p>\nThey were summoned from the hillside
\nThey were called in from the glen,
\nAnd the country found them ready
\nAt the stirring call for men
\nLet no tears add to their hardships
\nAs the soldiers pass along,
\nAnd although your heart is breaking,
\nMake it sing this cheery song:\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\nKeep the Home Fires Burning,
\nWhile your hearts are yearning.
\nThough your lads are far away
\nThey dream of home.
\nThere’s a silver lining
\nThrough the dark clouds shining,
\nTurn the dark cloud inside out
\nTill the boys come home.\nOverseas there came a pleading,
\n“Help a nation in distress.”
\nAnd we gave our glorious laddies –
\nHonour made us do no less,
\nFor no gallant son of Freedom
\nTo a tyrant’s yoke should bend,
\nAnd a noble heart must answer
\nTo the sacred call of “Friend.”\n

Chorus<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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