Spotlight: Woodrow Wilson's Patria Recording—Introduction

Among rare, historic recordings, the two sides highlighted in this Spotlight feature of Archeophone's March to War are real curiosities. These sides represent parts 3 and 4 of Woodrow Wilson's "Historical Message"—that is, the second half of the famous war speech that President Wilson delivered to Congress on April 2, 1917. The mystery company, Patria Records Corporation, must have secured a good transcript and actor and rushed out the record, because it was advertised in May 1917.

The text is an excerpt from one of the most significant speeches in American political history. Side 1 of the disc (part 3 of the complete speech) is focused especially on American goodwill toward the German people, whom the president finds blameless in the present tense situation. He lays all responsibility for the impending declaration of war on the German government, which Wilson claims is stuck in the pre-democratic mindset of self-interested oligarchs.

What is intriguing about the recording of Part III, which we have excerpted twice on our Great War CD set, is the palpable warmth that Wilson conveys toward the people of Germany—an acceptance seen in the popularity of German-language recordings prior to the war (such as "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "Schwertlied"). By the end of the side, however, Wilson's righteous anger toward the German government has taken aim, and the challenge of war is met. From that time on, even the good German people living in America—so called "hyphenated Americans"—were called on to show their true colors, be loyal non-hyphenated Americans, and renounce the homeland if necessary. The popular recordings of the period correspondingly demanded loyalty and no longer celebrated the cultural differences seen before the war declaration.

Next: The Patria company 1, 2, 3, 4