Today -100: June 1, 1917: Over where?

The House again votes down Wilson’s censorship provisions in the Espionage Bill, 184 to 144. Many of those opposing it express a touching faith in the patriotism of US newspapers.

US medical societies are asking the government to abrogate or suspend German drug patents for the duration. They’re especially worried about the supply of Salvarsan, because there’s a war on, and where there are soldiers and sailors, there’s syphilis. Lots and lots of syphilis.

At the Stockholm international socialist peace conference, German socialists insist that Germany must keep Alsace-Lorraine.

The Justice Dept arrests more people for counseling resistance to draft registration, including two Columbia students and one (female) from Barnard.

In Austria, a minor government official is sentenced to 5 years for distributing the (American) song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier.”

George M. Cohan publishes the song “Over There.” Here’s Cohan singing it in 1936 (1 minute in):



Here’s the first recording of it, by Nora Bayes in 1917:



She says “Sammies” instead of “Yanks.” And finally, Enrico Caruso in a 1918 recording. Kind of funny with his accent.

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