Message to the American People

By Thomas Edison, Inventor
Recorded 1918

ANNOUNCER: Thomas A. Edison, the inventor of the phonograph, has never before committed his voice to be recorded for the public. Today however, he has a message for you that is important enough to call on him to break his long-established rule. Mr. Edison will now give you that message. I beg to introduce Mr. Thomas A. Edison.

EDISON: This is Edison speaking. Our boys made good in France. The word "American" has a new meaning in Europe. Our soldiers have made it mean courage, generosity, self-restraint and modesty. They are proud of the North Americans, who risked their lives for the liberty of the world. But we must not forget, and we must not permit demagogues to belittle the [?] made by our gallant allies. Let [?] tell the story. How proud we may be of our own achievements, let us remember always that the war could not have been won if the Belgians, the British, the French, and the Italians, had not fought like bulldogs in the face of overwhelming odds. The Great War will live vividly in the minds of Americans for the next hundred years. I hope that when we do reverance to the memory of our great boys who fell in France, we shall not forget that their brothers in arms who wore the uniforms of our allies. I agree that the rightful heirs of France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium should for all time come to be as familiar to us as our own Star-Spangled Banner.