WHAT IS IT?

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 41, 3 October 1911, Page 7

WHAT IS IT?

AMERICA’S NATIONAL ANTHEM

The incident on the last night of the Sousa season, when the band played •‘The Star-Spangled Banner” before an audience that tilled the Town Hall mcl only part of that audience stood up, started an interesting correspond-ence-and controversy in our columns is to what is really America’s Naaonal Anthem. One says it is "The ■Tar-Spangled Banner,” another •‘Hail Columbia,” and a third Dr. S. j‘. Smith’s versos to America, beginning "My country, ’tis of thee.” It ,s quite Clear that there are doubts about the question, which was put to dr. Herbert Baillie, ■ the City Librarian, to answer—“ What is Adi erica’s National Anthem?” According to Mr. Baillie there appears to bo no ceiLiiiuty, even in tne United States, but •The Star-Spangled Banner” seems to >o tno most popular claimant to national honours, ’i lie United States Army Regulations, 1901, provide that dl officers and men shall stand at attention whenever “The Star-Spangled Banner” is being played. Again,_ when the iiag is lowered at the sounding of me last note of the retreat at mili-

tary stations# -the baud will play “Tiio Star-Spangled [Banner.” ’inis seems definitely to show official recognition if this stirringdyric as the National Anthem of'the-''States. At the same time, according to '“The American ■lag,” a book "issued by the JOducaAan Department of the State,of New fork lost year, 1 “Tne Star-Spangled Banner” has not been formally adopted as a national anthem, because .t relates to a* special war incident, and does not meet all the requirements of a national song. “It is, however,” says the authority in quesion, “generally acclaimed as one of cue nobles andTnost hWpiring of American lyrics, and, under army and navy regulations, is played at morning and evening ‘colours. ’ It is more . requently recited and'sung on patrijtic occasions and in the schools than any other American song, with the exception, perhaps, of ‘America.’ ” i ne Exception, of course, is extremely important. If “The Star-Spangled Banner” has the best claims to -be .he national anthem, “America” is certainly the,, national hymn, a distinction with a certain amount of difference. The awkward part of it is tiiat “America” is sung to the dait of ■God, Save the King,” and thereon confusion is apt to arise. Oilier claimants to the honour of being the national anthem are “Hail Columbia” and “Yankee Doodle,” but their claims cannot he considered so strong as the two first mentioned. With regard to a statement made by one correspondent that Wellington had the distinction of being the only town where the public bad not risen to the occasion by standing to the tune of “‘1 lie Star-Spangled Banner,” Mr. Baillie quoted an extract From “Tiio Cosmopolitan,” an American magazine, which, in an article on patriotism, stated that at a public .concert when the air in question was played, “at least a hundred persons” would ‘••tend, which suggests that even in the States the usage is not universal.