AMERICA'S BATTLE SONG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17062, 15 August 1917, Page 5

AMERICA'S BATTLE SONG

WHAT IS UNCLE SAM'S NATIONAL

ANTHEM?

This sounds an easy question to answer, but it is not as easy as it looks. America has several anthems which she sings with almost equal regularity, ana upon which she confers almost equal honour, and if a plebiscite of the Amer^ ic-an people were taken it is not at all certain which they would choose. Some years ago the chief of the Music Division in the Library of Congress made what he considered an exhaustive investigation into this very point, and his conclusion was that "Dixie" came first, "Yankee Doodle" second, and the "Star-Spangled Banner" third. The last ia reported to appear in fourteen different versions.

THE "STAR-SPANGLED BANNER.'

. However, it was the " Star-Spangled Banner" which was played at the Opera on the night of America's entrance into the war, and as that was a supreme occasion, and the playing of the tune oy the orchestra roused the audience to a white heat of enthusiasm, probably that fact is as conclusive as any other., Though "Dixie" is universally popular with our American friends, yet it ;s really a song of the Southern States, and was sung exclusively by the Confederates in the Civil War. That fact would count against it as a National Anthem.

By reason of its splendid' dignity and lofty tone, the famous Battle Hymn of the Republic, set to the tune of "John Brawn's Body," is regarded by many cultured Americans, including Mr. Roosevelt, as the real National Anthem of America, but one dares wager that when the Yankee regiments get on the " route march" the words they will sing to the famous old tune will be the origina.l ones, and not the splendid hymn of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, for John Brown's body is still marching on in the cause of Freedom and his countrymen are following its trail.

"MY COUNTRY, 'TIS OF THEE."

In adition to those already mentioned, there are " -tiail Columbia" and "My Country, 'tis of Thee," but, as the latter is sung to the same tune as our own National Anthem, that fact will certainly militate against it if American troops come to France. The Yankees will certainly want something we haven't got, for to carry coals to Newcastle is not one of their weaknesses. I

Besides its popularity and suitability for the National Anthem of a republic, the " Star-Spangled Banner" is one of the oldest of American anthems, having been born in 1812, during the last war with Britain. When the British bombarded Baltimore, a young lawyer —

Francis Scott Key—seeing the Stars and Stripes floating over the fortress, was inspired to write the great song, and in a few months it was upon every lip throughout the States.