The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-17
Asovf A NArroNAL ANTHEN.

ABOUT A NATIONAL ANTHEM.
 If there has ever been a man in our public life who exhibited a more un- reasonable and insatlabie disposition to meddie than Theodore Roosevelt we have failed to hear of him. He seems dominated by an overmastering passion to interfere in everything that fs go- ing on. whether in religion. politics. it- sraturs. biography. history--it matters not what, he seems incapable of keep ing his nose and his fingers out of ev- cry ones business. That he often makes himself an shjsct of ridicuis does not set him back or teach him anything. Tn taet. Le seems to thinR 1t unpardonable presumption for any one to take issue with him or to dis pute his right and capacity to make suggestions CT demands as the whim moves him.
 As one of the latest exhibitions of this fad of Roosevelt's may be men tioned his magazine article in which he recommends that Mrs. Julia warn Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic" be adopted as the national song of the country. In that article he deals in his usual redundancy of supeFlatIves. we have in it." he writes. "the very finest and noblest battle hymn possessed by any nation in the world, hymn snas in ioftiness of thought and expression. fin both words and tune. lends itseif e choral singing as no other battle hymn does in any country. There is word that could awaken a single un- pleasant thought in the mind of any American. no matter where he lives and no matter on which side he or ns father fought in the great war"
 The statement that there Is nothing sectional in Mrs. Hows's poem Is not true. Even The Kansas City Journal loyal as 1t Is to Repubiicanism. declares that the 'sBattie Hymn" Is essentially sectional" and 1t is correct. We re- gard it as among the finest of Amer lean productions. but as everybody-- except Roosevelt, perhaps--ls aware. it was written and intended as . section al poem. It was written to stir the enthusiasm of the Union armies. to in- cite then. to greater efforts to subju- gate the South and destroy the confed- eracy: and. let us add. it was intended to fire the Northern hearts and cause the Union soldiers to make greater ef- forts to succeed In a struggle which was destined and intended to rob tho Southern people of billions of dollars worth of property which was as legal ly, constitutionelly and morally their own as were their horses and mules
 There is no need to revive any of the bitterness and animosity of the past. and The Advertiser has no wish to do so. but 1t gals us to see such a mar plot as Roosevelt wanting the country to adopt as it's national hymn . song which was both sectional and tempo rary. Its mission and its significance ended with Appomattox. Roosevelt's redundancy of adulation over the Bat tie Hymn" will have no other effect than to cause a smile of contempt for his suggestion. Mrs. Howe's poem was a fine production and was fitted to the time and the occasion. and that is all that need be said for 1t.
 It is an admitted fact that we have no national hymn worth considering. That lame apology for one. America" is the only thing we have. Some day there will be a national hymn which will be worthy the great republic. It will not be Mrs. Howe's Battle Hymn" nor will it be Emmet's Dixie" for each of them is looked on as the sentiment of a section, and that is not what is wanted. We want a song that will be of and for all the country ana all the people. and that will revive no feeling of bitterness or animoslty; nor yet will 1t be written or adopted at the suggestion Of Theodore Roosevelt.