T HAS long seemed io me that the most serious need in
the undergraduate life at State has been that of a dis
tinctively State College song. All who are tamiliar in any
degree with the life of the larger universities will appreciate
fully what a song can do toward nourishing college spirit,
increasing college loyalty, and furnishing a natural outlet
for enthusiasm and devotion to alma mater. At Cornell, for
instance, the beautiful strains of the Cornell song may be
heard whenever any body of students find themselves for a
time together. It rings again and again after every athletic
victory, it brings back courage and determination after de
feat, it inspires even cold hearts “to dare a deed for the old
mother.” It is the parting song of every graduating class;
it is the first note that instills love for alma mater into
Freshmen hearts, and its brave, loyal words ring over every
alumni banquet table and renew inevery heart the memories
of the old days and of the dear mother on the hill to whom
they owe whatever of success life may have brought to them.
This is true of all the leading colleges. Without a college
song there can.be no real nucleus for sentiment, there can
be no natural outlet for refined feeling, for loyalty, for en
thusiasm, for devotion to alma mater.
State is fortunate in one respect, she has an air which
by tradition and by a natural process of evolution has be
come distinctly her own peculiar property. The stirring
hymn by Cauveire “lead me on,” first made prominent at
State by the class of '95 who insisted on singing it on the
commencement platform, is now the logical State College
song. It is eminently adapted for the purpose. It is spirited,
is fitted for male voices in chorus and it can lend itself to the
deeper shades of feelings, of pensive contemplation of life