The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-27

are still here, and to stay. Today they all conspire to make Christmas look real. There is harmony, peace, good will among them all. To be sure, conditions are somewhat changed, but not beyond recog- nition.
 In company with a few Tuskegee gentle men and gentlewomens your correspondent responded to invitation by Dr. Booker T. Washington and attended Christmas Eve exercises Sunday night in the chapel of his institute. The programme was en- tirely musical. First a cantata, '-1-ne Angel Chorus" An. orchestra led and a woman directed the 100 superb male and female voices of the choir in the anthem of praise to the Babe of Bethlehem The music was most artistlcally rendered, showing exquisite culture, and the songs of prayer were touchingly tender and ed- flying. The bass, tenor, soprano and con- tralto voices in concert and in solo blend ed in mutual harmony and afforded an hours service that made us feel it was good to be there" Then followed the old time songs of the old plantation cab in days, rendered by the choir and 20OO voices in the vast audience. These songs were still more touching because of the friendly association that links the ante- bellum memories of the black race with the new conditions of the whites and blacks of the south The sentiment was inspiring, the scene glorious. Perfect or der and system was the crowning feat ure of the evening.
 Low price of cotton and high price of lands around Tuskegee and in fact throughout agricultural Alabama, present a most interesting apparent anamoly just now With cotton at less than 3 cents ,t $50 to s100 per acre ,and with constant complaint of the inadequacy and inef- ficiency of labor, we will have to attribute the peculiar condition maintained to ad- vanced scientific methods of farming, brought about by studious research and application by the national and state agri- cultural departments If The who makes two blades of grass grow where one grew before is a benefactor to his race" then surely must we esteem the benefaction vouchafed to the agricultural interests of the south by these departments of the state and national governments, and by the technical training of the young In our institutions of learning. Two bales of cot ton to the acre and loo bushels of corn to the next acre is the rule rather than the exception this year, while in years gone by such results were not thought possible of requirement. on these Alabama lands
 Your correspondent Is not one of those calamity howlers who fears depreciation of the value of the negro as a laborer, and who sees nothing in the future for him. He is with us to stay, a most val uable and necessary asset of the agricul- tural south, sine qua non as a wealth producer in fields agricultural, the only competent human appliance for these broad acres. To be sure we have the white farmer for the small fields, and they are honorable, industrious and worthy developers, but there are not enough of them to handle the broad acres with which providence has endowed Ala bama, and there will not be a sufficient number until the flow of centuries of natural and acquired immigration shall have taken abode here and put it's hands to the blow, choosing rather the labor of the hands, under the rays of summer suns, to the work of the professions and the pursuits of commerce and manufac- ture.
 At last, it is .egro labor that makes valuable the cotton and corn lands of the south.