The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-25
For Good of
 the Community
THE penalty of being big is being bi

ger. Inc penalCy or pafonLhOOQ IS greater effort to fill more mouths The penalty of mans S estate is to act like man and take on a mans responsibility The difference between a mining camp and a city is the obligation to prove the differ ence
 The Birmingham Orchestral Society in the fOreWord announcing first annual musical festival and the first bow of Birmingham's first symphony orchestra has this to say:
 Birmingham can be the greatest
 musical city in the south through the
 combined efforts of the Music Study
 Club the Community Sing, Birming
 ham Orchestral Society, the All-Star
 Concerts, the public schools and the
 private schools and teachers with the
 support of the people of the commu-
 nity.
 That is a statement of fact. With these cultural elements at work for Birming ham, and Birmingham supporting them it is an absolute certainty that Birmingham will be the musical center of the south. With all these elements jealous only of superior performance and while applaud ing the efforts of the others, and each striving to give the best of which it is cap-
 
 sned
 The foreword of the orchestral society also sounds another basic truth when it says: ''The appeal to the commercial ad- vantages accruing to Birmingham as a musical center could be stressed" It could be shown thata great musical event such as the grand opera yearly in Atlanta, much advertised ahead of time, brings thousands of people and tens of thousands of dollars to Atlanta.
 What does the traveller go to Paris for? To make money or enjoy the money he has made in humdrum way somewhere else? Why do millions go to Paris through the years? Because Paris is gay, because Paris is cultural, because Paris presents something well worth the dollar coined in trade.
 The Birmingham Orchestral society has embarked on an ambitious undertak- ing; but it is none too ambitious for the first city of the southland. Birmingham is the first city of the south in the spirit of enterprise and in the pace of it's industrial growth. Shall it be a laggard in the cul- tural? Its leaders, even those in the in- dustrials say no.
 None more than the employers of great bodies of men know the importance of that which oils the harness of labor and takes the creak out of the singletree of toll.
 Birmingham owes much to it's women and much to the men who understand, ap- preciate and support what these forward women of ours are driving at For every grace that Birmingham has taken on mak- ing life here really worth while we have to thank our women
 The Community Sing was. born of woman. The first summer open air con- certs were born of women The Music Study club is woman-born. The All-Star concerts are the fruit of women sensing the soul of their community The sym phony orchestra is latest of the woman born.
 But we cannot have asymphony orches- tra and an annual musical festival unless we support it., It is not a question of what the individual gets now out of support of this or other cultural enterprise; it is what he gets in the long run by reason of mak- ing his city real city in every sense of the word.
 :. If Birmingham folk go to other places because they have the cultural to offer, so