ANNTTAL MEETING. 43 



attempt should be made to hold a State Fair in Indianapolis next Sep- 

 tember. I urge you to dispose of this question with greatest caution. 

 I seriously doubt the wisdom of undertaking a fair this year. The 

 greater one at St. Louis will draw upon the resources and patronage of 

 all State fairs to a very great extent. The farmer and the city man 

 will be a patron of the World's Fair because of the larger opportunities 

 for observation. It will attract the better grade of exhibits because of 

 greater opportunities to win higher laurels than a State Fair has to 

 offer. The only argument which occurs to me in favor of holding a 

 State Fair would be that of holding our list of regular exhibitors. In 

 view of their loyal support from year to yeai', I doubt if they would 

 desert the Indiana Fair should it be abandoned for one year. 



In 1893 the Indiana Fair had an overwhelming competitor in the 

 Chicago World's Fair, and that year the Indiana Fair lost $11,000. I am 

 afraid that the Indiana Fair would this year have still more disastrous 

 results. You will find the business men of Indianapolis opposed to the 

 idea of abandoning our fair this year. In the light of support from this 

 element in other years, and in view of our own interests, I doubt the 

 wisdom of taking Indianapolis into the reckoning. I urge you to give 

 consideration to the plea from Indianapolis only after the people of that 

 city give substantial evidence that they are willing to join forces with 

 our Board in making the fair a success in a very doubtful year. This 

 evidence should be something more material than the bare promise of 

 support. This Board has for fifty years sought to obtain the help of 

 Indianapolis people to make the fair a success. The Board has exhausted 

 its ingenuity in providing entertainment for Indianapolis people, and 

 those attractions which before the fair would be most promising, would 

 when the fair came on, and response was expected from Indianapolis 

 people, fail entirely. If Indianapolis feels that a State Fair is so im- 

 portant to its interests this year, tliat city should make known its wants 

 and to what degree the want exists. I have little faith in conferences 

 between our Board and committees representing commercial bodies of 

 the city. They have been fruitless of results in other years so far as 

 attendance or genuine support from the city was concerned. I am con- 

 vinced that the efforts of the Board in the future should be directed 

 toward providing for its most loyal supporters— the people of the inter- 

 urban and smaller railroad towns of the State and those of the country 

 districts. 



I urge the Board to give serious consideration to the question of en- 

 larging the powers of its Secretary and changing his title to that of 

 General Manager. The position is no longer a clerical one. It requires 

 a man of experience and business ability to properly attend to the many 

 duties. He must necessarily keep pace with our growing enterprise. The 

 President of your Board now has to bear the burden of many affairs 

 which would more lightly fall upon a General Manager. The General 



