ANNUAL MEETING. 27 



success of ono year has meant that its profits must go to make up the 

 failures of a former year. What tlae Board has gained has been only 

 through economy and the stress of dark days in its business affairs. I 

 believe that the time is ripe for the State of Indiana to give this fair a 

 helping hand through the Legislature. I believe the people of the State; 

 and especially the live stock breeders, realize that this time lias come, 

 that the State Board needs this help, and that they are more than willing 

 that it should be extended. I believe that the coming Legislature should 

 through an appropriation pay for the tract of land which we lately pur- 

 chased, lifting the yoke of the principal and interest from the shoulders 

 of the Board and leave us free to take up other pressing problems. I 

 believe that the Legislature should follow this action in later years by 

 appropriations that will enable the Board to work out the problem of 

 permanent improvements and help us to lift the Indiana fair to the plane 

 of the fairs in Ohio, Illinois, New York, Iowa, Minnesota and other 

 States. Without this aid from the State Legislature, the Board can not 

 hope for relief from the worries which have beset it and held it back in 

 the last fifty years. We need buildings of brick and steel that exhibitors 

 may have ample protection. It is only with buildings of this character 

 that we may hope to induccthe merchants to make displays and expand 

 the fair in this direction. We need a coliseum for our live stock shows — a 

 building of magnitude and on pretentious scale. We need permanent 

 improvements in the way of walks and drives. None of these things can 

 we hope to develop unless aid comes from the Legislature, and this aid 

 will not be given unless the live stock breeders and exhibitors assist the 

 Board in securing the same. 



I recommend tliat the Board delay no longer in resoiling the race 

 course. This should have been done a year ago, and the need of this 

 improvement becomes more urgent. It is only by resoiling it that the 

 race course can be brought to the high standard which marked its earlier 

 years. At the close of the World's Fair at St. Louis I bought shoAv cases 

 and similar equipment for the Art Building on our grounds, paying $700 

 and cost of crating and freight for them. This equipment will be found 

 desirable for exhibition purposes at our fair, and the purchase price was 

 about one-tenth what it would cost from the makers. 



The presidents of this Board find from year to year tliat they must 

 lean upon their associates. I have found tliis to be true, that I have 

 found no shirkers among the officers of the Board. The Executive Com- 

 mittee is commended for its constant zeal and earnest effort in upbuilding 

 the affairs of the Board. They have given the Board and its affairs the 

 same careful judgment which they bestow on their private business. It 

 is to these officers that you owe more obligation than you do to your 

 President in the last twelve months. It is through your persistence, 

 caution and growing faith in the purposes of this Board, in your untirin?r 



