ASSOCIATION OF PAIR MANAGERS. 205 



doue. or ioUowlug in the footsteps of someone else and endeavoring to 

 improve what he has done. All nations and all men that have advanced 

 have striven to improve upon what other nations and peoples had done. 

 In no place on earth can a man learn better what mankind is doing than 

 at an exposition of the character just closed in St. Louis. 



While visiting such an exposition the question is often asked, "Does 

 it pay?" That question has been discussed by men who are engaged in 

 promoting these expositions. In other words, is the flame worth the 

 carudle? I believe it is. I believe many dollars more might be spent in 

 acquiring that scliooling whicli comes from visiting a great exposition, a 

 world's fair, a state fair or a county fair. In a fair such as the one just 

 closed the handiwork of the nations of the world is gathered together, 

 as well as their art, their mechanics", their ideas and their history. There 

 evei'yone who visits the exposition is able to compare in a way the ad- 

 vancement of the different nations. There are lessons there every man 

 needs to learn. There the advancement of the different States may be 

 noted. And allow me to say here that in the comparison our great State 

 of Indiana did not suffer. For the amount of money provided, the citi- 

 zens of Indiana who had charge of the Indiana exhibit made a great rep- 

 utation for the State and for themselves. I was most agi-eeably sur- 

 prised at the showing made by the agricultural interests of Indiana, and 

 I was much gratified at the comparison of our exhibit with that of other 

 States by men who did not live in Indiana. The opinion was expressed 

 by everybody that the exhibit did great credit to the State. For the men 

 who were in charge of the Indiana exhibit I will say that we who are 

 connected with the State and other fairs are under everlasting abliga- 

 tions to them. The horticultural and other exhibits of our State com- 

 pared very favorably with other exhibits of a like kind. I believe that 

 we, as farmers, as business men and as men engaged in mechanical and 

 business pursuits, feel that the money proposition was a very small one 

 compared with what this presentation of the resources of Indiana did for 

 our great State. I believe it is not a waste of money to invest it in 

 sucli expositions, nor is it a waste to invest it in State and county 

 fairs. I do not tlaink the commercial side is the one to, be considered 

 all the time. I admit that to a sordid business man it probably 

 looked like a bad investment; and I suppose such a man would think 

 ably looked like a bad investment; and I suppose such a man would think 

 it a bad investment to have $250,000 tied up In fair grounds and buildings 

 used only once a year. We have that amount of money invested in our 

 State Fair Grounds and buildings, which we use only one week in the 

 fifty-two, and the man who undertakes to figure a money profit on every- 

 thing will think the result of the investment is not what it should be. 

 It looks to the man who figures on the money part of a proposition all 

 the time as though the expenditure of millions of dollars in St. Louis 

 without any return in sight was not a very good investment. I do not 



