OOG STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



. Til regard to thi.s statement made in the daily ''News" as follows: 



'• Think of that,'- said Mr. Thompson. " I toil you that the State fair ring is a rot- 

 ten one of the very worst kind, and it was because I wouldn't knuckle down to them 

 that thoy ran me out ot the secretaryship. Thej'^ say in the pai)ers that they do not 

 know what to do with their surplus. It will go wliere it will do the ring the most 

 good. "When my accounts are audited I will make such an exposure of the inside 

 workings of the men who engineer the State fair as will astound the people of 

 Michigan." 



I will saj"- that I referred to the system of the society which allowed the Treasurer 

 to be an active member of tlie committee on printing and gates, I felt then that 

 imder such a system it is possible that great fraud can be committed. I felt that it is 

 possible that a large amount of money may be abstracted without detection. The 

 exposure which I purposed to make was this system of the society. I was laboring 

 under the impression that it might be possible for ofticers of the society to take 

 advantage of their positions. But I may have been mistaken and probabl}' was. If 

 Mr. Dean or any other member or oftlcer of the society believes that this statement 

 impugns his integrity or honor I wish to withdraw any such imputation. I have no 

 wish to make any charge of corruption against any individual of the society and do 

 not make any such charge. The charge that I make is that the system is wrong, 

 liable to abuse and ought to be reformed. 



(Signed.) J. P. THOMPSON. 



Your committee in answer to the foregoing general charge that the system or 

 rules and regulations under which the soclet}^ has heretofore done its business are 

 wrong, liable to abuse, and ought to be changed, are so vague, indefinite and puerile 

 that time would be wasted in their consideration in other respects. The President, 

 in his inaugural, has recommended changes which have been adopted that will fully 

 protect the society from any corrupt invasion of its rights. Your committee further 

 state while Mr. Dean, as a member of the Printing Committee, by direction of his 

 associates, did procure the printing of the tickets for the two fairs of 1877 and 1878, 

 they were in each case printed by O. S. Gully & Co., of this city. They were all 

 printed and packed in consecutive numbers from one to the highest number, the 

 luimbering being done in the same manner as railroad tickets, by a peculiar press of 

 which there is no duplicate. That said tickets, both for the fairs of 1877 and 1878 

 were all examined and counted by Henry Fralick, Chairman of the Finance Commit- 

 tee, at the commencement and ending of each fair, the whole number being charged 

 to the Treasurer, and those not sold credited when returned. The balance being 

 fully accounted for bj'- said Treasurer. The Finance Committee, as has been cus- 

 tomary for several years, recommended that the tickets remaining on hand be des- 

 troyed, which, at Jackson in 1877, was done publicly and in the presence of Mr. 

 Thompson, the Secretary. The tickets for 1878 were carefully counted and examined 

 by the Chairman of the Finance Committee before delivering to the Treasurer, and 

 those remaining unsold at the close of the fair were re-counted by him, the balance 

 being paid for by Mr. Dean, the Treasurer. To secure a further check said Finance 

 Committee obtained from Messrs. O, S. Gulley & Co. their affidavit of the number 

 and kinds of tickets printed for said Society for the year 1878, which correspond 

 with the number and kinds delivered to the Treasurer for the fair of 1878. The 

 committee luive further verified the integrity of the Treasurer by a re-count of all 

 the tickets taken during the fair to ascertain if more tickets were used than the 

 Treasurer reported sold, and find the number of all kinds much less than the Treas- 

 urer has accounted and paid for. The Treasurer reports and pays for all tickets 

 counted to him and not redelivered in their order, and thereby takes all the risk of 

 loss in change, bad money, or anj^ other errors, to which there is great liability in 

 the liaste and confusion at tlie gates. Mr. Dean has been for the last two years on 

 the C;ommittee of Police and Gates, but not the chairman. It seems a necessity for 

 him to l)e on that Committee, and have charge of the men at tlie gates; but that is 

 iiereafter to be changed. At the opening of the fair, locked boxes are place J at each 

 gate to receive the tickets as taken from those entering the grounds. The positive 

 rule requires an inunediate deposit of the tickets in tiiese locked boxes, the key of 

 which is kept by the chairman of tlie Business Committee, hereafter to be kept bj'' 

 the Finance (/"ommittee, and the lioxes are not to be opened until the close of the 

 year. The tickets remaining in the hands of the Treasurer are returned, and the 

 account adjusted by the Finance Committee, the Treasurer having at no time access 

 to the ])oxcs. Thus much for the manner in which the business of the societj' in 

 reference to this department has been conducted. The charges of corruption bj- 

 anj' person connected with the Society having ])een withdrawn, your Committee 

 deem It unnecessary to enlarge further upon it. but feel it a pleasure to state that 

 they find amjilc i)roof in tlie examination of INIr. Dean's accounts of his integrity, 



