376 ANNUAL. REPORT OF T^'B Off. Doc. 



vestment. I will venture to say that in ten years from the establish- 

 ment of the proposed Commission, all of the original appropriation 

 will revert to the State Treasury. If states with less resources, and 

 less industries, and farther down in the rank of agriculture, can make 

 such state fairs self-supporting (which they are doing), why cannot 

 Pennsylvania, with all its industrial wealth, and ranking fifth in 

 the Union in Agriculture, not only make a high-class State Fair 

 self-supporting, but in addition, turn over to the State a handsome 

 dividend? AVhat is two hundred thousand dollars, when asked for 

 in the interest of the encouragement and development of our agri- 

 culture? Not much. It would not seem much if asked for for any 

 other purpose. Why, I have known the Legislature to appropriate 

 as much as one hundred thousand dollars to a single investigating 

 committee, never expecting that any of it would be returned, either 

 in the form of a dividend, or permanent real estate improvement, 

 much less the development of a State enterprise, and the encourage- 

 ment and advancement of the first and most important industry 

 of our Commonwealth. 



I was one of a number who met the Appropriation Committee of 

 the Legislature, in 1907, in the interest of a State Fair bill, and a 

 member of the Committee asked the question as to whether the 

 agriculture of the State would not be farther advanced by appro- 

 priating to the various county fairs the amount which was asked for 

 a State Fair, and as to whether a great State Fair would not prove 

 detrimental to the county fairs. I do not wish to question the in- 

 telligence of any member of the Pennsylvania Legislature; this body, 

 with very few exceptions, is composed of broad-minded men, possess- 

 ing the highest order of intelligence and integrity, but I do not be- 

 lieve that this special member had yet learned that Pennsylvania is 

 an agricultural state; at least, he knew nothing about fairs, or their 

 management. I will now answer these questions: First, if you 

 were to appropriate twenty thousand dollars to each of the county 

 fairs in Pennsylvania, not one of them would have the management, 

 the equipment, or the finances, to put up a modern State Fair, or 

 anything near like it. Second, a State Fair should be permanently 

 equipped to accommodate large displays of all classes of products. 

 It should have large modern barns, and the facilities for housing 

 and caring for large numbers of live stock; it should have large 

 exposition buildings, wherein can be displayed the Arts, Sciences, 

 Mining, Manufacturing Schools,, and ever3'thing that pertains to the 

 advancement of all the State's various enterprises. Third, it should 

 have a high-class premium list, which would bring out the best of 

 everything produced in our own state, as well as from all other 

 states and countries, in order that all of our people, representing 

 all of the interest of the State, may come and see of the best advance- 

 ment and most modern improvement, which only a high-class State 

 Fair can afford. A county fair should be run on a broad and equit- 

 able basis, in order that every citizen of the county in which it is 

 held could, and would, become interested; it should have the neces- 

 sary permanent facilities for housing and showing the best livestock, 

 as well as the best of all the various other products of the county, 

 and it should havea premium list liberal enough to bring out thebest 

 of everything produced in the county, which creates that keen com- 

 petition and enthusiasm which cooduce*! to rapid local development. 



