42 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 



up the note. We learned a lesson on anticipated receipts, and as soon as 

 we could we put by a surplus to carry us over, and it was well that we did. 

 At the commencement of the last fair, 1921, we had a forty thousand sur- 

 plus to draw upon, which was very fortunate for us as the fair this year a 

 little more than broke even. There were some improvements on the cattle 

 barn and other buildings that we felt we had to make, so we drew on the 

 surplus to the amount of about twenty thousand dollars, which still leaves 

 us a little over half. It was wise we took this precaution for I do not know 

 of any bank that would advance us the twenty-five thousand dollars at this 

 time. 



We felt, in preparing for the 1921 fair, that we could not afford to reduce 

 our premiums, especially in the stock and agricultural departments, but 

 rather that they should be increased so as to encourage the exhibitors all 

 we could. This we did, and you, who visited the fair this year, saw the 

 greatest exhibits on our fair grounds that we have ever had. Experts who 

 visited our fair pronounced it the greatest exhibit that was ever shown on 

 any fair or exposition ground, so we felt well repaid for the extra money 

 we added to these departments. While our attendance, in comparison with 

 that of last year, fell off about twenty-three per cent, it was the third 

 largest in the history of the Society. This falling off in attendance was 

 due to several reasons. First, in my opinion, was the low price of farm 

 products, and the tightness of the money market. No doubt, as I have 

 heard a great many people say, the shutting down of the street car service 

 before the fair kept a great number away, and we were not able to make 

 satisfactory arrangements to have the cars run in time to have these people 

 change their minds about coming, so that was the reason they did not 

 attend this year. 



I may be treading on dangerous ground in making the following state- 

 ment, but it is in my system and I must get it out, and that is relative to 

 the conditions the Iowa farmer is in and I presume the same is true of the 

 farmer in all the other agricultural states. The farmer is the most op- 

 timistic business man. He never shuts down his factory, never calls a 

 strike, and when the government called on him to buy bonds he more than 

 went the limit, and after the Armistice was signed and he was told the 

 condition the world was in and that he would have to produce more than 

 ever before in order to take care of the people in the foreign countries 

 and keep them from starving, he dug in and produced, in the last two 

 years, the largest crops that we have ever raised. With what results? 

 Prices have gone down to one-half the cost of production, the bonds that 

 he bought from the government, and in a great many instances had to give 

 his note for, dropped almost twenty per cent at the same time that the 

 prices of farm products had gone down, and the farmer was in a quandary 

 as to what to do — whether to sell his bonds or his crop. He, at last, decided 

 to sell his bonds, and after the great bulk of them had been disposed of to 

 the capitalist, they commenced to go up and today are worth almost par, 

 and the farmer keeps on producing the necessaries of life at about one-half 

 the cost of production. Would you not call him an optimist in the true 

 sense of the word? 



