PROCEEDINGS IOWA FAIR MANAGERS ASSN. 169 



We have got a lot of people in this county in the rural district if you 

 can make them feel they can leave their .work not only one afternoon but 

 every afternoon the fair is held, then your gate receipts are going to look 

 lots better than if everyone has stayed home with washing, baking, iron- 

 ing, scrubbing and all other things women have to do. The possibilities 

 of the girls' club work as proposed should mean a demonstration. You 

 could arrange with the leaders to get the best demonstration teams in 

 j^our county to demonstrate at the fair. If these little girls ten to eighteen 

 could show some of these grey headed women how to do things correctly 

 they would be more eager to push the work. Perhaps if they showed 

 people how to do things, they demonstrated things we will have more 

 people eager to come for that purpose. Then the exhibits in that, we 

 want to try to maintain and establish higher standards because you know 

 yourself at your own fairs you have seen lots of things you didn't think 

 very much of; they don't really come up to standard. So we must estab- 

 lish these standards and the exhibits could be much more attractive. 



Then the schools, I think that is an excellent idea, if you can get the 

 county school authorities to co-operate with you, let the youngsters give 

 a school day, and you have them and their parents with them that day, 

 and have them get in on the program, have their plays and songs and 

 entertainment they can put on would appeal to all these people, and the 

 parents of these children on the program Avould want to come in to see 

 what their children were doing. Where no organization is present in your 

 county to have one of these leaders you might say or an organization to 

 take the responsibility perhaps you could use the city leader of boys' and 

 girls' clubs or some extension department. Your county pays their salary 

 the same as some of the others do, and somebody could be with you at the 

 time of your fair to help with the work and it would be very worth while. 



In the women's work in the county fair, the aim should be to establish 

 and maintain higher standards in all of the work and then we must en- 

 courage the spirit of competition. Some of you men know right now 

 what I am thinking, but you think you know women and you think they 

 can't be pleased, if they don't get the prize they are through with the fair; 

 you know a lot of women are that way. We have to educate them up 

 different in your county newspaper columns and annual premium list to 

 have the correct spirit of competition. If they don't get the prize one 

 year don't have them turn away from the fair next year, but have them 

 come back stronger than ever next year, perhaps they may find out why 

 t.hey failed in the first case. 



The matter of the premium list is an important one. Several things 

 must be considered in the matter of premium lists. You know after all — 

 I was glad to hear Mr. Reed bring out that thought— it is not really so 

 much the money that these people get as the ribbons. I went out in the 

 country in one of the rural homes in my county and I noticed the wall, 

 there was almost a string of blue ribbons clear around it, and I went 

 clear around the room with this girl and she told me what she got this 

 one on and what that one and all the others. She cared lots more for 

 those than the real money prize. If you can get by with giving just a 



