TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 225 



ownership has disappeared. This remarkable change is accounted for 

 by the attitude in recent years of state legislatures who have shown added 

 interest and are keenly alive to the possibilities and opportunities fairs 

 and expositions afford to all citizens in measuring by comparison of 

 achievement, the development and progress of the leading industries of 

 the commonwealth. The policy of permanent buildings by state appro- 

 priation is firmly established and progressing to such an extent that the 

 construction of private buildings in many places are scarcely considered 

 and those formerly erected are fast disappearing. 



For your information I may say that there is only one privately owned 

 building on the Iowa State Fair Grounds, and it is of little consequence, 

 but negotiations are now pending for its purchase. 



For your information I might add that there were, eight or nine years 

 ago, some fifteen or twenty buildings on the Iowa State Fair Grounds 

 owned by that many exhibitors and manufacturing establishments where- 

 in they showed their goods, and it is a fact that those buildings proved 

 dilapidated, they were uncared for. Because of the fact that the men 

 who owned them didn't look after the maintenance of those buildings very 

 much, and they became ungainly, the policy of the board has been for 

 the state to own all of the buildings. The result was that all of those 

 have disappeared. They were torn down. But in other states — in many 

 states, at least — most all of the exhibitors own their own buildings, es- 

 pecially at Minnesota, and the result of it is they cannot charge for that 

 space because the exhibitor owns the building. It is a very undesirable 

 situation. So that here in Iowa, as I have just stated, there is just one 

 small building where exhibits are shown which is owned privately on the 

 state fair grounds. 



I mention these matters to show more clearly the added responsibilities 

 and task confronting fair managers in furnishing space to exhibitors who 

 but recently had buildings of their own, besides the heavy expense neces- 

 sarily incurred in the maintenance of the permanent structures that were 

 erected to supplant the old ones. 



It is not possible for any organization with its limited and uncertain 

 resources to build adequately sufficient housing for all the machinery ex- 

 hibits, nor is it prudent to ask the state to do so. I think it is a well- 

 known fact that charges for inside space vary in price at different expo- 

 sitions and in many cases diminished or increased to meet conditions. 



Here it would seem, and may be argued, that uniformity of price would 

 be not only advantageous but agreeable, and yet I cannot see how this 

 solution can be consistently maintained between institutions without con- 

 sidering the location and equipment of the buildings, its commodious ar- 

 rangement as well as its attractive surroundings; for we Und that even 

 on the same grounds, and under the same management, consistency of 

 prices are not strictly adhered to, where disparity of comfort in accom- 

 modation exist. 



Charging a reasonable price for inside space is readily agreed to, and 

 is not usually a disturbing element between exhibitors and managers for 

 the reason not because it is customary, but agreeable, because it is equit- 



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