124 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



or $100 for a stand and he knows there are only five stands on the fair 

 grounds and that people have to come down back of the amphitheater to 

 get their refreshments, he knows he will have an equal chance with others 

 to do business. But if you have fifteen or twenty $10 stands scattered 

 over the ground they know it will be detrimental to their business. I 

 conducted it this way for years and they always went away with a good 

 word for the Buena Vista county fair and with cash in their pockets. 



Now, it is well for the secretary of the fair to know how the con- 

 cessioners are getting along financially, but it won't always do to ask 

 them directly how much they are making, because they may lie to the 

 secretary, but they won't lie to each other. Have you ever noticed two 

 concessioners sit down together at night after a hard day's work? They 

 will tell one another absolutely what business they are doing, even if 

 they are competitors, and then the matter is solved for the secretary for 

 he may step around to one and then another and find out what they are 

 doing. Men would come around to me after I had sold those concessions 

 and ask to run an outside stand, but I would say, "Nothing doing! You 

 had an opportunity to come in and buy those stands and you didn't, and 

 now we are protecting those men." And those men would always come 

 back year after year and always had a good word to say for the Buena 

 Vista county fair because they made money. 



You have all had experience enough along these lines to know that^ 

 when these concessioners leave your fair after having had a bad week 

 and go to the next fair, when they are asked how about the last fair they 

 will say "Rotten!" You know that while a fair may have been a success 

 and a majority of the concessioners made money, if you have many con- 

 cessions scattered out on your ground there will be some who have a bad 

 location and they, of course, lose money. Naturally they will go away 

 knocking the fair. My experience in fair work is that everybody con- 

 nected with the fair should go away with the feeling that the fair was 

 a grand success. It not only helps the people next year but it will 

 stimulate other people and they will come to you and say "You have a 

 grand fair here." It is a mighty pleasant feeling to have these men come 

 to you after the fair and say "Dandy"! "I want to come back next year!" 

 It is so much better than for a fellow to come to you and say "I had a 

 rotten business; I cannot pay you for this concession." He may be lying, 

 but how do you know? They sometimes do that. 



My method was like this: Before issuing a contract or giving a ticket 

 the concessioner had to pay fifty per cent of the price of the concession 

 in cash. If he said, "I haven't got the money; I have had no luck this 

 season," I would say to him, "If you have a concession now that you 

 have been operating for a month (or six weeks) and it hasn't been a 

 success so far, I don't want it on the fair grounds. If you haven't got the 

 money to pay the fifty per cent down you had better go some place else. 

 I don't want you on our fair grounds." I make them pay fifty per cent 

 when I issue them a ticket or assign them ground space for their con- 

 cession, and then on AVednesday night — now, Thui-sday is the big day and 

 everything looks favorable' — I go around and make them shake down the 



