128 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Report of the Resolutions Committee. Governor W. S. Harding spoke 

 in the absence of Mayor Tom Fairweather of Des Moines. Mr. J. R. Files 

 of Fort Dodge was the principal speaker of the evening, a speech well 

 worth spending time to read. It is printed in our annual report. Mr. A. S. 

 Rule of Mason City was called upon, also Senator P. C. Holdoegel of 

 Rockwell City. 



Impromptu talks were made, by E. J. Curtin of Decorah and George 

 White of Malvern, Iowa, on the feature of added money for racing. Music 

 was furnished by T. Fred Henry, hi's orchestra, soloists and cabaret sing- 

 ers. Star vaudeville acts from the Orpheum Theater and circuit were on 

 the program. It was the consensus of opinion that the show offered was 

 the best ever presented at an annual banquet. The entertainment com- 

 mittee used rare judgment in their selection of talent offered. 



M. E. BACON, 

 Scretary Iowa Fair Managers' Association. 



The President: Gentlemen, you have heard the report of the 

 secretary, — what will we do with the same? 



Motion by Harvey, seconded by White, and unanimously carried, 

 that the report as read be adopted. 



The President : The next topic is "The Future of Harness Horse 

 Racing." 



E. J. Curtin, Decorah, Iowa. 

 Mr. President and Friends: 



I will have to apologize for the way I came up here. I have been lame 

 since last summer and I don't get around very well, but I do the best I 

 can. That is all any of us can do. 



I am more than glad to be with you here today, as nothing pleases me 

 more than to attend a gathering of Iowa fair managers. I see in this 

 meeting friends of many years standing, men who enjoy the fair work 

 and keep at it year after year when they know in their hearts that it i 

 a losing game for them financially, and they had far better be engageu 

 in something more lucrative Still, the same faces are here year after 

 year, each trying to get new ideas from his comrades, . v^ing to make 

 his next year's fair better than his last. There is a certain fascination in 

 the fair game that keeps men interested once they get into it. It is the 

 uncertainty of everything connected with it. You can plan and plan and 

 have every detail perfected, and then on the morning of the big days of 

 the fair a little black cloud comes out of the east and before the morning 

 is half over the fair grounds is a duck pond and the plans of a year are 

 knocked out. Visions of a profit large enough to pay for the new build- 

 ing you had just erected, vanish. It's a cold, cruel world, and a promis- 

 sory note at the local bank has to take the place of the profits that "might 

 have been." StilL it's things of this kind that keep you in the game. You 

 know the note has to be paid, so you go to it again, and if it isn't all 



