TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART 111 171 



taken up with the revenue department in Washington it is ludle to 

 take It up with the revenue department at Dubuque. Louis ^lurphy 

 is known as one of the best revenue men in the United States, and 

 the thing for us to do is to carry that thing on to Daniel Roper at 

 Washington, who is the revenue commissioner, and I beUeve that 

 he will give serious consideration to the appeal from an assembly 

 like this, representing such interests as we do, and I beheve that it 

 would be proper for the resolutions committee to address him with 

 regard to this matter. 



Mr. Clark: If the question wouldn't be considered personal, I 

 would like to know if the state fair paid this tax? 



Mr. Corey: I think the state fairs of this coimtn* are just as 

 much up in the air on this proposition of tax as the coimr>- and dis- 

 trict fairs. We had a committee from the International Association 

 of Fairs go to Washington last year, and they put in about a week 

 with the Internal Revenue Department, and also with the Treasiuy 

 Department, and when they came away they had no more informa- 

 tion than when they went do^^Ti there. That is, they had a lot of 

 information, but they had no decision where we are at. We were 

 just as much in the air when they came back as before they went 

 down. So far as the state fair is concerned this ye^- uf: two 

 or three days before the opening of the gates, a revenur _ :rom 

 Washington dropped in and told us we would be e^)ected to pay 

 a government tax on the afternoon and evening grandstand. He 

 told us that the outside gate and the horse shew were exempt. He 

 said that our horse show, being a rer^ar :z:.::.:z :: an agricultural 

 fair, was exempt, but he said we would be expected to pay tax on 

 the afternoon grandstand and also the evening. We then wired 

 Washington, and we had the attorney general wire Washington and 

 give a brief s)-nopsis of the program put on in front of the grand- 

 stand in the afternoon and evening, and in the evening we included a 

 livestock parade, which was put on on three diflterent days. The 

 revenue department in Washington wired back that the a::T-: : :*. 

 grandstand would be exempt from tax. but we would be reiuirei 

 to pav on the evening show. Immediately after the fair I filed a 

 statement giving the number of admissions and the price of admis- 

 sions at the evening show, and along vnxh that statement 1 had the 

 attorney general make a protest that this was a regular feature of 

 the agricultural fair, that it had been such at the Iowa state fair 

 for twent>- years, and it was, in addition, a feature of all surroimd- 

 rounding state fairs, and on that question we protested pavment 



