FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 209 



a man to start if lie wants to is one that the secretary can collect 

 on if he wants to. I had a little trouble with our board of directors 

 a few years ago along that line — not very much trouble, but a 

 little. They took me a little bit to task for something I had done. 

 I told them that was one thing they expected the secretary to do, 

 w^as to build up the races and that I would have to have my own 

 way of doing it; that if I could not, somebody else would have 

 to do it. That I would not try it if I could not have my own way 

 about it. 



In the matter of the best program, I think it depends a good 

 deal on local conditions ; maybe not exactly local conditions, but the 

 surrounding conditions. You must do the best you can with the 

 money you have to spend. Of course you have to take some 

 chances. One of the things that I think a secretary should do, or 

 rather the board of directors, they should appoint a good superin- 

 tendent of speed. One of the big mistakes is to appoint a local 

 horseman as superintendent of speed. He would usually get the 

 blame for things that maybe didn't belong to him; but it is poor 

 policy to adopt a plan of appointing a local horseman as superin- 

 tendent of speed. I don't believe there are very many fairs in the 

 state of Iowa that can stand great big purses. I would rather take 

 my chances on more classes with smaller purses than on a few 

 classes with larger purses. I believe I'll advocate this year with 

 our board of directors a plan something like this : make an entrance 

 fee of 1%, but I would make that entrance fee to all horses no 

 matter if they let a man enter as many horses in the race as he 

 wants to but make him pay 1% on every entry. I would make the 

 entries close sometime, say a week before the fair, and maybe ten 

 days. I would charge an additional 1% to start with, that will 

 make 2% for the starters, then I would deduct 7% from the horses 

 that win first money, 6% from horses than win second money, 4% 

 from the horses that win third money, and 3% from the horses that 

 win fourth money. That might do to try. You can try most any- 

 thing once. "We have a fair that pays considerable attention to the 

 speed end of it but we also pay just as good attention to all other 

 departments. We find it pays to do this, but we have got to have 

 the races all the time. 



Mr. E. Gr. Manbeck, Des Moines: Mr. Chairman: I would like 

 to ask the president and directors of county fairs what an invita- 

 tion amounts to to get a majority of the farmers to attend the fairs. 

 I guarantee if they attend the fairs they will see the races. Now, 

 U 



