FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART I 21 



unable to verify the income derived from the concessions granted to the 

 Hatch Shows for the 1911 fair, as the unused admission tickets have been 

 destroyed." 



Anyone who is at all familiar with the people who have concessions on 

 state fair grounds knows that the financial standing of these parties is not 

 listed in Dunn and Bradstreet. At the time contract is entered into a partial 

 payment is made. On Tuesday of the second week of the fair the balance 

 of these contracts is due and collected. In some cases a concessionaire 

 will find he has selected his location on what a concessionaire designates 

 as "chump row," or in other words, he has selected a poor location and 

 finds he is not making good and at the time of settlement on Tuesday 

 morning he either gets a reduction on his contract from the superintendent 

 or he moves out, usually the latter. This accounts for the few instances 

 where the full contract price was not accounted for. The few contracts 

 that were not signed were cases where the transaction was carried on by 

 mail. The acknowledgment of the receipt of the contract and partial pay- 

 ment we hold makes this a valid contract whether signed or not. 



There is a uniform charge for the lots used by the lunch and confec- 

 tionery stands on certain streets; for instance, on a street leading up from 

 the street car station, where the lots have a fifteen-foot frontage and are 

 twenty feet deep, the charge is $100 for corner lots and $75 for inside 

 lots. On other streets this charge is more and others less, depending 

 entirely upon the location on the grounds. It would be impossible to fix 

 a uniform price on each of these lots. For example, we might have a case 

 where a fifteen-foot lot was rented for a lunch stand for $75, a lot adjoining 

 it and the same size might be rented to an exhibitor of foreign agricultural 

 products for $300 or $400. Again it might be necessary to rent two or 

 three lots for a riding device where the rental would amount to $700 or 



I think upon investigation you will find the fixing of a price for lots in 

 the concession department is left to the discretion of the superintendent 

 in charge by every state fair in America. It would be utterly impossible 

 to fix a uniform price for rental of these lots until you know the nature 

 of the concession that is to occupy the space. 



I note the efficiency engineers were unable to verify the income derived 

 from the concession of the Hatch Shows at the 1911 fair, for the reason 

 that the unused admission tickets had been destroyed. The tickets for 

 the 1911 midway shows were handled the same as in 1912. The ticket 

 auditor at the opening of the fair issues the superintendent of the con- 

 cession department all side show tickets and takes his receipt therefor. In 

 turn the superintendent issues these tickets to the ticket sellers for the 

 various shows and employs ticket takers to take them up. At the close 

 of each day the ticket sellers return their unsold tickets and a daily set- 

 tlement is made on the basis of the difference between the number issued 

 and the number returned unsold. At the close of the fair all unsold 

 tickets are returned by the superintendent of the concession department to 

 the ticket, auditor, who gives the superintendent of the concession depart- 

 ment credit for the number returned. The difference between the value of 

 the number of tickets issued and the value of the number returned repre- 

 sents the number sold and the department shares 35 per cent of this amount. 



