FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART I 25 



to stay nights at the grounds from June 1st until the close of the fair, 

 which enables the office to keep in close touch with all the help employed 

 on the grounds and with the improvements being made. 



The management resents the statement of the efficiency engineers that 

 no effort other than the supervision exercised by the superintendent is 

 made to ascertain if the department derives all the benefits which should 

 accrue in this connection. 



"Collections — Use of grounds, which include stall and pasture rent; lum- 

 ber sales; rental of grounds, who collects such items. The records do not 

 provide any check upon the amounts so collected, and owing to the lack 

 of a proper accounting system, it is impossible to state whether all col- 

 lections have been properly accounted for." 



Referring to fair ground collections turned in to the treasurer by 

 the superintendent of grounds, you would be led to believe by the report 

 of these engineers that absolutely no record was made of these collections. 

 The superintendent of grounds has numerous duties to perform and for 

 that reason the records he is required to keep are made as simple as pos- 

 sible. A stall and pasture book is kept by the superintendent showing the 

 number of horses furnished stalls; also the number of cattle in pasture. 

 These rentals are collected and deposited with the treasurer at stated 

 periods. At the time collection is made a receipt is issued by the superin- 

 tendent to the party making the payment and credit is given on the stall 

 rent book. Similar receipts are also issued for cash received from sale of 

 old lumber, kindling, etc. These receipts are numbered consecutively and 

 are made in duplicate. At the close of the fiscal year the superintendent 

 makes up a statement of all his collections on the grounds, showing the 

 source from which the receipts were derived, and files it in this depart- 

 ment along with the duplicate receipt issued for each individual collection. 

 "The amount of the interest on the monthly balances has not been 

 verified by us, as no monthly statements are issued to the department by 

 the Iowa Trust and Savings Bank and the department accepts the amount 

 accredited without question." 



Regarding interest on bank account, the department receives 2 per cent 

 on the average daily balance, providing it is in excess of $5,000. At the 

 end of each month interest is figured by the deputy treasurer of this de- 

 partment and credited to the account of G. S. Gilbertson, treasurer. This 

 is handled by the bank in exactly the same manner as savings and other 

 accounts of individual depositors. We have the privilege, and have taken 

 occasion to verify the interest several months when the account was 

 large, and have always found the proper amount credited to the account. 

 In our dealings with bankers we have found them to be honorable gen- 

 tlemen, as well as experts at figuring interest, and we are not much con- 

 cerned about any discrepancies from this source. 



"Per Diem and Mileage Charges — In Appendix III we present a state- 

 ment of the department for out-of-state meetings during the periods under 

 review, and in all cases the actual charges are less than the amounts allow- 

 able by law. In Appendix IV we present a statement of the amounts 

 paid to members of the board, officials of the department and the depart- 

 ment superintendents at the State Fair; and the amounts included therein 



