268 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



A Delegate : Beiiig supervisor of speed at the Marshall County 

 fair, I have had inquiries how to get more horses. The first con- 

 clusion we arrived at was that we would have to increase our 

 purses. In order to increase our purses we found we would have 

 to increase our money, so the fair board has very kindly agreed 

 to enlarge the amphitheater. That will give us a larger gate re- 

 ceipt for the horse proposition. Now, the second conclusion that 

 we arrived at was that everything now is based on co-operation, 

 everything — speed or county fairs. Each county fair is pulling 

 and hauling and going its own individual way. It looks to us 

 as though if the county and district fairs would join in a circle, 

 say five, we could give a uniform set of purses that would last for 

 five weeks. The horseman then would know just exactly what he 

 was going to do. He could go through the circuit and there 

 would be five weeks of racing for a uniform purse, and the secre- 

 taries could also see that the accommodations and the barns were 

 fixed. They nuist get together. Mr. Gelo, I think, struck the 

 key note when he said that was the only salvation. And I 

 believe that this is going to result in a lot of good, both to the 

 horsemen and to the secretaries. 



Hon. C. E. Cameron : I have been very highly entertained this 

 afternoon. There are two things .you have to take into con- 

 sideration. You have got to look at both sides. You have to take 

 the association and you have got to take the horsemen. Now, I 

 will have to disagree with my friend McLaughlin when he says 

 that our fairs are all amusement propositions, for this reason : 

 If we expect to perpetuate our county fairs we must do it along 

 educational lines, because some day we are liable to run out of the 

 amusement end to a certain extent, and then we are left. I will 

 be frank with you in saying this: You know of a very few fairs 

 which are successful that have no amusement features or racing, 

 and you find but very few races in Iowa that are successful that 

 do not have a fail- in connection with them. Now, those two go 

 band in hand, and there is where the success comes in. Now, I 

 think that the horsemen have justly presented their case this 

 afternoon, in regard to some of the kicks that they have made. I 

 do not think tliis is altogether the fault of the secretaries of our 

 different fairs. I think tlie fault is largely due to the fact that 

 they are not acquainted >\itli tlie conditions, and do not know them 

 exactly what the horsemen want or what woiihl please them. We 

 all know, members who have been connected with fairs past, that 



