J 46 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Tuesday, and Wednesday and Thursday are rainy, you won't get your 

 people out on Friday. That is the main talking point along the line of 

 s'pecial features of the fair, and the only idea I have in a special feature 

 at our fairs is specializing those two days — not specializing the days, 

 but getting away from the old idea that there are to be two big and two 

 small days at the fair. 



""Mr. Chairman: We "will now have a talk entitled, "An Old 

 Newcomer," by Mr, E. W. Williams of Manchester. 



Mr. E. W. Williams: Mr. President and Brother Secretaries: Before 

 going into this subject which has been assigned to me, I want to say that 

 it has given me a great deal of pleasure to be a member of this organiza- 

 tion. I have always been interested in amusements in more ways than 

 one, and I am glad to be in this game at this time. I consider it not 

 only a privilege but a duty as an American citizen to do everything I 

 can to further the interests not only of my community and county and 

 state, but of my country as a whole, in any way that I can lend assist- 

 ance. 



In traveling around visiting fairs last year, making twelve of them 

 before and after our own fair dates, I was surprised to see the lack of 

 patriotism manifested, and yet if there ever was a trying time in the 

 history of man, it confronts us at this present time. We are up against 

 the real thing, and I don't believe there is a man in any occupation or in 

 any office that can do more for the betterment of the cause than the secre- 

 tary of a fair. Many of the secretaries are below the age limit prescribed 

 in the conscription act, and some will not be here to fill their dates. They 

 will be doing more for their country than we are, and I therefore feel 

 that we men who are left at home to enjoy our livelihood and our friends 

 and our loved ones should increase our efforts to make this association 

 everything that it should be. I don't blame, but commend, the men who 

 are at the head of this organization when they urge upon us to be here 

 and attend this meeting and the meeting of the agricultural society, and 

 I believe and heartily agree that every secretary here today ought to take 

 away with him the purpose of urging upon his directors that a representa- 

 tive of each fair in the state receiving state aid should be in attendance 

 here. Every secretary is governed by his board of directors. Surely one 

 of them can be sent to Des Moines to attend these gatherings. But I 

 know what some men are up against for I have been connected with one 

 of the rottenest fairs in the state of Iowa. We must clean out our di- 

 rectorate before we can hope to clean out our fairs and make them a suc- 

 cess, and I believe the first move and the first thing to do is to put before 

 the men the matter of patriotism. And if you have a director in your 

 board who is not willing to come out fiat-footed and say where he stands, 

 he has no right to be on the board, nor has he a right to be a member of 

 this or any other association; he is a detriment to it. 



I want you to understand that I am not here to tell you what to do, 

 for* you are all older heads that I am, but I do believe, men, and I think 

 you all have had experience enough when traveling from one fair to 

 another to have noticed — a condition I am ashamed to admit — that 



