EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART III 151 



fair. It is nothing but the American idea of fair play, and so I say that 

 I believe that the first thing every fair secretary today should do Is to say 

 that he is going to advertise anything that he cannot produce, if it lies in 

 his power to do so. We all admit that sometimes acts cannot appear, for 

 one reason or another, but I believe that every fair secretary will get 

 along belter if he will produce everything that he has advertised. And 

 if you set your price at 50 cents at the gate, do not raise it, or don't put 

 it at 35 cents for Thursday and Friday and then raise it to 50 cents. Let 

 there be one price and let that price stand throughout the fair. 



After we got going in 1916 we put on a carnival. I didn't have time 

 to go out and get people, but we got a noted speaker and we got along 

 very nicely, and we came out on top, and with the exception of the year 

 that Mr. Hoyt put his shoulder to it and worked his head off, this is the 

 first time that we had split even in a long time. We didn't have any 

 animal exhibition because we didn't have any buildings. But after the 

 close of our 191G fair we were able to pay three years' back interest on the 

 main indebtedness; we had cleaned up the grounds and paid our ex- 

 penses for that one year. With such results we were winning back the 

 confidence of the people, and we ourselves were much encouraged. We 

 had the confidence of the farmer because we did just what we had agreed 

 to do. 



Before the fair we went to the livery barns and the stores and the 

 hotels, and to the farmers themselves, and asked them not to raise their 

 rates to the people coming in to the fair, and they didn't increase their 

 rates. I did the best I could with our little funds that first year in ad- 

 vertising, and we tried it out by not using the county papers, but in my 

 estimation it was a failure. 



In 1917 they turned it over to me and said to use my own judgment. 

 One thing I wanted to try out, and which I think proved to be a good 

 thing, was this: Under the conditions we had previously worked, be- 

 cause of the lack of funds, the farmers hadn't been paid premiums and 

 the bands had gone without their money. When We started out anew the 

 first thing that our board of directors heard when they got together was 

 this: "There's no use trying to work without funds, and I need money," 

 so the board authorized the expenditure of $9,000 in buildings and better- 

 ments. There wasn't a building on the grounds that wasn't moved or 

 torn down completely, or fixed, up; there wasn't a fence post on the 

 ground that wasn't in need of resetting or paint, and so we painted and 

 repaired, and in addition we widened the race track. 



Another thing: I believe that you cannot expect men of the free-act 

 to do themselves justice without proper facilities. If you will stop and 

 consider the free acts that you see in the summer time in parks and out- 

 door pavilions, I think you will find that they are the same acts that 

 you go to the theatre and pay 50 cents or 75 cents to see. In the theatre 

 they have the orchestra and the scenery, and that makes their act more 

 effective, while we put them out in the open air without any scenery be- 

 hind them, and half the time the music is very poor, and we expect them 

 to do you justice. Nine times out of ten it is not as good as you saw it 

 before, and you kick; but the truth is that as we compel them to produce 



