110 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



also be exempt. That continued to be the ruling of the Internal Revenue 

 office until about the 2nd of November, when that ruling was changed and 

 the law now with respect to taxation applies to those carnivals unless they 

 pay the fair at least 25% of their gross receipts — otherwise the tax applies. 

 U. they pay you 25% or more of their gross receipts, then they are entirely 

 exempted. 



There were a great many interesting features connected with the work aa 

 a whole. The senators and congressmen seemed very much interested and 

 my card on which I had printed, of course, "President, American Associa- 

 tion of Fairs and Expositions," was virtually a pass for me — I could go any- 

 where that a civilian could go. In this work during the last 15 months 

 I have had personal interviews with the President of the United States, 

 practically all of the cabinet officers, and any one else that we desired 

 to talk with about it. So that the prospect for the government entering 

 Into the fair business, into the show business, I think is brighter now than 

 it was ever before, and they have thought of it more in the past year than 

 ever before in the history of the government. 



Now then, it is going to be impossible for the government to send exhibits 

 to all the fairs of this country. There are something like fifteen or sixteen 

 hundred fairs in this country and it is a virtual impossibility for the 

 government to reach all of them, but the way it is going to benefit the fairs 

 most is the fact that the government of the United States has approved 

 of the fair idea. That is going to help every county fair, even tho the 

 county fairs may not be visited by government exhibits, as will be expected 

 at the great state fairs. Still, the very fact that the government has ap- 

 proved the idea is going to have a wonderfully beneficial influence upon 

 the fairs of the United States generally. It is a kind of education that the 

 government has never placed its stamp of approval upon till now and now 

 is the time for congress to give the department some latitude and more 

 money to make these exhibits. I look for the time to come when the Office 

 of Exhibits, or the Bureau of Exhibits at Washington. D. C, will have its 

 own cars, perhaps painted white with gilt letters on the side "United 

 States Government Exhibit." I think we will all eventually see that. 



It is astonishing the exhibits that they have there when one looks for 

 them. After viewing Washington a month or two or three, and I have been 

 there a number of times, one begins to realize what splendid show material 

 may be found there. I always go in my spare time to some of the great 

 museums, the art galleries, or some of the great departments there. 

 Recently an experienced Washingtonian remarked to me that the National 

 Museum alone could furnish car loads of exhibits for the fairs of the 

 United States, much of which is not even now on exhibition in Washing- 

 ton — simply stored away — vast quantities of it. 



Now, to the people of the United States, this is a government of the 

 people, by the people and for the people, and they are all supposed to 

 know what the government is spending money for and what it is doing. 

 When one picks up a paper and reads of these departmental appropria- 

 tions and sees the tremendous sums of money appropriated he wonders 

 what it is all for and I think it would be a great thing for the protection of 

 the government itself for the government to get out and show the people 



