FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII. 663 



PRESS REPORTS OF THE FIFTIETH IOWA STATE FAIR— 1904, 



The Iowa State Fair Celebrates Its Golden Jubilee. 



The Homestead . 



It was indeed and in truth a jubilee; a golden anniversary, as indicated 

 by the calendar, and an anniversary of gold, as shown by the balance sheet 

 of the Iowa State Agricultural Society. The fair, as an exhibition, had dis- 

 tinct short-comings, but these were so excusable under the circumstances 

 and so manifestly outweighed by its evident merits and the good fortune 

 attending the efforts of its management to please, entertain and instruct 

 the people, that the net result is the heartiest enthusiasm that ever followed 

 one of the exhibitions of thit great State fair. 



The remarkable financial success of the fair is naturally the principal 

 cause for the contagious good feeling which prevails among its friends and 

 managers. To keep step with the forward march of the State fairs of Min- 

 nesota, Illinois and the other imperial states surrounding Iowa, the Iowa 

 state fair must make money. With money in its treasury, it can join itb 

 own funds with those of the State in erecting the palatial permanent build- 

 ings now recognized as indispensable to the progress of a State fair; the 

 broad roofed walks connecting the different buildings, and the huge and 

 substantial grand stand without which any fair management is handicapped 

 in its efforts to satisfy its patrons and reap the necessary revenues. All these 

 requisites must be speedily forthcoming on the Iowa grounds if the Hawkeye 

 State is to hold her proud position in the front rank of the queenly states of 

 the corn belt. 



The receipts this year were the largest by several thousand dollars ever 

 enjoyed by the Iowa fair; enabling the management to carry forward a sur- 

 plus estimated at from ten thousand dollars to twelve thousand dollars or 

 invest the money in permanent improvements. The fair has three manifest 

 immediate needs, for at least two of which it must depend upon the State 

 appropriations. These are a mile track, a grand stand of large proportions 

 and constructed of brick and steel, and an exposition building of adequate 

 size and character. The additional ground for the mile track should be 

 purchased before the growth of Des Moines forces the price of real estate up 

 to unattainable figures. Probably no wiser expenditure of the surplus could 

 be made than by using it in this direction; but there should be no question 

 about the next two legislatures appropriating from seventy-five thousand 

 dollars to one hundred thousand dollars for a grand stand and not less than 

 two hundred thousand dollars for an exposition hall that will be worthy of 

 the fair and of the State; a structure of steel and masonary that would 

 impress the visitor with its beauty, utility and representative character. An 

 adequate permanent hog pavilion should also go up soon. The days for 

 petty things in the Iowa State fair have gone by. 



