192 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ran up my back and my hand trembled as I thought of the price I was 

 paying for the honor of being a director of the Iowa state fair. 



But as I look back to those days of trial and final victory I esteem 

 it as one of the most gratifying periods of my life that I served as di- 

 rector, vice president and president of the Iowa State Agricultural Society 

 and only severed my connection with it when it was out of debt and the 

 foundation laid for future prosperity. 



All this is ancient history, well known to the former oflBcers of the so- 

 ciety, and I only refer to it as showing that it requires united effort and 

 hearty co-operation of the press of the state to insure a successful State 

 Fair. The well conducted modern newspaper molds in no small degree 

 public opinion, and he who thinks that a great enterprise can be success- 

 fully conducted without the aid of the press has yet much to learn. 



Unfortunately for the fair there was some antagonism manifested to- 

 wards the management the present year by some of the newspapers of 

 the state, their proprietors no doubt believing that they were entitled to 

 some more compensation for their work in behalf of the fair than ad- 

 mission at the gate, a privilege that many are unable to accept. On the 

 other hand the fair is a state institution, entirely different from a private 

 enterprise, or a corporation, where the profits are to accrue to the in- 

 dividual or the firm. No matter how great the receipts of the fair may 

 be over the expenses, no director of the society receives more than $4.00 

 per day, all the profits going to the betterment of the grounds, the title 

 to which is in the State of Iowa. 



Since the fair has been financially successful, great improvements have 

 been made by the erection of new buildings, the legislature having made 

 generous appropriations for this purpose, and these appropriations have 

 been supplemented by the surplus left, after paying the legitimate expenses 

 of the fair. If the State Agricultural Society had been required to pay in 

 the past for all the complimentary notices it has received at the hands of 

 the press it would have long since ceased to exist, and it is questionable 

 if it could even now exist and pay even a fraction of the values it re- 

 ceives from the press of the state. 



The Iowa Fair and Exposition is a state institution, its chief aim and 

 purpose being to advance the agricultural resources of the state, and in 

 doing so every farmer who attends these annual fairs must be stupid in- 

 deed if he does not profit by something he has seen. 



To get the necessary information in regard to the fair the farmer 

 must depend upon the enterprise of the newspapers and largely to those 

 that are published locally, so that, in fact, he is the one that secures the 

 greatest profit by the timely publication in his home paper of the attrac- 

 tions offered by the state fair. And as a subscriber to a newspaper he has 

 a right to expect that he will be kept duly informed of what is going on in 

 his own state. When the legislature is in session he wants to know what 

 the lawmakers are doing and the enterprising newspaper will keep him 

 informed. In like manner he desires to know of the new attractions at 

 the state fair, and if the suggestions made in this paper are adopted by 

 the fair management it is only by giving them the widest publicity that 

 they can be made a success. And I do not believe that there is a single 

 editor of a newspaper in Iowa who will willingly withhold from his 



