Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 August 1911 — NO STATE FAIR PASSES; REAL MONEY THIS YEAR. [ARTICLE]

NO STATE FAIR PASSES; REAL MONEY THIS YEAR.

Coin In Turnstile Slot Will Be the Only Way—Plan Tried In Other States. Indianapolis News. The state board of agriculture has decided not to issue passes to the state fair, which will be held the week of Sept 4. It also will make sure that the entire, free list of other years is suspended. No passes will be printed: The fair management intends to make a still more sweeping change in its methods of admissions, and will, duriqs; the coming fair, abolish the use of air kinds of gate tickets. Those who attend the coming fair, Instead of crowding about the ticket booths at the street car terminal, will gd directly from the cars to the gates and will use coins instead of tickets to gain admission. Two kinds of coius will be utilised to operate the turnstiles—a 50-cent piece for adults and a quarter for a child. All the turnstiles at the fair gates will be equipped with slot machines and only coins of the two denominations will work the combinations. The slot machines will be utilized at the grand stand of the race course. The only place about the fair where tickets will be used: will be the night horse show in the colisenm, where each spectator will have a reserved seat. A ticket with a coupon will be necessary to distinguish the reservations.

The coin system of admission, which will be used at the Indiana fair, was thoroughly tried at other large state expositions last year. A number of them have abolished passes and attached slot machines to the turnstiles. The results are said to be bighly satisfactory. It is said that abolishing passes has materially Increased paid admissions and the coin system has done away with tbe handling of many thousand adihission tickets at selling booths and at gates, and has done away with ticket clerical forces. Money changers will be stationed at the street car terminal to make the proper change for persons unprovided with coins to work the turnstiles. “State fair passes have been abolished,” said Charles DowningT*secretary of the board. “The board has long appreciated the fact that the pass evil had grown to large proportions. Many attempts to reduce the free admissions to the number of people actually entitled to them have been trieu without the desired results. The board has come to the conclusion that the only way to correct the evil Is io do away with passes entirely.”