Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1909 — PEOPLES’JTATE FAIR [ARTICLE]

PEOPLES’JTATE FAIR

How State Board of Agriculture and Exposition Are Formed and Controlled by Indianians. GROUNDS OWNED BYTHE PEOPLE

Property Held In Trust by the State Board, Subject to Laws of Legisla-ture—-How Farmers and Breeders Name Members of the Board—The Purposes of the State Fair. The Indiana State Board of Agriculture is organizing the fifty-sixth State Fair, and during the week of Sept. 6 the exposition will be the center of interest for the people from the farms as well as from towns and. cities. Under the law which created it, and under which the State Board has operated since 1851, the fair belongs to the people of Indiana, as does all the property in the board’s possession. The Indiana State Board of Agriculture, the organized force which conducts the fair, cannot sell or dispose of the exposition grounds, mortgage or encumber the property, or issue bonds against it, without the consent of the legislature. The board bolds all of the property controlled by it in trust for the benefit of the people of the state, notwithstanding the fact that the paper title Is in the beard. The membership of the board comes directly from the agricultural element cf the state. It is the farmers and livestock breeders who organize and who keep alive the county and district fair and agricultural societies of Indiana, and the president of these societies, representing the farming classes of their communities, elect the members of the State Board of Agriculture. These members are elected at the annual meeting held at the state house in January of each year. The State Board is made up of sixteen members and for convenience, and following the plan of all such state organizations, Indiana is divided into sixteen agricultural districts, similar to the congressional districts. The board so elected selects a president and vice president from its own membership, changing these officers every yar. A secretary, a treasurer, and a general superintendent are also elected, being chosen for their personal qualifications. The other members of the board occupy an advisory capacity, and during the period of the fair they serve as superintendents of the departments. This plan of organization for the board was evolved by Governor Joseph A. Wright and recommended by him to the legislature of 1851, after the State Board had for several years been managed by a commission of five members who received their appointment at the hands Of the governor. The members have absolutely no personal interest in the property of the board or its receipts, their sole ambition is to conduct a highclass fair.

It is common for a member to continue in the service of the board for a number of years, for as time goes by his experience as a department manager makes him of increasing value to the fair. Yet the personnel of the board is constantly changing through the retirement cf gray-haired members because of long service, with fresh blood coming on the board from the county and district agricultural societies. There are very few members on the State Board “this year who held membership ten years ago.

The State Fair is far from being a source of financial gain for the men who have to carry the burden of its responsibilities. A member attends two sessions of the board a year, the longest period of the sessions being while the fair is in preparation and in actual operation, and the other period is two or three‘days at the annual meeting in January. He receives $5 a day while attending board meetings, his railroad fare and hotel expenses. This is the only pay which comes to him for a year’s service. The only Salaried officers of the board are the secretary and treasurer. The secretary gives his time to the business of the board and to the exposition throughout the year. " The 'Sthte Board of Agriculture is a non-politlcal association, and will always continue to be as long as the present method of choosing the members is followed. The members managing the board’s affairs have but one tifti'pose in view, and that is to conduct a great agricultural, horticultural, liveStock and mechanical exposition for the advancement of these interests throughout the state. While it is not the purpose of the board to conduct the State Fair for the making of money, yet it is always desirable that the exposition each year shall not be conducted at a loss. For the last ten years the Indiana Fair has been very successful from a financial standpoint. The profits from the fair are always put back into Improvements on the fair grounds, the State Board looking to the education and comfort of the patrons of the exhibition. The State Fair comes nearer being an organization belonging to all the people of Indiana than any other terprise in the state. The State Board and Eair were created by the legislature for the purpose of educating the agricultural classes in the greater perfection of crop production, in the improvwment >f livestock and to advance the general prosperity of the people op the farms of Indiana.