Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1910 — PEOPLE OWN THE FAIR [ARTICLE]

PEOPLE OWN THE FAIR

Hoosler Exposition Has Double Tie to the Public of Indiana. The State Fair is to be held at Indianapolis the week of Sept. 12, and people from Hoosier town and city will turn it to account as a playground while from the Hoosier farms men and women by tens of thousands will tiirn to it as a source of education and inspiration, while they also will extract from it as much pleasure as does the urban element. Nothing in Indiana year after year brings together so many thousand people as does the fair, and they assemble there in the spirit that the exposition belongs to them, as it really does, under the state Taw

which created the fair in 1851 and which from that year to this has guided its destiny. To have a fair, it must have a directing force, and the state provided it by creating the State Board of Agriculture. To make the fair in truth representative of- Indiana people and interests, the legislature has always held general control of it, the Board of Agriculture being the medium for assembling the exhibits and conducting the fair. To give the fair a double tie to the people, the membership is made up of representatives of counf' fairs and agricultural societies, and their membership is made up of people from the farms. In the organizations behind it and in the knowledge and enjoyment it gives them, the State Fair more closely comes to the people than does any other organization in the commonwealth. To keep the fair management without the pale of undue influences, the law makes the Hoard of Agriculture a non-partisan body, and the hope of gain cannot be an incentive to obtain membership, for the members receive $5 a day for only time actually in the service of the fair, amounting to about S6O a year. The members can have no personal interests in the fair or its property. Each member is elected for a term of two years, and he continues in service only as long as the agricultural district which he represents says he may. Capability means a continuation on the board for the reason that experience adds to the wprth of a member In fair management, yet the membership is constantly undergoing changes. The fair grounds Ls one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Indiana and it belongs to the people. It ls held in trust for them by the board, which cannot sell or incumber the property without permission from the legislature. The fair is not operated for the profit of any man, not even for the board which conducts It. Its profits year after year are turned back Into the upbuilding of the exposition. Therein lies the secret of the fair’s continuous expansion and the abiding faith which the people of the state have in it as a source of education to the farmer and wholesome enjoyment to every class.