The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-09-04
To Sell the Fair Grounds.

To Sell the Fair Grounds.
The stockholders Of the Fulton County
Agricultural Society nave determined to
hold no Fair this year, because Of the
drouth, financial crisis, etc, which may
be was all for the best and all trne but
was there not other causes at the bottom
of it, and the condiEon of the country
only the pretext2
Before the stockholders meeting it was
made apparent that the deficit from an
nual exhibitions was about $500 annually
and that unless this amount was provided
for permanently, the Society fail
ure?
The present management together with
the former management, land the former
move speciality confess their inability
to run the Association successfully. In
this the ockholders corroborated by
their vote of last Monday. Ii must appear
that the nextSstep should be to sell the
grounds and assets, and give a pro rata
division to each stoekholder. The stock
pays no one anything it now stands
Is worthless-and good number of the
s oekholders desline to take additional
stock; and because a good number re-
fuse, others who feel willing and able
TO pay $500 or $1,000 annually for
term of years decline TO do so be-
cause of the inequality and injustice of
their carrying fifty or more dead-heads
and their families. If the grounds are
sold and each present stakeholder paid
his pro rata, it gives those who don't
want to take further stock a graceful op
I portunity TO slide; and also gives those
Who want Fair aud willing to take
additional stock, an opportunity to buy the
grounds and start on new footing and
management.
For cover the matter over as much as
we will through courtesy and personal
respect the present Association has not
been
WELL MANAGED FINAECIALLY.
Our Directors have been prudent, safe,
/ thorough gentlemen, but no institution is
well managed that yearly Acknowledges
to spending $500 to $500 more than it
makes, unless the expenditures were
caused by annual unforeseen and un
I avoidable disaster, etc. Such think was
not the case with the Fulton Society. The
farmer who spends $500 each year more
than he makesbmay be entitled to all the
compliments of life, such as honesty,
probity, etc, but he is not good fnan-
cier. So with the merchant, mechanic,
or the management of Societies.
HOW TO DO THIS.
Those who have been in control of the
institution since its beginning, or many
of them, were present Monday, and said
heir heads had been exhausted for plan
to make the Fair self-sustaining. The
public svmpathize with their sore per-
pIexitvl II farmer or merchant present
had stated that his income was $1,000 a
year, that he anuualfP spent $500, and
scratched his head with the lamentation
that he was going to ruin financially,
each stockholier would readily have told /
him to dive within his income"-to cut
off all superfuous ezRnses-even to some
seeming necessities.
hear it said that the St. Louis Fair,
which offered $50 600 in premiums, had /
not half the enumerated premium articles /
given by the Fulton Society. Our Society /
could have Topped off some expenses each /
wear on this score After the first year
there was no grounds for being deceived 1
as to receipts Next. the Society, know
ing its deficient receipts, might have re-
duced salaries or cut of entirely. The
Union City Fair, for many years at least,
was served by good, efficient. bonded Off
GERS, without charge. Officers deserUe to
be paid it is true, and where a Society
Isas receipts mako 81 able to pay. II
should always be done; but when the
Directors saw the annual deficit ought
they not TO have tried and seen if Fulton
did not have some, like Union City, who
would have made good officers, without
charge in this emergency This feature:
together with looping OFF some not alb
solutely essential premiums would have
saved $500 annually. There IS no cen
sure attached 10 any officer for receiving
pay, for few if any would have refused
il, but the fault rests with the Presidents
and Directors for permitting the Asso-
cation to live beyond its income. Like
a bad laundering boy, who spends his
own wages and depends upon rich dad
dy' to make up the deficit each year, the
Directors have perpItte this $500 leak
to continue, knowiDsI the short receipts,
depending on the Eockhoiders residue
to nav them out When this source was
pretty well depleted the "Old Board see
ing the inevitable result, like gang OF
scared partridgcs with n perfect whlr-r-r
few away, and put iP a new inexperien-
ced crew to attend t0'the obsequies. The
ola board were good and true men, none
better but they fed on the stock sub
scription n the matter of premi ums, when
the residue from that source after paying
for the grounds, etc, should have been
held at interest as an endowment fund.
From ;ime to time there has been Sc
rious objections apparent to outsiders,
bur it was known all were acting for The
best. For instance IL was an error 70 con-
time the same directors and officers for
so many years, thereby unnecessarily bur
denjng good men who from year to year
grew tired and careless, and lessening the
interest of many other stockholders who
became TO feel as nonentities IN the insti-
tuition II is Cmis' axe in an enlightened
county like Fulton to think that so and so
are the only ones that do so and so.
These notes are hurriedly written, not
to find fault with the past-because upon
the whole every thing has been well, but to
direct attention to the future. The pres
cnt Association has been managed Infinite
~ better than the one before the war. We
are out of debt, own orr own grounds, etc,
and have some surplus money at inter-
est From past errors let's improve tn e
future. Let the present Association be
wound up and the assets divided. Let
a new company he organized, the number
of stockholders reduced, and the intiex-
IDLE rule made to live within our receipts.
If extra premiums are offered let them
come from extra sources. Let SO men take
500 shares, and cut off thereby an i'm
mence retinue of dead heads which now
crowd the grounds.
Let the grounds be sold. Fit is fail
ure no one can be injured for the stock is
now worth nothing. If a new company
can be formed so much the better.
Yours,
QUISINE.
The HICKMAN TRADE-Insepara