The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-01-24
WORK HARD FOR
THE STATE FAIR
TO Be BEST OF KIND EVER HELD
Reports OF outside NEWSPAPERS
Absolutely Denied by Secretary
Graham of the Commission.

The different newspapers of the
/ state have become very much agi-
tated for the last day over the state
\ ment that some of them nave been
4 making, though without any authori
/ Is, that there would be no state fair
held in this city in the fall of the
present year. The Spokane Chroni-
Gle came out in scare head saying
that the North Yakima racing dates
would probably be transferred to
that city and that the present fair
commission had spent so much of
the money that was appropriated by
the state legislature that the fair in
North Yakima could not be held.
The books of the state auditor show
that out of the appropriation of
$4,000 there has been spent $13,-
i74.59 and the statement is made
that the amount remaining is not
sufficient to pay for printing the
awards of the fair, let alone paying
the awards themselves.
AS matter of fact, the fair will
be held this year and will be in all
probability the best that has ever
been known in the state of Washing
ton. The fact that the fair commits
sion came out on the small end was
due to two reasons. In the first
place, the commission expended in the
neighborhood of $4,000 in perman-
ent improvements on the fair
grounds, and did so with the ex-
pectation that the ordinary good
weather would keep the gate re-
ceipts up to a point which would not
only pay for this work but would
leave substantial balance for the
present year. Then in the fair
week there was nothing but rain
and the attendance was cut down to
only a fraction of what was expected.
This caused the apparent deficiency
in the funds.
When seen at his office Monday
afternoon by a reporter for the
Morning Herald, G. A. Graham, the
secretary of the fair commission,
made the following statement for
publication:
or ot hN1 n1f ~f l., fs,s
! commission that there will not only
lie a fair this year but that it will
be a fair which will be far better
than anything that has been seen
in this state of its kind. l have but
recently returned from Portland,
where | went with President Cam
eron of the commission to arrange
for the racing dates. We will hold
the fair from Sept. II to 90, inclu-
sive, and if there was no prospect
of our going ahead with the work we
would surely not be going to this
trouble, to arrange dates which we
did not expect TO fill
Much Of the money that seems
to have been spent on the fair of
last year really was used for this
/ years fair as we'll, as the improve
ments that were made, amounting to
I thousands Of dollars, will leave us in
4 splendid shape to go on with the
work during the coming season.
\ The rain was the only thing that put
us at all behind Instead of hav-
ing trainloads of people from Seat
tie, Tacoma and Spokane, we had
only carloads, and those cars were
not filled to overlooking, either.
Then when it was raining through
out the day, one could hardly expect
the local people to give us the sup
port that they would have other
wise.
But while the figures given in
the articles in the papers you have
shown me are nearly accurate, you
must not judge from this that there
will be no state fair in North Yaki-
ma this year. Take the case Of
eight years ago, when there was no
money at all at the time work was
started. and still the fair of that year