The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-04-26
Secretary Randall Before
State Legislature.
NEEDS OF THE BIG SHOW
He Wants the Commonwealth to Loan
the Association Quarter Of
Million of Dollars.

~. raul. ApIl lS.-lHe House tOoh uI
as IA special order the Morse bill, author
ling the credit of the state for the rails
inc of S25OOO0 with which to build a
new grand stand at the state fail
grounds, and also to purchase additional
land. This special consideration had
been arranged for Yesterday at the re.
quest of Mr.. Morse.
That the needs of the State Fair asso-
citation might be intelligently set before
the members, a recess of ten minutes
was taken and Secretary Randall, of the
State Fair association, who was in the
retiring room, was invited to address the
house.
Mr.. Randall reviewed the growth of
the state fair and proceeded:
The congestion and the serious en-
barrassment caused by lack of space
equipment can be readily understood
when it is shown by the figures just
given, the work has multiplied by six
while the grounds have not been en-
lar9ed at all and the equipment has
hardly been multiplied by two. The
needs of the institution are both large
and urgent. OF those / will speak
briefly and in the order of their impor-
tance.
There must be new grand stand.
Any architect or builder will tell you
that twenty years may be considered as
the extreme life of any open, wooden
building, exposed at all times to the sun,
the wind and the rain. The present grand
stand is seventeen years old and is APP
preaching the end of its usefulness. Its
total seating capacity with bleachers is
seventeen thousand. During one after
noon at the last fair, $3.50 people went
into it. Aisles, stairways, paddOcks and
all open spaces about it became one solid
mass of humanity. A lire would mean
appalling results. A fire alarm, even one
without serious cause may mean serious
loss of life. The tearing away of the
building and the erection in its place of
steel frame, cement, freproof, grand
stand, is one of the necessary things to
be done. I'D,
We are told that grand stand of the
kind here outlined will cost so per seat.
Two hundred thousand dollars, the
amount provided for in this bill, will,
therefore, build grand stand that will
seat approximately 10000 people.
More land is needed. The present
grounds have been repeatedly crowded
to their limit by state fair crowds.
Eighty acres of land could be added to
the present area of two hundred acres
for the accommodation of buildings, eX-
hibits and people. This land is held at
5000 per acre or $4,000. About $1,000 is
needed for the purpose of land for in
creased railway terminals, making to-
tai investment in land of $4,000. The
bill now before you carries this amount.
The bill provides for condemnation pro-
ceedings. in case the land cannot be pur-
chased at fair valuation.
First-A sewer system. The present
sanitary arrangements are primitive and
crude. 1t is next to impossible to use
the grounds in their present condition.
When it was attempted to camp soldiers
upon the grounds at the beginning of the
Spanish war, it was not long before al
out break of typhoid occurred. A sim
liar or worse evil can be expected when
ever people in considerable numbers WIS.,
it the grounds. A sewer system is one of
the things that must be provided at the
earliest possible moment. 1t will cost
$4,000. The st. Paul city engineer es-
Inmates that it will cost $26S,543, to ex-
tend the sewer system of the city to the
grounds of the state fair and of the
school of agriculture. This amount the
city is preparing to spend. The work