The Sentinel=record., 1914-01-23
Secretary's Report


 Secretary's Report.
 TO the President and Board of D-
 rectors of the Arkansas State
 Fair Association
 Gentlemen;
 It is unnecessary for me to speak upon the financial condition of this association, as you have just heard the report of the auditor, which gives in detail the financial stand ing of this institution. I will only endeavor to touch briefly in gen eral way upon the work accomplish ed by the 1913 fair
 I sometimes think it was presump- tious upon the part of the state fair officials in an effort to consummate the undertaking of this great eX2o- sition after the big conflagration that visited this city in September, leav- ing it's wake disaster and ruin and financial distress of our citizens, but the work had been bcgnn. eafsllss-ssss in the year and it would have been in- finitpiy worse for the city of Hot
 
 Springs to have given up the fair at that time than to have ever under taken it at all, as it would have em- phasized the fact to the outside worl and given color to the glaring re. ports that Hot Springs was totally destroyed and unable to care for wis itors; therefore, we were almost forced, through a combination of cir cumstances to go through this be- roic struggle and give the world a great exposition of the products of Arkansas. even before the citizens committee had submitted the report of the relief fund that had been dis pensed to the fire sufferers.
 The board of directors passed through many trials and tribulations at this period, even facing the peril of a crippled public utilities service, but in the face of all these difficult ties we did succeed in giving a great fair. one of real merit that excited favorable comment by all who had the pleasure of attending it and should be a source of great pride to all who contributed to it's success. The one unfortunate thing that was unlocked for happened. The inclem- eney of he weather. This, coupled | with the disaster of the late confa- grafton, caused a great falling off of our patronage, as you will see by the | report just read by the auditor. This was unfortunate, but could in nowse have been prevented, but if another fair is decided upon, the fixing of the dates will no doubt be more serious ly considered
 The gerat amount of publicity giv en this city by holding this fair a. such an unfortunate time cannot be 1 estimated, as we had exhibitors and | people at this fair from nearly one | half of the states of the Union, be- 1 sides enlisting as we did all the na- tional livestock journals, stock jour 1 nals, poultry journals, amusement | journals and machinery journals, in conjunction with the arrangement ] made with 273 papers in the state, who ran at least (under contracD | one full page of exploitation matter 1 each month for four months prior to the opening of the fair, giving a total 1 of something like S5.000 inches of | publicity matter with an estimated | circulation of 35O,O0O copies per week. It is needless to remind you that .hese covered every county, ey cry city and every sown in the state of Arkansas, entering the homes Of farmers and citizens of every class, besides attracting national attention by virtue of the publicity given the state fair through the metropolitan press with reference to our guest of honor and distinguished visitors who participated in the opening ceremon- ies.
 might go further and call your attention to the moving picture films exhibited by .he Pathe-Freres Mov