The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-06-22
SELLING THE
FAIRGROUNDS

Inc Blackfoot fairgrounds ar
about to be sold and the business o
the corporation closed up. TIL
change of the times and the new
conditions of the period make
seem the natural thing to do. No
everybody realizes the reasons To-
1t, but here are some OF them:
The purpose of the fair was tt
foster agriculture and stockraising
and especially to improve the prod
uct or the value of the products. TIL,
fair was once the best means of max
Ing demonstrations and of communi
eating educational matter to all tn,
public, but with the development O.
newspaper service, moving picture!
and automobiles, the fair takes al
unimportant place in such work.
The country fair was once a means
OF testing the speed of riding .anG
driving horses, and with the develop
ment of the iockeying spirit and its
practices, the horses that were kept
for breeding were no longer the ones
that were used in making tests OF
speed, so that improvement in stock
did not depend at all upon the
achievements on the race-course.
The riding horse and the driving
horse have been steadily giving way
to the bicycle, the motorcycle and
the automobile, and it is no longer
a matter of concern to the average
man whether horse can 60 a mile
in three minutes or ten; he is not
wanted in either case.
At the average county fair,J the
crowd passes in at the gates and
moves onward to the grandstand
views the races and makes rush
for the gates on their way home.
The agricultural exhibits are no bet
ter and no worse for their attend
ance, and they learned nothing from
the exhibits, no matter how good
they might be.
With the enactment of more
stringent laws against gambling the
bookies disappeared from the county
fairs and left only a noisy crowd
eating candy and peanuts and betting
a little among themselves to keep up
their interest. 1t was merely a noisy,
dusty, dirty piece of amusement with
perhaps some steer-roping or bull
logging or other semi-bar barous
stun thrown in or perhaps some
races of motorcycles or autos that
come and go in cloud of dust.
The county fair must necessarily
be held at harvest time, and in the
Snake river valley the season is 80
short that it requires the greatest
persistence to produce a crop and
harvest 1t between frosts, and the
farmers who set aside week at lar-
vest time for gathering and making
exhibits, often find the season too
short by week, and they lose prod
ucts by freezing. In the fall of 1915
hundreds of acres of the most valu-
able crop could not be harvested, tho
time enough was lost at the fair to
nave garnered It all.
In the year 1917 the energies of
tine nation are centered on prevent
ing = world famine, and probably
Will be for years to come, and the !
energies of the county diverted for '
q week to holding a fair would be
1t the expense of suffering humanity
elsewhere In actual starvation.
The Blackfoot fair has never been
q financial success. 1t has never
paid one cent of dividends to the
men who put up their money for the
enterprise Is years ago. The direc-
,ors have given much of their time
o the work without remuneration.
ne public have pretty generally con-
lemned them for not having a bet
er fair or for making too much
money out of 1t or for not making
nough out of it to pay a reasona BILE b
eturn on the money invested in CAP
tai stock or for holding the fair I
o early or for not holding it soon Il
r, or for asking the county commits I
toner's for an appropriation of pub
&c money or for not getting them to :
ppropriate more than they did.
many OF the people or the county
rent to the fair and thought that be- n
ause they had paid their good
honey for admission at the gates.
hey were entitled to see a good fair, v
hey lost sight of the fact that it
'as their own duty to help create t
no place the exhibits that combine a
make the big show. They lost h
ght OF the fact that those who rails O
and assembled what exhibits there
ere In the fair did not receive those a
ate receipts in payment for their /,
ork. They brought the exhibits and g.
laced them and then paid their own a
missions at the gates on the same fl
asis as did the grumblers.
The people who made the fair CT
lch success as it was, will not do 8,
ate their time to the public this 8,
ii for week or a day at harvest ii
me and call it fair. They may p
I'd probably will be busy for public O,
nefit training in the army or the F
I'D Cross work or some other &C m
'ity prompted by a lofty concep-
N of citizenship and their duty to sc
cir fellow men, while those who it
We been in the habit of criticising |er
fair and its workers will prob lin
ly be acting out their own lives OF
,ording to the dim light of their til
n narrow understanding. ks
in IN &hA