The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-12
MACHINERY IN FAIR
Exhibit Most Inclusive Ever
Shown in Kansas.
Everything From Baby Motors
to Giant Tractors.
ALL MAKE LIFE EASIER
Gasoline Takes Place of Muscle
ON the Farm.
Acres and Acres of Machinery
at the Fair.
ALL MAKE LIFE EASIER

An army of 10000 men must have
been busy in the nut and bolt factories
last summer preparing for the ma
chinery exhibit at the Kansas f ha1t
factories were running nights, the
makers of shafts and drive wheels
laid war orders IN the pigeon mole 10
prepare for the big Topeka show.
There is little wonder thousands OF
fair visitors finger around the ma
chinery exhibits. Everything in the
machinery line seems to be there
Mother sees a simple continuance
whereby she may press button ana
a machine rocks the baby to sleep
while she proceeds with her social
duties and receives guests at an after
noon tea over in another tent father
stands wide-eyed and open-mouthed
before a giant tractor that does the
work of ten teams and the waste
steam. is utilized in providing grand
opera, a la steam calliope.
If the machinery manufacturers
overlooked anything for the Kansas
free fair, mention of the fact has
been made to the management. There
is machinery for almost every neces-
sity from the day baby first opens its
eyes and emits war whoop until the
undertaken backs a twelve cylinder
plumed hack in front of the house
and hauls father to the family burial
plot.
.'Do 1t by Machinery"
"Do it by machinery is the motto
on the big fifteen or twenty acre plot
set aside for the machinery exhibit.
And the motto Is contagious. Any
number of fair visitors are going home
this week with their mind puzzlin9
over investment in some gosh blamed
new contrivance that will make life
little easier. Several thousand visitors
from the crop producing districts will
suffer from nightmare in local hotels
and rooming houses all because of an
hour~before the wheels and whirlagigs
that overflow machinery hall and oc-
cupy acres of space in the open.
trench digging machine that nes
the work of fifty men and doesn't be-
long to the union and isn't affected
by L. w w. literature and Socialist
agitation, is one of the top line a.trac-
lions. 1t co-operateS with miniature
tank in bringing the European war
a little nearer Kansas and Topeka
But any number of contractors and
farmers looked at the machine and
thought of blistered hands. .ahor
troubles and trench digging expenses.
So the drench digger took a toe hold
in the state.
The old family church has been out
of style in Kansas for several years.
But when mother shooed the chick
ems off the front porch and said good
bye to hand made butter the coming
of the power church was just step
in Progress-spell it with a capital p
Run Home with ELECTRICITY.
One active demonstration came to
| the fair with a scheme for running
| the country home by electricity while
| mother sits in the porch SWING and
| reads a letter from her sorority
| daughter at college That eiectrlo
plant provides lights for the house,
the barn, the chicken coop and the
granary where father keeps his 81 Is
1 wheat Then there is enough surplus
| power to run the electric fans, churn
the butter, play the piano, run ene
| victrola, operate the vacuum cleaner,
| wash the clothes and dishes, COCK the
| meals and do the ironing. Next year
| the demonstration expects 20 come
| back with a perfected scheme for
| taking the children out for walk,
feeding the pigs, milking The cows
| and conducting Sunday schoci eX-
cursion.
Giant tractors and gang plows and
threshing machines and headers are
| scattered all over one section of th2
fair grounds. One tractor carries
| drive wheels that look like an en-
| cased circular swing or an lnVerteo
| enclosure for a race track. Ine gov
| eminent lost enough scrap iron 10 line
| A battleship when the tractor maru'
| facturers turned out an installmen
| of those giant wheels.
| Life on the farm isn't what it uset
to be with all the modern, hlsh Pc"
| cred. new tangled labor saving ma
| chinery on the market The poo
| downtroddeli farmer with his crop o
| $3.50 corn, $40 hogs and 81 whea
| NAV get up as early as ever. Blu
| he doesn't chase around in his bar
| feet with an oil lamp and forget tn
| Bible lesson when he smashes the &c
| in the water basin. Nev-vur II
| switches on the electric lights, open
| the radiators. pushes a buzzer for tn
cook lady and proceeds to instruc
| the hired man about the use of tn
motor in grinding a little grist, saw
ing the wood, or hitching the tracto
to a few wagon loads of feed for tn
| cattle. And in the good old summe
| time the tractors save violent use Q
| the Lords name in the rural dis
| tricts and work with the other me
! chanical appliances in restoring hu
mainly and love of nature to tn
| farmers soul.
It's a great display-even for tn
| man on the paved streets who curse
| the elang of the street cars, the no1s
of the early morning whistles an
the blood curdling screech of the flr
engines. Nor is Topeka far from be
ing an enormous factor in the dis
| play. Almost every exhibit is bys
| local dealer and the agency for stat
| distribution is located right here
Topekie town.
Michigan Crops Suffer.