Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-04-23
ANOTHER OPEN LETTER
Mrs. S. M. Whitchard,
Mr.. Wesley r. Walker,
Dear Friends :

WIT. wesley X. walker,
Dear Friends =
We understand that you both
have had a great deal to say
about the connection of a Carnl-
val with a Fair-and in dis
tinctly personal and caustic man
ncr, as if the Fitzgerald Fair had !
been the only one SO CONNER
cialized", while the fact is that
you can name few, if any Fairs |
at all that have been managed |
without such.
The Fair management, last
year on learning that the South
eastern Fair in Atlanta would
have no carnival concessions"
Immediately investigated to see
how it could be done. They
learned that a few wealthy and
high minded moral men of At
lanta had, by private donations
to the Fair Association funds,
made it possible to eliminate
the concessions feature of the
carnival for the first time in its
history. The statement that there
was no carnival is mistake.
Also, we would like to remind
you that there were many, many
years without any kind of a Fair
Association in our community
when any of you public spirited
and conscientious citizens could
with dencency and honor have
inaugurated a splendid Fair
had you been willing to take the
first steps at your own personal
inconvenience and hazard and
not, as the lady has we'll said,
Each look to the other"
Speaking of the part that the
rural school children might have
1t has been matter of exceed
ing regret to the management
that the school terms are not
opened at Fair time, making it
well nigh impossible to get on
the contest features that would
be so desirable ana valuable.
While mentioning this feature.
we might well pertinently ask
the lady and the pubic in general
ii they forget that positively
the only large cooperative rural
school commandments and exhi-
bit ever staged in Ben Hill Coun-
ty were instituted and carried
out by lsidor Gelders. as stated
by the County Superintendent,
Mr.. r. j. Prentiss at the time
and well known by all partici-
pants. Because other orpaniza-
tons could not be brought to see
the value of shoufdering part of
the burden in so large a public
undertaking, and, because the
usual jealousy stirred the usual
carping and criticisms from the
usual sources, Isidor Gelders was
forced to give up the rural school
commencement. No one else in
Ben Hill county has taken his
place, have they? Ask the farm
er boys and girls. They aren't
afraid to let Isidor Gelders man
age the County Fair anyway he
sees fit.
The same beautiful theorizinp
OF the Fairs present critics was
applied to the annual Christmas
offering that Isidor Gelders
staged for several years before
the outbreak of the world war.
"Gelders is able to manage this
Christmas offering so let's some
one else do it and get credit for
It,, they said, and instead of CO.
operating they held economical
ly aloof and Isidor Gelders and
his friends who contributed were
forced to discontinue the annual
Christmas offering of fruit, gro
ceres and fuel TO TIE poor OF
the city. Has anyone else taken
up, even attempted to take ND
the beautiful idea OF giving all
the poor of the city something
to be merry over? Ask the bows
and girls. Some of the railroad