Part 10 (1/2)
_An educational basis._
In other words, I should like to see, in this single experiment, a complete transfer from the commercial and ”amus.e.m.e.nt” phase to the educational and recreation phase. I should like to see the county fair made the real meeting place for the country folk. I should make a special effort to get the children. The best part of the fair would be the folks, and not the machines or the cattle, although these also would be very important. I should make the fair one great picnic and gathering-place and field-day, and bring together the very best elements that are concerned in the development of country life.
I should work through every organized enterprise in the county, as commercial clubs, creameries, cooperative a.s.sociations, religious bodies, fraternal organizations, insurance societies, schools, and whatever other organized units already may exist.
It is often said that our fairs have developed from the market-places of previous times, and are historically commercial. We know, of course, that fairs have been market-places, and that some of them are so to this day in other countries. I doubt very much, however, whether the history is correct that develops the American agricultural fair from the market-place fairs of other countries. From the time when Elkanah Watson exhibited his merino sheep in the public square of Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, in 1807, in order that he might induce other persons to grow sheep as good as his, and when the state of New York started its educational program in 1819, the essence of the American idea has been that a fair is an educational and not a trading enterprise. But whatever the history, the agricultural fair maintained by public money owes its obligation to the people and not to commercial interests.
_Ask every person to prove up._
I should have every person bring and exhibit what he considers to be his best contribution to the development of a good country life.
One man would exhibit his bushel of potatoes; another his Holstein bull; another his pumpkin or his plate of apples; another a picture and plans of his modern barn; another his driving team; another his flock of sheep or his herd of swine; another his pen of poultry; another his plan for a new house or a sanitary kitchen, or for the installation of water-supplies, or for the building of a farm bridge, or the improved hanging of a barn door, or for a better kind of fence, or for a new kink in a farm harness, or the exhibition of tools best fitted for clay land or sandy land, and so on and on.
The woman would also show what she is contributing to better conditions,--her best handiwork in fabrics, her best skill in cooking, her best plans in housekeeping, her best ideas for church work or for club work.
The children would show their pets, what they had grown in the garden, what they had made in the house or the barn, what they had done in the school, what they had found in the woods.
I should a.s.sume that every person living on the land in the country has some one thing that he is sure is a contribution to better farming, or to better welfare; and he should be encouraged to exhibit it and to explain it, whether it is a new way to hang a hoe, or a herd of pure-bred cattle, or a plan for farmers' inst.i.tutes. I should challenge every man to show in what respect he has any right to claim recognition over his fellows, or to be a part of his community.
I should ask the newspapers and the agricultural press to show up their work; also the manufacturers of agricultural implements and of country-life articles of all kinds.
I should also ask the organizations to prove up. What is the creamery contributing to a better country life? What the school? The church? The grange? The cooperative exchange? The farmers' club? The reading club?
The woman's society? The literary circle? The library? The commercial clubs? The hunting or sportsman's clubs?
_Sports, contests, and pageants._
I should give much attention to the organization of good games and sports, and I should have these cooperative between schools, or other organizations, such organizations having prepared for them consecutively during the preceding year. I should introduce good contests of all kinds. I should fill the fair with good fun and frolic.
I should want to see some good pageants and dramatic efforts founded on the industries, history, or traditions of the region or at least of the United States. It would not be impossible to find simple literature for such exercises even now, for a good deal has been written. By song, music, speaking, acting, and various other ways, it would not be difficult to get all the children in the schools of the county at work.
In the old days of the school ”exhibition,” something of this spirit prevailed. It was manifest in the old ”spelling bees” and also in the ”lyceum.” We have lost our rural cohesion because we have been attracted by the town and the city, and we have allowed the town and the city to do our work. I think it would not be difficult to organize a pageant, or something of the kind, at a county fair, that would make the ordinary vaudeville or sideshow or gim-crack look cheap and ridiculous and not worth one's while.
_Premiums._
If we organize our fair on a recreation and educational basis, then we can take out all commercial phases, as the paying of money premiums. An award of merit, if it is nothing more than a certificate or a memento, would then be worth more than a hundred dollars in money. So far as possible, I should subst.i.tute cooperation and emulation for compet.i.tion, particularly for compet.i.tion for money.
It is probable that the fair would have to a.s.sume the expense of certain of the exhibits.
_It is time to begin._
This kind of fair is not only perfectly possible, but it is feasible in many places, if only some one or two or three persons possessed of good common sense and of leaders.h.i.+p would take hold of the thing energetically. One must cut himself loose from preconceived notions and probably from the regular fair a.s.sociations. He must have imagination, and be prepared to meet discouragements. He need not take the att.i.tude that present methods are necessarily all bad; he is merely concerned in developing a new thing.
Because I should not have horse races in my fair, I do not wish at all to be understood as saying that horse races are to be prohibited. Let the present race courses in the fair grounds be used for horse races, if the people want them. We have June races now, and they could be held at other times of the year when persons who are interested desire to have them. My point is that they are not an essential part of a county agricultural fair. They rest on a money basis, and do not represent the people. Neither do I say that all traveling shows and concessions are bad; but most of them are out of place in a county fair and contrary to its spirit.