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Send money by express money order, post-
office money order or registered letter.

Agents wanted in every town and city not
now occupied, and liberal inducements will be
given to the same. Send for our extraordinary
inducements.

ADVERTISING RATES

Ten cents per line. Base of measure — solid
agate, 14 lines to an inch, 276 lines in a column.
Special position 25 per cent additional. As No
advertisement inserted on first page. Special
rates on standing professional and business
cards. Reasonable discount for long time and
space. Reading notices 10c per line. Special
rates on "write ups."

Entered at the postoffice at Indianapolls
Ind. as second class matter.

GEORGE L. KNOX.
PUBLISHER AND MANAGING EDITOR.
ELWOOD C. KNOX,
BUSINESS MANAGER.

All matter should be addressed to
THE FREEMAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA,
New Phone: 2880.

SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1915.

THAT RICHMOND FAIR.

The Star of Newport News, Va., of
July 24, had this sad commentary on
the Richmond Fair:

"Today ends the existence of one
of the greatest farces that has ever
been inflicted upon the people of this
section of the country.

"Some time ago the Congress of the
United States appropriated the sum of
fifty-five thousand dollars to assist in
celebrating the fiftieth year of the
Negro's freedom in this land, and that
money was entrusted to Giles B. Jack-
son and some other men, whom we
have never heard mentioned, for the
consummation of the result named;
but never in all our experience and
observations have we seen a more
miserable failure in projecting such an
affair.

"Instead of enlisting the help of
the Negro newspapers throughout the
country in promoting this enterprise,
Mr. Jackson essayed to advertise the
aftair by issuing a publication called
the "Industrial Herald," which few
people read, and fewer still remember
anything in it which they read, and
from the beginning to the end few
people seemed to take sufficient in-
terest in the Negro Industrial Expo-
sition to even help it to make a de-
cent headway.

We are sorry to know that the
worst has happened to Mr. Jiles &
Co. We are not sure that anything
could have saved his show. We are
sure, however, that he made no great
effort to make it a go. It is natural to
think that he thought he would have
success. He was supported by the
government and his state. He saw no no
reason to be careful about how he
dealt with the newspapers or any
other heipful agencies.

Mr. Jackson's failure is also a race
failure, since the affair was projected
in the name of the race, standing for
fifty years of progress since freedom.
If we understand it correctly some-
thing like eighty thousand dollars was
on hand, or at the command of the
management. This sum would not
have provided for specially constructed
buildings, but it was great to be used
in connection with the fair grounds or
some hall or other structure which
are to be found in that city.

Judging from what the Star says,
the management was such that it did
not invite confidence. Very early the
newspapers grew suspicious, and ac-
cordingly put in a rap, but to no pur-
pose. It had the dough, so what to
— did it care.

It happens so often that when things
of the kind are to be done those that
have the ordering seem to delight in
selecting those to manage who are the
least liable to make good. When such
affairs are to be managed for white
people, a record of successful per-
formances as long as the moral law is
required. Success is practically in-
sured in advance; not financially al-
ways, as expositions seldom pay in
that respect, but for the purposes
aimed at the projection.

If the Richmond, Va. exposition was
an exposition, or reflection of our ac-
tivities, we might as well give up.
Happily, the reflection was not faith-
ful.

83753

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