The evening times., 1897-02-11

ing's session Of the l.. A. W. Assembly,
President Elliott submitted his annual re-
port. After referring to the growth of the
l.. A. W and its financial condition, Mr..
Elliott said:
Il very much regret to say that but few
railroads have as yet taken any steps as
TO the preservation and safe carriage OF
the bicycle, which all roads accept for
transportation on one basis or another
Ny experience has fully satisfied me that
the most effective way to spread the gos-
pei of good roads is through the regular
standard publications. which are read by
those whom we wish to convert. As |
stated at the assembly last year. believe
the League should maintain a press bU-
reau, from which should be sent out, reg
ularly, road matter for publication in
thousands of papers, the editors OF which
are already willing to receive and Use It,
/ believe this TO be Of the greatestimport-
ance, and now that the money is in sight
the matter should bc placed in the hands
of an able. hired man, whose undivided at
tention could make it a success, anu at
a cost that the L. A. W. can easily stand.
1T was agreed at Baltimore last year
that the locating OF our summer meet had,
in the past. detracted too much from the
more generally important business OF the
assembly, hence it was voted that the mat
ter be left in the hands OF the executive
committee, to be settled by mail vote,
the nature Of said vote to he determined by
that comnittee. 1t was decided to call
for a mail vote OF those who were eligible
rfs tR,s a
miliar with the form of ballot that was
sent out l believe it to have been the
best system Of mail voting that has yet
been discovered, but, while it saved the
time OF tins assembly, it came short of
taking the meet out Of politics.
This causes me to repeat my opinion of
last winter, that such a question should
be decided by vote of the entire member
ship, and 1 would recommend to the in
coming administration that tie next time
nominations for the locality OF the meet
be formally made, and that the nominated
locations be placed on the printed ballot,
which is sent out annually by each State.
This would settle the matter at pTacti-
cally no cost. and would spread o6t the
responsibility too thin for anything but
legitimate politics.
Last April / closed an arrangement
with the Canadian customs authorities, by
which members of the Lea que of American
Wheelmen are permitted to enter wheels
in Canada without the payment OF duty,
which is ordinarily required This WAS
done through the Canadian Wheelmen's
Association. / signed an agreement on
behalf OF the league, by which the customs
department is guar anteed against loss
through the failure of any OF our members
to return wheels. The result of this ar
rangement has been more than satisfactory
in the line of enlarging our membership,
while the chances OF our being called upon
financially are very remote.
1T was voted by the assembly Of last
year to fix a sanction fee OF $40 for open
race meets When the new schedule or
fees was put in use, il was found by the
racing oard that the SO fee was likely
TO prove too high, and in response TO an
unanimols request Of that board, the
executive committee assented to Itduc-
ton to 50 After much investigation, |
entered into an arran cement with the
American Wheelnen's Protective Asso-
citation. Of Chicago, 10y which they agreed
to make special discount of 10 Per cent
to all L A w members in return for the
advertising they would obtain from our
Official Endorsement
LAS a means of increasing our member
shin this insurance scheme was success,
though as the company refused to meet
number of claims that seemed to me to
be Just, withdre W myindorsement andput
the matter in the hands OF an attorney, who
brought suit against the company. Thenum-
at, apf M LODI is
There is every reason to believe that Judg-
ment viii be obtainedin each case.
4 believe that one Of the most available
remedies for the disease OF bicycle klep-
tomania is to pass laws which will insure
very severe penalties for this kind of theft,
With such laws, insurance against theft
might be practical; without them L am in
doubt
Secretary Bassett submitted his annual
report, showing that the total membership
on February /, 1896, was 80, ,323, and
on February /, last, 49, gain Of
34.4l9 members in one year. Mr.. Bas-
sett said that during the ten years past he
has acted as secretary, he had enrolled
l5O,7S3 applicants for membership, and
had received and disbursed S465,6o1. In
his report, Mr.. Bassett said:
The divisions have been doing little
mountaineering this year. BY the table OF
percentages it will be seen that although
the fast New Workers have been setting
raDid pace they have been beaten two
fifths Of one per cent by the swifter
Uuinoisians and both have been left very
far behind by the sober and Sedate Quakers,
who have given Us an object lesson Of
what kind OF pace we may expect them
to adopt for the meet. The culture OF
Boston has not helped Massachusetts to a
flattering place in this table. Here are
the percentages of gain shown by the up
per ten divisions: Pennsylvania, Al;
| Illinois, lO1 $40; New York, 101 $40;
New Jersey, so; North Carolina, Il: Mas
sachusetts, 81: : Connecticut, 54; Wisconsin,
as: Missouri, "a; Ohio, 8.
we have booked Al 0S1 applicants. and
26. 32S renewals. Our best previous
record Of applicants was 22,042. We
have iust about doubled it. Our income
for 1896 was S123 ,495 Best previous
record. SEQ, ,351. More than double
We have distributed S72 ,5S4 among the
divisions. The previous record, $50, ,17S.
More than double. Our merchandise sales
show an income OF S3,77s, and a profit
OF S74e. The Bulletin cost us, above
what we received from subscribers, $6,-
112.
The publisher of the Bulletin waived
his right 10 a construction of the contract
by its letter, and consented to reading
of ii in accordance with the idea that all
parties had in mind when the contract
was drawn. This action on the part Of
the publisher saved us many thousand
dollars this year, and but for 1t our