The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-03-03
POTTER AND THE l.. A. w.
Singing Criticism of the New President
and His Political Methods.

and His Political Methods.
The turmoil that disturbed the League
Of American Wheelmen during long pres
idential campaign was expected TO end
when the chief officer had been chosen.
But the election is over, and still the trou-
bic goes on, the war note being merely
pitched in higher key.
The work of the late national assembly
at Albany is frowned upon and loudly
decried from many quarters. The eleya-
tion of Isaac B. Potter to this presidency
Is now deeply deprecated by a number of
cycling journals and other authorities,
some of whom had warmly supported New
York s chief consul for the position which
he has attained. Apparently it is the
method whereby the office was secured for
him that excited the Indignation which
has been so literally manifested.
One of the most scathing denunciations
of Potter and the national assembly is
voiced by The Referee, a publication that
has heretofore favored the New York man
with all its might. Here is a paragraph
from recent editorial which expressed
The Referees post election feelings:
1.-THE Referee has for six years been ono
of Isaac B. Potter's consistent supporters
and has looked eagerly forward to the day
when he should reach the presidency of the
league. The long expected event has hap
pened, but in the very consummation of its
desire The Referee has seen its idol shat
tered, its hero brought low and placed by
his friends in position most degrading
1T is not that Mr.. Potter will make less
acceptable president than had been antici-
pated, not that his ability is one whit the
less, but that his position has been at
tained by methods repugrant to honest
wheelmen, degrading to himself, by broken
promises and by treachery, and even by
bribery, on the part of members of the as
sembly who posed as friends of the vic
torious candidate, of Mr.. Elliott and of the
west J~
following edito-isj excerpt amply shows:
''Mr Pottcr's election to the presidency
of the l.. A. W. was not unexpected. 1t
was fitting that il should be effected large
ly by treachcry and by affiliation and un.
principled combinations with men who,
like himself, hold their honor so lightly
that their professions of faith proved mere
mouthings, readily spoken, more readily
broken"
The American Cyclist is inclined to
pocket its Indignation and make the best
Of the situation, but cannot refrain from
saying:
Elliott should have been reelected
president of the L. A. W. = He seemed
to have the best of the game until the very
last, when certain supposed friends threw
him down quite unexpectedly and for rea.
sons not generally understood. Such is life
in league politics"
Bearings, the well known cycling mag.
aZinc, swallows the election of Potter at
great gulp, and then gets even by denounc.
ing First Vice President A. Cressy Morri.
son and Spencer L. Williams as modern
types of Judas Iscariot and Benedict Ar
mold.
Besides these bitter arraignments, there
have been dozens of others by the editors
of the cycling departments of newspapers
i'm various parts of the country. 1t is easy
To see therefore that the dissatisfaction Is
widespread, and that there arc probably
thousands Of whcelmen who consider that
they were not represented at Albany, but
misrcpresCntcd.
The outcome of all this can only be sur.
missed. One thing is certain-fcuds, how
ever brought about, can only mar the use.
fulncss of the league, and il is the part of
wisdom to curb resentment until such time
AZ its expression may accomplish the dou
bic purpose Of bcncfiting the l.. A. w. and
furnishing those whose acts have worked
harm To its interests.