The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-04

AL AOl pISSlASIp ID
the form Of reduced subscription prices
to many popular periodicals.. magazines
and apers Favorable club rates have
already been granted Dy many pabiica-
tons. and a full printed list with stated
discounts and subscription blanks viii
shortly be sent to the officers OF the sev-
eral state divisions.
The loan committee, creatsd by resolu-
ton of the last national assembly Of the
L. A. w. Ito provide ways and means for
the help OF such divisions and ~consulates
in the league as may. from time to time,
require inancial aid" has rendered good
service in the few months Of its exist
ence- In March last the committee for
mulated rules and conditions governing
loans and prepared application forms
which require officers of a borrowing di-
vision to set forth fully all facts which
ought to be considered in passing upon
the application. This application. (and
IN some cases a written guaranty il ex-
ecuted and placed before the loan COM
mittee for its action Thus far only one
Application has been rejected, and loans
~asgregating several thousand dollars
have been made to seven divisions. The
national body of the league holds a lien
upon all future membership fees coming
from borrowing divisions and thus each
loan is well secured.
A good bicycle with decent use will last
six seasons or more and a pair of road
NANS VI AoA1 may oC Iioocl lIOil
5000 to 10000 miles on ordinary roads.
An English authority states that a pair
OF tires in one instance was known to
run 5000 miles and still be fit for use.
The general council OF the Cyclists
Touring Club Of England has accepted
the proposition Of the L. A. w. looking
to an interchange Of benefits, and con-
tracts are now being prepared which pro-
vide that an l.. A. w. member may join
the c. T. c. (when about to tour abroad)
and receive his membership ticket. for
before sailing. This arrangement will
enable him not only to lay out the de-
tails OF his trip before reaching Europe,
but will insure to him the benefits of
discount rates at hundreds OF hotels in
all the popular cycling districts OF the
continent and the British Isles.
A letter has been received from Presi-
dent Plant, OF the extensive Plant Sys-
tenn OF railroad and lines, COW
ering several thousand miles of land and
water routes in the southern and south
eastern states. in which the writer states
that the entire system has adopted the
rule of treating bicycles as baggage, that
no extra charge is made for this ser
vice and that cycling travel over these
routes is in every way encouraged.
President Potter is in correspondence
with prominent members of the present
congress with the view Of obtaining the
passage OF a bill empowering the sec
rotary OF the treasury to admit touring
cyclists from Canada and from trans
Atlantic countries into the United States
without exacting the paymen or deposit
OF customs duties on the wheels brought
by such tourists for their personal use.
The use Of toe-clips, even by lady rid
ers, is steadily increasing. They make
pedaling easier and the foot pressure
more uniform and more constant; they
keep the foot in place, prevent the slip
! ping Of pedals at critical times and save
the rider many bad falls and perhaps
| serious accidents. Riding with toe-clips
is vastly easier than without and no
rider who ever used toe-clips continuous
ly for a week was afterwards content to
ride without them.
4 Arrangements have been made by
| which the League of American Wheel
/ men is to take up the crusade for good
| roads on a new and very extensive scale.
The national committee for highway
| Improvement has submitted to the execu-
tive committee a proposition which has
just been approved, to print and distrib-
ute an edition of a million pamphlets de-
voted to the good roads movement, and
particularly to the subject Of state aid
to highways. Otto Dorner, chairman of
this committee, is now preparing this
book for the press, in which he has the
assistance Of General Roy Stone, the
head Of the United States bureau of road
inquiry, at Washington. The nationa!
for highway Improvement and
the officers and members of the league
will collect the addresses of farmers AND
state and local officials to whom the
phamphlets are to be sent
The highway improvement commit.
tee has had this project under consider
alton for over a year, but it is only
within the last few days that the plar
for issuing and circulating the pamphle
has been finally perfected. It the goot
roads parliament at Nashville last Sep
TENDER, MIR. Donor and Mr.. A. B. Choate
OF Minneapolis, members Of the nationa
committee, laid the matter before Gen
eral Stone, who at once declared tina
the undertaking would have every pos
sible support and encouragement from
nc hr1ran1t Cnrn~al fon- boz rc,,n
since the establishment of the goot
roads bureau, some fifty different bulle
tins relating to various phases OF tn
good roads problem. and containing
great deal of valuable information, blu
the appropriations made by congress TO
the support Of the bureau being Unite
in amount, it has been impossible to cir
culate them Upon a large scale. It i
partly for this reason that this enormou
edition Of pamphlets is to be issued b
the L. A. W., and they will contain tn
condensed results of all the many valua
bic inquiries made by the good roads bu
reau, both in this country and abroad
They will explain the losses due to ba
= roads, illustrate the different methods G
!. constructing Gacadam, Telford, grave
and dirt roads. both in Europe and i
! America, and discuss the various mean
and methods for raising funds to pa
, for improved highways. Special atter
4 ton will be paid to the plans successful
, adopted in New Jersey and Nassachu
sets. Both the L. A. w. officials an
road inquiry bureau have an extensiv
collection Of photographs OF good ar
:, bad roads, taken in this country and i
! Europe, which will be employed i
: Illustrating the proposed book. Worh
ing drawings, made by prominent engir
I GERS, will be used to illustrate the var
!, Gus methods Of road construction.
4 1t may be safely stated that this pr
!, ject is the most extensive plan evt
adopted for agitating any reform, and
=. exceeded only by the elaborte enort
! made by the great political parties durin
y a presidential campaign. The movemel
!; / for improved highways, which has mao
= such remarkable progress during the la
three or four years, was inaugurate
years ago by the League of America
Wheelmen, the most prominent goo
2 roads advocate in its ranks being Isas
B. Potter, of New York, who is now /
president. Years ago the leagne begs
l. the publication of the monthly Goo
: Reads magazine, which was merged in
the present l.. A. w. Bulletin when tn;
l. organ was established two years ag
The l.. A. w. has been closely connects
y with the Introduction of state aid