The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-25


 various divisions of the organization, through their state highway commit teese, will take up other featuresand keep them moving until the ultimate ob- ject is attained in the greatest possible measure. And while on this subject it is but just to remark that it is strange that more wheelmen do not become members of the national organization which is engaged in a movement of such magnitude, and which is deserving of support from both selfish and unselfish motives.
 THE CHAMPION OF WHEELMEN. How many wheelmen stop to think of the debt of gratitude they owe the League of American Wheelmen for what it has accomplished in their be- half, and how much more could be done | if they would give it their support?' This is the question of an official of the organization who has been identified with it for several years and who is competent to speak of it's merits Con- tinuing. he says:
 q see them riding by me in droves | anu dlNd dyS WUIutI HOW IldUy DI lnPlll are L. A. w. members, or who have even given a thought to the fact that they owe all the rights, privileges and accommodations they enjoy to the league, though they may not be nor never have been members. I know the | league has been the object of many at tacks, and these have been more or less injurious, but. generally speaking, they arise from the minimizing or those who | have allowed themselves to be cha grined in losing preferment in the or
 ganization These classes and their at tacks are of but little harm, but the ig norance of the great mass of riders upon what the league is doing and purposes doing is a matter of great importance. It is time they were educated upon the subject and this education cannot come too soon.
 Tt is estimated that there are three million wheelmen in the United States to-day. Of this number perhaps not more than five per cent. have been iden- tifed with the league at one time or another Yet it is this small percentage which has secured the rights to all pub lie highways, the legal status of the bi- | cycle as vehicle, the various laws compelling railroads to carry bicycles as baggage many municipal ordinances favorable to wheelmen. and many oth- CT things of a legal nature which have given wheelmen security and accommo- dation. It has kept up after being the pioneer movers, an unceasing agitation for good roads, streets and cycle paths, and the direct result of this movement has been the appropriation by state, Icounty and municipal authorities of mii- lions of dollars for highway improve ment Besides these accomplishments the various state divisions are constant ly working for their constituents T n matter which may be termed as being of purely local interest. In all of these things the average wheelman shares, and yet he does not and never did con tribute the moral support of his mem bership or the financial support derived from his small membership dues which are only one dollar a year.
 But even for that dollar the member derives direct benefits which the selfish non-member cannot secure, for nearly all the divisions supply their members
 with state road-books, showing maps 
 condition, etc, besides placing at the
 disposal of members a system of off
 cial hotels, repair shops and local con-
 suls The national department fur
 nishes a monthly magazine, a periodical
 department.in which nearly any maga
 zine or other literary periodical may be subscribed for at a discount, and there
 is always at the disposal of members the
 national touring department which fur nishes routes for tourists.
 These are only few of the things the league is doing for wheelmen, just : as they occur to me, but they art , enough l think, to warrant the state 2 mont that the L. A. ". is entitled t the support and membership of every man or woman that rides a bicycle 5 But to give you more definite idea o [ just how efficacious league work has been l will cite one accomplishment 7 the passage of the baggage bill in New : | York-and it's effects The railroads il that state estimats that this law is tht . cause of an annual loss to them of thret t | hundred thousand dollars; or in othe ? | words, the wheelmen of the state saw f that sum every year because the league {. compelled it's passage. At that time tn ? New York division had twenty thou
 sand members, which means that tha {: number of men passed a law whicl . saves to the entire wheeling population : of the state a sum (to be credited t !. their work) of fifteen dollars every yea