L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads, Vol 27, No 4
Articles in this issue
- The editor reports on responses to an Ohio Division member's offer to build a three-foot cycle path from New York to San Francisco for $20,000, with readers proposing a wider path, a $250,000 bond, and one sending a dollar that was returned.
- Foreign Marshal J. Pennell advises that cyclists crossing continental European frontiers must hold a European touring-club ticket to avoid customs duty, with C.T.C. members passed most easily; F. W. Weston of Savin Hill, Boston is the C.T.C.'s American representative.
- Editor Sterling Elliott argues, ahead of the St. Louis annual meeting, that the L.A.W. should erase the word 'amateur' and judge applicants by character alone, contending that a respectable barber or professional racing man is no less worthy than other eligible members.
- A Breslau, Germany court ruling that a cyclist who crossed a forbidden street was 'in both streets,' and must pay 25 cents, is offered as proof that absurd judicial decisions on cycling are not an American monopoly.
- A humorous essay argues that a woman who can scorch up mile-long hills and repair a puncture as well as any man has no grounds to complain about household chores such as tending the furnace fire.
- F. H. Ray, a good-roads pioneer of Montana, argues that ignorance rather than lack of money causes bad roads, and proposes that no one be eligible for road office without graduating from a practical road-making school like the Agricultural College of Rhode Island's course.
- A keyed description of the founders' photograph taken on the rocks at Newport, R.I., May 31, 1880, identifying first president Chas. E. Pratt, one-mile champion Lewis T. Frye, Kirk Munroe, Karl Kron, Col. Albert A. Pope, and Foreign Marshal Jo. Pennell among the groups.
- The serial history of cycling traces the contested origins of the cranked velocipede to Pierre Lallement and Ernest and Pierre Michaux in France between 1855 and 1865, with illustrations of Lallement's, the English, and the American velocipedes.
- Quoting a letter from Gen. Roy Stone declining a western-Massachusetts road-association invitation, the piece celebrates Massachusetts as leading in highway improvement, the battle for good roads there already won.
- Lieutenant-Governor Dewell of Connecticut advocates issuing $500,000 a year in State Highway Improvement Bonds for ten years, while Highway Commissioner Macdonald defends conservative farmers and the policy of improving main trunk roads first.
- The people of Jefferson county, Kentucky are seeking an election on free turnpikes, under a plan to lease, donate, or purchase the roads with thirty-year bonds funded by a tax capped at twenty-five cents per $100 of taxable property.
- Captain L. H. Beach of the Engineer Corps warns that the dead oil or crude petroleum used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to lay dust along its tracks destroys rubber tires, halting bicycle riding between the rails, and urges the Bulletin not to advocate oil on roads.
- Addressing the Maryland State Grange, General Roy Stone argues road-building is a statewide rather than local concern, calling for a constitutional amendment, reformed local administration, more road money without new farm taxes, and convict labor to prepare materials at fifty cents a ton.
- The official department lists the L.A.W. national officers (President Isaac B. Potter, Secretary Abbot Bassett) and standing committees, the state Chief Consuls and Division Officers, and a Maryland Division appeal from Chief Consul Conway W. Sams to support the Good Roads, Liberty, and Pneumatic Tire bills.
- Geo. D. Locke's second annual report for the Illinois Division details membership, a $6,585.15 total of expenses and $3,665.57 of indebtedness, and itemized accounts; the page also carries the Indiana Division report and Renewal List No. 3.
- Chairman Albert Mott's notices from Baltimore refuse sanctions to the Crescent Wheelmen of Plainfield, N.J., suspend J. H. Mason of Erie for failing to return a prize, and report expirations and Irish Cyclists' Association suspensions; with New York State Division resolutions, an Iowa local-consul list, Stolen Wheels, and L.A.W. Supplies.
- The state-by-state list of membership applications received under Article III of the Constitution, totaling 248 new names and bringing reported membership to 103,148, with explanatory notes on the protest and ticket-issuance procedure.
- Member No. 119,527 proposes that the annual meeting allow women to compete at sanctioned race meets for merit prizes judged on position, gracefulness, and handling, with separate classes for drop-frame and diamond-frame machines.
- A question-and-answer department replying to readers such as Mrs. N. L. S. and No. 80,776 on member renumbering and records, plus a note from Prof. Herman S. Davis of Columbia University on his 'Columbian perpetual calendar' offer.
- Wheelmen of Monroe county, N.Y., following Niagara county's example, are seeking a county Side-Path Law that would tax all wheels twenty-five cents a year for path building, with license tags required to use the paths.