Page:The fastest bicycle rider in the world - 1928 - Taylor.djvu/47

 and dissension cropped up in the racing of the professionals and some of the leading riders in the Grand Circuit seceded from the L. A. W. under whose control all riders and tracks had come for years. This step caused a bitter fight for the Championship honors, five of the leading riders including myself claiming the title, Eddie Bald, Arthur Gardiner, Tom Butler and Owen Kimble.

When I began racing in the 1898 season, my one great ambition was to win the National Championship of America on my merits. After making a hard fight for it against great odds, I was within 14 points of Eddie Bald, who was leading, and had a splendid chance of defeating him in St. Louis when my entry was rejected, thus giving him a decided advantage, but I still had hopes of evening up the score at Baltimore. However, the promoters there also refused my entry which practically shut me out of all possibility of winning the title, which I believe was the object of their conspiracy.

If the L. A. W. accepted my entry for the Championship races I could not understand how it could be lawfully rejected.

I then offered to make a match with Eddie Bald, the possible National Champion, for a purse and a side bet of $500, winner to take all. However, Bald refused to compete against me. He also declined to participate in a race with Jimmie Michaels, the famous diminutive Welshman and myself on the Manhattan Beach track.

Commenting on my being barred from the Baltimore races, John Barnett, the Baltimore representative of the L. A. W. racing board, had this to say. “No race promoter holding a National Circuit sanction from the L. A. W. has the right to bar out any competitor who is in good standing and a regular competitor on the National Circuit, unless for some flagrant breach of the rules. When promoters accept L. A. W. sanction they accept L. A. W. rules and as the L. A. W. draws no color line in racing circles they cannot refuse the entry of a colored rider who has qualified to compete, even though they may have ground rules to the contrary. Major Taylor is a regular follower of the Circuit and is a recognized competitor for the Championship, and he has as much right to compete in the Championship races at St. Louis and Baltimore as Bald, Cooper, and Gardiner, or any of the rest of them.”

The Philadelphia Press in speaking of conspiracy aimed at me said that the fact that my rivals on the National Circuit had entered into a conspiracy to prevent me from winning the National Championship was not without foundation.

“Of course,” read the Press, “it will be a hard matter to prove but, nevertheless, Chairman Mott would be doing something for the benefit of a great sport if he begins an investigation at once. Major Taylor is the greatest sprint rider in America and his white rivals all know it. Personally they all speak well of the little colored boy,