Un S.O.S. — L’Officiel du cycle, 17 November 1951, Vie Commerciale: the Dealers’ Appeal for a Burned-Out Vélociste

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 17 November 1951, N° 39, the cycle edition’s report on the 1951 Paris Salon du Cycle et du Motocycle, page 33: the dealers’ syndicate’s appeal for M. Schmitt, a vélociste of Saint-Dié whose shop had burned down. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full.

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Vie Commerciale

COMMUNIQUÉ DU SYNDICAT GÉNÉRAL DES MOTOCISTES-VÉLOCISTES

UN S. O. S.

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The syndicate reports that one of its colleagues, M. Schmitt, Vélociste at Saint-Dié (Vosges), has suffered a painful and terrible ordeal. Totally burned out in the fire that ravaged Saint-Dié in November 1944, during the withdrawal of the last German troops, he had overcome many difficulties to work again in a temporary hut put at his disposal by the M. R. U. in 1947, and by dogged work had rebuilt a small clientele. About 3 months ago he lost his father. Then on 20 October last, in the middle of the night and in his absence (he fortunately did not live in the hut), a terrible fire destroyed in barely 20 minutes the fruit of so much effort, reducing his hut and 4 other huts nearby to ashes. The facts were reported not only by the victim but also by the President of the Chambre de Commerce of Saint-Dié, in an appeal on behalf of his fellow citizen. The Chamber is trying to relieve the destitution of the unfortunate member as far as possible, and on the local level to give him the means to remedy his ordeal, but so far no premises have been found to let him work again, and to crown it the goods he ordered arrive every day. On the eve of winter, as Christmas and New Year approach, a season of family rejoicing that will be only sadness and despair for him, light equipment, sent as gifts or even as a loan, would be most useful, as the President of that consular Company suggests. The syndicate calls on the readers of the paper, friends and members of the great family of the Cycle and the Motocycle and members of the Syndicat général, to show solidarity with a colleague who is very imperfectly insured. Gifts, loans and spare tools are to be sent to M. Schmitt, Quai de la Meurthe at Saint-Dié, or to the syndicate’s headquarters, 59 avenue de la Grande-Armée, Paris. A closing N. B. urges all whom misfortune has spared so far to heed the syndicate’s many counsels on insurance and the considerable advantages of the Block-police vélociste devised by the paper’s assureurs-conseils.]

LES P. M. E. CHEZ LE
PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL

[Ebykr summary of a separate note that follows the appeal and is not part of it. A delegation of the Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises, led by M. Gingembre with MM. Lefaurichon, Cagniard and Obrecht, was received by the President of the Council, M. Pleven, to whom M. Gingembre handed the wishes of the Assemblée Générale Confédérale and again set out the cash difficulties of small and medium firms — the note running on beyond this image.]

[Text only: the head of a trade-news page. The standing section title “Vie Commerciale” is set in a large heavy upright script across the top over three parallel rules, partly faint where the paper is worn. Below, “COMMUNIQUÉ DU SYNDICAT GÉNÉRAL DES MOTOCISTES-VÉLOCISTES” runs in condensed bold sans-serif capitals, and “UN S. O. S.” stands beneath it in heavy geometric sans-serif capitals with a small centered dot ornament. The appeal is set in three justified columns of a roman old-style serif with old-style figures. A short rule in the third column closes the appeal, and the separate note on the P.M.E. delegation begins under a bold sans-serif heading in two centered lines; its text is cut off at the foot of the image. There is no illustration and no signature. Text from the reverse of the leaf shows faintly through the paper.]