Dreyfus Affair
The roots of both the Tour de France cycle race and L'Auto (L'Équipe), daily sporting newspaper, can be traced to the Dreyfus affair and de Dion's passionate opinion and actions.
Opinions were heated and there were demonstrations by both sides in the Dreyfus affair. Historian Eugen Weber described an 1899 conflagration at the Auteuil horse-race course in Paris as "an absurd political shindig" when, among other events the President of France (Émile Loubet) was struck on the head by a walking stick wielded by de Dion. He served 15 days in jail and was fined 100 francs, and his behaviour was heavily criticised by Le Vélo, the largest daily sports newspaper in France, and its Dreyfusard editor, Pierre Giffard. The result was that de Dion withdrew of all his advertising from the paper, and in 1900 he led a group of wealthy 'anti-Dreyfusard' manufacturers, such as Adolphe Clément, to found L'Auto-Velo and compete directly with Le Velo. After a legally enforced change of name to L'Auto it in turn created the Tour de France race in 1903 to boost falling circulation.
Read more about this topic: Jules-Albert De Dion
Famous quotes containing the words dreyfus and/or affair:
““I am innocent, Long live France! I am innocent,” Dreyfus kept repeating, over and over, while they reviled him. All he needed was a crown of thorns.”
—Norman Reilly Raine (1895–1971)
“Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tatters. A door is to be painted, a lock to be repaired. I want wood, or oil, or meal, or salt; the house smokes, or I have a headache; then the tax; and an affair to be transacted with a man without heart or brains; and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very awkward word,—these eat up the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)