The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-11-06
Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Washington, Oct. 31.-President
Roosevelt today issued the following
proclamation, setting apart Thurs
day, November 26, as the national
Thanksgiving Day:
BY the President of the United
States of America: A Procla-
nation.
Once again the season is at hand
when, according to the ancient GUS
tom of our people, it becomes the
duty of the President to appoint a
day of prayer and of thanksgiving to
God.
Year by year this nation grows in
strength and worldly power. During
the century and quarter that has
elapsed since our entry into the cir
Gle of independent peoples we have
grown and prospered in material
things to degree never known be-
fore, and not now known in any
other country. The thirteen colonies
which struggled along the seacoast of
the Atlantic and were hemmed in but
a few miles west of tidewater by the
Indian-haunted wilderness, have
beentra nsformed into the mightiest
republic which the world has ever
seen. It's domains stretch across the
continent from one to the other of
the two greatest oceans, and its ex-
ercises dominion alike in the Arctic
and tropic realms. The growth in
wealth and population has surpassed
even the growth in territory. No
where else in the world is the aver
age of individual comfort and mater
ial well-being as high as in our fortu-
nate land.
For the very reason that in mater
ial well-being we have thus abound
ed, We owe it to the Almighty to
show equal progress in moral and
spiritual things. With a nation, as
with individuals who make up ma
ton, material well-being is an indis
pensable foundation. But the foun-
dation avails nothing by itself. That
life is wasted, and worse than wasted,
which is spent in piling, heap upon
heap, those things which minister
merely to the pleasure of the body
and to the power that rests only on
wealth. Upon material well-being as
a foundation must be raised the
structure Of the lofty life Of the spirit
if this nation is properly to fulfil its
great mission and to accomplish all
that we so ardently hope and desire.
The things of the body are good; the
things of the intellect better; but
best of all are the things of the soul;
for, in the nation, as in the individ-
ual, in the long run it is character
that counts. Let us, therefore, as
people set our faces resolutely
against evil, and with broad charity,
with kindness and good will toward
all men, but with unflinching determ-
ination to smite down wrong, strive
with all the strength that is given us
for righteousness in public and in
private life.
Now therefore, I, Theodore Roose-
welt, President of the United States,
do set apart Thursday, the 26th day
of November next, as a day Of gen.
eral thanksgiving and prayer, and on
the day | recommend that the people
shall cease from their daily work,
and, in their homes or in their
meet devoutly to thank the
Almighty for the many and great
blessings they have received in the
past, and to pray that they may be
given strength so to order their lives
as to deserve a continuation of these
in the future.
In witness whereof, | have hereun-
to set my hand and caused the seal
Of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington
this thirty-first day of October, in the
year of our Lord one thousand nine
hundred and eight, and of the indie
pendence of the United States the
one hundred and thirty third.
BY che President:
Alvey A. Adee, Acting Secretary of