The Somerset reporter., 1908-11-12
Thanksgiving.


annual Thanksgiving proclamation,
in which he pointed out the teady
growth of the nation in strength,
worldly power, wealth and popula
ual comfort and we'll being is higher
than that of any other country in the
world For this, he declares, Ameri-
cans owe 1t to the Almighty to show
equal progress in moral and spiritual
things. The proclamation follows:
By the President of the United States
of America:
a proclamation:
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 day
OF praise 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 circle
of independent peoples, we have
grown and prospered in material
things TO a degree never known be-
fore and not now known IN any other
country. The 13 colonies which
struggled along the seacoast Of the
Atlantic and were hemmed in but a
few miles west of tide water by the
Indian haunted wilderness have been
Transformed into the mightiest re-
public which the world has ever seen.
Its domains stretch across the con-
tinent from one to the other of the
two greatest oceans, and it exercises
domain alike in the Artle and tropic
realms. The growth in wealth and
population has surpassed even the
growth in territory. Nowhere else in
the world is the average of individual
comfort and material we'll being as
high as in our fortunate land.
For the very reason that in material
we'll being we have thus abounded, &,
we owe il to the Almighty to show
equal progress in moral and spiritual
things. With a nation, as with the
individuals who make up a nation,
material we'll being is an indispensi-
BILE foundation. But the foundation
avails nothing by itself. That life is
wasted and worse than wasted, which
is spent in piiing, 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 we'll being as foun-
dation must be raised the structure
of the lofty life of the spirit, if this
nation is properly TO fulfill 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 individual
in the long run, it is character that
counts. Let us, therefore, as a people
set our faces resolutely against evil,
and with broad charity, with kindli-
ness and good will toward all men,
but with unfiinching determination to
smite down wrong, strive with all the
strength that is given us for right
eousness in public and in private life,
Now, thefore, |, Theodore Roose
welt, President of the United Stat, s,
do set apart Thursday, the 26th day of
November next, as day of thanks
giving and prayer, and ON that day
recommend that the people shall
cease from their daily work, and, in
their homes, or in their churches
meet devoutly to thank the Almighty
for the many 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 those blessings in the
future.
In witness whereof have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington
this 31st day of October in the year of
our Lord one thousand nine hundred
and eight, and of the independence
of the United States the one hundred
and thirty third.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
By the President:
Alvey Adee, Acting Secretary of
State.