The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-11-25
THANKSGIVING DAY
SET FOR NOVEMBER &c
President Says Life Is Wasted Which
Is Spent PilinS Up Money
Reap Upon Heap,

Reap Upon Heap.
Washington, D. C.-The President
issued the annual Thanksgiving proc
lamation in which he pointed out the
steady growth of the nation in
strength, worldly power, wealth and
population, and that our average Of
individual comfort and w%ell-being is
higher that that of any other country
in the world. For this, he declares,
Americans owe it 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, 1t 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. Dur
ing the century and a quarter that
has elapsed since our entry into the
circle of Independent peoples, we
have grown and prospered in mater
ial things to a degree never known
before, and not now known in any
other country. The thirteen colon
les which struggled along the sea-
coast of the Atlantic and were
hemmed in but a few miles west OF
tidewater by the. Indian-haunted will
derness, have been transformed into
the mightiest republic which the
world has yer seen.
Its domains stretch cross the con.
tinent from n to the other Of the
two greatest oceans, and it exercises
dominion alike In the Arctic 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 mate
rial 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 indi-
viduals who make up a nation, ma
terial we'll being Is an indispensable
foundation. But the foundation
avails nothing by itself. That life Is
wasted, worse than wasted, which Is
spent in piling, heap upon heap, those
things which minister merely to n
pleasure Of the body and to the poWer
that rests only upon wealth.
Upon material well being as a
foundation must be raised the struct-
ure of the lofty life of the spirit II
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 individual,
in the long run, it Is character that
counts. Let us, therefore, as a peo-
pie, set our faces resolutely against
evil, and with broad charity, with
kindness and good will toward all
men, but with unhinching determine
ton 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 general
thanksgiving and prayer and on the
day I recommend that the people
shall cease from their daily work, and,
in their homes or in their churches,
meet devoutedly to thank the Al
mighty for the many and great bless
ings 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 bless
ings in the future.
In witness whereof, I have here
unto set my hand and caused the seal
Of the United States to be affixed.
j Done at the City of Washington,
this thirty-irst 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.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The proclamation ends: by the
President Alvey A. Adee, Acting Sec
rotary Of State"