Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1908-11-05
Thanksgiving Proclamation.

President Roosevelt last Saturday
issued the following thanksgiving proc
lamation
Once again the season is at hand when,
according to the ancient custom of our
people, it becomes the duty of the Pres
ident to appoint day Of prayer and Of
Thanksgiving to God.
Year by year this nation grows in
strength and worldly power During the
century and q quarter that has elapsed
since our entry into the circle of indie
pendent peoples we have grown and
prospered in material things to a degree
never known before ard not known in
any other country. The IL Colonies
which struggled along the sea coast of
the Atlantic and were hemmed in but a
few miles west OF tidewater by the In
dian.haunted wilderness have been
transformed into the mightiest republic
which the world has ever seen. Its do
mains stretch across the Continent from
one to the other Of the two greatest
oceans. and it exercises dominion alike
in the Arctic and Tropio realms. The
growth in wealth and population has
y.
Nowhere else in the world is the aver
age 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 it to the Almighty to show equal
progress in moral and spiritual things.
With nation, as with the individuals
who make up nation, material well.
being is an indispensable foundation.
But the foundation avails nothing by
itself. That life is wasted, and worse
than wasted, which is spent in piling.
heap upon heap, those things which
minister m erely to the pleasure Of the
body and to the power thatrests only on
wealth. Upon material we'll being as
foundation must be raised the structure
of the lofty life of the spirit, If this ma
ton Is properly to fulfill its great mis-
sion 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 people set our faces resolutely
against evil and with broad charity.
with kindliness and good Will toward all
mea. but with unflinching determlna-
ton to smite down wrong, strive with
all the strength that is given us for
righteousness in public and in private
life.
Now, therefore, /, Theodore Roosevelt
President OF the United States, do set
apart Thursday, the Goth day of Novem-
Der next, as day of general 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 devout.
ly 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 q continuation of these
blessings in the future.
In witness whereof l have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.
Done at the city OF Washington this
thirty-tirst 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 A. ADEE, Acting Secretary of
State