Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-02
DAY OF PRAYER AND THANKS
Annual Proclamation Issued BY
President Roosevelt.
THREE WEEKS FROM THURSDAY
Executive Says In Moral
and Spiritual Equal to- that
Made In Material
ThInas.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.-The president
yesterday issued the annual Thanksgiving
proclamation, in which he points out the
steady growth of the nation in strength,
worldly power, wealth and population, and
that our average of individual comfort and
we'll being is higher than that of any other
country in the world. For this, he declares,
owe it to the Almighty to show
equal progress In moral and spiritual
things. The proclamation followsi
BY the President of the United States
of America: A Proclamation-Once again
the season is at hand when according 10
the ancient custom Of cur people II 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 a quarter that has, elapsed stree our
entry into the circle of Independent peoples
we have grown and prospered in material
things to a degree never known before
and not now known in any other country.
The thirteen colonies which struggled along
the seacoast of the. Atlantic ard were
homned in but a fews miles west of tide
water by the Indian,haunted wilderness
have been transformed Into the mightiest
republic which the wcrld has ever seen,
Its domains stretch .2Hross the continent
from one to the other OF the great oceans
and extends into the artic ard tropical
realms; The growth IN wealth and p9Pu'a a.
territory. Nowhere else in the world Is
the average of individual comfort and ma
terial well being as high as in our for
For the very reason that in material
well being we have thus abounded, we owe
to the Almighty to show equal progress In
moral and spiritual things, With a nation
as with individuals who make up a nation.
material well being is an indispensable
foundation, but the foundation avails moth
ing by itself. That life is wasted and worse
than wasted which Is spent in piling, heap
on heap, those things which minister merely
to the pleasure of the body and 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 Individual, in the long run
1t Is character that counts. Let us there
fore as a people set our faces resolutely
against evil and with broad charity, with
kindness and good will toward all men,
but with unflinching determination "a
smite down wrong, strive with all the
strength that is given us for righteousness
in public and private life.
Now. Therefore, /. Theodore Roose-
welt, president of the United States, do sci
apart Thursday. the 18th day OF November
prayer, and on that day I recommend thai
the poole shall cease from their daily work
and in their homes or in their churche.
the many and great blessings they have re.
ceived In the past. and to pray that they
may be given strength so TO order theil
lives as to deserve a consideration OF
these blessings in the future,
In witness whereof, ] have hereunto sci
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 O.
our Lord one thousand, nine hundred and
eight, and OF the independence of tht
United States the one hundred and thirty.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
BY the President.