The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-11-12
THANKSGIVING
PROCLAMATION
WHY UNITED STATES SHOULD
BE A THANKFUL MA
TIoN.
Short Sketch of Wonderful Growth
in Wealth and Population Of
Country.


lowing Thanksgiving proclamation:
Thanksgiving: A proclamation by
the President of the United States oi
America. Once again the season is
at hand when, according to- the ancient
custom of our people, it becomes the
duty of the President to appoint a
day of prayer and of thanksgiving to
Cod
Year by year this nation grows in
strengths and worldly power. During
the century and a quarter that has
elapsed since our entry into that circle
of independent peoples. we have
grown and prospered in material
things TO a degree never known before
aSd 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 been
transformed into the mightiest Re
public which the world has ever-scen.
Its domains stretch across the con.
tinent from one to the other OF the
two greatest oceans, and it exercises
domain alike, in the Artic and tropic
-realWs The growth in wealth and
population has surpassed even the
a1 ~
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 ma
terial we'll being we have thus abound
ed, we owe it to the Almighty to
show equal progress in moral and
spiritual things, with nation, as with
the individuals who make indispens-
able 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 merely t.
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 struc ture
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 iseharacter that counts
Let us, therefore, as people, set our
faces resolutely against evil and with
broad charity, with kin.liness and
good will toward all men, but with
unflinoh:ng, determination to smite
down wrong, strive with all the
strength that is given us for right
eousness in public and in private lie
Now, therefore, !, Theodore
Roosevelt, President of the Unite ]
States. do set apart Thursday, tie
2Csl1 day OF November next, as day
OF general thanks giving and prayer
and On that day recommendation she
people shall cease from their daily
work and, in their homes or in their
churches. most devoutly to thank the
Almighty for the many and great
blessings they have received IL ths
past. and to pray that they may be
given strength SO TO order Their live:
as to deserve a continuation OF these
bIess;ngs<in the future.
I'm witness whereof | have here
unto set my hand and caused the sea
Of the United States TO be affixed.
Done at the City OF Washington
this 31st day of October, in the year
of our Lord 1908, and to the indie
pendence OF the United States the
1s3d.
Theodore Roosevelt.
"By the President:
"Aive A. Adee, Acting Secretary o
State"