Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1908-11-03
ROOSEVELT SETS
A DAY OF THANKS
PRESIDENT PRocLAIMs ANNUAL
HOLIDAY NOV. 20 TELLS OF
BLESSINGS.

Washington, Nov. 2.-The president
has issued an annual Thanksgiving
proclamation, 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 well-being is
higher than that of any other coun-
try 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 proclamation:
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 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 since 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.
Nations Growth Great.
"The thirteen colonies which strug-
gled along the seacoast Of the Allan
tic and were hemmed in but few
miles west of tidewater by the Indian
haunted wilderness have been trans
| formed into the mightiest republic
which the world has ever seen. Its
domains stretch across the continent
from one to the other of the two great
est oceans, and it exercises dominion
alike in the arctic and tropic realms.
The growth in wealth and population
has surpassed even the growth in ter
ritory. Nowhere else in the world is
the average of individual comfort, and
material well-Deing as high as in our
fortunate land.
"For the very reason that in ma
terial well-being we have thus abound
ed, we owe to the Almighty to show
equal progress in moral and spiritual
things. With a nation, as with the
individuals who make up nation, ma
terial wellbeing is an indispensable
foundation But the foundation avalls
nothing by itself
Wealth is Not ALL
"That life is wasted, and worse than
wasted, which is spent in piling, heal
on heap. those things which minister
merely to the pleasure of the bod,
> and to the power that rests only OF
wealth.
Upon material wellbeing as foun
daton must be raised structure o
, the lofty life of the spirit if this ma
. ton is properly to fulfill its great mis-
sion and to accomplish all that we 81
ardently hope and desire. The thing
l of the body are good; the things o
: the intellect better; but best of all ar
. the things of the soul: for, in the ma
| tion as in the individual, in the lon|
: run it is character that counts. LIE
t us therefore as a people set our face
resolutely against evil, and witt
broad charity, with kindness an
n good will toward all men. but wit
0 unf1inching determination to smit
q down wrong, strive with all TN
n strength that is given us for rightf
l. BUSINESS in public and in private life.
Sets Date for Thanks.
"Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roost
!. velt president of the United States, d
t set apart Thursday, the 26th day :
r November, next, as a day of generS
r thanksgiving and prayer, and on thi
J. day I recommend that the peopl
a shall cease from their daily work, ant
in their homes or in their churches
meet devoutly to thank the Almight
for the many and great blessings the
S. have received in the past and to pra
g that they be given strength so to o
A. der their lives as to deserve conti
j. uation of these blessings in the +
)f ture.
= 'In witness whereof | have hereu
O. to set my hand and caused the seal
i the United States to be affixed
Done at the City of Washingtc
this first day of November. in the yei
of our Lord. 1908, and of the ind
pendence of the United States the OF
hundred and thirty-third.
Theodore Roosevelt.
by the President: