Weekly Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1908-1909, 1908-11-13
Presidents Proclamation.

PT6SlQGnL' S PTOCId1ldtlOH.
TIE season is at hand when, accord
ing to the ancient custom Cf cur people
it becomes the duty Of the President
to appoint day Of Prayer and Thanks
living to God.
Year by year this nation grows in
strength and worldly power. During
the century end quarter that has
elapsed since cur entry into the circle
of Independent people we have grown
aud Drospered in material things t. a
dergee never known before, and not
now known IN any other country. The
thirteen colonies which struggled along
the sea coast of the Atlantic and were
hemmed in but few miles west of
tide water, by the Indian haunted
wilderness. have BE- en- transformed in
to the mightiest republic which the
world has ever seen
Its domains stretch across the con-
tinent from one to the other of the
two greatest oceans and it exercises
dominion alike from the Artic to the
tropic realms. The growth in wealth
and population has surpassed even the
growth in territory. NCwhare is the
average of individual comfort and
we'll l-being as high as III your fortunate
land.
For the very reason that in material
well-being we have thus abounded, We
owe it to the Almighty to show equal
progress in moral and spiritual things.
With a nation. as with individuals
who make up nation, material we'll
being is an Indispensable foundation.
But the foundation arails nothing by
itself. That life is wasted, and worse
than wasted, which is spent in piling,
heap upon heap, those things which
minister merely to the pleasure of the
body and to the power that rests only
On wealth. Upon material we'l-being
as foundation, must be raised the
structure 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 hups and desire.
The things of the body are good;
the things of the intellect better; but
the best of ell are the things of the
soul, fer, in the nation as IN the in
dividual, in the long run it is charac-
ter that counts. Let US therefore, as
people set cur faces resUlutely
against evil and with broad charity
with kindliness and good will toward
all men, but with unfinching ardor to
smIte down wrong, to stllve with all
the strength that is given US. for
r,iighteoYeness in public and private
life.
Now, therefore. |, Theodore Roose-
Welt. president of the United States,
do set apart Thursday, the 26th day
of November, as day CT gen
eral thanksgiving and prayer, and on
that day / recommend that the 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 in the
past, and to pray that they may be
given strength SO to order their lives
as to deserve continuation IF these
blessings in the future.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have
Eo
seal Of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City Of Washington, D.
c., this thirty frsC day Of October. in
the year of our Lord, One Thousand
Nine Hundred and Eight, and Of the
Independence Of the United States,
One Hundred and Thirty-Third.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
President.