The National tribune., 1908-11-05
THANKSGIVING.
The President Appoints Thursday, Nov,
S6-A 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 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
since our entry into the circle of inde-
pendent peoples. we have grown and
proSpered in material things to a de-
gree never known before, and not now
known in any other country. The thir-
teen colonies which struggled along the
seacoast of the Atlantic and were hem
MED in but few miles west of tide
water by the Indian-haunted wilderness,
have been transformed into the might
lest 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 domin-
ion 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-being as high as in our
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 nation, as with the individuals
who make up nation, material we'll
being is an indispensable foundation
But the foundation ayails 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 well-befng
as a 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 hope and desire. The
things of the body are good: the things
of the intellect are 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 men, but with unfiinch-
ing determination to smite down wrong,
strive with all the strength that is given
US for righteousness in public and in
private life.
Now. therefore, 7, Theodore Roose-
velt President of the United States, do
set apart Thursday, the 2Sth day OIL
November, next, as day OF general
and prayer, and on that
day I recommend that the people shall
cease from their daily work, and, in
devoutIy to thank the Almighty for the
many and great blessings they have re-
ceived in the past, and to pray that
they may be given the strength so to
order their lives as to deserve contin-
uation of these blessings in the future. |
In witness whereof I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this
31st 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 thir- |
ty-third. |
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
"a BY the President: |
ALVEY A. ADEE, 4
Acting Secretary Of State.