The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1915-10-28
WILSON PROCLAIMS THANKSGIV.
ING DAY.
In The Proclamation He Calls Atten-
ton to The Fact That We
Are At Peace.

Washington, D. c., Oct. 21.-Pres-
ident Wilson today in proclamation
designated Thursday, Nov. 25th, as
Thanksgiving day, called attention to
the fact that the United States has
been at peace while most of Europe
has been at war.
I'VE have been able to assert our
right and the rights of mankind with
out breach of friendship with the
great nations with whom we have
had to deal,' said the president.
The text follows:
1T has long been the honored GUS
tom Of our people to turn in the
fruitful autumn of the year in praise
and Thanksgiving to Almighty God
for His many blessings and mercies
to us as nation. The year that is
now drawing to close since we last
observed our day of national thanks
giving has been, while year of dis
cipline because of the mighty forces
OF war and of changes which dis
turbed the world, also a year of spec
ial blessing for us.
Another Year of Peace.
Another year Of peace has been
vouchsafed us; another year in which
not only to take thought of our duty
to ourselves and to mankind, but
also to adjust ourselves to the many
responsibilities thrust upon us by a
war which has involved almost the
whole of Europe. We have been able
to assert our right and the rights
of mankind without breach of friend
ship with the great nations with
hnn hn,y h M Il yry1,i 1o
we have asserted our rights, we have
been able also to perform duties and
helpfulness which should serve to
demonstrate our desire to make the
offices of friendship the means of
truly disinterested and unselfish SER
vice.
Aided by Providence.
"Our ability to serve all who could
avail themselves of our services in
the midst of crisis have been increas-
ed by gracious providence, by more
and more abundant crops; our ample
financial resources have enabled us
to steady the markets of the world
and facilitate necessary movement
of commerce which the war might
otherwise have rendered impossible;
and our people have come more and
more to a sober realization of the
part they have been called upon to
play in time when all the world is
shaken by unparalleled distresses
and disasters.
The extraordinary circumstances
of such time have done much to
quicken our national conscientious
ness and deepen and confirm our con-
fidence in the principle of peace and
freedom by which we have always
sought to be guided. Out of dark
ness and perpleXities have come
firmer counsels of policy and clearer
perceptions of the essential welfare
of the nation. We have prospered
while other people were at war, but
us, we believe, only that we might
the better perform the functions
which war rendered it impossible for
them to perform.
Names Thursday, Nov. 25.
'Now, therefore, l, Woodrow Will
son, president of the United States
of America, do hereby designate
Thursday, the twenty-fifth of Novem-
Der, next, as a day of Thanksgiving
and prayer, and invite the people
throughout the land to cease from
their wonted occupations and in
their several homes and places of
worship render thanks to Almighty
God.
In witness whereof, I have here
unto set my hand and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington,
this twentieth day of October, in the
year of our Lord, one thousand nine
hundred and fifteen, and of the indie
pendence Of the United States OF
America, one hundred and fortieth.
by the Presidents:
Robert Lansing, Secretary OF
State.
(Signed) "WOODROW WILSON, y