The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-27
FOR FOREIGN BORN
Gigantic Celebration To Be
Held on July Fourth.
% NatiOnalitieS PetitiOned for
Nationwide Affair.
PROCLAMATION IS ISSUED
Wilson Gives RecOg-
milton to the Undertaking.
Natives To Join With Foreign
Born in Celebration.

Nation wide plans for gigantic cele-
brations on the part Of the foreign
born of United States On July 4 have
been formulated at the national cap
ItaI. Representatives of twenty-five
nationalities have appealed to Presf-
dent Wilson to issue a proclamation
calling upon all native Americans to
. unite with the foreign born in observ-
! ing the national holiday. which in this
meaning.
twenty-five NationaIities Represented.
Forty-six societies representing
twenty-five natior alities have pre-
, pared plans for monster celebrations,
, parades, pageants and speech making
in all principal cities of United States.
! Represented in this group are Armen-
ians,, Assyrianss Belgians. Chinese.
Czecho-Slav Danes, Dutch, Firms,
/ French, French-Canadians. Germans.
! Greeks. Hungarians. Italians. Japan
csc. Lithuanians, Norwegians. Poles.
! Portuguese, Russians, Rumanians,
: South Slavs, Swedes and Swiss. These
people represent the sons and daugh-
ters who have come to this country
irawn by the same ideals which
used the founders of this republic
begin the movement for human lib
rty 142 years ago.
President Issues Proclamation.
President Wilson has issued the fol-
wing proclamation:
To our citizens of foreign extrac-
ion:
1 have read with great sympathy
he petition addressed to me by your
representative bodies regarding your
proposed celebration of Independence
Day; and I wish to convey to you, in
reply, my heartfelt appreciation for
its expressions of loyalty and good will
Nothing in this war has been more
gratifying than the manner in which
our foreign-born fellow citizens and
the sons and daughters Of the foreign
born, have risen to this greatest of al
national emergencies. You have shown
where you stand not only by your fire.
quent professions of loyalty to the
cause for which we fight, but by your
eager response to calls for patriotic
service. including the supreme service
or Offering life itself in battle for jus
tice. freedom, and democracy. Before
such devotion as you have shown, al
distinctions of race vanish; and we
feel ourselves in a republic OF free
spirits.
I therefore take pleasure in ca1lins
your petition, with my hearty com.
nlendation, to the attention of all m,
Fellow countryrnen, and I ask tina
they unite with you in making the In.
dependence Day of this, the year wher
all the principles to which we stant
pledged are on trial. the most signifi
cant in our national history.
As July 4. 1875. was the dawn O.
democracy for this nation. let us OF
July 4, 1913. celebrate the birth Of
new and greater spirit of democracy
by whose influence, we hope and be
lieve, what the signers of the Declare
ton of Independence dreamed Of To-
themselves and their fellow country
men shall be fulfilled for all man
kind.
have asked the copmf+,ea m NH
lie information to cooperate with yo,
IN any arrangements'y you may wish t,
make for this celebration,
WOODROW WILSON.