Evening star., 1946-07-03
Victory Festival
Fireworks 10
Mark Fourth
Monument Grounds
Program Storts at
7::30P.M. Tomorrow

brate the 10th anniversary of it's
independence with victory festival
on the Washington Monument
grounds, surprising in pyrotechnic
brilliance anything that has gone
before.
The holiday will be a long one
for Federal employees by virtue of
the signing by President Tru-
man late yesterday of a bill CIV
ing the Government Friday off. The
Chief Executive acted after the
House unanimously passed a meas
ure making the four-day week end
possible. Agency heads may at their
discretion require employees to make
up the time on their next non-Work
day, which for most will be Satur-
day, July 13.
Despite enactment of permissive
legislation, the Commissioners said
today they were standing on their
originally announced plan that
District employees wishing to be off
Friday must arrange for annual
leave to do so.
They indicated most of the en-
ployes would prefer this arrange
ments to working on Saturday, July
13. Furthermore, it was said, ar
ranging the. transfer of the working
day from Friday to the 18th would
involve lot of bookkeeping changes
which the Commissioners felt were
not justified in view of the general
sentiment among the employees.
Fair Weather Forecast.
Every effort, however, will be
made to grant leave to any employa
wishing to be off Friday, they said.
The Weather Bureau promised
exceptionally fine weather-fair,
with some clouds; temperatures
around 80, and. best of all, low
humidity.
Americas Cavalcade of Freedom"
starting at 7:30 pm. will be the
apotheosis Of the traditional Ameri-
can courthouse green celebration of
the glorious fourth. A United States
Senator, Joseph C. O'Mahoney of
Wyoming, will speak. A chorus of
300 voices will sing Ballad for
Americans" with its thunderous
declamatory passages. And for As
minutes, fireworks will go off, pro-
claiming victory in burning letters
and filling the sky with cascading
incandescence.
Truman to Be Away.
Fifteen thousand persons will
have seats to view the event from
the slope in front of the 555 foot
shaft erected by school childrens
pennies in honor of the father of
their country. Thousands more will
see the fireworks from sidewalks
rooftops and windows miles distant.
President Truman will be out of
the city, as will be most of the
officers of his Administration and
many members of Congress, 1t is
expected the fireWork display will
have even more witnesses than
last year, when a similar program
was enacted on the Monument
Grounds as a stimulus to war bond
sales.
The program will emphasize these
words from the Declaration of In
dependence: 1--WE hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit
Of Happiness"
More Fireworks In Program.
For the spectators in the seats.
the fireworks will light up the
White House in the background in
which, a japanese admiral boasted
he would sign the terms of peace.
And many of the aerial bombs, tre-
mendous noisemakers, will be re-
minders of the atomic bomb ex-
ploded only three days before over
the captured japanese warsnips.
Amputees from Walter Reed Hos
pital in attendance will be remind
ers of American gallantry and the
cost Of victory.
Three hundred large sized fire.
works units will be set off-2O0 of
them aerial displays. This is go
or 10 more than were set off last
year. The great aerial displays
have impressive names: Saturn
and his Sons" Niagara Falls by
Moonlight, and Darkness to
Dawn"
Three service bands from the
Army Air Forces, Navy and Marine
Corps will play martial music. There
will be a 300-bannered massing of
the colors with the American
Legion Guard of Honor acting as
escort. Rabbi Samuel Penner,
Temple B'Nai Jacob, will pronounce
the invocation Joseph C. McGar-
raghy, chairman of the event, will
give a short address. The Rev.
Ignatius Smith of Catholic Uni
versity will give the benediction.
Seats Stin Available.
The event is sponsored by the
District Recreation Board, the
Greater National Capital Commit
tee, the Washington Board Of Trade,
the Motion Picture Theater Owners
and the National Capital Parks.
Seats for the event at 81 each were
still available today at the American
Automobile Association, Seventeenth
ands G streets NV; the Keystone
Automobile Club, 1643 Connecticut
avenue NV; the business counter
of The Star, Eleventh street and
Pennsylvania avenue NV; Peoples
Drug Stores, the Navy Annex in Ar
lington, Va; Brentano's Book Store
in the 1900 block of F street NV:
Walgren's Drug Store in the Penta-
gon; the coffee bars in Government
buildings, the Offices at East Poto-
mac, Takoma, Anacostia, Mckinley
and Bannecker swimming pools, and
at the larger Washington hotels.