Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1916 — THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION [ARTICLE]

THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION

Issued by the President Designating Thursday, November 30. Washington, D. C., November 17. —President Wilson today formally by proclamation designated Thursday, November 30, as Thanksgiving day. The proclamation follows: It has long been the custom 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 and the nation. The year that has elapsed since we last observed our day of Thanksgiving has been rich in blessings to. us as a people, but the whole face of the z world has been darkened by war. In the midst of our peace and happiness, our thoughts dwell with painful disquiet upon the struggles and sufferings of the nations at war and of the peoples upon whom war has brought disaster without choice or possibility of escape on their part. We»can not think of our own happiness without thinking of their pitiful distress.

I Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States iof America, do appoint Thursday, the 30th day of November, as a I day of national thanksgiving and prayer, and urge and advise the people to resort to their several places of worship on that day torender thanks to Almighty God for the blessings of peace and unbroken prosperity which He has bestowed upon our beloved country in such unstinted measure. And I also urge and suggest our duty," in this our day of peace and abundance, is to think in deep sympathy of the stricken peoples of the world upon whom the curse and terror of war has so pitlessly fallen and to contribute out of our abundant means to the relief of their sufferings. Our people ,could in no better way show their real attitude toward the present struggle of the nations than by contributing out of their abundance to the relief of the suffering which war has brought in its train. 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 17th day of November, in the year of Our Lord, 1916, and of the Independence of the United States the 141st. WOODROW WILSON. By the President. ROBERT LANSING, ■ ■ Secretary of State.