Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 54 Part 2.djvu/1446

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PROCLAMATIONS-OCT. 16, 1939 ARMISTICE DAY-1939 October 16, 1939 [No. 2369] Preamble. 5U. S.C., Supp.V, § 87a. Armistice Day. Observance of No- vember 11, 1939, as. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION WHEREAS twenty-one years ago, on November 11, 1918, the nations then engaged in the World War agreed to an armistice terminating hostilities; and WHEREAS Senate Concurrent Resolution 18, Sixty-ninth Congress, passed June 4, 1926 (44 Stat. 1982), reads in part: "That the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies expressive of our gratitude for peace and our desire for the continuance of friendly relations with all other peoples" and the act approved May 13, 1938 (52 Stat. 351), provides that "the 11th day of November in each year, a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day, is hereby made a legal public holiday"; and WHEREAS, in the tragic situation in which the world finds itself today, with the destructive forces of war once again unleashed, it is appropriate for the people of the United States to reflect upon that hour of November 11, 1918, when the voices of war were silenced, and to look forward even now to a time when a just and enduring peace shall be established among all the peoples of the earth; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, Presi- dent of the United States of America, do hereby direct that on November 11, 1939, the flag of the United States be displayed on all Government buildings, and I invite the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed. DONE at the City of Washington this 16th day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and thirty-nine, and [SEAL] of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-fourth. By te FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT By the President: CORDELL HULL Secretary of State. 2664 [54 STAT.