PROCLAMATIONS_ -_
, 1944-.
May 3, 1944
46U. .C.i1101.
Observance of May
22, 1944 as National
Maritime Day.
May 3,1944
[No. 2614j
WHEREAS the Congress, in the Merchant Marine Act of 1936,
approved June 29, 1936 (49 Stat. 1985), has declared it to be the policy
of the United States to foster and encourage the development and
maintenance of a merchant marine "(a) sufficient to carry its domestic
water-borne commerce and a substantial portion of the water-borne
export and import foreign commerce of the United States and to pro-
vide shipping service on all routes essential for maintaining the flow
of such domestic and foreign water-borne commerce at all times,
(b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war
or national emergency, (c) owned and operated under the United
States flag by citizens of the United States insofar as may be practi-
cable, and (d) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable
types of vessels, constructed in the United States and manned with a
trained and efficient citizen personnel"; and
WHEREAS many thousands of American men and women have
toiled through long hours in shipyards and factories in order to con-
struct in the shortest possible time the fleet of vessels needed to carry
out not only the long-range program envisioned in the Merchant
Marine Act of 1936 but also the emergency program necessitated by
the global war in which we are involved; and
WHEREAS many men have already given their lives, and thousands
of others are daily risking their lives, on our ships traversing dangerous
seas to carry men and materials to the far-flung battlefields; and
WHEREAS it is fitting that the patriotism, courage, sacrifice,
and labor of these men and women, ashore and afloat, be publicly
recognized:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, Presi-
dent of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people
of the United States to observe May 22, 1944, as National Maritime
Day by displaying the flag at their homes or other suitable places,
and I direct that the flag be displayed on all Government buildings on
that day.
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 25 t h day of April in the year
of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the
[SEAL] Independence of the United States of America the one
hundred and sixty-eighth.
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.
FLAG DAY, 1944
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
For many years June 14 has been set aside as Flag Day, observed
throughout the Nation as a day of earnest rededication to those
high principles of humanity and civilization which constitute the
foundations of the Republic.
It is not necessary to recite that the stars and stripes of our flag
symbolize the patriotic and loyal unity of one hundred and thirty-
five million people in a widely diversified land. Nor is it necessary
to dwell on the struggles through which we have marched, under
1134
[58 STAT.
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