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Show Forest Protection Week I Proclaimed by Coolidge (By International News Service.) WASHINGTON, April 16. President Coolidge issued a proclamation calling upon the governors of the states to proclaim pro-claim the week of April 21 to 27, inclusive, as Forest Protection Protec-tion week and, wherever possible, to celebrate Arbor day within that week. Forest Protection week has been observed nationally since President Harding proclaimed it in 1921 for the first time. It is observed, not alone in forest areas, but by organizations organi-zations interested in outdoor life, in game, water resources and civic matters, and by interests dependent upon wood for their prosperity. Educational means of preventing forest fires will be urged. The president's proclamation reads : By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas, It is essential to the continued comfort, welfare wel-fare and prosperity of the people of the United States that abundant forests, widely distributed and maintained in a condition of high productiveness, be forever wisely conserved as one of our greatest natural resources ; and, Whereas, Because of our constantly increasing need for wood and other forest products, together with our past failure to provide for reforestation, we are drawing upon our supplies of timber four times as fast as they are renewed through growth; and, Whereas, The most formidable agency of forest destruction destruc-tion and prevention of reforestation is fire and, of the fires which annually devastate vast areas, four-fifths are ascribed in origin to human agencies and virtually all may be controlled con-trolled and made innocuous through prudence, care and vigilance ; Therefore I, Calvin Coolidge, president of the United States, do urge upon the governors of the various states to designate and set apart the week of April 21-27, 1924, as Forest Protection week, and, wherever practicable and not in conflict with state law or accepted customs, to celebrate Arbor day within that week. I also urge all citizens, either in association or as individuals, all schools, and the press of the land to give common thought to the protection of our forests from fire, to the end that, in the future as in the past, these forests may supply us with wood, protect the purity of our streams, and otherwise serve the people of the United States. 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 15th day of February, Feb-ruary, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-eighth. CALVIN COOLIDGE. By the President : Charles E. Hughes, Secretary of State. |