Show P PRESIDENT PROCLAIMS AMERI CAN FOREST WEEK american dorest week a national observance lice now how in ill its fifth year wivi mus given its solid bond oft off today by pros ident coolidge in tile following proclamation cla illation mation ili hi proclaiming american forest week 1 I to to the attori atton cioll or of till nil out our people tile dall danger gerulat diat comes front froin tile lio neglect of our forests for years tile nation hart j observed faroat protection week it j la Is fitting that this observance lio be on cn heir 1 tisch ged cd WO vo have too freely spent tho tell rich I and magnificent gift that nature bestowed on oil it na s in ili out our ea eager g 0 r to tio line that gift wo we have stripped our ur forests we e have permitted flroa fires to lay wit s t 0 and d dovona 0 v 0 ur them wo we have till all too often destroyed tile enung growth and tile tho need hood front from which now forests might spring and though wo already feet feel tile tho first gilp arii of thither shortage wo we have enrol begun to navy have and restore rea toro 0 we o havo have passed the pioneer hatago and are no longer excusable for con tinning this unwise dissipation or of a great resource to tile the nation it means tile tho lack of an elemental necessity and the waste of keeping idle adlo or only partly productive nearly ono one fourth of our soil to our forestus forest us industries it means unstable investments tile tho depletion of forest capital the disbanding of established enterprises and the decline of one ot of our most important industrial groups our forests ought to be put to work and kept at work I 1 do not minimize the obstacles that have to be mot met nor the difficulty of changing old ideas ideal and practices wo we must all put our hands to tills common task it la is not enough that the rieda fed oral eral and local governments ake tile tho lead there must bo be a change in our national attitude our industries our landowners landow nera our farmers all our citizens must muot learn to treat our forests as aa crops to be used but bat also to bo be renewed wo we must learn to tend our woodlands ms as carefully as we tend our farms let us apply to this creative task the boundless energy and skill we have so long spent in harvesting the tree free gifts of nature the forests ot of the future must be started today our children are dependent on our course wo we are bound by a solemn obligation from which no evasion and no subterfuge will relieve us unless we fulfill our sacred responsibility to unborn generations unless wo we use with gratitude and with restraint tho the generous and kindly gifts of divine providence wo we shall provo prove ourselves unworthy gut guardians of it a heritage we hold in trust NOW THEREFORE 1 I CALVIN COOLIDGE president of the united states do recommend to the governors of the various states to designate and set apart the week of april 27 07 may 3 inc inclusive elusive 1925 1915 as aa amert ameri can forest week and wherever and noi not in conflict with state law or accepted customs ato to celebrate arbor day within that week and I 1 urge public officials public and business ass associations industrial du leaders t orest owners editors educators and all patriotic citizens to unite in the common task of forest conservation and renewal I 1 IN WITNESS WHEREOF I 1 have hereunto sot set my hand and caused the seat seal of the united states to be affixed DODO dovci in ili the city of washington this twenty first day of february in the year of our lord ono one thousand nine hundred and twenty five and of the independence of the united states of america the one hundred and forty ninth signed calvin coolidge by tile the president signed charles 13 HUGHES secretary of state |