Contributions may be made through the American Red Cross, Washington, D. C., or direct to the American Committe for Armenian and Syrian Relief, Cleveland H. Dodge, Treasurer, 1 Madison Avenue, New York City.

WOODROW WILSON.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

PROCLAMATIONS

[Thanksgiving-1917.]

It has long been the honored 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 as a nation. That custom we can follow now even in the midst of the tragedy of a world shaken by war and immeasurable disaster, in the midst of sorrow and great peril, because even amidst the darkness that has gathered about us we can see the great blessings God has bestowed upon us, blessings that are better than mere peace of mind and prosperity of enterprise.

We have been given the opportunity to serve mankind as we once served ourselves in the great day of our Declaration of Independence, by taking up arms against a tyranny that threatened to master and debase men everywhere and joining with other free peoples in demanding for all the nations of the world what we then demanded and obtained for ourselves. In this day of the revelation of our duty not only to defend our own rights as a nation but to defend also the rights of free men throughout the world, there has been vouchsafed us in full and inspiring measure the resolution and spirit of united action. We have been brought to one mind and purpose. A new vigor of common counsel and common action has been revealed in us. We should especially thank God that in such circumstances, in the midst of the greatest enterprise the spirits of men have ever entered upon, we have, if we but observe a reasonable and practicable economy, abundance with which to supply the needs of those associated with us as well as our own. A new light shines about us. The great duties of a new day awaken a new and greater national spirit in us. We shall never again be divided or wonder what stuff we are made of.

And while we render thanks for these things let us pray Almighty God that in all humbleness of spirit we may look always to Him for guidance; that we may be kept constant in the spirit and purpose of service; that by His grace our minds may be directed and our hands strengthened; and that in His good time liberty and security and peace and the comradeship of a common justice may be vouchsafed all the nations of the earth.

Wherefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Thursday, the twenty-ninth day of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, and invite the people throughout the land to cease upon that day from their ordinary occupations and in their several homes and places of worship to render thanks to God, the great ruler of nations.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done in the District of Columbia this 7th day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, [SEAL] and of the independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-second.

By the President:

ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State.

[Licensing Bakers.]

WOODROW WILSON.

Whereas, Under and by virtue of an Act of Congress entitled "An Act to provide further for the national security and defense by encouraging the production, conserving the supply, and controlling the distribution of food products and fuel," approved by the President on the 10th day of August, 1917, it is provided among other things as follows:

"That by reason of the existence of a state of war, it is essential to the national security and defense, for the successful prosecution of the war, and for the support and maintenance of the Army and Navy, to assure an adequate and equitable distribution, and to facilitate the movement, of foods, feeds, fuel, including fuel oil and natural gas, and fertilizer and fertilizer ingredients, tools, utensils, implements, machinery, and equipment required for the actual production of foods, feeds, and fuel, hereafter in this Act called necessaries; to prevent, locally or generally, scarcity, monopolization, hoarding, injurious speculation, manipulations, and private controls, affecting such supply, distribution, and movement; and to establish and maintain governmental control of such necessaries during the For such purposes the instrumentalities, means, methods, powers, authorities, duties, obligations, and prohibitions hereinafter set forth are created, established, conferred, and prescribed. The President is authorized to make such regulations and to issue such orders as are essential effectively to carry out the provisions of this Act."

war.

And, whereas, it is further provided in said Act as follows:

"That, from time to time, whenever the President shall find it essential to license the importation, manufacture, storage, mining, or distribution of any necessaries, in order to carry into effect any of the purposes of this Act, and shall publicly so announce, no person

shall, after a date fixed in the announcement, engage in or carry on any such business specified in the announcement of importation, manufacture, storage, mining, or distribution of any necessaries as set forth in such announcement, unless he shall secure and hold a license issued pursuant to this section. The President is authorized to issue such licenses and to prescribe regulations for the issuance of licenses and requirements for systems of accounts and auditing of accounts to be kept by licensees, submission of reports by them, with or without oath or affirmation, and the entry and inspection by the President's duly authorized agents of the places of business of licensees."

And, whereas, it is essential, in order to carry into effect the provisions of the said Act, that the powers conferred upon the President by said Act be at this time exercised, to the extent hereinafter set forth.

Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the powers conferred upon me by said Act of Congress, hereby find and determine and by this proclamation do announce that it is essential, in order to carry into effect the purposes of said Act, to license the manufacture of necessaries, to the extent hereinafter specified.

All persons, firms, corporations and associations, who manufacture for sale bread in any form, cake, crackers, biscuits, pastry or other bakery products (excepting, however, those whose consumption of any flour and meal in the manufacture of such products is, in the aggregate, less than ten barrels a month), are hereby required to procure a license on or before December 10, 1917. This includes hotels, restaurants, other public eating places, and clubs, who serve bread or other bakery products of their own baking.

Application for license must be made to the United States Food Administration, Washington, D. C., Law Department-License Division, on forms prepared by it for that purpose, which may be obtained on request.

Any person, firm, corporation or association, other than those hereinbefore excepted, who shall engage in or carry on any business hereinbefore specified after December 10, 1917, without first procuring such license, will be liable to the penalty prescribed by said Act of Congress.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done in the District of Columbia, this seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seven[SEAL] teen, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and forty-second.

By the President:

ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State.

WOODROW WILSON.

STATEMENT

[Urging Assistance in Making a Complete Inventory of Draft Registrants.] THE WHITE HOUSE, November 9, 1917.

The task of selecting and mobilizing the first contingent of the National Army is nearing completion. The expedition and accuracy of its accomplishment were a most gratifying demonstration of the efficiency of our democratic institutions. The swiftness with which the machinery for its execution had to be assembled, however, left room for adjustment and improvement. New regulations putting these improvements into effect are therefore being published today. There is no change in the essential obligations of men subject to selection. The first draft must stand unaffected by the provisions of the new regulations. They can be given no retroactive effect.

The time has come for a more perfect organization of our man power. The selective principle must be carried to its logical conclusion. We must make a complete inventory of the qualifications of all registrants in order to determine, as to each man not already selected for duty with. the colors, the place in the military, industrial or agricultural ranks of the nation in which his experience and training can best be made to serve the common good. This project involves an inquiry by the selective boards into the domestic, industrial and educational qualifications of nearly ten million men.

Members of these boards have rendered a conspicuous service. The work was done without regard to personal convenience and under a pressure of immediate necessity which imposed great sacrifices. Yet the services of men trained by the experience of the first draft must of necessity be retained and the selection boards must provide the directing mechanism for the new classification. The thing they have done is of scarcely one-tenth the magnitude of the thing that remains to be done. It is of great importance both to our military and to our economic interests that the classification be carried swiftly and accurately to a conclusion. An estimate of the time necessary for the work leads to the conclusion that it can be accomplished in sixty days; but only if this great marshaling of our resources of men is regarded by all as a national war undertaking of such significance as to challenge the attention and compel the assistance of every American.

I call upon all citizens, therefore, to assist local and district boards by proffering such service and such material conveniences as they can offer and by appearing before the boards, either upon summons or upon their own initiative, to give such information as will be useful in classifying registrants. I urge men of the legal profession to offer themselves as associate members of the legal advisory boards to be provided in each community for the purpose of advising registrants of their rights and

obligations and of assisting them in the preparation of their answers to the questions which all men subject to draft are required to submit. I ask the doctors of the country to identify themselves with the medical advisory boards which are to be constituted in the various districts throughout the United States for the purpose of making a systematic physical examination of the registrants. It is important also that police officials of every grade and class should be informed of their duty under the selective service law and regulations, to search for persons who do not respond promptly and to serve the summons of local and district boards. Newspapers can be of very great assistance in giving wide publicity to the requirements of the law and regulations and to the numbers and names of those who are called to present themselves to their local boards from day to day. Finally, I ask that during the time hereafter to be specified as marking the sixty-day period of the classification all citizens give attention to the task in hand in order that the process may proceed to a conclusion with swiftness and yet with even and considerate justice to all.

(Signed) WOODROW WILSON.

ADDRESS

[Before Annual Convention of American Federation of Labor at Buffalo, New York, November 12, 1917.]

Mr. President, Delegates of the American Federation of Labor, Ladies and Gentlemen: I esteem it a great privilege and a real honor to be thus admitted to your public councils. When your Executive Committee paid me the compliment of inviting me here, I gladly accepted the invitation, because it seems to me that this, above all other times in our history, is the time for common counsel, for the drawing not only of the energies but of the minds of the nation together. I thought that it was a welcome opportunity for disclosing to you some of the thoughts that have been gathering in my mind during the last momentous months.

I am introduced to you as the President of the United States, and yet I would be pleased if you would put the thought of the office into the background and regard me as one of your fellow-citizens who had come here to speak, not the words of authority, but the words of counsel, the words which men should speak to one another who wish to be frank in a moment more critical perhaps than the history of the world has ever yet known, a moment when it is every man's duty to forget himself, to forget his own interests, to fill himself with the nobility of a great national and world conception, and act upon a new platform elevated above the ordinary affairs of life, elevated to where men have views of the long destiny of mankind.

I think that in order to realize just what this moment of counsel is it is