Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 57 Part 2.djvu/115

 PROCLAMATIONS-AUG. 30, 1943 FIRE PREVENTION WEEK, 1943 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION This Nation's war program is menaced by an alarming increase in preventable fire losses. Since Pearl Harbor the destruction caused y fire in the United States has been comparable to the damage caused by all enemy bombing over England during the first two years of the war. The loss to this Nation is just as real as if the destruction had been wrought by enemy bombers over America, or by saboteurs. These preventable fires are being measured in thousands of workers killed and disabled; vast destruction of critical raw materials, food, and other vital supplies for our armed forces and civilian population; the ruin of war plants, factories, homes, and machinery-in many cases for the duration of the war. Fires are bringing costly delays in the production and transportation of airplanes, ships, tanks, and guns-delays that mean a postponement of victory and the lives of many of our men on the fighting fronts. Today it is vitally necessary that we prevent destructive fire. Every State in the Union shares this responsibility. Every commu- nity must make an extra and thorough effort to detect and eliminate fire hazards. Only by this united endeavor can America guard her productive power against fire and eliminate a major hazard that threatens seriously to reduce supplies of war materials, food, clothing, and other essentials required by our fighting men overseas and by our civilians at home. The cause was never so clear; the need was never so great. NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, Presi- dent of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 3, 1943, as Fire Prevention Week. I earnestly request the people of the country to take unusually active measures during that week, and throughout the year, to conserve our human and material resources from destruction by fire. I call upon State and local governments, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, the National Fire Waste Council, upon all business and labor organizations, the pulpit, educators, civic groups, the press, the radio, and the motion-picture industry to initiate programs that will vividly bring home to all our people the dangers of fire and the methods of controlling it. Further, I direct the Office of Civilian Defense, the Department of Agriculture, the War Production Board, the protective services of the War and Navy Departments, and other appropriate Federal agencies to lend their active support and assistance to the attainment of these objectives. 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 30 day of August, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-three, and [SEAL] of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth. FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT By the President: CORDELL HULL Secretary of Stat August 30, 1943 [No. 2592] Designation of week beginning Oct. 3, 1943, as Fire Prevention Week. 57 STAT.] 749

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