Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 86.djvu/1664

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PROCLAMATION 4123-APR. 13, 1972

[86 STAT.

entitled to mutual respect and equal rights. It embodies the steadily growing concern of the peoples of the Americas for joint efforts toward hastening economic and social development, maintaining collective security, and settling disputes peacefully. Its past is proud and its future promising. NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICHARD NIXON, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Friday, April 14, as Pan American Day, and the week beginning April 9 and ending April 15 as Pan American Week; and I call upon the Governors of the fifty States of the Union, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and appropriate officials of all other areas under the flag of the United States to issue similar proclamations. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my'hand this tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-sixth.

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PROCLAMATION 4123

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National Maritime Day, 1972 April 13, 1972

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation The spirit of America has long been recognized in the speed of her ships and the skill of her sailors. Long ago, the French historian de Tocqueville told the story of meeting an American sailor on his 1831 visit to this country and asking him to explain why American ships seemed built to last but a short time. The sailor replied with no hesitation that the finest of vessels would become useless if it lasted beyond a few years because the art of navigation was making such rapid progress. In the sailor's certainty that with tomorrow would arrive something new and better, de Tocqueville recognized the attitude upon which "a great people direct all their concerns." Over the years other nations have built upon the success of our example—and they have built merchant fleets able to compete successfully with our own.

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