Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 86.djvu/1674

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PROCLAMATION 4130-MAY 4, 1972

[86 STAT.

special attention during this period to the concerns of the elderly, so that it may truly be a high point in a year of action for older Americans.

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I also urge each individual Americail to use this month as a time to make a personal commitment to action on behalf of older people—so that the last years may be among the best years for all of our countrymen. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of May, 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. iJil-:si'.i3v".


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PROCLAMATION 4130

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By the President of the United States of America TM::

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Proclamation

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It is no curious accident that from earliest times, the expansion of America's frontiers was closely paralleled by the robust growth of our Nation's free enterprise system. In the footprints of Boone and Carson came a different but no less courageous breed of pioneer: the tradesman and peddler, miller and merchant. As their cabins and trading posts have become towns and cities, their wilderness commerce has become the foundation for the most extraordinary economic force in the history of mankind. It is a force that leaves no idea unexplored, no promise unpursued, no citizen of this land unenriched. Today, we call it small business. There are now more than 8 million small businesses in this country. An unprecedented 287,000 new companies were incorporated just last year. Nineteen out of every twenty firms are considered small business, and they provide more than 35 million jobs, and contribute more than $370 billion to the gross national product. Small business is the corridor of progress and change for Americans of every nationality and color. It is an arena where the sheer power of individual initiative and self-determination can exact the rewards of participation, achievement, and success. Small, free, independent enterprise is the heritage of our past and the lifeblood of our future, providing each of our citizens with life's most prized gift: opportunity.

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