Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 87.djvu/1173

 87 STAT. ]

PROCLAMATION 4172-NOV. 18, 1972

business groups, labor unions, youth and women's clubs, schools, other interested groups, to participate in this observance. I urge Department of Agriculture, Jand-grant educational institutions, all appropriate organizations and Government officials to mark significance of National Farm-City Week with special events activities.

1141 and the and the and

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-two, and of the Indepedence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-seventh.

PROCLAMATION 4172

National Family Week By the President of the United States of America

November 18, 1972

A Proclamation As prospects brighten for a lasting peace in the world, we can hope to approach more closely the age-old ideal of a single, harmonious family of man. As we work toward that great goal, however, we must never forget that our starting point—the center of our affections and the wellspring of our self-renewal—must be the basic family circle. Parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, all truly mean "home" to every human being. No institution can ever take the family's place in giving meaning to human life and a stable structure to society; indeed, as a wise philosopher observed thousands of years ago, "the root of the state is in the family." The pressures of our modern age make this a time of challenge for families in America, but every community has its inspiring examples of families which have risen to the demand and made the time of challenge a time of glory. Our long-cherished American observances of Mother's Day and Father's Day are fittingly complemented by this new idea of a National Family Week, which this year will coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday—a time when families traditionally reunite, and when the family unit itself should stand high on that list of blessings for which we offer our thanks to God.

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