Proclamation 4429

April 13, 1976

Small businesses are the cornerstone of the American economy. They stand as a symbol of American character and spirit. The traits of individual initiative, self-reliance and creativity we prize so highly, as exemplified by our small business men and women, have always been the indispensable characteristics of a free and dynamic people.

Small businesses, seeking new opportunities, have provided us with a vast array of goods and services that enable us to enjoy a standard of living unequalled in the world. The nearly ten million small businesses throughout the United States provide fifty-eight percent of our business employment and a livelihood for millions of Amer­icans. More important, small business continues to provide the avenue by which so many have made the American dream of a better life for themselves and their families a reality.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning May 9, 1976, as Small Business Week, and I ask all Americans to join me in support of an expanding small business community.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.



GERALD R. FORD