Proclamation 2745—National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, 1947

Whereas this Nation has an unused reservoir of skills and strength in those of our fellow citizens who by reason of physical handicaps are denied opportunities for employment, and

Whereas the people of this National are profoundly conscious of the limitless debt they owe to their fellow citizens who count the costs of wars in terms of physical handicaps; and

Whereas each year the toll of industrial and other accidents increases the number of handicapped persons seeking work, and

Whereas thousands of handicapped workers have demonstrated that physical handicaps are no insurmountable bar to efficient and productive labor, and

Whereas this Nation needs the full measure of faith and participation in our democratic life which can only come in full measure to the handicapped when they become self-supporting and independent citizens, and

Whereas the employers of this Nation have a unique opportunity to assist in this national effort to rehabilitate otherwise qualified but physically handicapped workers by employing their services; and

Whereas the Congress, by a joint resolution approved August 11, 1945 (59 Stat. 530) has designated the first week in October of each year as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week, during which appropriate ceremonies are to be held throughout the Nation, and has requested that the President issue each year a suitable proclamation:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon the people of the United States to observe the week of October 5-11, 1947, as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. I also call upon the governors of states, mayors of cities, and heads of other agencies of government and other public officials, as well as leaders of industry, labor, and civic groups to make every effort to enlist public support for a sustained program aimed at the employment and full use of the capacities of physically handicapped workers.

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 27th day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-second.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

ROBERT A. LOVETT,

Acting Secretary of State.