Proclamation 3043—Red Cross Month, 1954

Whereas the American National Red Cross, under the terms of its charter established by act of Congress, is a major instrument for protecting the health and welfare of the American people through voluntary services supported and rendered by its members; and

Whereas the services of the Red Cross demonstrate our Nation's tradition of neighbor helping neighbor; and

Whereas the Red Cross, while continuing at full strength its welfare program for members of the armed forces and their families, has accepted the additional responsibility of providing for informal club activities for overseas servicemen; and

Whereas the organization's blood program provides blood for the sick and injured in nearly half the Nation's hospitals and, at the same time, enables the Red Cross to meet its responsibility as the collecting agency of blood for national defense; and

Whereas the Red Cross is a medium for extending emergency relief to families stricken by disaster, and for helping to rehabilitate those families, as well as for making available to all the people training in such essential skills as first aid, water safety, and home nursing; and

Whereas these services and many others performed by millions of adult and junior members of the organization prepare our people to save lives and mitigate suffering, both in time of peace and in time of national emergency; and

Whereas the American Red Cross is appealing for $85,000,000 and thirty million members to help it achieve its objectives in the year ahead:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America and Honorary Chairman of the American National Red Cross, do hereby designate March 1954 as Red Cross Month; and I urge every American during that month to cooperate in furthering the work of this humanitarian organization.

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 25th day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-eighth.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

JOHN FOSTER DULLES,

Secretary of State