Proclamation 3291—Mother's Day, 1959

Whereas the mothers of America, generation after generation, have given their children their utmost devotion, and by their love, precept, and example have sought to endow them with the ideals, qualities, and strength of a great people; and

Whereas American mothers bear a major responsibility in the tasks of maintaining healthy home environments, of training their children with firmness and wisdom, and of guiding their young men and women to mature citizenship; and

Whereas it is fitting that we should join on one day of each year in acknowledging and expressing the gratitude we feel in our hearts for our own mothers and for the blessings of motherhood; and

Whereas by a joint resolution approved May 8, 1914 (38 Stat. 770), the Congress designated the second Sunday in May of each year as Mother's Day and enjoined the President to request the observance of this occasion in accordance with the provisions of that resolution:

Now, Therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Sunday, May 10, 1959, to be Mother's Day; and I direct the appropriate officials of the Government to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on that day.

I also call upon the people of the United States to give public and private expression of their love and reverence for the mothers of America on that day through their prayers and other manifestations of their esteem and devotion, and by display of the flag at their homes or other suitable places.

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 8th day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-third.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

By the President:

CHRISTIAN A. HERTER,

Secretary of State