Proclamation 3586—Small Business Week

Whereas nine out of every ten business enterprises that supply the needs and wants of the American people are small and independently owned and operated; and

Whereas these small businesses provide:

-about one-third of the Nation's goods and services;

-abroad source of diversified employment opportunities;

-an opportunity for expression and growth of personal initiative and judgment;

-new ideas, new methods, and new products which stimulate our economy; and

Whereas small businesses help to preserve our economic freedom by preserving competition and providing the consumer with a wide choice of products; and

Whereas it is appropriate that we recognize the importance of small business to the maintenance of our free enterprise system and to our continued economic growth:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning May 24, 1964, as Small Business Week; and I urge chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and other public and private organizations to participate in ceremonies recognizing the great contribution made by the 4.6 million small businesses of this country to our prosperous society and to the well-being and happiness of our people.

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 thirtieth day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-eighth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

GEORGE W. BALL,

Acting Secretary of State.