Proclamation—Forest Protection Week and Arbor Day-1923

Whereas, the preservation of our forests, Federal, State, and private, is essential to our industrial and commercial life, to our strength as a nation, and to our individual well-being, and

Whereas, forest fires, which are largely the result of carelessness or thoughtlessness, continue to do great damage, threatening to deplete and reduce our forests to the point at which they can not longer serve the nation adequately as a source of timber supply or for watershed protection and recreation, and

Whereas, the annual observance of Arbor Day in the States, and the interest in fire prevention which has resulted from Forest Protection Week heretofore, have done much to awaken the people to the importance both of planting trees and of perpetuating the forests that are already established.

Therefore, I, Warren G. Harding, President of the United States, do urge upon the Governors of the various States to designate and set apart the week of April 22-28, 1923, as Forest Protection Week, and wherever practicable and not in conflict with State law or accepted custom, to make Arbor Day fall within the same week; and to urge citizens, teachers, officers of public instruction, commercial and other associations, and the press to unite in thought and effort for the preservation of the nation's forest resources by conducting appropriate exercises and programs and by publishing information pertaining to the waste from forest fires and ways of preventing or reducing such losses, in order that our forests may be conserved for the inestimable service of mankind.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-seventh.

WARREN G. HARDING

By the President:
CHARLES E. HUGHES, Secretary of State.