Proclamation 2778—Child Health Day, 1948

Whereas the congress, by a joint resolution of May 18, 1928 (45 Stat. 617), authorized and requested the President to issue annually a proclamation setting apart May 1 as Child health Day; and

Whereas the potential strength and future greatness of this Nation depend in large measure upon its children; and

Whereas the protection of the health of young Americans will help to assure the continued physical welfare of our people:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate may 1, 1948, as child Health Day; and I invite all parents, doctors, nurses, teachers, and all others who are interested in child welfare to cooperate in a nation-wide effort, beginning on that day, to improve the health of children of school age.

I recommend as a first step that practical plans be developed to obtain thorough medical and dental examinations and treatment if necessary for every child entering school for the first time in the fall of 1948, to the end that all correctible defects found in the health of these children shall have been removed or placed under treatment by the close of the school year.

In order to give impetus to this effort, I request the national Health Assembly, meeting by invitation of the Federal Security Administrator in Washington from May 1 to 4, to give special consideration to the health needs of children of school age.

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 16th day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-eight, 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.