Proclamation 2530—Red Cross War Fund Campaign

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas our country has been viciously attacked and forced into a war of vast proportions, which will inevitably bring grief and distress to many and self-sacrifice to all; and

Whereas for more than sixty years the American National Red Cross has played a vital role in binding up the wounds of the injured, in sheltering, feeding, and clothing the homeless, in succoring the distressed, in rebuilding broken lives, and in rehabilitating the victims of catastrophes of nature and of war; and

Whereas in preparation for just such an emergency as we are now facing, the American National Red Cross has been spending funds at the rate of more than one million dollars a month, which is but a small fraction of the amount that the organization now requires in order to carry out effectively its functions as an essential auxiliary of our armed forces, particularly as a friendly liaison in welfare problems between the man in service and his family at home, and as a key agency in the civil-defense plans:

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, and President of the American National Red Cross, do hereby proclaim the beginning, as of this date, of a Red Cross War Fund Campaign for the raising of a minimum sum of fifty million dollars; and I appeal to the American people to make this campaign an overwhelming success. Realizing the desire of every American to participate in the national war effort, I confidently anticipate an immediate and spontaneous response to this appeal.

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 12th day of December in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-sixth.

FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT

By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.