Proclamation 2899—Fire Prevention Week, 1950

Whereas, in this critical period, it is imperative that our country keep itself strong in manpower, productive facilities, and material resources; and

Whereas preventable fires took a frightful toll last year, resulting in loss of life for some 10,000 of our fellow Americans and permanent disability for countless others; and

Whereas the destruction of materials and facilities by fire impairs the production of supplies essential to the defense of our country and to the physical welfare of our people; and

Whereas needless fires also destroy each year an untold amount of irreplaceable natural resources and of private and public property, including forests and farms, schools and churches, hospitals, homes, and factories:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning October 8, 1950, as Fire Prevention Week.

I suggest that, bearing in mind the present emergency, all of us rededicate ourselves to a year-round campaign against destructive fires in our homes, in our industrial plants, and in our communities generally. I request that State and local Governments, the American National Red Cross, the National Fire Waste Council, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, business, labor, and farm organizations, churches, schools, civic groups, and the agencies of public information, including newspapers, magazines, and the radio, television, and motion-picture industries, cooperate fully in the observance of Fire Prevention Week. I also direct the appropriate agencies of the Federal Government to assist in this crusade against the toll of life and property resulting from fires.

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 21st day of August in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fifth.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

DEAN ACHESON,

Secretary of State.