Proclamation 5312—Small Business Week, 1985

The history of America is the history of a nation at work—a nation of farmers, manufacturers, and merchants joining together to build a better society. The dedication and commitment of these early citizens provided the foundation for a growing and prosperous America—an America built on individual initiative, a competitive spirit, and an intense pride in the achievements of a new nation.

Today, this enterprising determination to work and to prosper is embodied in more than 14 million small businesses, which provide the technology to keep the economy growing, the manufacturing and marketing skills to keep the nation competitive, and the innovation to guide us into a better future. It is this enterprising genius that has helped small business create most of our news jobs and provide economic opportunities unsurpassed by any nation in the world.

Our sustained economic expansion is encouraging young Americans to form their own businesses. These aspiring entrepreneurs have always been on the leading edge of invention and progress in our society, and their confidence in the future has led to the creation not only of new jobs but of whole new industries. We all benefit from the contributions of small businesses and those who create them.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of May 5 through May 11, 1985, as Small Business Week and ask that all Americans join with me in saluting our small business men and women by observing that week with appropriate activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth.

RONALD REAGAN