Reader offers Veterans Day clarification
To the editor:
I read with interest Bob Petcher’s recent article regarding the history of Veterans Day. However, I found a couple of mistakes in the second paragraph. Initially, he correctly stated that President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11, 1919 as “Armistice Day”, which incidentally was set one year to the day after the cessation of hostilities of World War I, which occurred exactly at 11 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918. That is where the famous words ” … at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month …” comes from. Later in 1919, the infamous Treaty of Versailles was finally signed with President Wilson as one of the co-signees.
However President Wilson’s proclamation in 1919 merely asked for two minutes of silence. He also urged other patriotic and/or memorial services to be held by federal agencies/employees, including those belonging to the District of Columbia. Wilson had no authority to set that day or any other day as a federal holiday, let alone tell the states what to do. So there was still no federal holiday, let alone any state holiday, until quite a few years later. However, during the ensuing 1920s and early 1930s, most states increasingly adopted November 11 as an official state holiday in remembrance of the end of WW I.
This is where I take exception with what Mr. Petcher wrote. In 1938, contrary to what Bob said, the words “Veterans Day” did NOT replace the words “Armistice Day”. What actually happened on May 13, 1938 was the passing of Congressional legislation to make November 11th a permanent federal holiday. But it was still known as “Armistice Day”. President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law. Prior to that time, there were merely various Presidential proclamations and Congressional resolutions that recommended a federal holiday, as well as performing other federal ceremonies. So it took nearly twenty years to finally get a federal holiday established.
Then on June 1,1954, President Eisenhower signed federal legislation to replace the words Armistice Day with Veterans Day. He also proclaimed the day as a memorial day to veterans of all previous wars and conflicts, such as WWII and the Korean “War” (a Police Action technically).
Finally, from the late 1960s through the late 1970s, there were various changes in the date used for the holiday, such as the fourth Monday of November. One problem was the closeness to Thanksgiving Day, often occuring in the same week or a few days later. Many states changed to the fourth Monday for awhile, but many stayed with Nov. 11. Then finally in 1978, all states which had changed reverted back to November 11 as Veterans Day.
See this web site for a more detailed accounting:
www.history.army.mil/faq/vetsday/vetshist.htm
Bruce Hedquist
USN Veteran
S. Fort Myers