April 8, 1987
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
An essential part of our heritage as Americans is our free enterprise system. America's millions of small business men and women exemplify the freedoms we all have -- the freedoms to produce and create wealth as we choose, to earn and save and invest, to make opportunities for ourselves and others. Our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness include and presuppose these rights, and our system of limited constitutional government enshrines them and protects them equally for all. We should be extremely grateful to all entrepreneurs for reminding us in their daily lives of the blessings and importance of economic freedom.
We can also be grateful for small business men and women's tremendous contributions to our economy, our competitiveness, and our entire way of life. They create wealth. They develop new products and services, enhance existing ones, offer jobs and opportunities to millions of other Americans, and help fuel our economic expansion for the benefit of all. Their innovation, initiative, and example prompt hundreds of thousands of Americans, including young people, to join their ranks and start their own small businesses each year. In just this way, through the years, have America's communities been born, our people employed, our towns and cities grown.
The creativity, confidence, and skills of small business men and women help ensure that America will continue to grow and prosper in freedom and opportunity. That is a source of great pride to every American.
Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week of May 10 through May 16, 1987, as Small Business Week, and I urge all Americans to 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 eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.
Ronald Reagan
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:11 a.m., April 9, 1987]