Theodore Roosevelt actually said...
It is hereby ordered that upon Wednesday, the 21st instant, such employees of the Executive Departments, the Government Printing Office, and the Navy Yard and Station at Washington, D.C., as served in the military or naval service of the United States in the Spanish-American War, or the insurrection in the Philippine Islands, shall be excused from duty at 12 o'clock noon for the remainder of that day, to enable them to participate in the ceremonies incident to the dedication of a statue erected to the memory of the Spanish War dead at Arlington.
05/11/1902