This increased interest reinforces my great, great faith in democracy.

This law must not be allowed to expire in August of 1975.

Under the proclamation which I signed, the New England States are given a better break than the across-the-board imposition of the $1-per-barrel tax.

I am very pleased to have signed a second international agreement, entitled the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction.

I HAVE signed today the instruments of ratification of the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Biological Weapons Convention.

I do hereby designate the week beginning January 19, 1975, as National Jaycee Week.

I pledge to you that I will continue in the search for new measures to promote that cause.

Except for energy, I will ask for no new spending programs and will fight to reduce the growth of Federal spending before it is too late.

Today, in more than 7,000 chapters in each of the 50 states and the Nation's capital, some 300,000 Jaycees serve this time-honored ideal in a modern setting.

It is my earnest hope that all nations will find it in their interest to join in this prohibition against biological weapons.

We need fair tax relief, the tax relief that will help not only the poor but also the middle class.

I say, let's join together in starting the process, maintaining forward momentum, and in getting Congressional committees to meet and get down to the specific cases.

I ask you to put your tremendous forces, your efforts behind the drive for an American energy independence.

The White House door is open to you and your associates.

Our government today is strengthened by the firm foundation that State legislatures give to government throughout the whole United States.

Some of our basic freedoms originated in our earliest days from actions taken in the respective States.

State legislatures perform an invaluable function.

The greater emphasis today on the importance, the essentiality of affirmative action at the State level is going to grow and grow and grow.

It is simply a 5-percent increase in those escalated programs.

I believe in the program.

I am confident that with the American people seeing what the problems are, that they will rally in this year as they have in the past.

The responsibility now is on the shoulders of the Congress.

The economy is in trouble.

I hereby prescribe January 19, 1975, as the effective date of that Act.

This new Commission will devote its full attention to assuring the safety as well as the reliability of this critically important source of energy.