We need your help--and I am glad that you have responded out of a sense of duty to both your country and to humanity.

Our experts believe these measures are sufficient, if they are accompanied by aggressive conservation measures at the same time.

We shall renew neither ourselves, nor society, nor a troubled world, unless we share a vision of something worth saving.

This has been a very commendable American effort.

So I just want to observe finally, in closing, that we will, as long as I am President, Dr. Gardner, try to provide an educational opportunity for every youngster in this country, regardless of the condition of his birth, the section he…

Now, these are strong steps. But they are wise steps, and they must be taken together.

Finally, and in many ways most important, the Governors and the mayors of the drought stricken areas have agreed to increase their efforts to conserve their existing water supplies.

On this twenty-fifth anniversary of the Board, I am happy to extend my congratulations and best wishes.

I will reenlist in your army of excellence, and we all stand ready to march with you under your guidance.

Now, if additional action is necessary your Federal Government will be prepared to act.

I am confident that it will render equally signal service to the defense of our two countries in the years ahead.

I said then that this was a time for action--a time for action to meet and to overcome the challenge of this great drought.

First, at the request of the Governors of the drought-stricken States, I am today writing to Governor Ellington, the Director of the Office of Emergency Planning, declaring certain portions of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and…

Second, to ease the critical water crisis in northern New Jersey, I am directing the Chief of Engineers to install an emergency pump-pipeline system at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.

This administration hopes to provide the leadership for an environment that is free of the contamination which pollutes the water that we drink and the air that we breathe.

This was a time for action--a time for action to meet and to overcome the challenge of this great drought.

Third, to resolve the water problems between New York and Philadelphia we have reached an agreement to establish a 'strategic waterbank'.

For only if we work together can we overcome the water shortage threat now facing 25 million citizens in the most populated section of our Nation.