Proclamation 3832—National Safe Boating Week, 1968

Each year more and more Americans go boating in their leisure hours. If we are to prevent the needless loss of life and property, this increasing traffic on our waterways must be accompanied by greater awareness of safe boating practices.

The principal agent of boating accidents last year was a careless operator. The most common errors were overloading or improper loading of small boats—mistakes easily avoided by the boat owner who understands his boat, its machinery, and its operation.

An aggressive and comprehensive program of safety education—supported, where necessary, by law enforcement—can reduce the rate of boating accidents, and make boating what it should be: a purely pleasant recreation.

Recognizing the need for emphasis on boating safety, the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution approved June 4, 1958 (72 Stat. 179), has requested the President to proclaim annually the week which includes July 4 as National Safe Boating Week:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning June 30, 1968, as National Safe Boating Week.

I also invite the Governors of the States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and other areas subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to provide for the observance of this week.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 28th day of February, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-second.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON