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Show President encourages physical fitness Washington, D.C. President Jimmy Carter told the nearly 1,000 persons attending the first National Conference on Physical Fitness and Sports for All that he considers physical fitness programs to be "the best possible investment in-vestment in health." "Everything we do to make Americans more physically fit pays off handsomely," he said. "It cuts medical bills, it helps our people to live longer, and it adds to the quality of each day of life that we live." The President linked recent drops in the mortality rate and increases in life expectancy to improved exercise habits. "We have seen a one-percent-per-year drop in the incidence of fatal heart disease " hp nnintpH nut "That save something about the success of the Council on Physical Fitness these past two decades." Mr. Carter noted that participation in exercise and sport has doubled in 15 years but reminded his audience that half of all American adults do not exercise at all and that many more do not work out often or vigorously enough to have much effect. Many, he said, also eat too much or eat the wrong kinds of food, and he expressed concern over the number of teenagers who are taking up cigarette smoking. "We still have a long way to go," he said. The President said he was instructing his Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to take these actions: Work with Governors to establish a Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in each of the 50 states. Work with the schools to establish daily physical education programs at ail levels. Urge all employers to provide facilities for employee fitness programs. Encourage all Federal departments and agencies, including the military services, to support physical fitness programs. Julius Richmond, M.D., the Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General, echoed the President's concern con-cern and call for action. "I hope everyone here," he said, "will seize this opportunity to find new and better ways to tell the American people that physical fitness is after all the change of a lifetime for a lifetime, for a long and healthy lifetime. "If we begin with the pre-school child and continue working with all age groups through to our senior adults, this nation can wage a far more successful suc-cessful campaign against so many health problems that now sap the strength of our people: obesity, muscular and mental fatigue, cardiovascular diseases, and others." The national conference was sponsored spon-sored by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and cosponsored by the U.S. Office of Education and the Public Health Service. UPALCO UNIT CONTRACT MEETING A contract negotiation meeting among the Water and Power Resources Service, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, and the Ute Tribal Council on Upalco Unit of the Central Utah Project is scheduled at Fort Duchesne, on March 21. The meeting will be held at the Tribal Administration Ad-ministration Building at 10 a.m. The public is invited in-vited to attend as observers |