Message to the President' s Conference on the Fitness of American Youth.

To the President's Conference on the Fitness of American Youth:

The Vice President has given me a brief report on your deliberations in the Conference.

I congratulate you on your thoroughness in analyzing youth fitness problems and the frank and objective way in which you expressed your viewpoints on a most important subject.

In our concern for political, economic, social, cultural and other problems affecting the national and international scene, we tend to overlook one important fundamental which you emphasized:

That national policies will be no more than words if our people are not healthy of body,

as well as of mind, putting dynamism and leadership into the carrying out of major

decisions. Our young people must be physically as well as mentally and spiritually

prepared for American citizenship.

Although the policies of government are concerned predominantly with the problems and aspects of mature citizenry, much is being done today in this kind of youth preparation by Federal, State, community and private organizations.

I believe you and I share the feeling that more and better coordinated attention should be given to this most precious asset-our youth--within the Federal Government. By this I do not mean that we should have an over-riding Federal program. The fitness of our young people is essentially a home and local community problem.

The task of the Federal Government is to assist the educators and the many fine organizations, now dealing with the problem, that they may improve and advance projects which are already underway. Therefore, I will soon issue an Executive Order which will establish a President's Council on Youth Fitness. I will ask members of my Cabinet who head departments having activities in this area to serve on this Council. Thereby, we can be assured that top level attention will be directed constantly to this most important field, and the activities of some 35 Federal agencies will be better coordinated.

Your deliberations also reveal a need for arousing in the American people a new awareness of the importance of physical and recreational activity that our young people may achieve a proper balance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual strength.

Therefore, I will soon establish a President's Citizens Advisory Committee on the Fitness of American Youth composed of key citizens from various walks of life. Their primary assignment will be to examine and explore the facts, and, thereafter, to alert America on what can and should be done to reach the much desired goal of a happier, healthier, and more totally fit youth in America.

To each of you who has taken the time and trouble to come to Annapolis for the purpose of exploring the aspects of this all-important question of total fitness, I express my sincere appreciation and my personal best wishes.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER