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Mr. Walter L. Smith

"Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen....

"I finished State College in 1935, and I feel just as close to State College as any other alumnus. There are some here that finished before I did and some that finished after me, but I think we all hold State College very dear to our hearts. Once while our committee was in transit on a bus between Charlotte and Wilmington, I overheard a conversation between Dr. Anderson and Mr. John Umstead, whom I got to know and love like the rest of you. I heard one of them say that the University should provide instruction in the branches of learning relating to agriculture. I said 'Don't tell me you are going to start teaching agriculture over at Chapel Hill. ' 'Oh no, Walter' one of them said, 'You don't understand. The University means State and Chapel Hill and Greensboro'. So, I've been educated.

"I'd like to go back just a minute and elaborate a little bit on what Mr. Pearsall said. We had a meeting two weeks ago in Chapel Hill and could not resolve the name question. Dr. Caldwell and I asked for permission to go and talk to the various groups. Mr. Ferebee was to be in that group to go do the talking. He was not at that meeting and could not come to our subsequent conferences. I just want to point that out because it was representatives of the committee, as well as Dr. Caldwell, who went to talk to the alumni, the faculty members and the students.

"Last Wednesday night we talked to the officers of the Faculty Senate; we talked to the President and Vice President of the student body and the President and Vice President of the Alumni Association. Judge Mintz happened to be in town and he joined us in our meeting. We had a very nice round table conference there at Dr. Caldwell's house, and the next day we met with the officers and directors of the Alumni Association. There were about nineteen people present. In fact, only two of the group were absent. One man came from Detroit. Chairman Scott, Ralph Scott, presided; President Reynolds was there. Dr. Caldwell made a wonderful presentation to that group, stating what the problem was, and he did it in a fair and impartial manner.

"We adjourned for lunch and came back and talked for two hours. At the end of that time we came out with the resolution that was mailed to each of you. I don't think we should elaborate on the word 'willing' but they gave us three choices, two alternates. We went back to the full Committee on Friday at Chapel Hill and presented this resolution and discussed the other points of our program and we adopted the second suggestion, North Carolina State. That's where my son wants to go to school; that's what people who are in school now want to be a part of. It's going to be called North Carolina State, The University of North Carolina at Raleigh. We think it's a good compromise.

"If you are like me, I mean this personally and sincerely, I'm tired of talking about this name change. I've been jumped on everywhere I go. It will drive you crazy. We've had enough letters about it. I think it's finished business. When we leave here today, I hope we'll be united. We've got a big job to do with the Legislature. We need $10,000,000 in the next two years at State. We don't want to jeopardize that. Otis Singletary needs money at Greensboro. Bill Aycock needs money at Chapel Hill. If we go into the Legislature with a fight, it's going to hurt us all.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that you will unanimously endorse the Pearsall Committee Report this morning, and I certainly do."

Messrs. Yarborough, Hamilton, Barfield, Harrison and Nixon also spoke in favor of the Report.

The motion of Mr. Bryant was then put to a rising vote and it was unanimously adopted.