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"It is well known that there is a North Carolina law against subversive activities. The statute, passed in 1941, makes it unlawful for any public building in the State or any building owned by any institution receiving funds from the State to be used by any person for the purpose of advocating, advising or teaching a doctrine that the government of the United States, the State of North Carolina, or any political subdivision thereof should be overthrown by force, violence, or any other unlawful means. I trust that it is unnecessary for me to repeat that the University has faithfully respected this law. The University, as its president is sworn to do by his oath of office, abides by all the laws of this State and it has faithfully respected this law of 1941 which is a reasonable safeguard against subversion of the government.

"I spoke of the president's oath of office. Not only the president but also every menber of the faculty and every person who is regularly employed by the University and who is a citizen of the United States is required, as a condition of appointment to sewar (or affirm) that he will support the Constitution of the United States and further swear (or affirm) that he will bear true allegiance to the State, and support, maintain, and defend its Constitution.

"The University of North Carolina was established by the State nearly two centuries ago to prepare its youth for the responsibilities of citizenship and to insure for them a richer and more rewarding life. The University is proud and respectful of its heritage.

"Our University with other universities the world over has an honored tradition of freedom of thought and expression that has endured for centuries. We are answerable to this essential standard of intellectual freedom.

"Therefore, we who are entrusted with the administration of The University will not knowingly employ as a teacher or as a research investigator any person who, because of membership in the Communist Party or who because of any other commitment of mind, is not free to serve the university standard of unbiased search for truth.

"In safeguarding intellectual freedom from destructive influences, either from within or from without, the University is naturally vigilant. It spares no means of ordinary prudence or administrative arrangement to insure that it shall not be undermined. There is not to my knowledge a knowledge reasonably informed according to deliberate, appropriate, responsible processes of administration - there is not to my knowledge any member of the Communist Party on the faculty of either campus of the University of North Carolina. If there be anyone here or elsewhere possessing contrary facts, I invite him to make them known.

"To be sure, there are individuals among the faculty and student body who hold and express unpopular or unorthodox views. They enjoy the same constitutional protections, including the right of due process, and the same guarantee of freedoms as all other citizens.

"Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen, we have no doubt that the authors of this legislation were motivated by considerations of duty, loyalty, and concern for the security of our State and nation. We do not doubt their abiding devotion to the cause of education and to our colleges and universities. Such motives and such devotion we applaud. But we believe that no single consideration is fundamentally more important to the security of our nation - indeed to the survival of free society - than the preservation of free universities. We believe that nothing is more fundamentally necessary to the continued progress of our State than the vitality and soundness of its educational institutions.

"As we would expect, there has been a similar concern among some of the people in other states; however, it is a matter of commanding significance that not one of these states, Florida, Ohio, and most recently the State of Alabama, has gone to the extremity of enacting a law imposing such restrictions.

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