"As long as periodic free elections survive, no set of people can permanently control our government. In the maintenance of our free elections rests complete safety for Óorm of government. No dictator in history ever dared to run the "Period of Relapse" gauntlet of a really free election.
"These fundamental truths become "This is a strange period of relapse in the history of the civilization of the world," the President said. "In some lands it has become the custom to burn books, exile scholars and fix by government decree the national forms of religion, morality and culture.
"At such a time it is more than a formality to join in celebrating the 200th ab&iversary of this free and independent institution of scholarship. I am honoured to become an alumnus of the University of Pennsylyania, "The founding of this university vas concerned with providing freedom of religious teaching and free learning for many who could not otherwise pay for a higher education. The founders made it a source of education for the children of the poor who otherwise would have gone untaught.
The survival and growth of this university during the past two cen-tune are particularly symbolic of the eternal strength inherent in the American concept of freedom of thought and action.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.