Alfred E Smith An American Career

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GOVERNOR ALFRED E. SMITH

ALFRED E.;|MITH

An American Career

BY

HENRY MOSKOWITZ

NEW YORK
THOMAS SELTZER

1924

Copyright, 1924, by
THOMAS SELTZER, INC.

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN THB UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO
MY WIFE

PREFACE

It has become quite fashionable in recent years for some
intellectuals to question the validity of the American theory
of government. Lovers of America, the classic example of
democracy, should meet this challenge.

Dictatorships have sprung up in Europe which are symp-
tomatic of an impatience with the deliberate process of
parliamentary government as an efficient tool of the state to
carry out policies necessary for critical situations.

Can democracy meet the test of states confronting a crisis ?
Can it be made the instrument for realizing the aspirations of
the common man conscious of a new status? Can it do
justice to the farmer, the laborer, the brain-worker and the
business interests caught in the chaos of post-war conditions?

Realizing the deep issue raised in this challenge to democ-
racy by minority government, I have set forth in this book
the record of a man; with whom the rule of the majority has
been the cardinal unit of his political faith. He typifies the
kind of leadership developed in a republic born of the Declar-
ation of Independence and the Constitution of the HJnited
States. He is essentially the product of the opportunities
afforded by our American institutions.

The book is the outcome of personal contact, a study of
private sources of information and public records and docu-
ments.

If it will help to strengthen one man's faith in democracy
as an instrument for bringing a better day to those whom
Governor Smith loves to call the "rank and file of the people,"
this story of an American career will not have been told in
vain.

In its preparation, the stimulus and criticism of one is
greatly acknowledged my wife.

HENRY MOSKOWITZ.

New York, May, 1924.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

While this book was in press Mr, Smith's
mother, to whom reference in this book is
made, died on May 18, 1924.

CONTENTS

I. BOYHOOD 3

II. COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE ..,,... 16

III. A FAMILY MAN 20

IV. POLITICS IN THE FOURTH WARD OF NEW YORK

CITY 25

JN V. THE SPRINGS OF His PERSONALITY .... 29

VI. THE KEY TO His PUBLIC CAREER . ' . 32

VII. His STAND FOR. THE WAGE EARNER .... 36

VIII. SMITH IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION . 40

IX. IN THE LOCAL POLITICS OF NEW YORK ClTY . 43

X. SMITH FOR GOVERNOR 48

XI. THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 51

XII. WOMAN SUFFRAGE 65

XIII. IN THE THROES OF AN ECONOMIC CRISIS . . 67

XIV. A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 71

XV. His RELIGION 74

XVI. RJE-BLECTED 77

XVII. IN ALBANY AGAIN 81

XVIII. AN ACCOUNT OF His STEWARDSHIP .... 85

XIX. His APPOINTMENTS 86

XX. A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 90

XXI. His CAMPAIGN SPELL 108

XXII. THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 121

XXIII. REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT RE-

TRENCHMENT 145

XXIV. EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 156 .

XXV. ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESPOTISM AND

DEMOCRACY 173

XXVI. AGRICULTURE 185

XXVII. WELFARE LEGISLATION DEBATE ON THE BARNES

AMENDMENT 193

XXVIII. ON THE PUBLIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE'S

WATER POWER 196

XXIX. THE LITERACY TEST AND A HUMOROUS INCIDENT

IN THE CONVENTION 199

XXX. DEFENSE OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION 201

XXXL SMITH AND LABOR 265

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXXII. ON LIVING WAGE FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN

INDUSTRY 213

XXXIII. FOR THE WIDOW AND ORPHAN 218

XXXIV. THE HOUSING CRISIS 222

XXXV. HOME RULE 236

XXXVI. SUNDAY 241

XXXVII. THE ISSUE OF I/AW ENFORCEMENT .... 244
XXXVIII. ''BETTER TIMES" FOR THE SICK AND DISABLED . 263
XXXIX. SOME THOUGHTS ON PRISON REFORM .... 265
XL. A CONSERVATION POLICY IN THE PEOPLE'S IN-
TEREST 269

XLI. REVIVING THE PORT OF NEW YORK .... 274

XLII. THE QUALITY OF SMITH'S AMERICANISM . . . 276
XLIII. AN EVEN KEEL THE RETURN TO FUNDAMENTAL

AMERICANISM 279

XLIV, THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 286

XL/V. THE CLIMAX 306

XLVI. ADDRESS TO THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

OF 1924 309

ILLUSTRATIONS

GOVERNOR ALFRED E. SMITH

ONE OF THE GREATEST OF His THEATRICAL TRIUMPHS

A TYPICAL PAGE FROM THE WELLS FARGO RECEIPT-SCRAP BOOK

AT TWENTY-ONE AND ALREADY ACTIVE IN POLITICS

THE FIRST PICTURE OF HIM

AT EIGHTEEN AND IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS ....

ALFRED E. SMITH: THE COASTING KING

174 SOUTH STREET, THE HOUSE IN WHICH ALFRED E. SMITH WAS
BORN

FACING PAGE

. . Frontispiece
. . . 22
70
118
150
182

246
294

ALFRED E. SMITH

An American Career

CHAPTER I
BOYHOOD

There is In existence an old Wells-Fargo receipt book into
which Alfred E. Smith, when a young man, neatly pasted
all sorts 1 of records programs of entertainments and plays
in which he took part as moiiologist or actor, the program of
of the closing exercises of his school, clippings from news-
papers telling of his exploits as a bicyclist or containing
humorous references to him as a member of the Seymour
Club. There is one newspaper item in which he is jibed at
for having political aspirations in his ward. But these
aspirations, even had they not been( justified by his later life,
receive sanction from the youth's interest in high affairs as
shown by the other clippings] in the book. Pasted in it are
John Hays* speech on the death of McKinley, Grover Cleve-
land's and Bourke Cockran's addresses, Bryan's famous
Cross of Gold speech, and many other orations culled from
the newspapers H

To turn the pages of this fat, close-leaved volume, com-
pletely covered with records, is to relive a whole period of
a life that fairly glows with vitality. You see before you an
eager, vivid, vivacious, alert, gifted young man of the people,
who enlivened his neighborhood .by his spirits and good
humor, his zest, his interest in the people, animals! and things
about him, who-' lived a life of animated activity, who went
ahead gaily to great things, in spite of straitened economic

(3)

4 ALFRED E. SMITH

circumstances, hard labor and heavy responsibilities thrust
upon him early in, life.

If the reader could glance over the old Wells-Fargo
receipt-scrap book, this first chapter, save for statements of
birth and parentage, would be almost superfluous. It gives
a picture of the young man up to marriage, so complete,
revealing, interesting and amusing that words would scarcely
be needed to supplement it.

Almost under the Brooklyn Bridge on its Manhattan side,
in an old tenement at 174 South Street, on December 30,
1873, a boy was born to two simple people of American
birth Catherine Mulvihill and Alfred Emanuel Smith,
They named him after his father. Later came his sister
Mary. There were no other children.

South Street wast a river-front thoroughfare from which
the little boy saw the masts of sailing schooners, and watched
freighters, tramps and other work-horses of the sea come
laden with thet wealth of distant lands and pour it upon the
wharves that teemed with life and movement when the ships
came in.

Below Brooklyn Bridge, wrapped in the mantle of ,the
night, is the dark blue sheet of the East River, sparkling
with the flickering lights of moving ferry-boats and other
river craft. On both sides, the City of New York unfolds
its myriads of lighted windows in those colossal office build-
ings that form the unique sky line which thrills the home-
coming traveler or the visitor who enters the harbor for the
first time.

Looking down from that bridge in a southeasterly direc-
tion one can see a wilderness of tenements forming chasms
of brick and mortar. These shelter the people of the con-
gested East Side of New York City.

BOYHOOD 5

The father of Alfred E. Smith was a truckman a man
the muscles of whose arms -had been hardened by the kind
of severe labor that lines the face and moistens it with the
sweat of the brow. This truckman guided a pair of heavy
horses through the mazes of the city, which then knew
neither the automobile nor the motor truck. He was born
on Water Street near Oliver in the eighteen forties. His
wife saw the light in a corner store on Dover and Water
Streets in 1850. They were childhood sweethearts in the
neighborhood and they married in 1871.

One of the events of the day in the life of little "Al,"
when first he grew aware of the kind of world in which his
lot had been cast, was his father's return from a hard day's
driving, still grimy with the dust of neglected streets, still
wet with the perspiration that seemed the mark of his calling.
The little boy watched his father peel off garment after
garment. "Why do you do it?" the boy asked, and Governor
Smith still r remembers his father's answer "To 'cool off/*
The elder Smith would plunge his head and arms into
cold water with a delight that bore out his statement. He
was large, stalwart, with the constitution of iron, the full,
rich voice, the physical endurance, which, taken together,
comprise the inheritance of his son.

The association between father and son /was not so inti-
mate as it might have been, on account of the round of toil
in which the elder Smith was immersed. He was always
up and out at ( work by six o'clock in the morning. Some-
times he would not come home until dusk, when the little
boy was already in bed; and it was only on Sundays and
holidays that he had an opportunity for intimacy with his
wife and children. Every little episode connected with him
becamq an event in the boy's [life. He still recalls the walk
they took together one winter's day completely across the
East River, which by some miracle was all frozen over.

6 ALFRED E. SMITH

The father led his little son across the,' ice by the hand. He
the father wore no overcoat because he never needed it.
He was warm-blooded enough to keep out the winter's chill

Al's life as a child born ion the river-front in, the City of
New York of those days was never dull. Scarely had he
donnedl his first pair of trousers, made by his mother from a
discarded garment of his father's, jwhen he went to play
about the wharves. In the summer, to be sure, trousers
were often superfluous; he could jump off the docks in
tights, and soon became what the longshoremen of the region
called a water-rat. Many a swim did he enjoy in the East
River with other water-rats of his age. They learned to
dive and swim so long beneath the surface that an onlooker
would have thought they'd never come up again. Smith and
the other boys would also play tag among the piles -of lumber
and the pyramids of boxes and crates, dodging in and about
among heavy horses and heavier trucks, until, tired out,
they'd sit and rest on the roof of a shed and watch the long-
shoremen hoist gigantic crates or lower them into the holds
of ships.

"The Brooklyn Bridgeiand I grew up together/'; Cover nor
Smith told a friend once. "It attracted my infantile atten-
tion and I spent a lot of time sort of superintending" the job
in my boyhood, I have never lost the sense of admiration
and envy I felt for the men who swarmed like flies stringing
the cables and putting in the roadways as the bridge took
shape. Ten years after I was born and j nine years after the
New York tower was finished, they opened the bridge.

"I recall the intense excitement down in our part of town
when word came that many people had been killed in a crush
on the structure.

"That was on May 30, 1883 Decoration Day. The
bridge had been formally opened a few days before and my
father and mother and sister and I were among the first to

BOYHOOD 7

cross over to Brooklyn 1 on the bridge and come back by the
Fulton Street Ferry.

"Late in the afternoon of Decoration Day there was an
immense crowd on the bridge crossing in both directions.
My recollection is that somebody in the crowd at the New
York end yelled that the bridge was falling. There was a
rush for the New York end. This rush, meeting -a great
throng coming from Park Row, produced a jam in which
about eighteen or twenty people were trampled to death.

"A gang of us boys -from down the water-front hurried
to Park Row when we heard of the accident. It was grow-
ing dark. We got as close to the centre of things as the
policy would let us. They were taking away bodies of
wounded people and policemen were piling up great quantities
of hats and clothing that had been torn from the victims.

"That was my first view of a great [calamity. I didn't
sleep well for nights."

Perhaps the most thrilling of the day's delights was
afforded by the fire-engine horses. A horse, swift, sturdy,
sure-footed, was a heroic figure to the boy; he made up his
mind to be a fireman after some consideration of the career
of a letter-carrier. The gong ,at the fire-station would rouse
him from the soundest sleep or interrupt the most absorbed
contemplation of the craft along the river, and send him
speeding to the fire-house, with his shoes in one hand and his
hat in the other. Much to his regret he was never permitted
to help harness the steeds, though he could have done the
whole thing alone, by his eighth year having studied the
process a hundred times and memorized every detail of it.

Little Al he( was known as Al from the first moment he
knew enough to tell anyone his name seldom failed to reach
the firehouse in time to see the men glide down the polished
brass polesi from their loft to the level of the street. It was
the house of Engine Company 32 on John Sreet, near the

8 ALFRED E. SMITH

corner of /Platt. John Binns, the veteran Deputy Chief of
the Fire Department, was then its virile young captain, a
tremendous personage in the eyes of the boy, who actually
scraped acquaintance with him and followed his figure, con-
spicuous in long | white coat and straight helmet, in the many,
many alarms to which Binns and his company had to respond.

The child would make futile efforts to dash afoot in the
wake of horses and firemen as they sped iin a whirl with
clang of bell and thud of hoof. And he never lost sight of
them; he learned to track the fire-engines to the remotest
alleys and side .streets, where for hours at a time he would
watch the progress of the fight with the flames. It was with
reluctance that he would come home to a dinner that was
sometimes cold; for he was a born "buff" and his father
thought it wise to humor his inclination.

To this very day Alfred Smith responds eagerly to the
stimulus: of a fire-alarm, and as a young man was among the
best-known buffs of the great city's Fire Department. He
distinguished himself among those of the citizens who have
the privilege of passing through thd fire lines to help in the
work of subduing the flames. He has manipulated lines of
hose, climbed ladders and in his eagerness stood on the very
edge of an imperilled roof the survival of an instinct that
was keen when the child had scarcely realized the function
of a fire-engine, j

It is easy to understand how the boy came to have priv
leges at the fire-engine house usually denied the average
hungry-eyed lads who shared the same dreams how it was
that; he became the favorite of Engine Company 32. He
had and still has social gifts. He was bright, talkative,
could sing and dance and had that resonant voice which in
later years shook the rafters of the assembly hall and the
public meeting place. Also he had ready-made opinions
then, which he expressed with a fluency that experience and
maturity have taught him to repress.

BOYHOOD 9

So the boy became a buff. When he heard the stroke of
the fire-alarm, he would make for the coffee can and the
sandwich basket kept near the entrance; and when horses,
men and engines had darted out of the doors, he was the one
to close them. Then he and the fire dog together he carry-
ing the coffee can and the sandwich basket would dash to
the place where the fire was. He had learned to locate it
by the number of rings of the bell.

If it was a false alarm, or if the fire were slight, he would
return with the firemen on the engine, the envy of. his
boy friends. How proudly he leaped from the engine and
opened the fire-house door! If the fire was serious, he
would go to the restaurants, where he was known by this
time, and get coffeei and sandwiches for the men.

He was more scrupulous than a Dutch housewife in keep-
ing the can brilliantly polished, in fact, in keeping all his
utensils shipshape. When his work was done a man's
the lad would go home to delight the family with the tale of
the day's doings.

In later years, when he became one of the real buffs, and
an honorary member of the Officers' Association, he never
lost his love for the fire department. At a dinner given to
Honorary Fire Chief Robert H. Mainzer on January 18,
1916, he recalled, to the delight of the five hundred diners
present, his own career as a buff and more particularly his
experiences! when he was a very little boy.

The neighborhood in which the boy lived was at one time
the aristocratic section of New York City. Survivals of this
glorious past are still seen in some of the few remaining
colonial houses, homes of leading families in fact. The
doors reflect the purity of the colonial style in architecture
and retain the distinctive brass knockers. They are fast
disappearing to give way to tenements five and six story
boxes of red brick and mortar housing hundreds where
these small old houses sheltered tens.

10 ALFRED E. SMITH

The tradition of "AT lingers in the thoroughfares he
haunted when he was a child. He is described as a slim,
somewhat athletic figure, fleet of foot, disposed to take
off his shoes and stockings and carry them in his hand
on hot summer days, his head surmounted by a shock
of tawny hair and his lips forever parted in a smile that
revealed firmly set teeth. The steely gray eyes flashed as
he talked in a quick and loud but melodious accent. His
shirts were made for him by his mother, who also, with her
own hands, made the first complete suit of boy's clothes
he ever put on. Anyone coming in contact with him then
would have been struck by the qualities of a voice and
the lovable traits of a personality that triumphed over
an environment which might have extinguished a nature
less gracious or less gifted with a sense of humor. Alfred
Smith was what is known as a laughing baby; he went
through his East Side boyhood gaily. Nimble of wit, highly
articulate, in the sense that he could express his ideas with
facility, he had no self-consciousness at all Indeed, his
elocutionary gift revealed itself even in those early days,
and it was easy to foresee that in whatever sphere his lot
might be cast, his powers of address would prove a factor in
his career.

As he had, in addition, the gift of a retentive memory, it
seems quite natural that he should have taken to elocution.
He loved to recite famous orations, sometimes to an audience
of the boys and girls of the neighborhood, sometimes to
assemblages of his elders at school He thus became a dis-
tinguished pupil at St. James' School, which is not far from
the South Street house where he was born and which he
attended with reasonable assiduity.

Yet it will have to be conceded that he was by no means
an intellectual prodigy, nor a strict student though proficient
in debates because he mastered his subjects and had a power-

BOYHOOD 11

ful voice. Whether it was his voice or his eloquence, the
fact remains that he treasures to this day a silver medal
awarded him in a spirited contest between two sets of ora-
torical champions. To reach the place where the debate was
held he had to go farther, from his home than he had ever
been before quite to the west side of Harlem, The un-
precedented period of two hours was spent on the street
cars, then drawn by horses. It was his first extensive view
of the city that he was to come to know as well as a man
knows his own pocket.

Not that he had not already been started in the training of
a typical Fourth Ward boy of those days ; before he was ten
he became a newsboy a matter of necessity, as his father's
earnings were never large. In that household twelve dollars
was a great sum and not even a cent was lightly given to the
children for a stick of candy. It was with about twenty
cents in cash that Al ( was set up in business as a newsboy.
He would sell one batch of papers and use his profits to buy
more newspapers ; then come home in the evening with what-
ever he had made.

His earnings, small as they seemed, were really urgently
needed. There was a mother and there was a growing sister
to support, and the health of the father had /begun to fail.
When Al was less than thirteen years old, he died. The boy
had to leave school and go to work.

Alfred Smith took up his new duties with his characteristic
gaiety. The father had left a good name to his son and even
the nucleus of what might be called a trucking business.
There were horses to manage, creatures that Al was quite
competent. to deal with. And he could deal with customers
as well. Nor was he long in ascertaining that other lines
afforded better financial prospects than trucking. There was
a thrivingj fish stall in Fulton Market at the water-front and
it seemed a stroke of 'good fortune to him when he was

12 ALFRED E. SMITH

offered the post of helper by the man who owned the
business.

After seven years as a fishmonger, during which he earned
a living for himself and a dependent mother and sister, he
was offered another position at better pay, and accepted it.
A strong, wiry youth by this time, he was ready for any kind
of work at which he could make a living, and for weeks
toiled as a common laborer in a Brooklyn pump-works. He
would get up in the morning at six o'clock, eat the breakfast
of ham and eggs and coffee that his mother had prepared,
and trudge on foot to the ferry. His daily task involved
much and severe manual effort and he earned his bread lit-
erally by the sweat of his brow. After? lunch, a small affair,
put up for him in the morning by his mother, he would
work for five hours! at a stretch in the afternoon.

Never did he lose his brightness of mood and disposition,
or his eloquence/ imagination and personal magnetism an
inheritance bequeathed him by his father. From his mother,
who adored him and whom he in turn deeply loved, he
derived his deep spiritual nature, his sterling common sense,
and his discerning judgment.

To his histrionic gift he owed the relaxations of this
period. He seemed always able then and since to project
himself into the personality as well as the experiences of
another, to see life from other viewpoints than his own. His
gift for: recitation and for acting was no mere mimicry. It
was an actual living in terms of another's consciousness. The
gift served him well then. Night after night he held audi-
ences never very large perhaps but always enthusiastic
raptly attentive while he told stories, declaimed, assumed
character parts and imitated local celebrities/ He told a
funny story in dialect with inimitable drollery. This gift
of expression was exploited in small local halls, often packed
to suffocation, and whether his theme was The Bells by

BOYHOOD 13

Edgar Allan Poe, or The Night Before Christmas or even a
Shakespearean soliloquy, the young man imparted genuine
importance to the printed announcement, "Recitations by Mr.
Alfred E. Smith."

It was inevitable that A!l should graduate from this
school into the field of amateur theatricals. He was given
important parts at benefit performances under church
auspices. His success was not ascribable to his qualities as
an actor alone, but to that genius for the reconciliation of the
most antithetical and antagonistic elements upon which his
career in politics has been built. Tact, patience, intuition,
sympathy, capacity for management of men and for grasp
of detail all these he revealed. Many a catastrophe was
averted through his presence of mind when performers for-
got their parts in the middle of a play. Nothing disconcerted
him an African temperature, a crowded house, difficulty in
drawing up an improvised curtain, the collapse of a bit of
scenery Al Smith could always be depended upon to find a
way of meeting the situation. He could be serious on the
stage, but he preferred comedy because it strained the polite-
ness of an audience so much less. Moreover, his unusually
flexible and powerful voice lent itself with most felicity to
the drolleries of burlesque, to the brilliance of his impro-
visations and to the swiftness of his transformations, some
of them executed before a hall full of people.

The ease and lack of self -consciousness in the presence of
an audience which characterize Alfred Smith were acquired
at this period through his perfect subjection to the disci-
pline of a competent dramatic coach. Yet, even without
this training in amateur theatricals, Alfred Smith must have
become an orator; he had the voice and the mood of one.
That was clear already in these years of his immature young
manhood. Nevertheless, it is true that he has never entirely
lost a natural timidity when he has to address audiences.

14 ALFRED E. SMITH

The rehearsals were conducted amid gales of merriment.
Smith, in an abundance of youthful spirits, would joke with
the fellow-members of the troupe, who would retaliate with
practical jokes to make him ridiculous in his most tragic
parts. His wig, for example, would suddenly be lifted from
the top of his head on] an invisible string.

His audiences were often typical of the neighborhood,
especially when a popular comedy made the attraction. The
basement of the parish house, sometimes dimly lighted with
the aid of old-fashioned lamps, its benches packed with eager
boys, who overflowed on to the window-sills and all but
hung from the beams and rafters, did not overwhelm the
young actor. On the contrary, it gave him his first lessons
in the establishment of intimacy with his audience and
formed the essential characteristic of his public manner to
this day. This intimacy of effect became the note of his
personality, the very quality! of his finest oratory. He seemed
never out of touch, never remote. The young people all
about him in the parish house rocked with the laughter he
aroused or grew serious with the mood he created and sus-
tained. He got to know his community no less perfectly
than Daniel Webster knew his Massachusetts. Moreover,
he acquired expertness as a critic of the drama, retentive-
ness of memory that never fails him and responsiveness to
the emotions and sympathies of people in the mass. No man
in public life equals him, perhaps, in sensing the disposition
of a crowd and in the ability to win them over.

Long after he had become sheriff of the City and County
of New York this fondness for the theatricals of his youth
lured him back to the scenes of his dramatic triumphs. He
was one of the stars among the troupe known as the "St.
James Players." The little company performed in many
a parish house. His farewell performance was perhaps
that celebrated production of The Shaugraun, in which state

BOYHOOD 15

senators, city aldermen, even a judge on the bench, played
parts, with a competence justifying the boast on the program
that this was a finished performance by an all-star cast and
one of the stars, as the program which has been preserved
shows, was Mr. Alfred E, Smith.

CHAPTER II
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

Long before Smith attained manhood, while still an ado-
lescent lad, he fell in love.

Katherine Dunn was a dark-haired, bright-eyed, willowy
girl, cheerful and gracious, but reserved in manner. She
was bornj in the same part of New York as he, and he was
a frequent visitor to the home of her family, who were also
poor people but had succeeded in giving their daughter a
much better educationi than he had received. She could sing,
play the piano, make her own dresses and cook, helping her
mother in the kitchen so competently that young Alfred had
eaten many a cake o^ her baking before he suspected that it
was not her mother's.

Alfred soon told Katherine of his love, but it was a long
time before he dared to, speak of it to her family. They did
not altogether approve of his attentions, though his char-
acter and abilities were above the average. The trouble
was that his prospects did not seem brilliant and he had a
mother and a sister to provide for. Probably in order to
withdraw Katherine to a distance from him, the Dunns
moved far away all the way to the Bronx.

In those days the last decade of the nineteenth century-
the distance between South Street and the Bronx was, in
terms of transportation, tremendous. There was no subway ;
there was no direc! route by trolley or horse car. Alfred
had to walk to the nearest station of the "L," or, rather,

(16)

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 17

to a Third Avenue station, as the Second Avenue line
afforded no facilities. When he got to Harlem he took a
street car the rest of the way, or he walked usually the
latter.

By this time he was making what was then considered
good money as much as twenty-five dollars a week and
he wore fine clothes on his, visits! to Katherine, a derby hat,
a cutaway coat, the striped trousers of the period, a "stand-
up" collar, a four-in-hand tie and black shoes. The now
familiar russet; was not yet in vogue for a Sunday.

Even in his best toggery, Alfred, it must be confessed,
made no marked impression of prosperity. It seemed un-
thinkable that he would ever be in a position to support Katti-
erine Dunn iry the style to( which she had been accustomed.
Her dresses were more numerous and finer than any he had
ever seen, and she was the belle of many a ball. Besides
which she sang as he himself was the first to concede
divinely. To make matters more difficult, his reputation as
an elocutionist actually stood in his way ; the Dunns declared
that their child must never marry an actor. Fortunately, as
he himself has proudly affirmed, he was able to prove that he
was no actor, despite the applause his audiences had showered
upon him in Hazel Kirke. As for his prospects, they were
steadily improving; the pay envelope he gave his mother
every week yielded a sufficient margin for his trips to the
Bronx and an occasional bouquet of flowers, oil even a box
of candy. There were no movies then. Social life was
more formal Young girls did not take the initiative in any-
thing. But there were dances at home in the evenings and
there were full-dress occasions under the auspices of club
or church or clan.

Nor was life in any sense difficult for young Smith. The
war with Spain was over by this time and prosperity had
fully returned after the panic that had ushered in the Chi-

18 ALFRED E. SMITH

cago exposition some years before. Food was plentiful,
of the best quality and cheap. There was no housing crisis.
In fact, the region of the Bronx and Harlem was overstocked
with flats, apartments and houses. It was a simple matter
for a young couple to get two, or even three, months rent
free from a landlord overeager for tenants while his prop-
erty was standing vacant. Clothing was inexpensive, even
if not of the best quality.

In time, too, Al was becoming endeared to the people who
moved in the Dunn circle, and by and by it became a well-
understood fact that Katherine and he would marry.

There were embarrassments cruel ones sometimes,
humorous ones other times. Once there was to be a grand
dance in a big Harlem hall, and he had planned to take
Katherine. As was the custom in those days when none but
millionaires owned dress-suits, Alfred hired his. He got it
from a Jewish tailor in his neighborhood for two dollars,
and carried it in a box all the way to Katherine's; home in the
Bronx, where he was to make the necessary change of cloth-
ing. When he put the suit on in the privacy of her brother's
room, he found to his horror that while the coat and waistcoat
fitted, the| trousers would never do. He was fairly tall and
quitef slim ; the trousers had obviously been made for a short,
stout man. It was impossible to make the long trip to the
southernmost end of New Yorlq and be back at Kathenne's
house in time ! Fortunately, Katherine's brother was of Al's
build and had a pair of dark blue trousers which he loaned
him* And Al, garbed in elegant dress coat and waistcoat
above the every-day blue trousers, danced again and again
with Katherine. To use Governor Smith's own phrase in
relating this incident, "I got away with it."

If the courtship had its humorous side it was sometimes
attended with despair. There were moments when Al won-
dered if he might not lose his prize, if someone more for-

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 19

tunate than; himself might not gain the powerful support of
the young lady's family.

Altogether it was not an easy time. As he rode home in
the "L" train late at night, he would try to sleep all the way
so as to be the fresher for his hard work in the morning.
What if the big umbrella, a prized possession, were stolen
while he slept? The mere thought kept him awake until
once he hit upon the plan of tying it to a button of his coat.
That would keep him from forgetting the umbrella, too. One
rainy evening his scheme was put to the test. The "L" train
was drawing near Chatham Square station, where he got off,
and he was still sound asleep. A gay party of his friends
had boarded the train some time before. One of them de-
cided to play a joke on Al and take his gigantic umbrella.
A pull on the umbrella, the string resisted, and Al woke up.
The scheme was frustrated.

Had it not been for the youth, the vigor of constitution
and the incorrigible optimism with which he faced the world,
Smith might not have emerged so happily from the ordeal
of his courtship. Sometimes he would not get to bed until
two o'clock in the morning from one of those long expedi-
tions to the Bronx. And he had to be up and at work by
seven ! It was the devotion of a fond mother that smoothed
his path for him. She called him in the morning. She saw
to his meals and his washing and his room. She gave him
her perfect sympathy in his first and only love affair.

The course of his true love, though it did not run smooth,
reached its goal on May 6, 1900 the* wedding day of Kath-
erine Dunn and Alfred E. Smith,

CHAPTER III
A FAMILY MAN

Alfred and Katharine Smith have five children.

The oldest, Alfred Emanuel Smith, Jr., is a slim young
man, a promising law student. His geniality, his modesty,
his simplicity, are traits strongly reminiscent of his father as
a youth.

Next to young Alfred conies Emily, a girl of vivacious
disposition, much like her father, in appearance the living
image of her mother when she first received her husband's
attentions. Then conies Catherine, who received her grand-
mother's name and is much like her in temperament. Next
come Arthur and Walter, bright, healthy boys of a ticrmal
American type. The first two children were born on the
third floor of a tenement in Madison street. Here the Smith
family lived in a small flat. The third child was born in an
apartment on Peck Slip and the remaining two in the Oliver
street house. The children were all born in an area less than
a quarter of a mile square the same region in which their
parents and their grandparents had been born. Indeed, the
Smith family have been associated with this oldest portion of
New York City for more than a century.

Alfred Smith; has been a comrade to his children. They
have grown up with him as he has grown with them. He has
carried every one of them in his arms through the streets of
New York; he has wheeled each of them in a baby coach;
he has romped with all five of them in a public park. He
swims and golfs and plays with them, to-day.

(20)

A FAMILY MAN 21

It Is no easy matter, as many a parent knows, to establish
and maintain a bond of friendship with one's children. This
was made easy for Alfred Smith by his fortunate possession
of an irrepressible sense of humor and an infectious gaiety,
which attracts hisi children to him as it does most people who
come in contact with him.

As his finances improved, he was able to move with his
young* wife and their two babies into a small house of brick
and stone, where the children one after the other came to
know their father's world.

The family's living was simple. There were never in
those days any[ servants. Mrs. Smith saw with a wary eye
to the grocery bill and the butcher's bill. The fare was
ample but plain except for the pies and the ice cream, to
which Smith is partial,

It is Smith's unfailing good spirits that give the tone to
his household. If the Governor resembles his father, the
truckman, in being patient in labor, resolute in danger, and
firm in distress, he? manifests the qualities of his mother in
being judicious, simple and wholesome. For the qualities of
sheer joy and humor, controlled by unfailing consideration
for the feelings of others, he is unrivalled; and those who
derive the most benefit from this quality are his own boys
and girls. They have been precipitated into gales of laughter
by tales of his adventures as a boy along the river-front;
they have revelled in his anecdotes of all sorts and conditions
of men and in stories from his reading, which is surprisingly
wide, considering his lack of early educational opportuni-
ties, Moreover, he has such a marvellous memory that if
he has ever heard a tale he never forgets it.

Children love a person with the sort of manners he has,
especially if he also has the perfect good health and the social
gifts of Alfred Smith humor, sarcasm, poetry, gesture and

22 ALFRED E. SMITH

voice. He can hold spellbound not merely a family circle
but a parlor filled with visitors.

The Smith home has never attained the stage at which the
parlor gives place to the drawing-room. On the walls in the
New York City home hangs the traditional portrait of the
head of the family surrounded by wife and children, the
portrait of the mother, an old tintype of the truckman grand-
father. To these, in recent years, have been added a player-
piano, a phonograph, and the radio set of the youngest sons.
The large front parlor is thus a typical New York house
interior. The dining-room is in the front of the basement,
the kitchen at the back. The living-room upstairs is where
the family gathers at night. The Governor's going to
Albany interrupted this existence but did not alter its essen-
tial character; and it was the life that was resumed when he
left Albany after his first term; it is the life that will be
resumed when he| leaves public office.

With this love of family life and its fun and laughter
goes also a passion for animals which the Governor retains
from his boyhood days and which his children indulge in
every possible way. There was never a time in his life when
he did not own a dog. His wife early observed his passion
for pets and encouraged him in it. When his children were
old enough, he bought a pair of goats and a carriage for the
goats to draw. For the boys alone, when they grew older
and he could afford it, he bought a pony. Everyone who
knew him also knew his great Dane, Caesar, his inseparable
companion in Albany as it had been in New York. One of
the features of the executive mansion is the Governor's
menagerie of dogs,, horses, monkeys three of these a rac-
coon, a fox, and even an alligator. Nor does this exhaust
the list.

Perhaps no part of the domestic establishment of the
Governor of New York at Albany interests him more than
the stables, his customary visits to which he never misses.

.nS.Li. WELLS, FARGO &i
""" RECEIVED /-

ut?'ffulli!<l W M<i 1^^

Tho party accepting this receipt thei

DT, A ARKCtES VALUE ADDRIC

ST.

FOR FIVE NIGHTS: *

Monday Evening, November 15th, 189?

The Fanum, Dame UK. Cmmvly Owm

Dlrtctlun of 'f.' SOI.. <i. FRiol.

CAST OK CHARACTER^.

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Miu AKMW Kincn

A. i H. JM*!iiff Itam In Vl!l M Wry Ur

ONE OF THE GREATEST OP His THEATRICAL TRIUMPHS
(Program Pasted In Wells-Vargo Receipt-Scrap Book)

A FAMILY MAN 23

On one occasion, dropping into the place with a friend
from New York, the Governor patted the ponies, called them
by name, and received from each the recognition that a horse
always gives to one it knows as a friend. Then the Gover-
nor's eye chanced to scan the floor. It had not been cleaned.
He picked up a shovel and set to work. "I come by this job
honestly," he explained. "My father was a truckman."

The greatest of all days in the calendar of the Smith
family is Sunday. It is reserved for church and the Gov-
ernor's white-haired mother. Although she is approaching
her seventy-third year, she retains hen alert mentality and a
keen interest in all the things going on around her, just as in
the old days on South street. Nothing short of an earthquake
could interfere with the weekly visit that the Governor pays
to his old mother. She often comes to the executive mansion
at Albany the little old lady before whom the great execu-
tive still kneels to receive her blessing on certain impressive
occasions.

Once Bourke Cockran had an appointment with the Gov-
ernor and came somewhat ahead of time. Soon the Governor
entered, but did not observe the waiting visitor; he had eyes
only for his mother, who was seated in an armchair. Just
as he had done when a boy, he went over and knelt beside
that armchair.

This boyishness with his family is the secret of his happi-
ness in his home. Now and then, when completely relaxed,
he recalls the days of his renown as an elocutionary artist in
amateur theatricals. He may then recite some absurdity like
"Hans Breitmann giff a pardy Where ees dot pardy now ?"
His supreme drollery is a recitation of Old Grimes is Dead,
which he once deliberately inflicted upon a person who would
not believe that he could recite it from memory. He has
even recited Poe's Bells to his children. His knowledge of
the history of the stage is so complete that he can give in a
few words the gist of the life story of any actress of renown

24 ALFRED R SMITH

as well as a sound judgment of the genius of any celebrated
actor.

He has used his wonderful memory to especially good pur-
pose in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the Bible. There
was a huge family Bible in the old home of his parents on
South street, and the future Governor was familiar with its
contents even before he was ever sent to Sunday School. By
the time he was seven he had mastered the whole of Genesis
and the other books of Moses. The interest in the Bible he
has preserved to this day. The Book of Job is a favorite
of his ; in the New Testament he is said to prefer the Gospel
of Luke. His secular readjng has been quite extensive out-
side of the vast masses of matter, like legislative reports and
newly enacted statutes, which he devours and digests. He is
still old-fashioned enough to prefer Shakespeare to all other
dramatists. In the contemporary theatre, he has been over-
heard to say, there seems insufficient scope for actor or
actress. The art of acting is not as well understood as it
was. He likes performances of plays dealing with life
among people of the plainer sort with a decided human inter-
est and a sufficient dash of sentiment.

His views on such topics as literature and the theatre are
seldom or never expressed except in the course of conversa-
tion in the intimacy of private life. This is why so few
people in recent years are aware of how comprehensive is
the taste he has acquired for other arts than those of the
theatre. When he is among old friends or with his wife and
children, he' tells his wittiest stories and recalls his happiest
memories, for socially he is a family man who has made
the executive mansion at Albany the hospitable home of
rather simple but warm-hearted folks, echoing the voices of
children as well as their elders. In fact, it would be mis-
leading to convey the idea that he is scintillating or brilliant
or inspired, when the essential characteristics of his mind
and personality are plainness and simplicity.

CHAPTER IV
POLITICS IN THE FOURTH WARD OF NEW YORK CITY

Before he quite realized it, young- Smith was a rising figure
in what is so vaguely called by the name of politics.

The theoretical politics of the college graduate is as the
poles asunder from the practical politics of Smith. Before he
had been a married man three years he had emphasized to
him what he only dimly realized when he was reciting and
toiling" and courting the fact that the gregarious instincts
of men are the same, whether they live in the open spaces or
in the cramped quarters of a crowded city. Countrymen folk
gather at the general store, where they swap stories and talk
politics. In the congested neighborhood of a big city, men
gather not in one but in many stores, sometimes on street
corners, sometimes in saloons when they existed, and some-
times in the clubs, where they too swap stories and talk
politics.

He was now a husband and father but this did not inter-
fere with his perception of the truth that the political club
is a man's social center. It is also a community institution.
It helps to meet the needs of the people in the district natur-
ally. There is no conscious philosophy of service or pose
about its activities. It is just neighborliness which is trans-
lated on Election Day into votes and majorities.

These results, however, are brought about by no mere
dilletante interest in the political game. The district leader
is often its slave from morning till midnight. It is a three

(25)

26 ALFRED K SMITH

hundred and sixty-five day in the year job. No exertion is
too great to make, no favor too insignificnt to do for the
people. The duties of a political leader are as varied as the
complicated needs of a crowded city neighborhood.

A political leader's success is due in some measure to the
perfection of his organization with its election district cap-
tains and sub-captains. It comes chiefly, however, from the
human touch, the human relationship behind it.

Smith divined these things with the sureness of his instinct
for alii that is human. Politics might be a game but it was
human. Such a human game was played by Tom Foley, the
Democratic leader of the district in which young Smith was
living. Foley takes to the political game just because he loves
people. Though a man of most generous impulses, he is a
martinet in his demands upon his lieutenants to be at the club
and do their chores for the home folks. They were called
* 'contracts" in the parlance of the district. That word accur-
ately describes the spirit in which the work was done. When
a "bit" was assigned, it carried with it all the obligations of
a contract. Politics as Foley played it was an exacting game.
No member of his organization, if he held public office, be
it high or low, was ever allowed to keep out of touch with his
constituents. A "swelled head" was soon contracted to its
normal proportions, or the glory of holding public office was
short-lived.

Every night Foley could be seen at the club house. He
exacted less from his lieutenants than from himself. The
Congressman as well as the Alderman, and the Assembly-
man, had his contracts to carry out.

It was a political school which nurtured some virile vir-
tues. Loyalty was one of them, and keeping a promise sacred
was another.

A boy with Smith's antecedents living on the lower East
Side of New York, came naturally to Democratic politics.

POLITICS IN THE FOURTH WARD 27

He joined the Club and got the severe training of this school
of politics. Then he learned the importance of team work in
an organization. He learned loyalty, modesty, and service.
He also learned to hate the yellow streak.

His first public job was in the office! of the Commissioner
of Jurors serving jury notices. Like his leader, on stated eve-
nings he was at the club house meeting the people. With
them he was popular from the first.

In the twenty-three years of Foley's leadership the racial
character of the neighborhood changed with the shifting tides
of immigration. In the early days of his political activity,
the population of the district was almost wholly Irish who,
as life's struggles brought material success, moved out and
gave way to the Russian Jews. Many of these moved away
as they made their way under American opportunities, and
gave place to the later immigrants, the Italians. These again
were followed by a succeeding immigrant race group, the
Greeks. In fact, this particular neighborhood has more
nationalities than any spot in the cosmopolitan city, as it
partly borders on the water front ; but throughout these racial
changes in the neighborhood, Foley's leadership was never
shaken. He remains the master of the situation, and his
district can always be counted on to supply its huge Demo-
cratic pluralities. Even during the Harding landslide, when
New York City, normally Democratic, went Republican for
the presidency,, Foley's district gave James M. Cox its huge
normal Democratic plurality.

Campaigning in such a neighborhood, with its motley of
races, was no holiday experience. Men fought hard and
fiercely at times. Feuds sometimes occurred among the lead-
ers, which ended as feuds generally do, in brawls and even
bloodshed.

When his assemblyman got the "swelled head" and ab-
sented himself too frequently from the Club and kept away

28 ALFRED E. SMITH

f rbm his constituents, Foley looked for a young man to take
his place. Henry Campbell, a respected merchant of the
neighborhood and an influential adviser of the leader, sug-
gested Al Smith, whose personality, wit and mixing quali-
ties indicated to this shrewd judge of men that he had the
making of a successful assemblyman. When Smith was nomi-
nated and elected for the Assembly in 1903, Foley's advice
to his young Assemblyman was brief and to the point:
"Never make a promise unless you keep it, and always speak
the truth/'

It epitomized Foley's code of political honor. It consti-
tuted in his view, the moral asset of a practical politician and
a statesman. It was his only capital and his credit.

In the career which he later made, Smith kept the code.
For it was never said of him that he broke a promise or
knowingly made a misstatement

CHAPTER V
THE SPRINGS OF His PERSONALITY

Smith was no youthful prodigy. His growth and develop-
ment were slow. His personality was made by increasing
responsibility. Perhaps no one in the neighborhood where
he was so well known had the remotest suspicion of the un~
foldment of the career now in its first stages. He was crude,
doubtless, even callow. Had he attended college, he would
have been dubbed sophomoric. But he was earnest and
sincere. There were inexhaustible reserves in his nature.
He somehow quarried his powers out of the depths of his
being.

He was endowed with a retentive memory and a capacity
for plodding work. But his achievements came through
effort. His qualities have the solidity of slow birth. He
has none of that quick flashing brilliancy of mind we associate
with Roosevelt. He resembles him in his power to assimilate
what he hears. Much of Smith's knowledge has come
through his ears. He has the same capacity that Roosevelt
displayed for forming sound conclusions after hearing argu-
ments from varying points of view.

Roosevelt had! a social intelligence. He needed the clash
of men's minds to stimulate his own. Smith thrives under
the same stimulus, except that he has more of a capacity to
brood.

Stability characterizes his mental and moral qualities. He
is not mercurial, and though in his public career he has had

(29)

30 ALFRED E. SMITH

occasion to show uncommon moral courage, he is never
impulsive. An eloquent listener, he can, when necessary, be
silent under great provocation.

He is not a student of literature like Roosevelt. Legisla-
tion and, public documents furnish him with all the intellec-
tual and heart interest of the best literature. A young girl
at a summer school once asked him if he had ever read a
certain book. Smith sized her up a$ a poseuse. "My dear
young lady," he said, "the only book I ever read through
was The Life and Battles of John L. Sullivan.' " That was
a poetical exaggeration. Itj contained a grain of truth.

Smith has style. He has a literary sense for the right
word. He has a gift of creative phrase-making whxh has
made him a deadly campaigner.

The search for the springs of a personality is fascinating
just because in his case it is so baffling and so elusive. En-
countering an individual of his uniqueness one is mystified
by the sources of his power.

Men of the Lincoln type, not standardized in a common
educational mould, retain a flavor of individuality which is
the result of their antecedents as well as their self-effort.
They have the tang of the native air. They are racy of the
soil.

"If Al Smith had a college education," some have said,
"what an intellectual giant he would be!" Perhaps. It is
well that he has not been standardized by conventional educa-
tion nevertheless. He has retained his mental freshness, that
clear mind unencumbered by mere vocabulary and mere
excess baggage. His mentality is a precise tool for handling
the complex problems he has solved as they arose, with
common sense and without waste of mental motion. Some
of this efficiency can be attributed to mother wit and sound
judgment born of the struggle against poverty and adverse
circumstances, taught in the "University of Hard Knocks/'

THE SPRINGS OF HIS PERSONALITY 31

The quality of being human is not strained in Al Smith.
It is an outstanding characteristic amounting to talent. It
was developed by those "contracts" which meant helping the
widow bereft of her bread-winner, getting jobs for the job-
less, trying to give the weak brother caught in the meshes
of the law another chance at self-respect. Out of the
tragedies he saw about him, out of the crucible of the pain
and joys in the life of poor folk in a big city must have grown
his human traits.

The gift of leadership comes not from intellect but from
character. The magnetism with which Smith attracts men
may be in part a natural endowment, but sustained success
in holding them, and eliciting their implicit faith springs
from traits which are essentially moral. Smith has the mag-
netism of a born leader of men. He can make them rise
with him in triumph and go down with him in defeat with
colors flying. How such qualities of leadership unfolded as
situations faced him is a story which can be told only in a
brief account of his eventful public career.

CHAPTER VI
THE KEY TO His PUBLIC CAREER

Alfred E. Smith has a genius for public life.

Few men holding public office have been put so drastically
to the acid test of character and capacity.

Running for office in a democracy is no rose-colored ex-
perience. In the knock-down and drag-out of a political
campaign opponents subject a candidate's past to examination
for any trace of weakness that may destroy the confidence
of the electorate in a man's qualifications.

Smith has been in, elective office since 1903 except for the
years 1920-1922 when he was defeated for his second term
as Governor by the Harding landslide altogether twenty-
one years.

In twelve of these years he served continuously as Assem-
blyman. He began in 1903. He was acting as majority
leader in 1911 during the administration of Governor Dix; he
was Speaker of the Assembly in 1913. He served as minority
leader in the three sessions of 1912, 1914 and 1915.

Timidly, with hat in hand, Al Smith entered the Assembly
in 1903. He was overawed by the dignity of the office. He
was sobered above all by the sense of responsibility it entailed.

Later, when already Governor; he said coming from an
elevator on his way to the Executive Chamber, "Twelve
years ago I stood on this floor a raw Assemblyman. My
heart beat fast. I was about to see the office where the
Governor worked."

(32)

THE KEY TO HIS PUBLIC CAREER 33

There are two theories of Smith's submerged first three
years in the Assembly. One is set forth in Smith's statement
to his friends that it looked as though he would never make
his mark, he was so discouraged with the maze of bills.
Tom Foley, his leader, had quite another theory. "Al went
up to Albany," he said, "on his first trip to the Assembly just
as cocksure of himself as he has evei" been in his life. He
didn't cut) much of a figure in the first two or three terms,
but there was a reason for that, and if he won't tell, I will

"He was too smart to be a morning glory. The secret of
his success is that he never mingles in anything he doesn't
know all about. He played a minor part in the Assembly
until he was thoroughly familiar with the rules and procedure
and with state legislation and finance in general. When he
was sure of his ground he walked out, and it wasn't very
long before he was the dominating figure in a legislative body
hostile to him and to his political organization/'

It was common knowledge that the number of legislators
who read the annual appropriation bill in both houses a bill
of some three hundred pages could be counted on the
fingers of both hands. 'The boys useds to take it for shav-
ing paper in the morning," explained one veteran of those
day$. It was so convenient to tear off the soft pages for
the purpose ! But Smith plodded through the bill from cover
tpt cover. No item was unfamiliar to him.

His profound knowledge of state finances, as well as of
the administrative machinery of the state, dates back to the
old days of plodding labor with the appropriations.

His social gifts which charmed his neighborhood, the
raconteur who made hundreds laugh, the mixer who cir-
culated instinctively with people, that winning personality,
soon captured the up-state legislator. And in a very short
tyne no one in Albany had a wider acquaintance or knew
more about conditions in the state than he.

34 ALFRED E. SMITH

"Exposing the polish and the shine on the gold brick" was
one of his favorite sentences.

Knowing the needs of the State as few legislators in its
history, he would rise at times to show up the true intent of
an innocent item appropriating a tidy sum for a local bridge
or a highway, or a creek.

"I pick up ideas," he has said, "from the back country
fellows. They don't have a lot to think about when they are
at home and they generally think pretty straight and to the
point, I don't blame them for trying to use the power of
the majority for the benefit of their communities in a legiti-
mate way, but when they try to use their power for the
benefit of an influential individual or institution, I am going
to try to stop them and they know it."

Governor Smith tells of a walk from Albany to Troy one
winter on the frozen Hudson River. He wasi with a friend
from home. To him he poured out the tale of his discour-
agement, his bewilderment. He confessed also his over-
whelming desire to make good. He saw that success lay
through hard work and study. It interested him. It fas-
cinated him. "I didn't know what it was all about, but I
made up my mind to learn and, to study."

So Al Smith plodded at his bills like few Assemblymen
before or since him. He read and studied every bill. He
worked hard on the committees to which he was assigned.
No one in Albany toiled more devotedly. From a raw youth
he transformed himself into an unquestioned authority on
the State Government.

He grew in ability and stature. Endowed with a natural
intelligence, a ready wit, a sincerity and a good sense, aptly
characterized in the sentence, "Al never fools himself/' he
developed into a convincing speaker.

The quality of his eloquence springs from the quality of
his personality. His persuasion is never merely rhetorical.

THE KEY TO HIS PUBLIC CAREER 35

He uses no artificialties of phrase. His language is always
simple. His speeches are packed with facts, illuminated by
a turn of wit and humor, now b^ a touch of sarcasm, some-
times by an exalted appeal which is Biblical in its phrasing,
and literary only in the sense thatf his words are as inevitable
as the sentiment they express or the exhortation they contain.

"I wouldn't be honest with myself/' he confessed, "if I
didn't say I like political life. In spite of the strain of the
disappointments frotn your inability to do one hundredth
part of the things you are asked to do, there is a fascination
in the game of politics that gets in the blood. A man who
won't confess that he feels a sense of elation when he is
honored and applauded by his fellow-men and by his
f ellow-wcmen since we gave them the vote is a liar and the
truth is not in him."

One of Smith's assets was his frankness with people.
Social and civic reformers interested in particular bills of an
uplift character or political zealots who conceived radical
improvement of government in terms of their special bills
whether they dealt with corrupt practices, direct primaries,
the Massachusetts ballot, or any other changes in the ma-
chinery of government found Smith frank. When he had
the power to make or mar a bill, he would give its sponsors
the reason for his approval or opposition or its merits and
when his reasons were based on political expediency at the
time, he frankly said, "I can't do this politics is against it."

He never gave reasons based on merit where there were
none.

He always took responsibility and "hated a buck passer."

Friend and foe, politician and reformer, knew that Smith's
word meant action. He never forgot the moral asset of a
politician the reputation for keeping a promise made. He
seldom made them but when he did, they were kept.

CHAPTER VII
His STAND FOR THE WAGE EARNER

Being in the minority party save for the two years' admin-
istrations of Governors Dix, Sulzer and Glynn, in much of
his legislative career he performed the function of critic.
This is the primary duty of an opposition party. But Smith
was never a destructive critic.

The three years from 1912 to 1915 were years of battle
and achievement. They were the years of his leadership.
They brought out all; his powers as a debater. Unhampered
by the responsibilities of a party m power, he was able to
expose the weaknesses of legislative programs with uncanny
effectiveness. No joker missed him. No attempt on the part
of private interests to exploit the public through the medium
of innocent general language devised by cunning and expert
legal talent was missed by his sixth sense. He revelled in
his opportunity. The Republican Governor and the majority
leaders in both houses winced under the lash of his illuminat-
ing criticism, his caustic wit or his satiric humor, all aimed
at "gold bricks." This was one of his favorite expressions
for "ripper" legislation or bills designed to give special privi-
leges to private interests at the public expense. Though
years of opposition, they were also rich in legislative results
for the causes in which hd believed.

He assumed the responsibility of majority leadership in
1911, and that of Speaker of the Assembly in 1913. In 1911,
the first Workmen's Compensation Law was passed in a
Democratic administration. Until then, injured workers had
to sue under the employers' liability law, which required the

(36)

HIS STAND FOR THE WAGE EARNER 37

plaintiff to prove that the injury was not caused by his own
fault or the contributing negligence of a fellow worker. The
growing army of crippled men and women who became
public charges because they were too poor to employ counsel
who could cope with the talent representing the casualty
company cried out in protest. Labor unions and social
workers proved by heartrending concrete cases and by im-
partial studies the social injustice of the theory of the existing
law and the practice of insurance carriers. No legislation
proposed during the session met with greater resistance on
the part of the powerful special interests with their high-
priced counsel, their lobbyists and their financial and other
pressures. Smith proved a tower of strength in the cause of
the industrial workers. No detail of the bill missed his
practised eye. He foiled attempts to emasculate its provisions
with apparently innocent legal language. The measure
passed. It established for all time in. New York State that
the wear and tear of the human factor in industry is as much
the concern of that industry as is its machinery. Smith's
voice and hiaj leadership have been powerful ever since, not
only in preventing any weakening of the provisions of this
statute, but in improving the law in the direction of greater
compensation for injuries and speedier adjustments for the
victims.

He fought the attempt of the insurance carriers to effect
direct settlements with the workers without the intervention
of the Workmen's Compensation Commission. He continued
this fight until as Governor in his firstf term he succeeded in
wiping out the evil. Every message of his contained recom-
mendations urging improvements in the law.

The City of New York was shocked by a fire in the Tri-
angle Waist Factory on March 25, 1911. Nearly one hun-
dred and fifty working girls jumped out of lofty windows
to certain destruction in the streets below. The people of
the city were aroused. The conditions in factories which

38 ALFRED E. SMITH

made such a tragedy possible were forced upon the attention
of the whole country. A mass meeting under the auspices
of many civic organizations at the Metropolitan Opera House
voiced the popular demand that immediate steps be taken to
prevent such tragedies. Smith was then majority leader of
the Assembly, With his aid the New York State Factory
Investigating Commission was appointed. This body in-
quired into the conditions under which manufacturing was
carried on in the State. It was directed to report to the Legis-
lature with recommendations.

Associated with Smith on the Commission, of which he
was vice-chairman, was Senator Robert F. Wagner, its
Chairman, Samuel Gompers, President of the American Fed-
eration of Labor, Mary E Dreier, President of the Women's
Trade Union League, Simon Brentano, and Robert Dowling,
Abram I. Elkus acting as counsel, and Bernard L. Shientag
as his legal assistant,

His experience on this Commission marked an important
turning point in Smith's career. For the first time he had
the opportunity to familiarize himself with indttstrial condi-
tions throughout the State. They menaced the lives, the
health and the safety of all workers.

With characteristic energy and thoroughness he entered
upon his investigating duties. He travelled from one end of
the State to the other. The Commission visited many im-
portant industrial establishments throughout the State, It
acquired personal knowledge of conditions affecting the work-
ers. Testimony was taken. Expert investigations were
made. These labors resulted in a series of labor laws which
had to be pushed through the Legislature against th<* most
powerful industrial lobby that rich manufacturing interests
could afford. Smith had the satisfaction of seeing these
laws passed in the period of his leadership of the Assembly*
The enactment of what is still regarded as the most enlight-
ened labor code ever placed on the statute books of any State

HIS STAND FOR THE WAGE EARNER 39

was due in large measure to his personality, his eloquence
and his leadership.

The labor laws passed during the Smith leadership of the
Assembly from 1911 to 1915 comprised accident prevention
and an increase in the number of factory inspectors. The
penalties for violations of the Labor Law were safeguarded.
Legislation was enacted for the licensing of immigrant lodg-
ing houses and the protection of workers in tunnels and cais-
sons. Fire prevention requirements werd devised, fire drills
and automatic fire sprinklers were made compulsory. The
Commissioner of Labor was given summary power to close
up unclean factories. Registration of factories was required.
Children applying for working certificates were obliged to
submit to a physical examination and the fifty-four hour law
for women and male minors was passed. Night work of
women in factories was prohibited.

The Labor Department was reorganized, -temporary classes
in labor camps were provided, smoking in factories prohib-
ited, ventilation provided for, and seats for women! workers
required. The dangerous trades were regulated and protec-
tion of elevators ordered.

Manufacturing in tenements was restricted, and many
sanitary provisions were made for cleanliness of factories
and other comforts such as wash rooms, dressing rooms and
the proper toilet facilities. The eight-hour law was extended,
and the employment of children in canning establishments
and tenement house manufacture was prohibited. Street
trades were regulated, public employment offices established
and the enclosure of stairways in factories serving as exits
in buildings of five stories or more was required, while the
compulsory contributions to benefit or insurance funds in
mercantile establishments was prohibited. The "one day
rest in seven" law and the workmen's compensation law
complete an extraordinary record of achievement in so short
a time.

CHAPTER VIII

SMITH IN THE CONSTITUTIONAE* CONVENTION

The year 1915 gave Smith a broader forum. It enabled
him to dedicate the knowledge of the State government
acquired by experience as a legislator to the work of chang-
ing the fundamental law of the State to meet the changing
industrial and social needs of its people. He was a delegate
to the Constitutional Convention called in pursuance of a
provision for reconsideration of the constitution and its
change upon the approval of the voters, every twenty years.

The presiding officer was Elihu Root. This veteran Re-
publican statesman brought to the post a rich experience. He
had seen years of public service as United States Senator,
Secretary of State, and Secretary of War. Both political
parties sent their ablest men to the Convention, General
George W. Wickersham, Attorney General of the United
States under President Taft, was the majority floor leader.
The Republican Party was also represented by men like
Henry L. Stirnson, ex-Secretary of War, Congressman
Herbert Parsons, United States Senator Wadsworth, George
Clinton, Edgar T. Brackett, Martin Saxe, Harvey T. Hin~
man and Judge Clearwater. The Democratic membership
included men like ex-Judge Morgan J* O'Brien, Senator
James J. Foley, Senator Robert F. Wagner, and DeLancey
NicolL

Smith participated in nearly every important debate. He
displayed a knowledge of State administration and legisla-

(40)

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 41

tive procedure, and of history as well that astonished this
assemblage of veteran statesmen, judges, administrators and
legislators. No phase of the State government was new or
unfamiliar to him.

His objections rarely resulted jn, merely destructive criti-
cism. He had always a constructive amendment. In the
formal language of a parliamentary assemblage he began
with "strike out on page , line , and substitute the fol-
lowing." The words rang out over the hall like a trumpet.

The convention offered him a rare opportunity for display-
ing his natural gifts as a debater. He submitted his criticisms
and made his motions with aggressiveness. He was unfail-
ingly courteous. Seldom if ever did he refuse to stop, when
a delegate put the usilal interruptive parliamentary question,
"Will the gentleman yield?" His replies revealed a spon-
taneous wit. They always contained an answer that at-
tempted to meet the questioners honestly.

As a debater he reflected in voice, in gesture, and in
thought, the masculinity of what the Fourth Ward loves a
"he-man." Manly vigor characterized his arguments. Smith
was never stilted. His languagq sometimes lacked the polish
with which technical lawyers put their arguments. It never
lacked cogent persuasiveness and the eloquence which ema-
nates from a strong personality. It had that elusive magne-
tism which springs from human qualities deep under the
surface. Its very roughness contributed to the spontaneity
of its effect. He had too much to say to be bothered about
the way of putting it. At times he would expose the under-
lying motive for what he thought wrong in a picturesque
phrase which showed up the purpose and raised the laugh of
recognition.

He was always well informed although he dealt with many
themes. Among the subjects he discussed were apportion-
ment, home rule, executive budget, taxation, water power and

42 ALFRED . SMITH

conservation, a living wage for women and children, labor
laws, the use,of the emergency message in legislative proced-
ure, public service corporations, state . departments, and the
literacy test.

He usually began his argument by tracing the history of
the legislation which had brought about the existing status
of the matter under discussion. His memory never failed
when put to the test of a question of fact.

Throughout the debates he adhered to his Democratic
philosophy. He was a firm believer in the rule of the major-
ity. He applied his theory consistently to the many proposals
considered by the convention.

Aside from the political apportionment plank adopted by
the majority, which was the chief reason for the rejection
of the amended constitution by the electorate, the constitu-
tion was a creditable piece of statecraft. It contained funda-
mental change^ in the structure of the State government, in-
cluding the reorganization and simplification of the State
government, and an executive budget plan for which Smith
was destined as Governor to battle against the very Republi-
can party whose leaders in the Convention favored it.

Elihu Root in his final address paid an eloquent tribute to
the quality of the debates in the convention. It was Elihu
Root who In an informal gathering said, "Of all the men
in the Convention, Alfred E. Smith is the best-informed man
on the business of the State ofi New York." The majority
floor leader, General George W. Wickersham, characterized
him as "the most useful man in the Convention."

CHAPTER IX
IN THE LOCAL POLITICS OF NEW YORK CITY

Nineteen hundred and fifteen saw the close of his career
as legislator. For twelve years he served his State and his
party continuously in the important but unlucrative office
of Assemblyman.

Always poor, he came out of the Assembly with his purse
as empty as when he entered it. His party, realizing his
sacrifice, could not in justice to his large and growing family
allow him to continue it, and he was nominated for the well-
paid office of Sheriff of the County of New York.

Smith's candidacy was hailed by Republicans and inde-
pendents alike with enthusiasm and approval. Even the
New York Tribune, the Republican metropolitan daily, paid
him an honest and forceful tribute in its editorial of Sep-
tember 3rd, 1915, headed "Alfred E. Smith."

"The City of New* York could well afford to pay Alfred
E. Smith all the prospective emoluments of the Sheriff's
office as a consideration for his continuing to represent a
local Assembly district at Albany. In the past ten years,
there has been no Republican, Progressive or Democrat in
the State Legislature who has rendered as effective, useful,
downright valuable service to this town as ex- Speaker
Smith ...

"The peculiar value of Mr. Smith's service at Albany has
lain in the fact that he was always loyal to his own city, his
own county and his own district. He has fought for some

(43)

44 ALFRED E. SMITH

scores of things that were good, and he has fought with
equal vigor against things that were- injurious to this
town.

"... A true leader, a genuine compeller of men, a
man of wit and force with an instinctive grasp on legislative
practice, he has made a real reputation for himself at the
capitol, and has deserved well of the large constituency which
is his own town."

The Citizen's Union, ever an anti-Tammany organization,
endorsed Smith's candidacy in the following language :

"Alfred E. Smith is endorsed for Sheriff of New York
County* As to his qualifications! for this office there can be
no question. The service to the State rendered by Mr. Smith
in the Constitutional Convention this year entitles him to
special consideration. . . .

"Although a party leader, Mr. Smith has in recent years
been instrumental in obtaining much desirable and important
legislation. We are endorsing Mr. Smith in the expectation
that he will improve the conditions in the Sheriff's office/'
And the New York Sun, a Republican organ which has fre-
quently applauded Smith in public office, in an editorial under
date of October 23, 1915, commenting on the endorsement
of Smith's candidacy for Sheriff by the Citizens' Union,
published the following editorial:

"The Citizens' Union does credit to itself as well as to
the Democratic candidate for Sheriff of New York County,
Alfred E. Smith, in endorsing him as the man for the
voters to support at the polls on November 2. This is a
merited acknowledgement of the service Mr. Smith has
rendered in laboring ably and energetically in the interest of
New York City in the Legislature, where he rose to the
position of Speaker of the Assembly simply because he dem-
onstrated a force of character in dealing with men and affairs
that could not be downed.

LOCAL POLITICS 45

"During the recent orgy of extravagance indulged in by
the Republican Legislature, Mr. Smith and Senator Robert
F. Wagner, as the minority leaders of the two Houses,
fought to the last ditch to prevent the saddling of $14,000,000
of the scandalous direct State tax on the taxpayers of this
City. Although the present municipal administration was
elected in opposition to their party they did not hesitate to
act as the spokesmen for Mayor Mitchel and President
McAneny on the floor of the Legislature in an effort to
prevent the partisan raid on the city treasury.

"Mr. Smith's promotion to the most coveted position to be
filled at this fall's. election is deserved. It is only to be re-
gretted that his services to the city in the Legislature when
the Republicans resume their raiding providing the Demo-
crats fail to carry the Assembly will be sadly missed."

In the municipal campaign, which began at the close of
his term for Sheriff in 1917, Smith was nominated for
President of the Board of Aldermen and he bore the brunt
of oratorical battle for his party in that campaign. He
revelled in satirizing the hornrimmed-spectacled youths who
called themselves efficiency experts, so dear to the hearts of
the reformers.

Smith, as campaigner, has the intuitive gift of reading the
mind of the mass and making it recognize itself by that
approval which comes from a hearty laugh confirming its
convictions and its prejudices. He picked out one of the
most vital flaws of reform administration, a belief in effi-
ciency alone as a sure appeal to popular favor. Smith leads
the common people by his sympathetic and understanding
interpretation of their viewpoint and is thereby able to effect
reforms without making the mistakes of reformers.

Robert Adamson, formerly secretary to Mayor Gaynor,
and a well-known newspaper man, was Smith's opponent
on the fusion ticket. They were good personal friends.

46 ALFRED E. SMITH

Adatnson challenged Smith to a joint debate. It was held
before a Brooklyn Club.

In the course of his speech Adamson asked :

"What are your qualifications for the office of President
of the! Board of Aldermen?"

"My qualifications," answered Smith, "are: twelve years
a member of the New York Legislature and four years
Democratic floor leader there. I was for one year Speaker
of the Assembly. I was six years on its cities' committee,
which revised the New York City charter. As chairman of
the ways and means committee I personally prepared the
State budget. It cut down expenses by fifteen million
dollars as compared with the last year of Governor Hughes's
administration.

"I was vice-chairman of the committee which obtained
the enactment of our existing excellent factory fire preven-
tion laws. I was a member of all the important committees
of the last Constitutional Convention. If there is any man
in the city with the same legislative experience, let him speak.
I will be glad to surrender my nomination to him, and go
back to Fulton Market."

Then he .sat down. Adamson arose and took a drink of
ice water !

The Board of Aldermen of 1917, whose President he now
became, saw the emergence of a new group, small, but sin-
cere and intelligent. Five Socialist aldermen were elected
for the first time in the history of the City.

As presiding officer of the Board, Smith gave to this new
minority the consideration due it. Socialists were assigned
to the most important committees and when a radical minor-
ity held office he never forgot that he also had led minorities
in legislative chambers. His attitude was forcefully ex-
pressed in his opening speech as President o the Board of
Aldermen in January, 1918:

LOCAL POLITICS 47

"To the majority party, I desire to say that the people of
this city in no uncertain terms placed upon us a grave re-
sponsibility. The glory that comes from what we do of
benefit can be claimed by everybody. That which is neglected
constitutes our sins of omission.

"I have a keen understanding of the relationship to the
body of the minority and the minor minority (meaning the
Socialist members). The people rule negatively as well as
affirmatively, and a good, healthy, vigorous minority is the
necessary check on great power.,

"The rules of the board are intended for the protection of
the rights of the minorities as well as to expedite the business
of the majority. In that spirit, I will interpret them with a
desire to do equal and evenhanded justice to all."

CHAPTER X
SMITH FOR GOVERNOR

His service on the Board of Aldermen was brief. It began
in January, 1918, and by June of that year a well-defined
movement was afoot to nominate him for the Governorship.

In the twelve years of his legislative career, Smith was
the outstanding champion of justice to New York City.
His loyalty to the interests of the city of his birth was pro-
claimed by New Yorkers, whether Republicans or Democrats.
These achievements were recognized by opposition party
newspapers. They were proclaimed by civic bodies strongly
opposed to the local Democratic organization. New York's
love was always ungrudgingly given him. What many New
Yorkers did not appreciate was the impression he had made
upon upstate communities and their substantial leaders
above the Harlem River.

His gift for friendship had brought him friends in the
Legislature. They included such stalwart political foes as
Ed. Merritt, long his opponent as majority Republican leader
in the Assembly, and the late Senator Edgar T. Brackett,
who gave many years of distinguished service to his party
in the upper house at Albany.

The Smith personality and the accumulated results of his
service had won him a large acquaintance throughout the
State. It was thus not unnatural for upstate Democratic
leaders to look upon him as sound gubernatorial timber.
They shrewdly calculated his vote-getting powers in New

(48)

SMITH FOR GOVERNOR 49

York City. Of his fatness for office both by natural endow-
ment and acquired training they had not a shred of doubt.
A strong movement in favor of Smith for Governor ema-
nated from the upstate Democratic leaders. The local New
York City organization idolized Smith. With the initiative
of upstate spontaneous support it was not difficult for him
to secure the nomination in the Saratoga Convention of 1918.

The pride and pleasure which that nomination brought to
him and his family was revealed through his son Arthur,
then -a little boy of ten. It happened that Mrs. Smith could
not attend the Convention. There was some question as to
which of the children would be allowed to accompany their
father. Arthur assured his mother that if he was allowed
to go, he would "bring home the bacon."

The lad listened to every word and counted every vote in
the Convention. It wa:si he who dashed to the telephone to
say to his mother, firmly convinced it was so, "See, I told
you I'd bring luck and I did. We've got it/*

No sensational issues characterized that campaign. Smith
criticized the Republican administration for its extravagance.
He stood for an aggressive support of President Wilson in
winning the war. At the very close of the campaign, he had
the opportunity to meet a group atl the Women's University
Club of New York. Adapting himself quickly to his audi-
ence, which consisted entirely of women, he told them the
history of the suffrage movement in the State and discussed
with them the underlying theory of representative govern-
ment. He concluded his speech by saying, "I have spent
twelve years; in the Assembly in the State of New York and
I know the State Government. I want to say to you here
and now that if I am elected I will do what my conscience
tells me is best for thej State of New York. If I do wrong,
you may be sure that it will not be from ignorance and you
can hold me responsible/' The straightforward manliness of

SO ALFRED E. SMITH

that speech brought him thousands of wavering votes from
independent Democrats.

The influenza epidemic broke out during that campaign
month 'of October. It proved so violent in upstate communi-
ties and in the larger cities that active campaigning had to
be abandoned. This calamity affected the very strongholds
in which the Democrats most needed recruits. Despite this
handicap, Smith was elected by the very small majority of
15,000 votes. The dream of the young Assemblyman from
the Fourth Ward of New York City came true. Al Smith
was now the Governor-elect,

CHAPTER XI

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR.

The gratitude which welled up in his heart for this honor
conferred upon him by the electorate of New York took
the form of a solemn vow to give the people the best that
was in him.

When, on the first of January, 1919, he placed his arm
upon the Bible. t6 take the oath of office, with his mother by
his side, his wife and his five children around him, he looked
out upon the Assembly Chamber packed with his loyal and
loving friends. The spectacle inspired his silent prayer to
Divine Providence to make him worthy of his responsibili-
ties.

"No one owes* more to the State than I do," he said

No Governor tried to give more of his deepest soul to the
duties of" that office. His inaugural address was an expres-
sion of his gratitude. Simple in its language and deeply
human in the emotions, it was only a dedication of himself
to public duty.

Delightfully informal as Al Smith can be, he was every
inch His Excellency. His attitude reflected that solemn
dedication born of his gratitude to the people and his own
conception of the dignity of the office he now held.

When Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and their five children, with
Caesar, their great Dane, came to occupy the Mansion, they
lived as simple neighbors. For the first time within the
memory of Albanians the children of the neighborhood could

(51)

52 ALFRED E. SMITH

be seen playing on the grounds. The children were as demo-
cratic as their father. They lived just as they did in their
old neighborhood. They made many friends among the
neighborhood children.

About a month after the family settled in the Mansion,
while they were 'having their "supper" the bell rang and
the Governor received the visitor in the hall. The woman
was plainly embarrassed. "Are you Governor Smith?" she
asked. "I have that honor," replied the Governor.

"I'm afraid you will think me foolish" said the visitor,
"but I am Mrs. So-and-So and a neighbor. I want to know
if my little daughter? is here."

"Yes," answered the Governor, "she's inside at supper
with the family. Come in and see her."

She found her daughter in the seat of honor at the dining
table to the right of the Governor's chair.

"I couldn't believe it," she stammered, "although she is a
truthful child. When she told me one of your daughters had
invited her over to din I mean supper I have seen several
families come and go well I justi had to come over to see
for myself."

One Saturday evening the Secretary of the Reconstruction
Commission had a conference with the Governor in his study
on the second floor of the Mansion. Three times during
the conference the Governor excused himself for about five
minutes. Each time he left the room the resonant voice of
the Governor! was heard and boyish shouts of laughter, ac-
companied by the splashing of water. Finally, after his third
departure from the conference, he explained these mysterious
interruptions.

"Ever since my boys were old enough to frequent a
bath tub I have had fun turning the hose on them. My
mother came up today with my sister's little boy and he and
my two boys have been taking turns in having the hose
turned on them."

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 53

Smith is not a self-made snob or a democratic snob. He
has no prejudices because of social station. First families
do not interest him just because they are F. F/s.

Albany prides itself on the exclusiveness of its aristocracy.
When Smith became Governor he was invited to dinner with
one of the? most exclusive families in Albany. He refused.
It created quite a stir and reached him. In explanation he
said : "I have been in Albany for fifteen years. I have met
all the members of that family socially a number of times.
This is the first time they have invited me to their home.
Governor Smith may be different from Assemblyman Smith
to them but not to me/'

Smith met "high society" at the charity ball. It is the
leading social event in Albany and at it the Governor of the
State is the guest of honor. Society was curious to see how
this man of the plain people would handle himself.

The curious found him in his formal event attire, looking
every inch the Governor, whose dignity and repose were
striking. As the Four Hundred of Albany visited the Gover-
nor's box, he had something appropriate to say to each. He
really charmed them with his poise as much as he surprised
them all. Many, meeting him for the first time with pre-
conceived notions of a crude personality, received a first hand
impression of a governor to the manor born.

Smith entered upon his gubernatorial duties soon after
the armistice was signed ending the World War. He struck
the keynote of his administration in his first message.

"Our hearts go out to the afflicted families whoi have but
the memory of their loved ones, and the sad sight of the
returning sick and wounded puts the pang of sorrow in our
hearts. Let us, nevertheless, greet the dawn of peace as
meaning the end of the black night of conflict; that has con-
vulsed practically every civilized nation in the world. The
new era that is coming in the United States puts the duty

54 ALFRED E. SMITH

upon our State of blazing the way in the conception of re-
adjustment. The old order of things that means standing by
and meeting the situation when it presents itself must at
once give place to a policy of initiation, broadness! of vision
and foresight that will not only hold the position we have
inherited in the country's affairs, but will provide for the
successful solution of every condition that can arise.

"... In the wake of war, there is much that needs
re-adjustment, and ours is an opportunity for the upbuilding
of the service of the State to the people on permanently
progressive lines,"

When Smith was elected governor he received letters of
congratulation from old neighbors who settled in every part
of the U. S., and even from the Philippine Islands. Com-
menting upon these letters, he said :

"Consult the history of the city, you will find that the
lower, end of Manhattan was the beginning of the State of
New York. At one time practically the whole population of
the State lived there.

"It was from the lower part of Manhattan that the ad~
venturious pioneers moved up through the Hudson Valley
and out through the Mohawk Valley beyond. That move-
ment has continued ever since. It was particularly strong in
my young boyhood and young manhood. Horace Greeley's
advice, 'Young man, go West/ still carried force. From the
letters I received It appears that the migrants from the old
Fourth Ward have contributed something to every commun-
ity they have settled in."

In the interval between election and inauguration, he gave
thought to plans for solving the State's reconstruction prob-
lems. He divided them into two classes, the temporary arid
the permanent.

The temporary problems requiring immediate solution
were the! need of relief for injured soldiers, impoverished

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 55

families and orphan children, and for the unemployed.

Among the permanent problems of reconstruction he
enumerated taxation to bear equally upon all classes, the high
cost of the necessities of life, housing, more stringent laws
for protecting the health, comfort and efficiency of the people,
and problems of finance, banking, labor, the position of
women in industry, education, and Americanization.

On January 20, in a special message to the Legislature
the Governor announced the appointment of a Reconstruc-
tion Commission, and requested an appropriation of $75,000
for its work.

The non-partisan spirit in which he conceived this work
was manifested) in the quality and standing of the men and
women he appointed without regard to party. He sought the
best citizens he could recruit from the community. The
chairman was Abram I. Elkus, former Ambassador to
Turkey, and a distinguished member of the New York Bar,
who rendered signal service as counsel of the State Factory
Investigating Commission, and who conceived a profound
admiration for tli6 Governor's ability and sincerity.

The roll of members should be scanned critically as evi-
dence of that unerring insight into human character and
capacity which experience had developed in him.

Abram L Elkus, of New York City, who served as counsel to the
New York State Factory Investigating Commission; Ambassador
to Turkey, and a member of the State Board of Regents, lawyer.

Charles H, Sabin, president of the Guaranty Trust Company of
New York City.

Bernard M. Baruch, of New York City, chairman of the Federal
War Industries Board.

Gerrit Y. Lansing, of Albany, well known banker and Federal
Fuel Administrator for Albany county.

John Alan Hamilton, president of the Legal Aid Bureau of
Buffalo.

Dr. Felix Adler, leader of the New York Society for Ethical Cul-

56 ALFRED E. SMITH

ture and well known generally throughout the country for his
patriotic and civic activities.

Charles P. Steinmetz, of the General Electric Company of
Schenectady, inventor and electrical expert.

John G. Agar, active in war work, and a prominent lawyer of New
York City.

William M. K. Olcott, former District Attorney of New York
county.

Arthur Williams, of the New York Edison Company of New York
City, and Federal Food Comptroller of New York.

Michael Friedsam, president of B. Altaian & Company, of New
York City.

John C McCall, secretary of the New York Life Insurance Com-
pany, of New York City.

Thomas J. Quinn, president of the Bronx National Bank, New
York City.

Alfred J. Johnson, City Chamberlain of New York City.

Carleton A. Chase, prominent business man of Syracuse, N. Y.

George Foster Peabody, of Saratoga, director of the Federal
Reserve Bank,

Dr, Henry Dwight Chapm, well-known physician of New York
City, and especially interested in child welfare work.

Mortimer L. Schifr*, son of Jacob H. Schiff, banker and philan-
thropist, of Nejw York City.

Mrs. Sarah A. Conboy, and Peter A. Brady, of New York City,
representing the State Federation of Labor.

Addison B. Colvin, of Glens Falls, president of the Glens Falls
Trust Company, and Federal Coal Administrator for Central New
York.

Mrs. Walter W, Steele, of Buffalo, prominent war worker of
Western New York.

Mrs, Harry Hastings, of New York City, member of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Democratic County Committee of New York.

Edward F. Boyle, Judge of the Municipal Court of New York City.

Henry Evans, of New York City, president of the Continental Fire
Insurance Company.

M. Samuel Stern, member for many years of Board of Education
of New York City.

Mrs. Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, of Barrytown, Dutchess county,
wife of former Lieuenant-Governor Chanler.

Thomas V, Patterson, of New York, president of the Lehigh &

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 57

Scranton Coal Company, and member of the New York Produce
Exchange and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs. William H. Good, of New York City, former president of
the Civitas Club and active in charitable and civic organizations and
a member of the National League for Women's Service.

Norman E. Mack, of Buffalo, publisher of the Buffalo Times and
the Democratic National Committeeman from this State.

J. N. Beckley, prominent citizen of Rochester.

Otto B. Schulhof, prominent manufacturer of New York City.

V. Everit Macy, of Westchester, chairman of the Ship Building
Labor Adjustment Board and chairman Executive Committee of the
National Civic Federation.

Richard S. Newcomb, prominent member of the bar, Flushing, L. I.

S. J. Lowell, of Fredonia, president of the New York State
Grange.

Alfred E. Marling, of New York City, president of the Chamber
of Commerce of New York State.

In announcing the Commission, Smith called upon every
available official and unofficial resource of the State to aid it.

From the very outset of his administration, the Governor
was hindered by the partisan opposition of a Republican
Legislature. The funds he requested for the Commission,
which could easily have been transferred from unexpended
balances of the State war services, now at an end, were
denied him. The Commission secured financial support for
its work from voluntary subscription, A permanent organ-
ization of standing committees dealing, with the subject mat-
ter suggested by the Governor and other important problems
was quickly effected. Co-operating with them was a staff
of experts. On March 20, two months after its appoint-
ment, thel Commission presented its first report to the Gov-
ernor. It dealt with the necessity for preserving the State's
employment agencies. The Federal employment system was
threatened with demoralization through lack of appropria-
tions from Congress. During the war the State agencies
were merged with the Federal system. The breakdown

58 ALFRED E, SMITH

meant paralysis of the State in placing returned soldiers and
civilians during the period of serious unemployment which
followed the war. An appropriation of $50,000 was granted
by the Legislature. Thus the State was able to continue its
work of placement when it was most needed.

The first temporary problem was solved.

The second report of the Commission dealt with the com-
pulsory military training of boys under eighteen years of age.
It afforded a sound analysis of the function of military
training of boys under eighteen in times of peace.

The Commission recommended the abolition of the Mili-
tary Training Commission, which was the existing agency
for such training. Its functions were to be transferred to
the Department of Education. The Republican Legislature
did not follow this recommendation until the next adminis-
tration came to power.

One of the Governor's first acts was to appoint Mr. Jere-
miah F. Connor, Commissioner under the Executive Act,
to investigate the management and affairs of the State In-
dustrial Commission.

He was greatly concerned over the weakening of the com-
pensation law. This had been brought about through an
amendment passed by a Republican legislature in the admin-
istration preceding his which permitted direct settlements
between the victims of industrial accidents and the insurance
carriers. Smith had strenuously opposed this when he
helped put through the original law in 1913. He succeeded
then in combating the insurance lobby, and thus kept this
form of settlement out of the law.

Mr. Connor's report was filled with illustrations of abuses
which arose under this amendment. Injured workers, ignor-
ant of their rights, made direct settlements with .insurance
companies which considerably reduced the sums they were
entitled to receive under the law. The claims of insurance
carriers that direct settlements would reduce the cost of the

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 59

law's operation and end the claimant's case with dispatch
were not borne out by the facts.

The report was so convincing that the Governor's recom-
mendation to abolish direct settlements was approved by the
legislature. Thus, one of his campaign pledges to working
people was kept, and once again Smith came to the rescue
of the Workmen's Compensation Law.

A popular legislative achievement of his first term was
permissive legislation to local communities which desired
Sunday baseball and Sunday movies. His point of view on
innocent Sunday recreation was set forth in the memoran-
dum of approval which accompanied his signature of these
bills.

One of the most serious effects of the high cost of living
during and immediately following the war, was the loss of
experienced teachers and supervisors from the public school
systems of the State. They simply could not afford to re-
main in the schools. Salary schedules were based on pre-
war living conditions. Teachers sought more lucrative work.

The Governor's memorandum of approval of a bill to
remedy this condition is characteristic of his attitude toward
the functions of education in a democracy:

This bill amends the Education Law to provide increases in
salaries of the teaching and supervising staff of the public schools
throughout the State and increases the allotment of State funds
to cities and rural school districts. Fifty-three thousand school
teachers are affected by it. This measure establishes the prin-
ciple of equal pay for women, corrects present discriminations
and increases the inadequate salaries now paid to members of the
teaching staff. It should result in filling the many vacancies in
our schools, which were caused by higher compensation paid in
other fields of employment.

In my annual message to the Legislature I stated : "The effic-
iency of the school cannot rise above the standard of qualifica-

60 ALFRED E. SMITH

tions set for the teaching service. To bring this about the
teachers should be adequately paid and fairly pensioned. I
strongly recommend that whatever curtailment may be necessary
elsewhere, full and adequate provision be made for the education
and training of our children.

It has been certified to me by the State Department of Educa-
tion that the training schools for teachers are not attended in a
satisfactory manner due to the 'fact that the salaries paid to
school teachers fail to attract women to that important service.
This presents a serious situation and one that the State itself
must deal with. It is a narrow-minded statesman who thinks
only of the day he lives in. If our common school system is to
be maintained in the degree of efficiency that the greatness of the
State suggests, we must build for the future. By this bill we are
attracting to the school service the best talent the State can
secure.

There has been much discussion in the public press as to the
cost of this bill to the City of New York. It has been certified to
me by State Commissioner of Education Finley that the cost will
be as follows :

First year (1920) $1,612,000

Second year (1921) 5,700,000

Third year (1922) 9,4SO,ooo

There are two great functions the State performs for our
people. One is the education of our children and the other is the
preservation of health. General O'Ryan states that the intelli-
gence of our soldiers contributed as much as any other one thing
to the great successes our armies achieved in the struggle for the
freedom of civilization.

Our country has just been tested by the fires of war and our
future safety rests upon the school system that will weave into
the hearts and minds of generations to come the principles of
American freedom and justice. The country or the State cannot
be above the, efficiency of its people, and no money spent for
education or the preservation of health is ever wasted.

I have yet to meet the taxpayer who would admit that the
education of our children should not be put above a mere matter

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 61

of dollars and cents. The cost of this measure cannot be spoken
of in the same terms as road improvements, canal construction
and different other activities of the State for which many mil-
lions have been appropriated. The pubic schools must be
adequately supported if they are to remain the bulwark of the
Nation and their success is dependent upon the number and
ability of our teachers.

The President of the Board of Education in Great Brit-
ain in presenting the education bill during the war said:
"That nation which after the war employs the best teachers
with the highest pay will be the best governed and therefore
the greatest nation."

Another of his campaign promises to the women of the
State was fulfilled by signing a bill giving permanent status
to the} Bureau of Women in Industry in the Labor Depart-
ment, "by which the conditions surrounding the employment
of women in industry throughout the State can be examined
into, and proper safeguards for their health and protection
can be provided."

Prohibition closed a rich avenue of revenue for the State
through the abolition of excise license fees. Both parties
agreed that new sources of revenue were needed to meet the
State's expenses. The Legislature, therefore, passed d State
income tax law, which the Governor approved.

But a Governor is judged not only by the legislation he
approves. Just as frequently his mettle is tested by his
vetoes. Smith, as "Veto Governor," revealed all his close
knowledge of the State government acquired by twelve years
as a legislator. He applied that knowledge with that uncanny
sense for jokers and political pap which was so evident in his
work in the Legislature and in the Constitutional Convention.

There were governors in the history of the State who
took the word of the chairmen of the financial committees of
the Legislature that the appropriation bill was "all right/'

62 ALFRED E. SMITH

They signed it with but slight scrutiny. Governor Smith
knew how the appropriation bills were drawn. He had
helped to draw them. He was familiar with the indirect
routes traveled by those innocent line items of appropriation
bills which favor faithful party workers and punish other
employees. He understood the political significance of bills
which meant patronage and "pork" for favored committees
and particular politicians using the public treasury to keep
pre-election promises made to local constituents.

His vetoes set forth the principle that partisan political
considerations for local improvements at the State expense
would not be tolerated by him. Sound policy demanded a
reasoned and comprehensive plan of highway and canal and
other improvements worked out in the order of importance
by the heads of the departments who knew the State's needs
from the viewpoint of its best interests.

The Governor delighted in vetoing the many local improve-
ment bills masquerading in the guise of a Statewide measure.
The familiar creek to be dredged, the local highway and
bridges to be built, old friends and new acquaintances were
before him this time as Governor, long known to him as
legislator, and he used the axe like a virtuoso. Nearly three
million dollars were saved for the people of the State by the
Governor in this way. "

Just after signing one such appropriation bill, he said to
an intimate friend, "Well, I finished the appropriation bill
today, and I signed it, and I thank God that I can honestly
say there is not one dollar in it that interests me personally,
or that I asked to have put there/*

Smith enjoyed every piece of work connected with the
Governor's office but one the pardoning power. This re-
sponsibility in every case shook him to his very depths. The
veteran pardon clerk of the executive office who had dealt
with many a Governor in pardon applications stated that

THE GOVERNOR'S FIRST YEAR 63

Governor Smith gave more attention to appeals from death
sentences than any Governor in his memory. It gave him
many a sleepless night. Naturally sympathetic the appeal of
mothers, wives and children moved him deeply.

He read every case in all its details. He would take the
record with him on trains, grounded! himself in the law and
in conversation with trusted friends he would put hypo-
thetical cases to them for their reaction. He consulted with
judges of last resort on points of criminal law and they
were astonished by his knowldge of rules of evidence. One
of them! said he was one -of the best criminal lawyers in the
State.

Very early in his first administration he determined to
have nothing to do with exploiting lawyers in pardon cases.
Always accessible, he went through the harrowing experiences
of meeting the families of condemned prisoners rather than
have them mulcted by certain types of pettifoggers. He saw
too much of the effects of crime upon the innocent members
of families not to protect them from the exploitations of their
tragedy. It soon became rumor that lawyers in pardon
cases were persona nom grata at the executive chamber.

On one occasion he made a special trip to New York to
inspect personally the scene of the gang murder to clear up in
his own mind one vital piece of testimony in a case. "There
is only one doubtful point in this case," he said. "It rests
in the testimony of the police officer who described the escape
of the murderer. On the face of the testimony, I do not
believe the fleeing man could have done all the things the
policeman said he did in the limited time he was under
observation." At the scene of the murder in New York
City, he went through all the movements described by the
policeman, including one which involved jumping from a
window, and found that the time mentioned by the officer
was ample. He returned to Albany that night and on the

64 ALFRED E. SMITH

next day refused the application for clemency.

Hearing the last plea of the mothers of prisoners con-
demned to death was particularly painful to him. A friend
recalls his interview with the mother of a boy who had a
long criminal record, and who was condemned to: death for
shooting the officer who attempted to prevent him from com-
mitting burglary. The mother was desperately persistent.
He questioned her shrewdly but tenderly. "Why didn't he
go on the stand ?" he asked. The mother admitted that her
son's record was too bad and testimony would be damaging.

The decisive consideration with the Governor in this case
was the killing of an officer on duty and engaged in the per-
formance of it.

His acts of mercy were many but always the result of con-
scientious study and only when he was' convinced that clem-
ency in each instance was in the interest of society as well as
the prisoner and his family.

CHAPTER XII
WOMAN SUFFRAGE

Governor Smith proved an effective ally to the cause of
woman suffrage. Upon the receipt from the Acting Secre-
tary of State, Mr. Frank L. Polk, of a certified copy of the
"joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution
extending the right of suffrage to women" with a request
that he submit it to the Legislature for its action, he took
pride in prompt action to place New York among the first of
the States to ratify. He immediately called an extraordinary
session of the Legislature on June 10, 1919, His reasons
set forth in the Proclamation calling the session.

My purpose in calling the Legislature in extraordinary session
is to enable it to take prompt action upon the proposed amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States extending" equal
suffrage to women.

New York State has already extended to women the suffrage
within its own bounds. When the right of the women in the
Nation to the same privilege is to be determined New York State,
the Empire State, should be in the front rank bearing its full
share of responsibility, with its full share of the efforts required
to write into the Federal Constitution the principles- we believe
in and to grant to the women of our land the right to which they
are entitled, which should be speedily granted them as a slight
recognition of their heroic conduct in the great crisis through
which we have so recently passed.

It is important that action should be taken upon this measure
before the next regular session of the Legislature for several
reasons.

(65)

66 ALFRED E. SMITH

New York should be in the forefront in the advocacy and
adoption of all measures of a beneficial progressive character in
the support of which it has too often lagged.

But furthermore, if this privilege is to be extended to women
in such form as to entitle them to full participation in the next
ensuing presidential election, early action is necessary,

It would not be sufficient to permit them only to choose as
between candidates selected and principles approved by others,
but they should be enfranchised at a date so early that they may
take part in the primaries which will be held next spring to select
delegates to the national party conventions and thus be co-work-
ers from the very start in the selection of candidates and the
declaration of party principles.

In order to secure this early action by at least thirty-six of the
States, it will be necessary to call special sessions of the Legis-
latures of many of them, where regular sessions will not under
their constitutions be convened until 1921.

I know of no greater stimulus to prompt and energetic action
throughout the Nation than would follow the immediate and
decisive approval of the proposed amendment by this the most
populous of the commonwealths.

If it receives the approval of New York at an early date,
I believe her good example would be far-reaching and forceful
and be followed by a sufficient number of her sister States at
a date so near that full association in the steps leading up to
selection of our next President would be enjoyed by the newly-
enfranchised voters.

The prompt action of the New York State Legislature
was regarded by the suffrage leaders as a strategic move
favorably influencing the legislators of other States for the
final ratification of the Constitutional Amendment.

CHAPTER XIII
IN THE THROES OF AN ECONOMIC CRISIS

Many a difficult problem confronted Governor Smith at
the close of the Legislative session. The people of the
Empire State were in the throes of the economic adjustment
resulting from the war.

In a communication to the Governor, the Reconstruction
Commission had declared that "due to many causes, the
industrial life of the State is undergoing a period of unrest."
The situation, in fact, was assuming serious proportions.
It recommended that the Governor call a "statewide confer-
ence of representatives of employers, workers and public
spirited men and women for the purpose of preparing a
program of action which will endeavor to prevent strikes if
possible and to bring about arbitration and mediation of
differences between employer and employee by men and
women who are willing 1 to serve the State voluntarily/'

The Governor held such a conference in the Executive
Chamber on September 16. It was attended by a representa-
tive gathering of the three parties in industry labor, em-
ployer, and public. The conference unanimously adopted the
Governor's suggestions. He appointed a special board ac-
cordingly to be known as the Governor's Labor Board. It
was to consist of representatives of labor, capital and public.

Upon its appointment, the Governor's Labor Board did
creditable work. It aided in allaying the industrial unrest at
the time. It prevented, strikes in public utilities at Buffalo
and in the textile industries of the State. It averted a strike

C67)

68 ALFRED E. SMITH

of 70,000 garment workers in New York City. It prevented
another between the milk wagon drivers and their employers,
the distributing companies of New York City. The em-
ployers of the Railway Express Companies were kept at
work while their grievances were settled. The shirtmakers
in New York invoked the aid of the Board.

To much of all this work the Governor gave his personal
attention. He was the chief influence in bringing about in-
dustrial peace in some of the most important industries of
the State. All had been seriously disturbed by the post-war
spirit of unrest.

Drivers of milk wagons in New York City threatened to
strike when their agreement with their employers was about
to expire at midnight on a Sunday in October, 1919. The
employers were willing to arbitrate the differences. These
were mainly concerned with wage, questions. The time for
the contract to expire was only twelve hours away. Gover-
nor Smith sent telegrams to both sides urging a continuance
of work and arbitration of differences. The employers were
willing. The men would not consent. Sunday evening at six
the men had called a mass meeting to make their final deci-
sion. If the strike occurred, children and sick people, to say
nothing of mothers and infants and householders generally
would suffer hardship and inconvenience. A last minute
appeal to intervene was made to the Governor through his
Labor Board, It was seven o'clock. The men thronging in
the hall were indignant at any suggestion from their leaders
that they arbitrate. Their president telephoned desperately
that his last expedient for averting a strike was to have the
Governoit come in person to the hall and plead with the men.

It was seven o'clock and the hall had to be vacated by
eight. It being Sunday the Governor was in Brooklyn visit-
ing his mother. When last communicated with he was on
his way back to the hotel at which he was staying. Time

AN ECONOMIC CRISIS 69

passed and he had not got there. At last, at twenty minutes
to eight he answered the telephone. The plea was made to
him to go.

"I haven't eaten all day and here's my dinner on the table.
Pretty hard on me to have to go and ask a lot of striking
milk drivers to stay at work." The plea of sick babies and
mothers was made to him. "I'll go," he answered.

Word was flashed to the hall to hold the men.

They stayed.

He arrived and was hustled through the seething mass.
They listened. He asked them in simple language, in the
name of mothers) and children and the sick to stick to their
duty and adhere to the responsibilities they had assumed.
He promised that their grievances would be arbitrated. As
he finished speaking a quick vote was taken by acclamation
and the! strike was averted. The men carried him from the
hall on their shoulders.

On another occasion, he assembled in the Executive Cham-
ber the employers and workers in the cloak and suit industry
in New York City. Seventy thousand workers were affected
by a threat to strike. As a matter of fact, some of the shops
were already out in violation of their collective agreement.
The issue was the request of an increase in wages because
of the increased cost of living, not foreseen when the agree-
ment had been made. The employers* counsel attempted to
prove that the union broke the agreement by countenancing
the shop strikes for higher wages. The Governor asked the
lawyer to show him the contract. He studied it for a
moment and then said: "Show me any paragraph in the
contract which says the machinery of mediator and arbitrator
must be used when the men ask for more money." The em-
ployers said they would be satisfied if the men stayed at work
and permitted the Governor's Labor Board to arbitrate their
differences.

70 ALFRED E. SMITH

The workers were hesitating and their leaders indicated
that they did not believe they could control the men suffi-
ciently to stop the shop strike arid send the men back to work.
While the employers' counsel was making another long argu-
ment, the Governor quietly called the real leader of the men
over to him at his desk and said very softly :

"That was a fine speech. You ha4 to make it and it went
over big with your people, but just between you and me and
the lamp post, you can send them back if you want to.
Now, can't you ?"

In response to the knowing look in the Governor's eye, the
union leader quickly said :

"Sure, sure/' And he did.

THE KlfiHTY D9LLA

! r iRKttlnaiioia of Candidates In Coii*

Coacjvs^maa E. J, Dunpiiy, of ttio Swerith

Congrossiorttil ' District, announced soaxs few

weeks ago 'flat an ^ examination would, take

Dlice in the no ir future to test the nualiilcatioas
! of the many ontLusiauuc 7<>ung m?a t,i' his <lis-
', triot who war-* aspiring to military honors. Tho
; Fourta Warder* v^er*.' JK'Cordiafflv in a state of

arudt, t-xcitfewieat ^or tae'-e ,re ever so niny
I young rutm who arc anxious to Shoulder the
! inu^t at Wes$ Poiut,

Tlie sxaiuliutiarv was lieJd yesterday in

Grammar School Xo. 21, Marion st. Some 20 ^ v,,.,^^.^

Jam-*' SoU^CTl'jind Columbia 1 prosaated *tliem- I ence was we.ll pleased by tlie reafly excellent

r 1VW iW^ho*iS fhaOlJ'F^wyA^wsa^Sad- P er fr rmance S*^ ty the ladies and ' Mntte-

iusr rnao, with 05 p^r cent.,* while, his classmate, | men. ia the east.

! 3Mr. J. Dnell. had 01 pec cent. Out of the first

5 ten men pu the 1 Use eight were from St Jam s' -

kScUwol, che sixth and seventh, being from, the ' Was very ainusmgand reaqsred the numerous

*'Ctty Coitus.

Credltabie Performance by Members

of the St. James' Ucioa.
The incnabers of the St. James' Union gave
the first of five performances last Eight at St,
James 1 Hall, James street near Madisoa, for
he Benefit of the fund of the St. James' Free
\ School Society, The play presented was the
[ late \V. J. Fiorenee's greatest sueeess, "The
Mighty Dollar,' 1
The hall was comfortably filled and the audi-

4

speeches of the voluble M. C. from the Kohosb.
District with good etfect Misa -f ennie p.

l6r-

Lace, r^JVIrs. Gen. Gflflory, and M&a
ence Mdy. as Ljbbio Boy ("Libbie dear'*),
'were vivacious and fully alive to the eapabili-

Friends' oC Alfred E. Smith, secretary of

the Seymour Club, of *the Second Assembly'- .___,, ,, ._,

District, are quieHy nursing his boom for the ties of their respective parts.
noraZnafijon for the Assembly. '> M ''The Lord Cairngorm of John J. Shiete was

^ /^ perfect in make-up, and Mrs. May Howden

Alfred E;~ Smith,, the hustling young secre-
tary or {b seymoui' Club of tlie Second AR- 1
sembly District, Has won a reputation as an*
ama^UTr actor. -HA haa; played the principal
parts Ip t'May, Blosscm," '"The Confederate^"
Spy," "Long Stride" and'"The Mighty DoK*)
lar," and 'has' received an offer to join the;

A number of prominent young Democrats |
of the Second Assembly District will spend )
Saturday and Sunday at the Lenox Hotel, Far
Rockaway. They will be under t the leadership
of Alfred E. Smith, one of the most promi-
nent young Democrats in the district. Mr,.
Smith is an amateur actor of no mean ability,
and is the leading man of the Sta. James Ly
ceum Company. f

a. ~ V //

DANCED A> r MADE MEKlftY. I
iceesMifml EntCTtttiD.rn.ent of the St.

The most successful entertainment ever 1

Frohman ^tock company. Mr, Smith, decide* ,gavn by the St James' Unran, of > the Second
^that h* would stick to polities, and refused \AK.scmbly District, was the sumnaferniffht's fes-
tth titter, . ;tJ tival held on Friday evening at Sulxer'ar Har-

<* . , __ ^_ ^ y .,., *, lem River Kark and Casino. Thff attendance

1 T..' */JT "^ jBMMt- -l - - "| . was larger aud more ael&ct than '<nvr -before,
A HAP3PT MAN, JYed BUuveH, the big <a ^^ no t an incident occurred 'to "disturb Ow
chiel of the Bnterpriss Fish ng Club and a p* _ e . .yment of the occasion,
nroihinent member of the Seymour Club of M s.hong tho prominent persons yrcsant were V
the 'Second Assembly District, was married on r/ p. ; p OT^vyer, Rev. John J. Kesn. James A.
Wednesday evening to Miss Miry Kay, of j Hayes, JCLOSS N,.aghton, Thcr",as J. Nolan,
Brooklyn. Blau^elt is widely known in social j amtS j. Do-nohue, M. J. Nolan, T. F, Me- ,
and political 'Circles In both this city and U/Carthy, J. J. Conway, F, F. Murphy, T. P.
Brooklyn and h'ls departure from bachelor- Da i y< ^Wrtd E. Salth, ( John P. Ollchrist, F. .
hood will' be f&lt^y his comrades. 'He wa a > F. /Lynch, P. A. Sim-cos:, Francis J. Florence,
e*n!al companion and the life of many social / j^n. B. -Cassidy, J. J. .McNamara, J. E. Mc-

Carthy, Robert J, Roberts, Franca J. Kav-

A TYPICAL PAGE FROM THE WELLS-FARGO RECEIPT-SCRAP BOOK, SHO*

CHAPTER XIV
A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

The second regular session o the Legislature of his first
term was a repetition of the first. It presented the spectacle
of a Governor battling" for his program with a legislature
dominated by the opposite party. He continued his appeals
to the people for his program, but favorable public sentiment
could not break the crust of the opposition in the Legislature.
Outside of the amendment for the consolidation of State de-
partments into twenty, no other reorganization amendments
passed. Only his recommendations liberalizing the Work-
men's Compensation Law and strengthening their adminis-
tration went through.

The active subcommittees of the Reconstruction Commis-
sion were holding hearings on. the important problems of
readjustment which were contributing to the unrest of the
times. Careful reports were submitted to the Governor on
Americanization, public health, housing, and the high cost of
foods and the need of reducing the spread between the pro-
ducer and consumer through a system of wholesale terminal
markets.

Much of the legislative session was taken up by the pro-
ceedings against the five Socialist Assemblymen elected from
New York City who had been expelled. Out of the heat
engendered by this proceeding and as a result of a legislative
committee's investigation, the Legislature passed three laws
designed to detect and convict radicals who were conspiring

(71)

72 ALFRED E. SMITH

to overthrow our form of government by violence, and to
prevent their propaganda from sinking into the minds of
children. They consisted of a bill requiring principals of
public schools to determine the loyalty of teachers, another
to require all private schools to procure a license from the
regents of the State University and a third establishing a
secret service system of espionage in the Attorney General's
office. Smith vetoed all three.

The memorandum accompanying these vetoes sounded a
note of Americanism greatly needed at the time. It reaffirmed
principles of liberty under law which were handed down
from Runnymede to the American Revolution. Once again
Smith distinguished himself as a veto Governor, this time in
the service of fundamental Americanism.

The session ended with little done for? his major program
on social welfare and reconstruction, but with considerable
achievement on non-controversial matters.

The housing situation meanwhile had become so acute
that the Governor requested remedial legislation along the
lines laid down in a communication signed by the Chairman
of the Joint Legislative Committee, the Reconstruction Com-
mission, the Mayor's Committee of the City of New York on
Rent Profiteering, the Tenement House Commissioner of the
City of New York, and the Secretary of the Tenement House
Committee of the Charity Organization Society. This was
done and a small measure of temporary relief made possible.

Many hearings exposed conspiracies in the building mate-
rial industries to raise costs to excessively high prices. These
prices tended to prohibit building at reasonable costs. In-
dictments were found. Court action was forced. Salutary
as was this work, it did not stimulate building. Hundreds
of thousands of tenants in New York City and elsewhere
were forced to pay rents which they could not afford in a
landlord's market. The owners took eviction proceedings

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM 73

against them. The unrest in the Manhattan and Bronx dis-
tricts of New York was growing. Violence was openly
threatened by irate representatives of the harassed tenants.
Remedial legislation was urged by responsible judges of the
Municipal Courts whose calendars were clogged by thousands
of cases. Thousands of tenants were threatened with
eviction in October when their leases expired, and they
saw themselves on the streets with their belongings and
no house to shelter them. Emergency action was im-
perative to avert this condition. The Governor, therefore,
called an extra session of the Legislature in September and
in co-operation with the Joint Legislative Committee urged
the immediate enactment of the necessary emergency legisla-
tion and also pressed for a constructive housing policy for
permanent betterment recommended by the Reconstruction
Commission.

The emergency laws were passed and it is estimated that
100,000 families were kept in their homes and protected from
unreasonable rentals.

CHAPTER XV
His RELIGION

The references of Governor Smith to Divine Providence
impart a flavor all their own to many of his speeches, mes-
sages and proclamations.

His belief that man is a conspicuous factor in a divinely
providential plan of the universe is 1 at the foundation of all
his motives. It is a conviction lodged in the deepest recesses
of his nature. His Christianity is a simple faith in God.
From it springs his interest in humanity and in the humanita-
rian labors that make man their beneficiary. He has no
interest whatever in theological formulas that divide men but
he is deeply attached to whatever spiritual ideas and principles
unite them.

No illustration of his point of view is quite so representa-
tive as his address at the Protestant! Bowery Mission. The
temptation to quote it fully is irresistible because it reflects
the very soul of the man :

We are here tonight to celebrate forty years of active work
on the part of the Bowery Mission, in a section of this city mis-
understood throughout the country, in fact, throughout the world.
When this Mission was established there was not very much to
New York by comparison with today. The great residential
section of this city was south of Twenty-third street. The
Bowery was a very popular thoroughfare. It was the natural
place for men from other parts of the country, - coming to our
city as strangers, to find their way, because from the earliest day
Park Row and the Bowery contained the "poor man's hotel/'
commonly known and commonly referred to as the "lodging
house."

(74)

HIS RELIGION 75

Forty years ago scarcely any other part of the city offered
temporary residential facilities for men who were strangers to
the City of New York, so they found their way, naturally, to the
Bowery. It would be impossible for me or for any other man
to estimate the great good that grows from an institution of this
kind in all of these forty years. What does a man need more
than the knowledge that somebody is interested in his wefare,
particularly if he is a stranger ? Bring it home to yourself. It
is a hard, cruel world that a man faces, in a strange land far
from home and far from friends, if there is not somebody to
evince a little bit of interest in his welfare. From my own per-
sonal knowledge and my personal observation that has been the
particular and special function of this Mission during all of its
useful lifetime. While it has catered to the spiritual needs of
men it also catered to their temporal needs, to the end that the
body may be in that healthy condition that would give the
strength, the power, the force and the vigor to withstand
temptation.

Our Divine Lord, during his lifetime on earth, preached not
only the theory of charity, but by His own action He demon-
strated it as an actuality.

In the many cold nights the cold winter nights when I came
down to the Bowery myself and saw the long line of homeless
men, waiting for coffee, and waiting for a sandwich, and waiting
for the warmth and the consolation that came from this Mission,
I have had men from other parts of the State visiting me in my
own home, but a short distance from here, who remarked to me :
"That is an institution that while preaching the word of Almighty
God is doing that practical thing that makes a man think that
somebody in this world is thinking about him."

The Reverend Bishop spoke about the relationship of the
Church and State. The Church and the State are divided only in
theory. It is a constitutional division, prescribed by constitu-
tional law, but in reality they are one, because what the Church
does for the individual that makes him a better citizen that
makes him a God-fearing man is really the greatest and highest
work that can be done for the State. And as I sat in the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, witnessing the very impressive

76 ALFkED E. SMITH

ceremony that installed Bishop Burch as the Episcopal Bishop of
this diocese, I thought of the field of opportunity that was opened
to him, to work not only for the State, but for that flag (pointing
to the Stars and Stripes), because the man who really and ear-
nestly studies the history of this country and studies it right and
looks at it properly must believe that it is God's own country !
And he must believe that God kept it hid behind the veil for cen-
turies, while men were spilling each other's blood for the pos-
session of worldly goods, and when He believed that civilization
had reached that point, He allowed the bow of the Santa Maria
to pierce the unknown seas that the cross might be raised on the
Island of San Salvador, and He has kept a watchful eye over it.
The student must have read in history how God answered the
prayer of the immortal Washington at Valley Forge when he
appealed to the Almighty that the Continental army might live
over another winter. He must have read in that history that it
was the sustaining spirit of Divine Providence that kept the soul
in the great Lincoln during the four years of trial in the Civil
War. He must have read in that history that the same Divine
Providence was behind Dewey; and right here in our own time,
when the impartial pen writes the history of this latest war, he
will have to read that Almighty God selected this country for
the salvation of the civilization of the world.

You must have read in that history that Almighty God intended
this country to be a haven of rest and a harbor of refuge for the
downtrodden, the poor and the oppressed of every land and if so
He must be heart and soul behind the institution that extends
this practical idea to those who arrive upon our shore.

It is for that reason, I firmly believe, that He has guided the
success of this mission during its forty long years of activity.
And it is this feeling within me that makes me feel proud not only
as a citizen of the city, not only as a resident of this immediate
neighborhood, but as the Governor of this State, to corne here
and congratulate your superintendent, his force of assistants and
everybody who during these forty years have kept this old mis-
sion going with so much success and to express to you the hope
that it may have years and years of usefulness ahead, not only to
the city and to the State but to the Nation itself.

CHAPTER XVI
RE-ELECTED

When election year came around, Smith's renomination
was inevitable* He carried on an offensive campaign
against his opponent, Nathan L. Miller, on his record. Even
Miller publicly said that under Governor Smith, "the affairs
of the State were, on the whole, well administered." But:
the feeling against the Wilson Administration was too
strong, and the Republican party relied tipon this for vic-
tory. Miller made a State campaign chiefly on the na-
tional issue.

How Governor Smith was regarded by the voters, the
election results showed. In a Harding landslide the Demo-
cratic candidate for president received over one million
votes less than Smith, who was defeated by a slight margin
of 74,000. Such a defeat merely emphasized the ability
of the Governor as a vote-getter and enhanced his political
prestige. Half a million Republicans split their tickets to
vote for him.

For the first time since his young manhood, Smith was
free from the burdens of public office. He could devote
some attention to< the needs of his large and growing family.
He went intp that trucking business,, to which he came so
naturally through his father. He became chairman of the
Board of Directors of the United States Trucking Corpora-
tion. As a business man he proved a success. His person-
ality, his knowledge of men, and his executive ability were

(77)

78 ALFRED E. SMITH

business assets. Men of affairs appraised him as a busi-
ness-getter and a good executive.

But he was not to be free from public responsibility very
long. When the recommendation of the New York-New
Jersey Port and Harbor Development Commission for the
creation of a Bi-State Port Authority was enacted into
law, Governor Miller drafted him to serve as one of the
three New York members of the Commission. Smith
could not refuse. He owed his state and city too much
not to co-operate as a citizen in solving the serious prob-
lems of the Port of New York.

To the work of formulating a comprehensive physical
plan for the unification and co-ordination of terminal
facilities, both rail and ship, Smith made solid contribu-
tions. His grasp of the technical problems of transporta-
tion astonished engineers and practical railroad men who
had spent a lifetime in the business. He was an influence
on the Commission for sound and practical solutions as
opposed to the dreams of visionaries. When the final plan
was submitted to 'the New York Legislature, Smith bore
the brunt of the battle against the parochial opposition of
the City authorities of his own party. His speech at the
legislative hearing very largely carried the day for the
plan.

With the close of the Miller administration, the demand
for Smith's return as Governor was heard from end to
end of the State. Again it was the upstate contingent of
his party that proved most vocal. Smith longed for a rest.
But the party was in danger of drifting on to dangerous
shoals. This aroused his fighting instinct.

In Smith's view, the Democracy was facing a crisis,
caused by the threatened dominance of Wm. R. Hearst
in party councils and control. If it yielded to the influences
represented by Hearst, it would be dominated by an irre-

RE-ELECTED 79

sponsible newspaper leadership. This stood for issues
based upon temporary advantage, firing mob fury, by the
methods of demagogy. A firm believer in party govern-
ment because it was responsible government^ he saw that
victory for these forces meant disintegration of leadership
in the Democratic party. It meant to him abandoning a
sound and continuous progressive program for a will o* the
wisp radicalism. All this was inconsistent with his con-
ception of sound Democratic doctrine.

Hearst had presidential ambitions. His plans con-
templated their realization through a nomination in the
Democratic state ticket for governor or United States sen-
ator. For months Mr. Hearst used his wealth lavishly to
prepare the ground throughotit the state for his nomination.
He relied upon the Mayor of New York City, his honest
admirer, to use in his interest the pressure of power and
patronage upon the city Democratic organization. Com-
bined with an upstate organization which he tried to create
through high salaried special agents covering every part
o-f the State and by sentiment stimulated by financial re-
sources, Hearst's p-renomination campaign was based on
no unplausible optimism as to its outcome.

Smith determined that he would, under no circumstances,
yield control of the party to these influences. He would
not run with Hearst. The odds against him were great.
But when he reached Syracuse, the convention city, he
found that the upstate delegations were determined to
nominate him for governor and to repudiate Hearst.

The late Charles F. Murphy, then the New Yo-rk leader,
sounded out the sentiment of the convention with open-
mindedness. Never in his long and stormy career had this
veteran political leader faced so delicate a situation. Smith
was accused of trying to wreck the party. The pressure
of the city government, the earnest plea of the Mayor of

80 ALFRED E. SMITH

New York with Murphy, personal influences from every
direction were used to break Smith's stand. Like a rock
he stuck. The Hearst forces crumbled under the immov-
able resistance of this man of iron will. Hearst withdrew
from the fight.

Smith was nominated by acclamation. Hearst had met
his Waterloo.

The drama of Smith's fighting courage in the Syracuse
Convention of 1920 captured the imagination of the people
who gave him 1,397,657 votes and elected him by an un-
precedented majority of 385,932.

CHAPTER XVII
IN ALBANY AGAIN

The Governor's social welfare and reconstruction program
had been an issue of the campaign. He debated it fully
from one end of the State to the other. The voters
heard both sides and decided in no uncertain terms in his
favor. In the light of that verdict he asked the Legislature
to accept his program as a mandate from the people.

Despite the huge majority which swept in the entire state
ticket the Democratic Party captured the Senate by only one
vote and the Assembly was safely Republican by a margin
of six. This result was a practical demonstration of Smith's
criticism of the apportionment article, in the Constitutional
convention of 1915, by which an easy control of both houses
is insured for the Republican Party in* normal elections and
at least a majority in the Assembly even when the Demo-
cratic Party is swept in by a landslide. The territorial theory
of representation -governing constitutional apportionment in
the State of New York has been the most effective instru-
ment for the dominance of the Republican party in the
legislature. Throughout his second term, the voters found
him battling for his program against the partisan opposition
of a Republican Assembly. The Democratic Senate enacted
his platform pledges into law only to find them nullified by
the lower house. Minority rule frozen into the constitution
held sway.

Save for statutory consolidations like the merging of the

(81)

82 ALFRED E. SMITH

Highway Department, the Department of Public Works and
the Department of Public Buildings into a new Department
of Public Works, a consolidation of tax functions and some
other minor consolidations, only that part of his reorganiza-
tion program in one constitutional amendment consolidating
departments and adopting the short ballot passed the As-
sembly. The Executive Budget and the Four- Year Term
received scant consideration and failed to pass.

His social welfare program, like the minimum wage com-
mission proposal and the forty-eight hour law were also de-
feated in the Assembly. One feature of his housing pro-
gram was enacted into law, the creation of a permanent
State Board of Housing and Regional Planning.

Handicapped by partisan opposition Smith emerged from
the fight with a record of constructive achievement in his
two terms of which the high lights are briefly summarized.

In addition to passing the constitutional amendment for con-
solidation of State departments from 187 to 20 for the first time,
he vetoed bills sent in by the Republican Legislature depriving
people of freedom of speech and action.

He called a special session of the Legislature, 1919, to ratify
the woman suffrage amendment.

Called a special election to assure representation to the assem-
bly districts where the Socialists had been unseated.

He called a special session of the Legislature, 1920, to enact
the emergency rent laws, thus keeping 100,000 people in their
homes and preventing rent profiteering and recommended and
passed laws permitting localities to exempt new housing from
taxation, to encourage the resumption of building.

He appointed the Reconstruction Commission to draft a social
and business administration program for the State.

The repeal of the Direct Primary Law was vetoed by him.

Direct settlements between injured workmen and insurance
companies were abolished.

He signed bills for the first adequate appropriations ever made

IN ALBANY AGAIN 83

In the history of the State for the construction and maintenance
of institutions for the State's dependents; the insane, mentally
deficient, etc., and appointed a Prison Survey Commission acting
on those parts of its report which were available before the
close of his term, establishing many prison reforms.

He established the administration and building of highways
on the highest plane ever known in the history of the State
without regard to politics and put the canals on a business basis
for the first time.

Disability of women in the Civil Service Law was abolished.

He signed the largest appropriation for education in the his-
tory of the State, and increased teachers' salaries by $32,000,000.

The State was protected against any encroachment on its
water power rights.

He signed bills approving local option in showing motion
pictures and the playing of baseball games on Sunday.

The Children's Code Commission to codify and draft laws
relating to all fields of child welfare was created.

A Governor's Labor Board was appointed consisting of three
representatives each, of labor, employers and the public, which
successfully adjusted or averted many industrial difficulties in
the period immediately after the close of the war.

Assisting in the passage of- the Home Rule amendment, giving
Home Rule to localities of the State. He appointed a commis-
sion to study and draft enabling acts to make Home Rule func-
tion and signed the enabling act making it effective.

He repealed the law requiring teachers to submit to a loyalty
test; and he pardoned political prisoners in the State prisons.

He repealed the law requiring the licensing and supervision of
private schools.

A commission was appointed to investigate defects in the law
and its administration.

The Labor Department was restored to efficient operation by
means of adequate appropriations. It had been practically de-
prived of activity between the two administrations of Governor
Smith.

He passed a bill for. public health aid in rural communities,
extending the system of Health Department laboratories, and

84 ALFRED E. SMITH

advocated and secured authorization of a bond issue of $50,000,-
000 for the construction of State institutions and large additional
appropriations to decrease the fire hazards in State institutions.

A State Housing Commission was established.

He aided in the passage of the State bonus to soldiers and
initiated and passed an appropriation of $1,500,000 to establish
a military memorial hospital.

A system of State parks has been developed and created and
provision has been made for a bond issue of $15,000,000 to
extend and improve State parks in the next ten years.

He reduced the State income tax 25 per cent and reduced the
direct tax on real estate 25 per cent, thus saving $17,000,000 to
taxpayers.

A law providing for the licensing of all motor vehicle oper-
ators, and establishing a Department of Motor Vehicles for the
control and regulation of automobiles has been passed and also
a bond issue of $300,000,000 for the elimination of railroad cross-
ings at grade.

A Children's Court Act for the City of New York, and many
other recommendations of the Children's Code Commission,
strengthening the Child Welfare Laws and extending their oper-
ation have been enacted.

Many improvements strengthening the Workmen's Compensa-
tion Law, providing for increased compensation and shortening
the waiting period were passed and prison industries are being
reorganized on a sound and adequate basis.

He made a prompt, personal, public investigation of charges
preferred against the State Department of Labor which were all
withdrawn. He sponsored a bill creating an Industrial Council
composed of representatives of employees and workers to be
advisory to the Labor Department.

Far-reaching legislation to develop State water power, retain-
ing control and ownership by the State, and providing for devel-
opment without the use of public funds has been proposed by
him.

He secured transit legislation for New York City, giving the
city absolute right to construct, own and operate rapid transit
subway lines.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN ACCOUNT OF His STEWARDSHIP
Smith always had a strong sense of his responsibility to
the people and at the close of each legislative session he
presented "An Accounting to the People," explaining in de-
tail appropriations made and the reasons for them. These
financial reports are prefaced usually by some such statement
as will be found at the beginning of the one issued in 1923.
"There is nothing less interesting to our people than financial
reports because as prepared by bookkeepers and accountants,
they are not understandable to the ordinary man. To com-
prehend them thoroughty, one must have not only an under-
standing of the government of the State itself, but must be
able to comprehend technical terms used in financial reports.
For that reason, I will endeavor to explain appropriations
of this year in such a manner to make them easily under-
standable to everyone/'

His theory of appropriations is set forth in the same
document in its conclusion.

"The State of New York wants to do its full duty to all of
its institutions for the sick, thq poor, and the afflicted, who
are the objects of its; special care. It wants to maintain its
great public works, its great Department of Education, and
perform all of the service it offers to the people of the State
at one hundred per cent of efficiency, and it has been my
experience that the people of the State find fault only with
the wasted dollar and not the appropriated dollar that brings
one hundred per cent of service. That a full complete return
will be made to the people of this State for every dollar
appropriated is the sincere and honest pledge of the present
administration."

(85)

CHAPTER XIX.
His APPOINTMENTS

It appears to be human nature in the policies of a two-
party system where control is divided, for the opposition
to obstruct the execution of a program advocated by the
representatives of the majority. Party advantage, not the
State's interest, frequently underlies the tactics of the oppo-
sition. A Democratic governor faces the resistance of a
Republican Legislature on his major program and Governor
Smith was no exception to the rule. In his contact with
the Legislature he had no bed of roses. Resistance by Re-
publican politicians was his normal experience.

In his capacity as executive responsible for the efficient
management of departments under his control, a governor's
mettle is tested by the way he resists the pressure of short-
sighted politicians in his own party. They are chiefly con-
cerned with getting jobs for the faithful. Patronage is
their first consideration, equipment for the place is often
secondary.

Smith is a firm believer in responsible party govern-
ment. He was willing at all times to receive suggestions
for appointments from party leader's. But he set the
standards of qualification for the job and the candidates
had to measure up to them. Sc-mre of the leaders met the
standards. Others did not, and in that case Smith rejected
their suggestions. He filled some of the most important
places with men who had no political antecedents but just
outstanding fitness.

(86)

HIS APPOINTMENTS 87

The task of finding first-rate men for important state
offices is one of the most difficult a well-intentioned gov-
ernor faces. Their value is appreciated in private business.
The salaries paid by the state cannot compare with what
they might earn. A governor must appeal to their public
spirit to make the financial sacrifice. A magnetic person-
ality like Governor Smith's was particularly successful in
attracting men of high calibre.

Governor Smith has made many promotions rather than
new appointments, and those set a standard and goal for
men who have been long in the state service. A few
illustrations will tell the story, although there are many
more instances than those cited here.

He appointed General Goethals Fuel Administrator when
the coal strike of 1922 threatened the people of the State
with a coal shortage and an equitable distribution of avail-
able coal at reasonable prices was imperative.

On the administrative side his appointments showed
creditable results. The Highway Department, under Colo-
nel Frederick Stewart Greene, was particularly efficient in
substituting durable roads for the political roads of many
previous administrations characterized as "more miles, more
votes." His one instruction to Greene was, "Do what is best
for the State. Rid the Highway Department of partisan
politics." In the Labor Department, he appointed Frances
Perkins as a member of the Industrial Commission, selecting
her because of her expert knowledge of labor codes. In gen-
eral, he sought and found merit rather than political standing
in selecting appointees.

Personally and politically unknown to him, Governor Smith
at the suggestion of a group of experts appointed Sullivan
W. Jones State architect. Mr. Jones has proven another
administrative discovery for the State.

A number of his most conspicuous appointments were

88 ALFRED E. SMITH

promotions from among men who had a long" and honor-
able record in the department. Upon the death of Dr.
Herman Biggs, whom he reappointed State Health Com-
missioner in his first term, he promoted the first deputy,
Dr. Matthias Nicoll, who had a long and honorable record
in the service of the Department.

When Adjutant General Charles W. Berry was made
Major-General, in command of the National Guard, he
promoted General Edward J. Westcott, a Republican, who
had a distinguished record of many years as Assistant
Adjutant General.

Upon the resignation of Major Chanler, the head of the
State Constabulary, he appointed a captain of one of the
troops, recommended by the outgoing head.

Even when the office of his private secretary was made
vacant by his appointment of George R. VanNamee as
Public Service Commissioner for the second district, he
named Geoirge B. Graves, a Republican with a record of
thirty-two years' service in the Executive Department,

To- the superintendency of prisons he appointed James L,
Long, who had been deputy superintendent and for years
regarded by prison authorities as a sound administrator
of penal institutions.

His appointment of Bernard L. Shientag to be State
Industrial Commissioner was hailed by representatives of
the wage-earners and by social workers with approval and
enthusiasm. During his second campaign he had promised
to rehabilitate the department shattered by a policy, of
economy, which he publicly condemned as, dangerous to
the health, safety and welfare of the State's industrial
population. His support of his Industrial Commissioner
when attacked by the Associated Industries, the manufac-
turer's lobby, and his prompt and fair investigation, acting
himself as Commissioner under the Executive Act, is a

HIS APPOINTMENTS 89

dramatic illustration of how he kept the faith with the
people of the State, The charges against his Industrial
Commissioner were publicly withdrawn. The investiga-
tion served to bring out in striking relief the record of
the Commissioner in the work of rehabilitating the depart-
ment.

In the course of the trial, an episode occurred that gave
rise to an extemporaneous statement ,of his policy. The
charges were concerned with alleged delay in disposing of
workmen's compensation cases.

His right to question the motive behind the charges was
challenged by the counsel for Associated Industries, Gov-
ernor Smith said in part :

No one has worked more hours in that back room than I
have and I think it has been said about me from one end of the
State to the other that almost anybody can come here and see
me.

No one makes any appointment with me. They come up on
the train without making any appointments because they know
they can get in and see me anyway. I have a notion in ray
head that this whole thing was done to create an atmosphere
around this building against pending legislation, and if I get
that in my mind I am going to satisfy myself whether that is
true or not; and inasmuch as all the Directors of the Associated
Industries have openly declared in this room that they have
nothing whatever to back up any of these charges, it devolves
upon the man behind them whose word they saw fit to take on
faith, and I think I have a right before we go any further to
test the credibility of this witness against the State or any of
its departments.

Certainly there isn't anything more political in the Assoc-
iated Industries than there is in the Traffic Club of New York,
or the Merchant Truckmen's Bureau, whose meetings I attended ;
but they never speak about how nominations ought to be made,
and I want to know why Mr. Daly used the name of the Assoc-
iation to create an atmosphere against political legislation*

CHAPTER XX
A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS

For years now in the local Democratic organization, Smith
has been regarded by all its orators as the master of those
who know. His methods have been studied by young men
who think they are gifted enough to speak to the people on
political issues. Smith found his most attentive audience
among the attendants at the speakers' bureau, as it is called.
These ranks are recruited from among young people who
show aptitude for influencing public opinion through the
medium of the spoken word. They are the orators of a
local Democratic campaign.

His address to these workers became an annual event. It
was usually delivered at the outset of a campaign and served
as a sort of general instruction to the rank and file of speak-
ers. It not only confined itself to a discussion of the
issues. It dealt with the way to handle those issues.

The Governor's speech before the members of the Speak-
ers' Bureau on October 9, 1922, may be considered a typical
Smith campaign address. It handles the complicated finan-
cial issues of that campaign simply and convincingly. The
point is enforced when made through the medium of intimate
history. There are references to the reports of State officials
which, seemingly clear, could have been made only by one
thoroughly familiar with the State government. It is quotable
for these reasons alone but its importance arises from the
circumstance that it is such a fine instance of the Smith
campaign spell':

(90)

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 91

Time was in public speaking when it was very easy to enter-
tain and amuse an audience with generalities, general state-
ments about the principles of Jefferson, the principles of Lin-
coln, etc. They were all right in. their time, but the men and
women who are listening to the campaign argument of today
want facts, and they want facts backed up by statistics as far
as you are able to give them. It is perfectly easy, as the New
York World said this morning in one of its editorials, for Gov-
ernor Miller in one part of the State to say that he saved
$28,000,000, and for Governor Smith to say in another part of
the State that he didn't do anything of the kind, but when that
is all finished the public is exactly where they were when the
argument started because it doesn't mean anything. The papers
are good enough to concede that we are both truthful gentle-
men; that certainly makes it pretty difficult for the listeners to
know which one of these statements ought to be accepted in
view of the fact that there is a paltry little difference between
us of $20,000,000.

I am going to dismiss this whole economy question with a
very short speech. There is a greater issue involved in this
whole economy question than the question of dollars and cents. "
The people would be very little concerned, as The World this
morning truthfully said, whether my administration cost a couple
of million less or a couple of million more than Governor
Miller's, if that was the only question involved, but there is a
bigger question, and there is a very great reason- why Governor
Miller stresses to the exclusion of nearly every other issue this
economy one, and it is this ;

In 1915 the Constitutional Convention recommended a reor-
ganization of the government of the State. Everybody here is
familiar with the argument for the reorganization of the gov-
ernment. It is sufficient to say that the government today of the
State -consists of some 185 distinct and independent spending
agencies. Anybody in this room who read the New York World
after last Saturday's convention will remember seeing the head-
line in the World that Governor Miller called "his two hundred
department heads into conference in the Executive Chamber."

92 ALFRED E. SMITH

The necessity for reorganization has been conceded. EKhu
Hoot, Colonel Stitnson, George W. Wickersham, Adalbert Moot
of Buffalo, and all the leading Republican and Democratic mem-
bers of a non-partisan organization have advocated this reor-
ganization of the government constantly since 1915.

On the first of January, 1920, in a very comprehensive mes-
sage, dealing with the whole history of the State government,
I referred to the legislature constitutional amendments to bring
about this reorganization. The first public meeting about it was
held at the Hotel Astor under the auspices of the Merchants'
Association of this city. Present at that meeting were myself
and Senator Sage, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
We debated this question. As a result of our debate, the Mer-
chants' Association approved of it. On the train to Albany I had
a quiet talk with Senator Sage. He is a friend of mine of a
good many years standing, and I said, "What do you think about
it?" He smiled and said, "There is nothing doing on it." He
had evidently made up his mind for the Senate .months ahead
of time. I gave the Senate and Assembly reasonable time to
study it out. At the end of a certain period, I started to speak
through the State. I went to Buffalo, I went to Syracuse, I
went to Rochester, I went to Utica, I went over to Brooklyn and
I spoke again here in Manhattan. In every place I spoke boards
of trade, business men's associations, women's organizations
were unanimous in their endorsement of the plan.

The pressure began to be felt by the members of the legisla-
ture. It got a bit stronger than they were able to withstand,
and consequently Senator Sage started on a tour of the State,
and he went to Rochester and spoke about it. The following
day I had a copy of Senator Sage's Rochester speech in front
of me and I called a meeting in Albany, and invited him to
come over to Chancellor's Hall in the Education Building and
discuss it with me before the citizens of his own city, of his
own constituency. That he declined to do. I spoke there any-
way. The result of it was that in 1920, with the pressure of
Root, with the pressure of Wickersham, with the pressure of
the big leading figures of the Republican party, the amendments

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 93

passed the Senate and passed the Assembly. So far, so good.
We left Albany at the end of 1920 victorious as far as we had
gone.

In 1921 Governor Miller arrived in Albany with his mind and
his heart set against this program, and I say to you tonight,
without fear of contradiction, that the only reason why he was
against it was because I favored it so vigorously, and because
I taunted him with it so much during the campaign of two years
ago when he refused to discuss it with me, and insisted upon
talking about the St. Lawrence River and Article X. However,
he was unable to stop it in the Senate, the pressure was too
strong, and the amendments went through the Senate. Then they
came up in the Assembly, and after a conference between the
Speaker of the Assembly, the Republican leaders of the Assem-
bly and the Governor, himself, the amendments were thrown in
the waste basket. A motion to discharge the committee in the
Assembly brought out 58 votes of the required 76, and the
Speaker of the Assembly was only able to stop the 76 by a per-
sonal appeal to stand by him to the different chairmen of the
committees he had appointed.

Well, of course, naturally that brought on quite a storm. It
would be unreasonable to think that that action on the part of
the Governor would not meet with a great deal of resentment
on the part of the members of his own party; and they ap-
proached him and spoke to him on the subject and Hs answer to
them was that it is not necessary to have constitutional amend-
ments to bring about this reorganization. We can do it without.
He had the reputation, he still enjoys it, of being a great con-
stitutional lawyer and a great many of the people interested stood
back and gave him a free hand to bring about these improve-
ments and this reorganization of the Government, if it was pos-
sible for him to do it, but he knew when he promised that he
could not do it. He knew it just as well as I did. So what did
he do? He had to smoke-screen the whole performance in
Albany In order to satisfy this influential group inside of his
own party. He had to falsify the figures. He had to put his
name to figures of appropriation that he knew were not right.

94 ALFRED E. SMITH

Now that is pretty strong, vigorous language it is the only kind
that you can use, because it is right.

The Governor, boasting of his economy, said that he reduced
the cost of the Government by $10,000,000. No man can make
that statement and expect to get away with it unless it is true.
I never fool with a financial statement because I was in Albany
too long. I know you can't do that. It's all right at the time,
but there comes a day of reckoning. It's all right enough to say
the figures don't lie, but liars figure.

The Governor gave out the statement that the total appropri-
ations for the cost of the Government in the first year was
$135,000,000. He spread that all over the State$10,OOQ,000
less than Smith. Smith was $145,000,000. "We had an era of
great extravagance and great waste in the Government, and by
the application of business methods and by reorganization, by
the quick process of legislation rather than the slow method of
constitutional amendment, I have in my first year effected a
saving of $10,000,000."

What are the facts ? Get the Comptroller's report for 1921
and turn to page 229, and you ,will find on page 229 of the 1921
Comptroller's report the total appropriation is $149,126,507.43.
The State Comptroller did not have any reason to be personally
friendly to the Governor. The State Comptroller was under
indictment while he was running for office two years ago, and
the Governor was quite peeved about it, and he didn't reach out
his hand to help his friend on the ticket. He did everything to help
himself, and the Comptroller realized it and the Comptroller's
figures are right.

Now, how does the Governor arrive at $135,000,000? How does
he get that $14,000,000 off? Why, a simple process. He under-
takes, himself, to say what ought to be counted in his appropria-
tions. Well, of course, any Governor who is permitted to do that
can make almost any kind of a record.

You are going out to speak to the people of New York here.
Nothing is as dull as figures. You can acquaint yourself with
them, but you won't get very far. It is all right to be talking
about a few million here or there, nobody thinks about that, they
don't remember it more than half an hour after they hear it, but

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 95

for the man on the street this is a practical question. If the
Governor saved $14,000*000 where is it? Who's got It, and in
wfeat way was it reflected ? Now if you were at the head of a big
business and the superintendent of one of your departments came
in and said, "I am just after saving $500,000," the next question
you'd want to know is, "where is it ?" I think that is human.

Well, let's see where it is. How it is reflected. Who got the
benefit of it. The State raises money in two ways, by indirect
taxation and by direct taxation. Direct taxation is levied against
incomes and against real and personal property. That is direct
taxation. Indirect taxation is levied against certain business
transactions or against the estates of people who have died. There
has been no reduction in any of the direct taxation except one
year, which I will explain in a minute. Hold that thought in
your mind. The indirect tax is exactly the same with the excep-
tion of the automobile tax, which has been increased and the
State reached out in the last two years to tax a new industry
that has heretofore never been taxed, moving pictures, from
which there has been an income of substantially $3,000,000.
Well, we haven't saved anything to the taxpayers so far.

Now, where is the $20,000,000? Is it in your surplus fund
of the State ? In other words, have we put it in the bank for a
rainy day? No, we didn't do that, because we took something
out of the bank and I will tell you how that was taken out. The
Governor claims to have saved the direct tax on realty and per-
sonalty in 1922. In 1920 the Legislature passed an act putting
into effect the soldiers' bonus that was voted on by the people in
1920. It contained provision not only for the collection of the
tax for the bonds for the soldiers' bonus, but contained a pro-
vision for the tax on realty and personalty. Immediately after
the comptroller sent word to the treasurer of the different coun-
ties of the State and told him to collect his direct tax. On these
figures the bonus was to be paid. The Court of Appeals handed
down a decision declaring the soldiers' bonus to be unconstitu-
tional. The Attorney General immediately advised the Governor
that we had enough money in the surplus fund until the Legisla-
ture met and there was no need of collecting this direct tax.
Mind you, the Governor claims the credit of saving it, and then

96 ALFRED E. SMITH

sets out to spend it and nothing stopped him but the Court of
Appeals. Now the Legislature comes back in session in 1922.
In the meantime when he found out that it was possible to get
away from that entirely and claim it as a saving he did it, but
where did he get the money from. He took it out of the surplus
fund. He just went to the State surplus and took that money out
of it. Now that represents no saving any more than a man or a
woman could claim they saved some part of their salary in a
year provided they paid their rent out of their bank account or
drew upon their principal. So that when you get finished with
it there is no saving.

The State share of the income tax is about $18,000,000. With
$41,000,000 of surplus that I left when I left Albany, what could
he have done? He could have repealed the income tax and said
"that is the way to save money for you. You pay your income
tax to the Federal Government, we will run this State without
it." But he didn't do that because when you get all finished
there was no saving.

One of the very salutary features of the proposed reorganiza-
tion plan was an executive budget. The men interested in that
plan put as much stress into the necessity for an executive
budget as they did for the reorganization of the Government;
The Republican party promised to the people in the nation in
their platform of 1920 and put it on the ground of economy and
then denied it to the State. The Governor says, "Well, we will
take care of that, that can be done" ; and in one of his speeches
the other night he actually stood out before an intelligent New
York audience and told them he installed a scientific budget
system. What he did was to appoint a Board of Estimate and
Control made up of the Comptroller, himself, the Chairman of
the Finance Committee of the Senate and the Chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee of the Assembly. What have they
done? They never functioned. Under the law they were sup-
posed to submit a budget the first of January, 1922, and I will
personally take the responsibility in any part of this State for
the statement that they never functioned, and they never will.
That is not the way to control expenditures". Why, these men
that are talking about the Governor's scientific budget do not
know what an executive budget means.

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 97

Now, remember, that I believe strongly enough in democratic
government never to be guilty o any utterance that would
indicate that I believed a legislative body ought to be robbed
of any of its power. I will never stand for that. I look upon
the Senate and the Assembly as the people themselves, under
our form of government. I want to take none of their power
away. I want to leave it with them. But I want the people to
control the manner in which they exercise it. Now let's see
what I mean by that. If the Governor is responsible to the
people for the finances of the State, and the head of a depart-
ment declares the amount needed to run that department for
the next year, why should the Legislature increase it? That is
what they do. They never decrease it, they increase it. They
can arbitrarily tell the head of a department what he must pay
his own secretary. I have known an instance of a department
head coming before a Senate Committee and saying, "There is
an item in here increasing the salary of a man that I do not
desire to increase because his services have not been such in
the last year as to warrant this increase, and I am afraid that
it will demoralize the whole department," and he was promptly
told by the Chairman of the Finance Committee that a certain
Senator wanted more money for that man and he had to take it.

Now after all was said and done this so-called scientific bud-
get of the Governor was again prepared in the Legislature, It
was prepared under the same influences and in the same manner
that it has been prepared in the last twenty-five years. Through
its every line it was the subject of log-rolling and of compro-
mise. After the Legislature passes the family budget just the
same as the housewife puts down the rent, the gas, the butcher,
the baker, the absolutely necessary things to run the house, put
that in the bill, let nobody interfere with that, but after that
is disposed of, then let's talk about the desirable things that we
would like to do with the State's money. In discussing these,
discuss them in the open, not when they are clouded in a bill
of nine hundred pages. If a man wants to build a bridge over
the great Sodus Bay, let him get up before two hundred and
twenty-one men and explain the obligation of the State to build
that bridge, but don't hide it in a bill that has nine hundred
pages in it and that nobody see,s until they see the construction

98 ALFRED E. SMITH

of the bridge beginning. That is common sense. That is good,
sensible government. That is in effect, and in a few words, what
the executive budget means. Now I must not spend too much
time on this, because I have so many other things. However,
the point is this, it is not a question of finance or of appropria-
tions, it is a bigger issue Can a Governor come before the
people of this State, and in order to silence a disappointed
group misrepresent to the people of the State what are the
actual financial facts, and what are the real figures?

That is exactly what has taken place, and to my mind it is
an issue infinitely greater than whether there was $1,000,000
difference between us or there was not. As a cold matter of
fact, reduced down to figures, the difference between my last
year and Miller's first year is less than $200,000, although he
ran, into a period of falling prices. I bought sugar for the
inmates of the State institutions at 25c a pound. He came in
when he could buy it for 5c. Clothing, supplies, medicines,
everything that is needed, everything that the housewife buys
is bought for the State, and was bought in 1919 and 1920 when
the cost of these supplies was at the very peak in the history of
the State. Now I will pass from that phase of it to some-
thing else.

The Governor, the other night, made a speech, and there is
no doubt that he will make this speech in New York City,
because he may feel that there it will have a special appeal. I
want to give you the facts so that you will have them and be
prepared to answer. The Governor says that the Smith up-
State Public Service Commission increased car fares. In the
first place Smith never had any up-State Public Service Com-
mission. During my whole time I appointed two men for that
Commission out of five, and I don't think that any Democrat
in this State can ever feel ashamed to stand behind the record
of Judge Kellogg, of Glens Falls, and George Van Namee, of
Watertown, because two straighter, two better and two more
clean-cut men do not live in the history of the political life of
this State. So that nails that assertion right away. Smith had
no up-State Public Service Commission. The other three remain-

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 99

ing members of it Judge Irvine, a Democrat, appointed to office
by a Republican, never came to see me in the two years I was
there. The other two men were Republicans. It is true that
they raised car fares, but they had their choice between raising
car fares and no transportation. The small cities up-State have
entirely different problems from those we have to deal with
down here. There is usually one railroad in a small city and in
nearly every instance the rate of fare was a part of the fran-
chise, and the Public Service Commission refused to act on it
until the properly constituted officials of the city themselves
came before the Public Service Commission and joined with
the railroad to the end that the cars may be kept running. Now
that is the cold matter of fact about it and they can talk about
it as much as they like.

As far as the telephone situation is concerned the Public
Service Commission in 1919 before Van Namee was appointed
reduced the telephone rate. After the reduction was made the
Bureau of Women in Industry in the State Industrial Com-
mission, in response to widespread complaint throughout the
State about the telephone service, made a survey throughout
the State, and they brought pressure to bear for an increase of
salary for the girls who were operating the telephones in the
State. The figures necessary to do it were brought before the
Public Service Commission and the Public Service Commission
was placed in the position of either granting that increase or
of turning to the Bureau of Women in Industry and telling them
that these girls had to remain working at a salary that did not
keep them in decent health and comfort.

That is the answer to that.

Don't let anybody on the stump from the other side say any-
thing to you about the local Public Service Commission trying
to raise the fares down here. That is 99.99 per cent, pure bunk
and I will tell you why. They couldn't do it. If they could do
it, why did Miller amend the law so as to permit his Commission
to do it? He didn't have to bring down upon himself the con-
demnation of a united press. He didn't have to arouse the
wrath of the City Administration and the people o New York
City by taking away from the Board of Estimate the control

100 ALFRED E. SMITH

over their contracts if the power already resided in the Public
Service Commission to do it Now that is the real fact about it.

There probably never was, in the history of legislation in this
State a more brutal and more wicked invasion of the home rule
rights of the citizens of a great community than the Governor's
transit bill. What newspaper condemnation did he escape?
Newspapers that have devoted their columns to promoting the
success of the Republican party since the Civil War condemned
him for it.

The only reason he did it was, the power did not reside in
any State official to change the provisions of that contract and
the five-cent fare is a part of the contract. He knew that and
he transferred that power from the City Hall to the Public
Service Commission and then he says that Nixon, my appointee,
wanted to do it when he knows himself as a lawyer and as a
former judge that Nixon couldn't do it. If Nixon could do
it he was a terrible fool to change the law, because he could
have let his own Commission he appointed after Nixon do it
without bringing all this condemnation on himself. What did
he recommend?

It would not do for us to go through this campaign finding
fault and talking about the other man. We must have a con-
structive side. We must be prepared to say what we are going
to do.

Now, what is our platform plank? I don't remember the
exact language, but I read it over several times, and I know
what it provides. It provides for a very radical change in the
State's policy of dealing with all public service commissions by
transferring that power to the local authorities. Now what Is
wrong about that? The Republican party will never take the
position that that is too much home rule because they're
promising that

On July i, 1907, the State of New York embarked upon the
policy of regulating public utilities through a commission.
Legislative power was granted to this commission. Every
man, woman and child in the State knows that it has been
unsuccessful, not only in New York, but throughout the State.
The people themselves in every large commuiuty have resented

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 101

this exercise of power from Albany because they look to their
local authorities.

Can any great mistake in policy be made by relieving us of
the transit commission in time and delegating the State's power
to the elected officials in the Board of Estimate and Appor-
tionment to regulate public utility corporations? If anybody
challenges that statement ask them this question : say to them,
give me one reason, just tell me one reason why the State of
New York ought to build a railroad in the City of New York
any more than it ought to build a sewer or a bridge. It is the
only city in the State v where the State does do it.

They will answer it by saying this is the only city that has a
partial municipal ownership of any utility. That is not a com-
plete answer because the principle involved is what we are
talking about and if Rochester or Syracuse to-morrow made
up its mind to build a subway Td like to see the man that
would have influence enough in Albany to induce that com-
munity to let the State build it for them. It couldn't be done.
Now there is a little story behind this construction of subways
by the State down here.

In 1907 when Governor Hughes put through the Public Serv-
ice Commission he didn't like that That question was put to
him very forcibly, .what right has the State got to be building
subways in the City of New York, Why not give that power
to the City of New York?

He was on the point of sending that bill back to the Legis-
lature for amendment turning that power over to the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment as far back as 1907, and he was
advised by the leaders of his own party in the Senate and
Assembly, that he had better not put the bill in the Assembly
because there was a great deal of opposition to it, and it might
fall to the ground. He said to one of the Senators who was
helping him ;with the bill in the Senate, "I suppose I will have
to take this as it is, but it is wrong in- principle."

Now, we have had a wonderful picture drawn for us of Gov-
ernor Miller. He ;was himself in his first year there in his
true colors, and he wore his own clothes and did his own think-

102 ALFRED E. SMITH

ing, and that is the year that every reactionary proposal that
he stood for got by him and got by the Legislature.

Up in Poughkeepsie the other night he talked about my idea
of representative government. One of the fundamentals of the
Constitution guarantees to peaceable citizens the right of
assembly and to petition of the Governor. A group of women
went up to the Governor to petition the Governor for an eight-
hour day law and a bill for maternity and child care. His reply
was that they were a menace to the community. He has never
denied it. He repeated it the other night But when the sec-
ond year rolls around and he has to make an account of his
stewardship he has a different group of advisors around him.
He changes the picture a bit. He must now become a ;wel->
fare Governor. Here in his second year he poses as the wel-
fare Governor and says he did something for the children and
the women in his maternity bill. Why he didn't do a thing
more than he had to do<. The Federal Government put it up
to him. "Will you match the appropriation of the Federal
Government for maternity aid?" and he said, "No, well have
our own maternity aid,'* and he appropriated $130,000 to help
them. Maternity aid! They appropriated $200,000 for the
propagation of fish. He put them into springs of the Adiron-
dacks, and .we got $130,000 for maternity aid, and Senator
Davenport from Utica on Monday night, with his cut-a-way
coat and a big long shoelace on his eye-glasses stands up before
the Assembly and talks about the eight hundred wo-men in the
State outside of the City of New York who died in one year
from child-birth.

In 1919 I presented to the Legislature a comprehensive plan
dealing with the whole question of maternity and child aid by
offering to the counties the money of the State to match what
they'd put up for the erection and maintenance in every county
of a health center. It came to me from Dr. Biggs of the Health
Department They threw it in the waste basket. Who is
responsible for the eight hundred mothers that died or the
sixteen hundred rather that died in the two years since they
threw that bill away;

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 103

He claims the extension of children's courts. Why, bless
your soul, he had to do that because it's an amendment to the
Constitution that we adopted last fall. He didn't think of it
in the first year, he did it when the people of the State of New
York by constitutional amendment told him to do it, not a min-
ute sooner.

Compulsory extension of the boards of child welfare is all
right It was recommended under me and thrown into the
waste basket at that time by the Republicans.

He talks a great deal about party responsibility. What about
the black, unspeakable record of his party during the two years
I was in Albany? How about that? Any reduction that he
actually made in any department of the State that he claimed
so much credit for in his speech of acceptance, I recommended
to a Republican Legislature and they refused to do it. Why
aren't they carrying around a little bit of the odium of passing
these things up as long as they want to talk party government ?

I will take the responsibility for the Democrats, the men of
my party. We stood behind every progressive measure in
those two years, and did our best to force them through. Some
of them passed the Senate only to go- to their death in the
Assembly. Among them t was the eight-hour law, the minimum
wage law and bill for water power development under State
ownership.

All of a sudden the Governor has taken a great interest in
labor in this State and labor wants one thing. It wants a
proper enforcement of the existing factory code. It's the best
factory code in this country. All that labor wants is its
enforcement. But that is just exactly u what labor is not get-
ting; because the appropriations for that department were so
curtailed and cut as to render it practically ineffective. Now
what good' would the penal law be if we didn't have any police-
men? You might just as well not have it. It costs the citizens
of this city about $25,000,000 a year to enforce the penal
statutes. The State of New York has its great labor code, but
no enforcement. It has exactly yvhat the lobby wants that
comes to Albany every year representing the manufacturers.

104 ALFRED E. SMITH

You can write all the nice laws you want protecting the work-
ingman and the lobby won't say a word, but just as soon as you
try to put up the money to enforce it, that is different and the
comparison of appropriations will show that Governor Miller
stripped that department by very nearly $1,000,000,

Workmen's compensation is something that wo-rkingmen are
interested in, both men and women. Under the guise of a
reorganization and behind the smoke screen of rebuilding the
department, what happened? There was written into the
Workmen's Compensation Act again, after all the labor we
had to take it out, that vicious clause that permits the insurance
companies to deal directly with the injured people.

I submit that there is the meanest thing you can do, to leave
poor unfortunates, and for the most part, people ignorant of
their rights under the law, at the mercy of the great insurance
companies for immediate settlement, while the wolf of hunger
is stalking at the door-mat and sickness and death may be in
the house. In 1915 a member of the Assembly from Chautau-
qua County stood up on the floor of the Assembly and said that
he met during his vacation period a representative of a great
insurance company and that representative told him that if the
Republican party won they were going to write a direct settle-
ment clause in the compensation act. They came down to
Albany and they did it

They did it after two or three weeks of the worst fighting
that ever happened. The Republican members of the Assem-
bly jvere brought into the caucus and the party whip was
applied, not from Albany, but from the seat of power, from
where the nomination came and the home leaders of the differ-
ent Assemblymen were called on the long distance telephone
and the whip put to them to pass that bill providing for direct
settlement. I appointed a Commissioner to investigate and he
laid before the Senate the names and addresses of the men and
women in this State who were cheated out of what belonged
to them under the law by the operation of the direct settlement
clause. Why the Senate and the Assembly were unable to
stand up under it.

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 105

It was an argument that nobody could answer.

The result t was that we were successful in taking it out, but
back in again it goes in 1921 under the guise of a reorganiza-
tion of the department That is the service that has been
rendered to labor by the Governor and he, in his new position,
wants to be known as a welfare Governor.

Fd like before I finish to ask anybody here if they want to
ask me a question* Probably ,we could bring something out in
that way. Anything that you have any doubt about connected
with the State Government or the campaign as far as it has
gone.

If not, I would make this suggestion that at any time during
the campaign if you see any statement that doesn't seem to fit
in with t what I have talked about tonight I will be glad to* com-
municate with any member of this Bureau if they just come to
me with the story or get it to me. I will answer it myself for
you, and I .will give you the facts because I would be entirely
unwilling to make any statement here tonight, knowing that
you are going out to make that statement after I do, unless I
know it to be absolutely right I only ask you to say what I
say myself and what I promise I ;will back up before anybody
and before the world.

QUESTION : What about the Ltisk Education bills, Governor ?

MR. SMITH: Very important The Lusk Education Bills.
This is something you ought to know because when Governor
Miller talks representative or group government here's where
you can nail him to the mast, and he hasn't got a chance of
escape. Is it representative government; is it democratic gov-
ernment, for the State to subject the great army of school
teachers of this State to a test as to their loyalty to the coun-
try? Why nothing of that kind k was suggested in Prussia in
the days of Prussian autocracy when the military meant every-
thing.

No group of citizens engaged in the important business of
teaching the youth, moulding the character of the future citi-
zen, would be subjected to that inquisitorial power through
State agency.

106 ALFRED E. SMITH

I will tell you what the law does. They send to the principal
of a school a blank sheet of paper and require him to put down
the names of the teachers under that principal and the principal
is to check off the ones he believes to be loyal, to check off the
ones that he is doubtful about and to check off ones whose dis-
loyalty, in his opinion, there is no question about. They will
tell you that that doesn't become public property. My answer
to that is that there is no official document in this State that is
not public property. You may try to keep it hidden away, but
you can't do it, and you shouldn't do it, and you shouldn't be
permitted to do it. The principal's list goes to Albany to the
Board of Regents. Isn't that a nice situation? Isn't that a
wonderful bill for a Governor to accept who talks about rep-
resentative government ?

To take the opinion of some one person about some other
person's loyalty to the country? And the greatest sin of all is
that the accused person, accused by his immediate superior as
a matter of State record, is never given an opportunity to dis-
pute it

Equally pernicious and equally vicious is the bill requiring
the licensing of private schools. Let that be carried to the final
extremity and look at the opportunity there is for the exercise
of bigotry throughout the State that could never be counte-
nanced at the present moment in this enlightened age and
generation.

The two Lusk Bills were the outgrowth of a political brain-
storm that hit the -Senate and Assembly and to- devise these
wonderful safeguards against the enemies of the country we
spent about $200,000 in counsel fees, and a great army of men
lived in royal splendor at the Murray Hill Hotel for the best
part of the legislative session, while the theatres were in full
blast on Broadway.

I feel I have encroached upon the time of the other men by
talking more than an hour, but I am full of the subject and I
want to have you feel the same way and get the same notion
and idea that I have, and I can only repeat that at any time
during the campaign you hear of anything that shakes your

A TYPICAL CAMPAIGN ADDRESS 107

faith in anything I have said or has to do with any administra-
tion, just get in touch with me right away, and I will straighten
it out

I am thankful to the committee and thankful to the Speakers'
Bureau for bearing with me and I will ask the other speakers
to excuse me if I leave right away because I need a clean, dry
collar and a bath.

CHAPTER XXI
His CAMPAIGN SPELL

Smith's campaign spell is bound up with his personality.
On the stump his speeches are heart to heart talks with
his audiences. He never indulges in cant. His phrases
have the simplicity and the freshness of the man himself.

Smith dictates every important speech to his stenog-
rapher. He prepares by outlining what he wants to cover.
He makes sure that all the material is at hand. During a
campaign when he is forced to give the newspapers advance
copy of what he is going to say, he will dictate his principal
themes for the address of the evening. When the address
is typed he will ask for a copy, read it over and prepare
the famous envelopes.

He will take a sheaf of legal size envelopes and on each,
with a particular lead pencil with a very thick lead, write
in his own hand, the topic head with a few sub-heads as
reminders of the points he wants to make. Each envelope
is devoted to one topic only. If he wants to read a docu-
ment he has it in a convenient file folder. He personally
checks over his material to make sure that what he may
need to emphasize a point or answer a question, is at hand.
Then he is ready.

With the envelope on the desk, he will often repeat his
dictated speech,, so uncanny is his memory. Newspaper
men who have followed him from their advance copy have
marvelled at his capacity to keep to the text from the
headings on his magic envelope. Often., however, Smith

(108)

HIS CAMPAIGN' SPELL 109

is at his best in repartee, in answering interruptions and
in making a sally at his opponent from some local last
minute references which he could not anticipate in his pre-
pared address.

His eloquence comes not from his voice, although that is
resonant and large, nor from his gestures, free and vigor-
ous as are these. His arms swing from somewhere near
his heart. He bends forward at times like a perspiring
evangelist and talks into the very depths of his hearers'
souls. His is a persuasiveness which comes from some-
thing about him that compels confidence* His gestures, his
words and his thought are all parts of that unique whole
the Al Smith personality.

But at more formal gatherings of trained minds or before
a Chamber of Commerce or a group of experts, this man of
the people presents his subject with a consecutiveness of
thought, an ease of manner and an absence of gesture char-
acteristic of a lecturer rather than of a campaigner. The
response from such an audience is just as effective if less
demonstrative than from a popular meeting.

He has an instinct for the style that fits the occasion.
While his informal manner on the stump is vigorous and
forceful, his dignity on other occasions is equally natural.
His friends have called it "The Governor's university man-
ner/' But it is less a manner than an outward expression of
that sense of fitness which has made him in his official
capacity as Governor, "every inch His Excellency/'

Nothing is easier than citation of chapter and verse by way
of illustrating his characteristics as a speaker. For example,
early in the 1923 campaign for the Assembly, the Republican
Women's State Executive Committee issued a circular en-
titled "Give the State a Chance/' It was a severe arraignment
of the Governor's record and charged him with increasing
appropriations by $23,000,000. At a meeting of the

110 ALFRED E. SMITH

Democratic State Committee on Friday evening, Septem-
ber 28, the Governor spoke. Displaying the circular to the
audience and reading from it, he proceeded to answer the
statements made. The following excerpt is given as an
example of his method of polemic on the stump :

At the close of the Legislature I put out a statement in which
I dealt with every item of the appropriations made last winter.
If a person will only train his intelligence on this for a minute
he can see how ridiculous it is. The Assembly was in the hands
of the Republicans. The Governor cannot appropriate any
money, and every dollar of the $165,000,000 had to have the
approval of the Republican Assembly before I could sign it.
You don't need to go into any detail about it. Just take the com-
mon sense of it. In the statement I put out I coupled it with
what in my opinion was a challenge to debate that appropriation
bill with anybody in the State of New York. If they didn't take
it or understand it to be a challenge, I put it forth tonight as a
direct one, i

The next thing is interesting, too "He doubled the tax rate."
That isn't true. Whoever told that to the ladies should have told
them this that I put back into the direct tax the amount that
Governor Miller deducted from it, because Governor Miller,
when he deducted it, took the $22,000,000 out of the surplus.
You can't take it out twice. Let me say for their benefit that it
would not make any difference who was elected last fall, the
mill and a half would have to go back on the direct tax because
the surplus of the State only stands one draft as big as $22,-
000,000.

Here is an old worn-out joke: "He had put on the payrolls
five hundred and twenty-five new jobs for Tammany hench-
men/' That is getting played out. A Statement of that kind in
this enlightened day and age is an insult to the intelligence of
the people of this State. There isn't a man or a woman around
Albany who doesn't know that the contrary of that statement is
true. I know it because I know how hard it was to do it.

"And he raised the pay of 1961 Tammanyites." Why, there
aren't that many people on the payroll of the State outside of

HIS CAMPAIGN SPELL 111

the institutions. Of course, what they meant was that all the
nurses, and all the attendants, and all the kitchen help, and all
of the people that are charged ' directly with the care of the
insane, got an increase of salary. According to my Republican
lady- friends, they are all Tammanyites even those up in Go-
wanda Hospital in Buffalo !

There's ,one statement they make that has a humorous side.
You know, I can't think of anything so depressing as public
office if a man is without a sense of humor. It must be awful.
I know I couldn't stand it. It's the little amusement I get
that compensates for a great many headaches. Think of this
one: "He seeks a four-year gubernatorial term elected in. the
even off years when the Republican party is not choosing a
President"

So it's the Republican party, and not the people, who
chooses the President, Smith exclaimed.

In the Fall of 1923, the Democratic women, conscious of
the need of political education along broad lines, conceived the
plan of establishing a School of Democracy in which women
irrespective of parties were invited to participate.

The school offered lectures by prominent Democratic
authorities on the principles of the party, the problems of the
practical workings of the City, State and national depart-
ments of government. General political questions were dis-
cussed by experts as well as political issues of interest to the
voters. This institute of politics attracted women from
many states. Over three hundred of them registered and
took an eight weeks* course in the Hotel Commodore. The
last address was delivered by Governor Smith. The demand
to hear him was so great that the "school" moved to the Town
Hall tq hear him.

This address illustrates Smith's way of driving home an
argument with the aid of history. It is also a characteristic
defense of his social and progressive policies advocated by
him in the Legislature in the Constitutional Convention of
1915 and as Governor.

112 ALFRED E. SMITH

I shall speak of the essential difference in this State between
the two parties, as I have viewed it m my active political career,
which dates back over twenty years.

Let us take up one at a time the great subjects of public
interest, and let us compare the attitude of the parties; and. when
I speak of this I speak according to the record, and nobody
can dispute it. If there is anything I say from this platform
to-night that anybody desires to dispute, let them come up on
this platform at any time they choose, I will be here,

No. 1. The Income Tax. What is the record of the two
parties ? The income tax amendment to the Federal Constitution
was submitted to the Legislature of 1910, then under the com-
plete control of the Republican party. And what did they do
with it? They rejected it. They were unwilling to say that
great wealth ought to bear its share of the burden of govern-
ment. They were unwilling to subscribe to the indisputable
principle that he who benefits the most should pay accordingly.

Governor Hughes was then in office as Governor, United
States Senator Wadsworth was the Speaker of the Assembly,
and the proposal to ratify the Federal Income Tax was defeated
in the Assembly, which was under Federal direction and under
Republican organization command in 1910.

You see how easy it is for me to issue the challenge, because
I just quote history. It cannot be disputed. In the fall of 1910
a Democratic governor was elected and a Democratic Legisla-
ture was elected, and in the spring of 1911 the amendment to
the Constitution providing for the income tax was adopted by
the State. There cannot be any dispute about that. Nobody will
deny it it is history.

What position would the country have been in in her hour of
trial, in her hour of tribulation during the war, if she was
denied by the provisions of her own Constitution the power to
levy an income tax against the people who could best afford to
sustain the country ? And so far as the record of that particular
subject is concerned in this State, it is distinctly a Democratic
achievement, as against a reactionary performance on the part
of the Republican party.

No. 2. Direct Election of United States Senators. That

HIS CAMPAIGN SPELL 113

amendment came to this State for ratification in 1911 and was
bitterly opposed on the floor o both Houses of the Legislature
at Albany by the then Republican minority. It was adopted
and the State of New York was put squarely on record for
that progressive measure by the votes of the Democrats in the
Senate and Assembly, against the forceful and vigorous opposi-
tion of the Republicans. About that there can be no question.

After some great constructive reform is achieved there are
always a great number of people looking for the credit. In
view of the history, how can anybody deny to the Democratic
party in this State the credit for putting the State of New
York in line for enfranchisement of women? You know, there
is a funny little history goes with it that I think I ought to tell
you. I ought to go back a little bit back further than the
twenty years I spoke about.

Prior to 1894 there was nothing in our Constitution in this
State prohibiting women from voting. It was in the election
law, the statute law of the State. The Constitution was silent
on the subject, but the statute law, known as the election law,
contained certain qualifications for voters; and among the qualifi-
cations was that a voter must be a male. Roswell P. Flower
was Governor, and there was a bill passed in both Houses of
the Legislature striking the word "male" out of the law. It
came down to the Governor, and it lay on his desk for quite a
little while. Wonderful pressure and wonderful influence was
brought to bear on him, and he did not sign it, and it was lost
in what is known as the omnibus veto among thirty-day bills.

The following year the Republicans, in full and absolute con-
trol of the Constitutional Convention, took from that experience
a warning, and it was they who wrote into the Constitution of
this State the word "male." It was the Republican party that
by constitutional law for twenty years prohibited women from
voting in this State. They were in power from 1894 right
through to 1911, and during all of that period a proposal to
amend the Constitution could never even be reported from the
committee for discussion. When it was reported it was pursuant
to a Democratic platform plank which promised the people of
this State that they would submit the question, and I was the
Speaker of the Assembly that handed down that report of the

114 ALFRED E. SMITH

Committee on Judiciary, offering to the people of this State the
opportunity -to pass upon this question.

Look at the returns of the election of 1917, and study out the
political situation in the light of neighborhoods. It is a matter
of fact, it is a matter of history, that cannot be disputed, that
the votes to carry the amendment enfranchising the women
came from the sections of the State that for half a century
have been known to be strongly Democratic.

I have said in the course of political debate time and again
that every big constructive reform in the government of this
State was put through under Democratic auspices. Let us prove
it by dates and facts and by figures. Taking them, not neces-
sarily in the order of their importance, let us study the history
of the Workmen's Compensation Act. That policy of the State
placed New York State in the very forefront of all the States
in the Union which had a constructive, intelligent and progres-
sive Workmen's Compensation Act Who passed it ? A Demo-
cratic senate and Democratic assembly, and it was signed by a
Democratic Governor. Our Republican friends went through
the motions of investigating the subject a popular Republican
pastime.

Investigate things, but don't do anything about them. Some-
times the report of the Committee satisfies the clamor and the
appetite of the people for a little while, but meanwhile another
year passes over us and as long as nothing happens everybody
is happy. That is the characteristic standpat policy of the Re-
publican party in this State. The Legislature convenes on the
first Wednesday in January and the Republicans are exceedingly
happy if they can wind it up as soon as possible, so that nothing
happens.

It is a matter of history and of common knowledge that during
the administration of Governor Hughes in this State the Repub-
lican party was torn from stem to stern in a bitter fight over
whether the people would make nominations for office or the
bosses would make them and the bosses won. Governor Hughes
left Albany on the first of September to take his place on the
Supreme Court bench at Washington, and when he left the
caoitol he said, "Thanks be to Almisrhtv God."

HIS CAMPAIGN SPELL 115

He was not running away from Democrats. As a matter of
fact, there were not enough of them up there to hurt him. But
he was running away from a mess within his own party. They
investigated direct primaries and they talked about them. They
fixed the appropriation bill so that the investigating committee
would have the expenses of their trip to the Western States
paid by the State, whether the Governor liked it or not. This
brought about, an interesting episode in the State's history. The
Governor struck out the appropriation for the traveling expenses
of a committee that was going to investigate whether or not
.the enrolled voters ought to make their own nominations. He
struck it out of the appropriation bill, and then he heard that
the committee were on their way and had actually proceeded.
He sent for the Deputy Comptroller and he said, "Are these
men paying their own expenses?" "I don't think so," was the
reply. 'Well," he said, "that's funny, because I took that item
out of the appropriation bill." And the Deputy Comptroller said,
"Well, you only took it out once, and it was in twice." They
were bound to investigate it, and of course the theory of investi-
gating it was to be sure to bring back a report that it was not
any good.

Which party gave to the people of the State a thoroughgoing
direct primary bill a primary bill that opened up the door of
party to the enrolled voters and turned its machinery com-
pletely over to them? The Democratic party in 1913. It rested
on the statute books until 1919. The first assault upon it was
made while I was Governor, and one day there came down to
me an amendment to the election law providing for the restora-
tion of the convention system for the nomination of Supreme
Court judges. So I sent for one of the Republican leaders, and
I said, "What does this mean?" "Well," he said, "You know it's
all right, Al, on these strictly political nominations, but when it
comes to selecting judges of the Supreme Court," he said, "you
know a few people can always do that better than the mob."
I said, "Is that so?" "Well," I said, "that is just exactly in
direct opposition to my notions about it; because if there is one
official that the people themselves ought to nominate as well as
elect, it is a judge. If you brought that down to me and stated

116 ALFRED'S. SMITH

that with reference to an Alderman, or an Assemblyman, there
would be a chance for you, but the very reason you have given
is the reason why I won't sign that bill."

Flushed with the great victory of 1920, carried away by
that million one hundred thousand, intoxicated with the notion
and the thought that they had broken into the solid South, feel-
ing that the trend of thought and public opinion was going to be
their way for another generation to come, they went up to
Albany and emasculated the direct primary bill and gave us
back the convention system, not only for judges of the Supreme
Court, but for all the officials running statewide, and it enabled
the Governor to take control of the convention and declare whom
he would permit to run and whom he would not.

The characteristic exemplified by Smith here is clarity a
clarity which makes him a master of exposition. His theme
here is ordinarily involved by political speakers in clouds of
figures. Smith can deal with figures, with his prodigious
memory, but he conveys inferences from them to the most
mixed audiences with scarcely an effort or rather with no
trace of effort. Nor should it be thought that the forcible
quality of his language here and there is attended by any loss
of dignity.

Smith on the platform is an impressive figure because he
does not lose dignity, but it is never the stiffness, the pom-
posity and the heaviness usually associated with the idea. The
dignity goes along with earnestness the speaker is so tre-
mendously impressed, so sincere and so charged with his
theme that he makes it no less important to an auditor than
it is to himself. The humor, manifested at every phase of
the argument, is really incidental Hence a Smith speech is
unique in that when read it seems to reflect a far less serious
treatment of the subject than his hearers thought it. The
clarity of the exposition, however, is always delightful.

In the next part of the above speech Smith dealt in the
same trenchant way with Child Welfare and Labor Laws,

HIS CAMPAIGN SPELL 117

the legislation arising out of the Triangle Shirt Waist Fire,
and the shocking conditions tinder which women and chil-
dren worked in the canneries in the State.

The Republican clamor against the fifty-four-hcmr bill for
women engaged in industry was, "Industry will leave the State,
it will go over into Connecticut and it ( wiil go over into Massa-
chusetts, or it will go into Canada." They were unduly solici-
tous about manufacturers. We passed the fifty-four-hour bill.
None of them left this State.

Another one was the bill that abolished night work for
women. That statute was declared unconstitutional in this
State in 1904 by the Court of Appeals, upon the theory that it
interfered with a woman's liberty to contract for her labor. In
other words, she can do anything she likes in the way of con-
tracting to work. Why, nobody ever thought from that section
of o<ur Constitution it is taken from the Federal Constitution
that liberty ever jvas intended to mean the liberty of contract,
when that contract was against the public health or the public
welfare. That kind of liberty meant the liberty of the person
or the individual, as long as he lived within the laws, to- move
around and go .wherever he liked and do what he pleased if
he violated no statute. The same law, limiting the hours of
labor, the identical one, was sustained in 1914, ten years after,
by the very same court. In the opinion, the Chief Justice took
occasion to mention that the court sustained its constitutionality
because a report from a Commission of the Legislature laid
before that body indisputable evidence that working in the
night time was injurious to the health of women, and the health
of women was the greatest asset that the State co-uld have.

The prohibition of women working in, foundries, the one-day-
of-rest-in-seven Act, every one of these bills and every one of
these laws was written on the statute books of this State by a
Democratic Legislature and signed by a Democratic Governor.
Did they remain there peacefully? No. It has taken real
Democratic effort and real Democratic fighting in all the period
since 1913 up to today to keep them there. The one-day-of-
rest-in-seven has been compromised girith so much that there is

118 ALFRED E. SMITH

very little of it left. An attempt was made even in 1920 to
weaken the night-work law for women. And I remember it
distinctly. A man from an interior part of the State that is
made up entirely of farming communities, and practically no
factories in it, introduced the bill. Some of the newspaper
men came down to speak to me about it, and I said, "Well, it is
impossible for me to imagine what he can possibly have in his
mind. He forgets entirely that I am the father of this par-
ticular Act, and that I put it on the statute books, so far as the
lower house in Albany is concerned; and if he has an ounce of
brains he ought to know that I would let this Capitol crumble
around me before I ;would compromise with this principle in the
slightest degree."

I appointed a commission in 1913 that studied first, and after-
wards proposed, the Child Welfare Act. We took a progres-
sive step that has been followed by other States in the Union.
We took the unfortunate child which had been the beneficiary
of charity through institutional training and we provided a sys-
tem whereby that child remained home with its own mother and
she instead of the institution became the agency of the State
to protect it Did that beneficent measure have Republican
support or Republican sympathy? No<, the Republican leader
of the Assembly in arguing against it reached over the aisle
to me and said, "What about the grass widows, and what about
the children of the drunkard?" That was his conception of
it. That u was the Republican idea of it, and that it was pater-
nalistic. If it is to be done at all, they said, it must be done as
a matter of charity not as a matter of State duty, which was
the Democratic idea and the Democratic policy.

Somebody may , raise the question that Democrats only
thought of these things, that they did not think of business.
That is not true. The present banking code was enacted by
the Democratic Legislature of 1913. That has been time and
time again referred to as the most progressive act of its kind
probably in this country.

I am going to anticipate from the audience a very natural
question this question should, I presume, particularly come
from our visiting delegates of other States, The question is

Ax TWENTY-ONE AND ALREADY ACTIVE IN POLITICS

HIS CAMPAIGN SPELL 119

this: If everything that you say is true, how do you account
for Republican success in a State like this? That is a natural
question. I will answer it for you. The answer is this: The
Republicans have a world of money, no end of it, and they can
draw it from all the four quarters of the State by a single
motion. And they know how to use it. They maintain in Albany
a press bureau, and that press bureau circulates, broadcasts
throughout the State, into all the newspapers, even to the very
point of supplying the paper with the set-up type, ready to print.

We know the power of propaganda. Democrats know how
it was used in 1919 in this country. I heard Dr. Wise from
the platform of the Wieting Theatre in Syracuse make the state-
ment that the very day that Woodrow Wilson put his foot on
French soil there was a newspaper of the Republican National
Committee which started to discredit its own President at a
great crisis in the country's history. There is no doubt about
that, and what was published in papers in this country was sup-
pressed in France. France had a greater regard and a greater
respect for the leading representative of the greatest country in
the world than the country itself had.

The Democratic party has the great numbers and the great
crowd, but look how often they are led away from home by
false stories that come as a result of paid propaganda, the
result of actual payment in money to misrepresent. Nothing
strikes as forcibly at the foundation stone of democratic gov-
ernment as a wilful and deliberate misrepresentation of facts.
A man who cannot win any other way has not any place in the
public life of this country; if he cannot win on the record and
on the facts, he ought to stop. Because if you carry misrepre-
sentation to its logical conclusion, in the final analysis it means
that the greatest liar becomes the greatest man.

Something was said earlier in the evening about women being
naturally Democrats. I think the twenty-year history of the
performance of the two parties in this State could well be put
out, as abundant reason for asking women to affiliate with the
Democratic party.

In conclusion, and summing up in a few words, and viewing
that record, having in mind that history, it is just this: It is

120 ALFRED E. SMITH

the point of view with which you approach a thing the Re-
publican party in this State by its history and its record believes
that law in a democracy is some divine and eternal thing that
is designed or prepared to protect money, whereas, on the
other hand, the Democratic party believes that law in a democ-
racy is the expression of that particular thing that does the
most good for the greatest number and goes the furthest to
relieve and to protect and care for the great mass of the peo-
ple who, after all, make up the country*

CHAPTER XXII

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET

Smith's interest in what Albany so vaguely terms budget
reform the dullest of characterizations for the liveliest of
themes began in the Legislature.

Its first public manifestation is to be derived from the
records of the constitutional convention. This body had ap-
pointed a committee on State finances, and in that committee
there was warm debate on the subject of an executive budget.
Should such a thing be introduced into the State Constitu-
tion ? Might it not be best to ignore the topic by not report-
ing back upon it to the convention at all ?

One of the most closely reasoned and cogent reports of the
whole convention advocated an executive budget and it was
presented by Henry L. Stimson, who had been Taft/s Secre-
tary of War. Smith followed Stimson in dealing with this
budget problem* In an address manifesting perfect mastery
of the intricacies of it all, he showed that the executive
budget as then submitted failed to take into account the
chief cause of extravagance in the State government the
absence of a check upon the passage of local and private bills.
These were too often passed to favor representatives (chiefly
from up the State) whose political life depended upon keep-
ing pre-election promises to obtain State appropriations for
local improvements. Smith's citations of such bills and his
satirical comments on them tickled the risibilities of the con-
vention and pricked the knowing ones into discomfort. Smith
advocated an amendment based on what he called "Court of

122 ALFRED E. SMITH

Appeals language" to check this extravagance by requiring
a two-thirds vote for the passage of such bills. In the form-
ulation of his amendments to the financial sections of the
constitution, Smith displayed an uncanny capacity for fram-
ing legal language "fool-proof and tight."

A number of Smith's amendments to the financial sections
supplementary to the Executive Budget were accepted by
Chairman Stimson. "If you keep on making amendments to
the Constitution, Al," said one of his colleagues, "so much
of it will be your handiwork you will have to support it at
the polls."

Smith began his own remarks by reminding them that
upon this question of State appropriations he probably spoke
with as much personal experience as any man in the conven-
tion certainly with more than most of the delegates. He
reminded them that he had been chairman of the committee
on ways and means in 1911. He had been a member of it
ever since with the exception of the year 1913 when he was
Speaker and could not be on that committee.

"So that I can speak," he said, "from the practical side
rather than from the theoretical side. I am in accord with
the committee on the preparation outside of the Legislature
of a budget and its submission to the Legislature. But the
proposal set forth by the committee on finance and so well
and so ably explained by the gentleman from New York to
my way of thinking does not go half far enough." He de-
veloped his argument in this way :

That proposed budgetary reform reaches only about one-half
of the appropriations of the State. Now I take it that the budget,
so-called, will be what is known to-day as the Appropriation
Bill, or the bill commonly known as the one that makes pro-
vision for the maintenance of government.

In this year just passed that bill amounted to $32,000,000, but
there were $63,000,000 appropriated by the Legislature, so that

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 123

there are $31,000,000 still left to be taken care of by the system
that so much fault has been found with.

Now it may be urged that that is something for the Governor
to take care of, but I submit to this Convention that any man in
the Governor's chair, no matter who he may be, will be interested
in the first instance in having his budget that he recommends
to the Legislature as low as he can possibly make it. Now that
is practical, hard, common sense, and if we are unwilling to
recognize that we will never get anywhere in our discussion of
the proposed method of handling the State's finances.

It may be urged that all the special bills could be included
under the head of construction., if they belonged there ; improve-
ments, if they belonged there; but no Governor will ever put
them in there. Why? Because you have by the terms of your
own bill provided another way of doing it; a way which takes
away from him any criticism that may come to him for initiative
or suggestion, in the first instance, of this particular appropria-
tion, so that the $31,000,000 this year, had this been in effect this
year, the $31,000,000 of the $63,000,000 would have come tinder
the heading of what you refer to on lines 17 to 25, on page 3
of the bill as "further appropriations."

Now about that there can be no dispute. The bill the chair-
man spoke about for the bridge in Wayne county, the Governor
would never put that in the budget. That would belong among
the bills for further appropriation.

MR. STIMSON Will the gentleman yield for a question?

MR. A. E. SMITH I yield.

MR. STIMSON I did not mention the Wayne county bridge,
but I suppose you refer to the one I did refer to last winter. As
a matter of fact wasn't that vetoed by the Governor ?

MR. A. E, SMITH Yes.

MR. STIMSON Would it not be taken care of in the same way
under the system?

MR. A. E. SMITH The Governor would never include it in
the budget. That's my point.

MR. STIMSON But he would take care of it.

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes, precisely; but there are so many that
he did not take care of that I want to see about them and when

124 ALFRED E. SMITH

I get down to it I will explain it to the House. What happened
to Wayne county should have happened to several other bridges
and creeks and normal schools; but it did not happen and I
propose to show to the Convention that it was the intention, i I
am able to read simple English, it was the intention of the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1894, that no such bill as the Wayne
county bill should pass this House by seventy-six votes; and
the Committee has failed, so far as I am able to see, to cure
that situation, although it can be easily cured, and it was intended
that it be twenty years ago, as I propose to try and make it
today.

Now, when I submitted my Proposed Amendment requiring
the heads of the departments or the commissioners to make their
requests to the Governor under oath, I did not then have in mind
any budgetary system that would be prepared outside of the
Legislature itself, I had in mind simply publicity the incor-
poration, so to speak, of all these facts in the Governor's annual
message. The Governor is now required by law to submit to
the Legislature, at its first annual meeting, a statement of the
financial condition of the State. It is because that makes no
mention of proposed appropriations that nobody has ever been
interested in it. When it is read to the Legislature there is not
a man stays in his seat. It is printed and on the desk of the
members, and, except for the purposes of discussion on very
nearly every other part of it, except the financial article, it is
never heard of again.

So that if I were to say that a budget should be prepared by
any person I would say the man to prepare it would be the Comp-
troller, because the Comptroller can have no possible interest
in it And, again remarking that if we want to take a good com-
mon-sense view, good, hard, practical facts, let us now admit
that the Governor does have an interest in some departments
as against others. All Governors in that respect are alike. They
have all made their personal appointments, going back as far as
I can remember. Every Governor has had at the head of some
of the departments of the State somebody that he personally
appointed for reasons best known to himself. And under this
system, to say the least, there exists the temptation to the Gov-

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 125

ernor to see that these particular departments of the State have
all that they want, no matter who has to suffer for it. So that,
if there is anybody outside of the Legislature to prepare and
present a budget, in the ordinary course of affairs, in the ordi-
nary course of good business, it ought to come from the fiscal
officer of the State the Comptroller.

And it should contain a comparison with former appropria-
tions for those specific items. And, more important than any-
thing else and above everything else, it should put down in
black and white just how much money there is on the first day
of that January to the account of each one of these particular
funds. That is the one big thing that it should contain. There
is no machinery in the Governor's office for it. After all, it will
have to come from the Comptroller. Look over the list of the
Governor's employees. With the exception of the stenographers
and typewriters and the telephone operator and the pardon clerk
and his assistant, every single attache of the Governor's office
comes into office with him and retires when he retires.

MR, BRACKETT The military secretary, too.

MR. QUIGG Mr. Chairman, will Mr. Smith yield for a
question?

THE CHAIRMAN Will the gentleman yield for a question?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes.

MR. QUIGG Does the gentleman realize that in using the
term "Comptroller" he may be mistaking himself and us, until
we know what the plan of the Committee on Governor and Other
State Officers is ? If the Comptroller is to be merely an auditor,
as I understand is the idea, he is assigned to that one thing. If
he is to be the fiscal officer of the State, or, as it were, Secretary
of the Treasury what the Comptroller is now the gentleman
is talking about another officer, and I should like to inquire just
what he means by the use of the word "Comptroller"?

MR. A. E. SMITH Well, by "Comptroller" I mean the posi-
tion that the Comptroller now holds toward the departments of
the State, the fiscal officer. Now, whoever you may decide is
hereafter to be that fiscal officer, whether he is to be known as
the Secretary of the Treasury or the Comptroller or the head
of the department of the treasury, he will be the man that will
be in a position, as I see it, to properly supply this information.

126 ALFRED K SMITH

Now, as a matter of fact, where does this information come
from now? Does it come from the Comptroller's office? Not
at all. The Comptroller after his election is an individual man.
Elected in November, after a hard and strenuous campaign, he
goes away for a little while; takes a well-earned rest, comes
back in time to engage in the pomp and ceremony of the installa-
tion of the new State officers.

Now, who is it that prepares this budget ? Who is it that does
the work now required of the State Comptroller under the
Finance Law? The experts in the office of the Comptroller.
There are fifteen or sixteen men in the Comptroller's office today
who have been there upwards of twenty years.

The government changes. Comptrollers come and Comp-
trollers go; Governors come and Governors go with them; but
these men who are experts in the different lines of the State
finance have been there over twenty years, every one of them;
and that is the resort to which the Governor will have to go for
his information. If he was in office for a year, not to speak of
a month, that is where he would have to go ; and experience has
so taught every man in the Legislature that he does not even go
to the Comptroller himself, any more than the Finance Com-
mittees of both of these Houses consult with the Comptroller.
Everybody knows that that is not so. In the Legislature, the
different committees, the Finance Committees, they send for the
men who are at the heads of these different departments and who
are experts in. them. If you want to 1 find out anything about any
financial plan, you send for Deputy Comptroller Wendell, who
has been in the Comptroller's office for twenty years, and who
knows all about it ; and it is the same with the other department
heads over there. So that after all while this may appear to be
the result of action by the Governor, while it may appear an
executive budget, it will have to come from the office of the
Comptroller.

Now, there is another weakness about it. We must bear in
mind that about 80 per cent of your budget is statutory. Where
the abuses have crept into the finance matters of the State in
the past has been upon the initiation of new work, the committing
of the State to some great public improvement which is going

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 127

to cost a great deal more money than is appropriated for the
coming year. That is a very popular move in the second year
of every Governor's term. If he is not re-elected he finds it con-
venient to pass two-thirds of the buck to the next fellow. If he
is re-elected he is all right. So he does not hesitate to commit
the State to a series of local and private improvements which
may cost a half a million or even a million dollars, although
against his financial record there is only chargeable $50,000
because he only desires to have the plans drawn while he is
Governor. Now, that is a fact, and that comes within the budget,
and absolutely no remedy appears anywhere in this bill for that
condition, and that is the one thing that needs remedy more
than does the budget, because the budget, as I said before, is
practically 80 per cent, statutory. There can be no change in
the salaries fixed by statute.

MR. BRACKETT Statutory and mandatory.

MR. A. E. SMITH And mandatory. Invariably different
things come up for which the Legislature shall make provision.
Now, take the Governor's own office, starting with the Executive
Department. The only one item that is what we call a liquid
appropriation, and subject to any change is the office expenses,
postage and expressage and documents and papers and things of
that kind. All the rest is fixed by statute. So that when we are
bringing under the supervision of the executive in the first in-
stance that part of the appropriation that needs the least regula-
tion, we are leaving free to the Legislature and to the Governor
to do as they please after the Appropriation Bill is passed.

Now, in my bill, No. 345, which I am going to ask the Com-
mittee of the Whole here to incorporate in this proposal, I pro-
vide that every head of a department and every State office or
head of a bureau shall swear to his request.

Now, gentlemen, speaking from what I said a few moments
ago, as a personal experience, that is the one great thing that
you have got to do. If you do not do that, all the rest of this
estimating by the department heads to the Governor means no-
thing. That is a question of opinion, and no Governor will set his
opinion up against the head of the department that he has given
full responsibility for the success of its undertaking.

128 ALFRED E. SMITH

There is a popular imagination probably that when the requests
come over to the Legislature for appropriations from the dif-
ferent departments the Legislature accepts them just as they
come from the department. Why, that is not the fact. If that
was the fact, upwards of $15,000,000 more than has been appro-
priated for the last five years, to my own knowledge, would have
been appropriated every year.

The Legislature, through its Committee on Ways and Means,
has, first, a check upon that; secondly, through its Finance
Committee of the Senate, it sends for the head of every depart-
ment and goes over the items with him, item by item, and where
an item differs from the bill of last year he must give his reasons
for it. That is not any more than a Governor can do or, at
least the Governor cannot do any more than that ; but when you
say to the department head, "You swear to that statement," he
will make a little closer study of it than he does at the pres-
ent time.

One of the troubles at the present time, and has been, to my
knowledge, for as long back as I can remember, is that the
department heads themselves pay no attention to these matters.
In every single department of this State you will find some man
who has been there for a great many years, who has charge oi
the finances, and let the chairman of the Ways and Means Com-
mittee summon the head of a department to come before him
in relation to his appropriations, and what do you see? You
see the department head walk in, and behind him his clerk with
a package that big in his arms, and you may direct your inquiry
to the head of the department, and he will invariably turn around
and say, "What about that?' 7

Now, that is the fact. These department heads will have these
itemized statements that they give to the Governor prepared
just as they have been prepared right along, by the clerks, and
some of these clerks have attained some of their reputation for
ability by being able to convince the Legislature that they need
a little more money every year.

Now, about that there is no question.

Now, it would be no insult somebody said it would be an
insult, or inferred that it would be, or that the oath would be, or

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 129

%

the opinion would not be of any use. I say now that there is not
a head of a State department here that will put his name down
on paper and raise his right hand up and say that what that
paper contains is necessary, unless he reads it first; and that is
where you get your safeguard over appropriations.

You will compel the department heads to become more ac-
quainted with the fiscal business of their departments rather than
the politics and the construction work, whatever it may be.

AFTER RECESS

MR. WICKERSHAM Will the delegate yield for a question of
information?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes.

MR. WICKERSHAM What is it that this official is to swear
to ? What is it on which you lay so much stress ?

MR. A. E. SMITH Swear to- the necessity for the conduct of
his department for the next fiscal year.

MR. WICKERSHAM Swear that, in his opinion, it is necessary
for that particular purpose that is indicated?

MR. A. E. SMITH That is right. I claim he can do that. I
claim that he can find that out, as to necessities, almost to a cer-
tainty and then he need only swear as to his opinion on desir-
able appropriations, stating why he would like to have them and
what reform he seeks to- .work out by them, what new activity
he proposes to enlarge upon or improve by the appropriation
of additional money for that particular purpose.

Now, starting with the Governor's office, the Governor can,
with the exception of two items in his .whole office, make affi-
davit to the necessity o-f the appropriation for his department.
Every one of the commissioners could do it. The Superintend-
ent of Insurance and the Superintendent of Banks can tell to a
certainty what is required to run their departments for the com-
ing year. And it would have another effect which I think
would be very good. After that official has sworn to the neces-
sities for the next fiscal year,, it would be rather difficult to get
him to change his mind; and they have been known to change
their minds as to the necessity, particularly when there is found

130 ALFRED E. SMITH

number one, two or three on a civil service list, some individual
that is "entitled to consideration."

MR* CULLINAN Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman give k way ?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes.

MR. CtiLLHSTAN Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask you with
reference to three topics, and, from your standpoint as an active
member of the Legislature, I would like to get your views.
First, last winter Mr. Adler introduced a bill entitled "An act
to amend the legislative law, relative to financial information
for the use of the legislature and the preparation of the annual
budget and appropriation bills/*

I would like to get your views on that measure and the
reasons why it did not become a law.

Second. As to the advisability of [wiping out these balances
of appropriations after three months, instead of the two years'
clause at the present

Third. What in your judgment would be the practical effect
of having the Governor or State officers come before the Legis-
lature?

I would like your opinion on those three propositions.

MR. A. E. SMITH Mr. Chairman, I will take the last one
first This proposeed amendment to the Constitution provides
that "the Governor, the heads of such departments and the
Comptroller shall have the right, and it shall be their duty, when
requested by either house of the Legislature, to appear and be
heard in respect to the budget/' and so forth and so forth.

That really makes no change in the present system. The
Governor has that right at the present time; he has always had
that right The legislators themselves the legislative commit-
tees have the right now of subpoenaing, under the Legislative
Law. If they desire to find out something about any matter
at all pending they can subpoena a man and compel him to
testify.

So that I think that answers that point, I fail to see how
that makes any change. The Legislature can demand this
information, and if it is refused, it can, with propriety, jvith-
hold the appropriation.

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 131

I believe, myself, that the Legislature to-day has a greater
power than will be given to the Governor even by this. This
seems to be more in the nature of a request, .whereas the Legis-*
lature can now subpoena and can compel the witness under
oath to -testify as to any fact, in relation, to any pending proposi-
tion, whether it be an appropriation bill or any other matter.

That is very carefully safeguarded at the present time, and
that may also answer the question of why the Legislature did
not pass the Adler Bill.

Because it seemed to me it seemed I suppose it would seem
to me to be unnecessary, all that power residing at the present
time in the Finance and Ways and Means Committees of the
two houses,

Now, the second one, I

Ma. CULLINAN Whether the appropriations should
MR. A. E. SMITH (interrupting) Oh, yes; yes. Well, the
part of this bill that proposes to have the appropriations lapse
three months after the fiscal year is a very, very good thing,
that should be done ; very necessary. Two years is too long a
life to give an appropriation of the character of office expendi-
ture and travelling expenditures. The department should be
compelled in the single fiscal year to have that reappropriated ;
if you didn't do it for any other reason, it would call attention
to it, the fact that it is being reappropriated.

Now, in the report set forth in Document 32, one of the essen-
tials of the report is to require information, to get information,
that it may be public. I claim from my knowledge of the
handling of the finances of the State that you cannot get real,
genuine information unless you require some responsible person
to swear as to his opinion, as to its accuracy. What will go on
under this .will be exactly the present system. The clerk in
charge of the department will unquestionably draw up that
statement and -send it to the Governor. In the first instance it
will be misleading because more will be put in there than will be
actually required, ;with the hope in the first instance on the part
of the friends of the Governor that he may be able at the very
beginning of his term to make a financial record of pruning

132 ALFRED E. SMITH

down and cutting down so that they can say here is what the
department has requested; look at it; thirty-seven millions; but
here is what an economical Governor suggests to the Legisla-
ture, only thirty millions seven millions less. The temptation
to do that will unquestionably exist

Now, under your proposal you prevent the Legislature from
increasing the items, but, after the budget is passed, there is no
check whatever on the Legislature from passing another appro-
priation bill for one of the identical objects, and no official of
the State will be ready to give his sanction to that special bill
if it increases the cost of his department, after he has previously
sworn to the necessities.

Now, suppose this had been in the Constitution this winter?
A bill came in here from one of the State departments and
passed the Assembly with a, certain amount in it for a given
purpose. When it went to the Senate $22,000 was added to it

It came back and was concurred in by the Assembly and went
to the Governor and he signed it. Now if the retiring State
official had, over his signature and tinder oath, made the state-
ment that $22,000 less than that was all that was necessary for
his department for the next fiscal year, that "twenty-two" could
not get in very well unless everybody knew exactly how it was
getting there and why it was put there.

MR. WICKERS HAM Is there anything to prevent the Governor
in making up this budget recommending a reduction in the num-
ber of places, or in the rate of salaries, so that the suggested
budget by him would be an indication to the Legislature of the
direction in which economy might be practtised,

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes, he can do that now.

MR. WICKERSHAM Yes, but in connection with the budget
it would be more effective, in that it would call the attention of
the Legislature more distinctly to it, would it not?

MR, A. E. SMITH Why, no more strongly than it is called
at the present time. The Governor this year said:

"The increase, on an unprecedented scale, in the number of
State officials and employees, and the reckless increase in salaries
in nearly all departments during the last four years are explain-
able only by the existence of a deliberate plan to fasten the

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 133

control of a party upon the State by the use of a vast amount
of official patronage. The present condition of the State's
finances demands an immediate and drastic revision of the
State's payrolls and requires that unnecessary offices, depart-
ments and commissions shall be abolished. Service should be
rendered to the State on the basis of efficient and economical
private employment/' etc. And he goes on and mentions several
ways he expects to do that. But before the session was over lie
attempted to defeat it himself.

Now, I said in the opening of rny remarks that the budget as
we understand it, or the appropriation bill, would carry only
one-half of the appropriations. This year it would have been
thirty-two millions of the sixty-three millions that were appro-
priated. You say here that neither house shall consider That
means that they cannot even have a committee meeting- on the
other thirty-one millions until they have passed the budget. Now,
in order to have plenty of time, and the time the Legislature
would require to deal with the thirty-one millions that I speak
of, the appropriation bill must pass before the first day of
April, the session to last until the middle of May.

It must pass before the first of April. Now, by leaving in
here the power in the hands of the Legislature to initiate appro-
priations, after that, what becomes of that first budget? Sup-
posing we had the condition that obtained here this winter,
where every single department of the government was changed
around. Why, by the first of May you would not know] that
budget if you saw it. But there it would stand, probably Chap-
ter 2, or 3, of the Laws of 1915, and by the first of May there
would not be a shred of it left and where would the taxpayer
then be when he wanted to find out what the budget of 1915 was ?
Instead of being able to turn to one bill containing all the expen-
ditures, he would have to read the session laws through to find
out what happened to it afterwards by subsequent legislation.

Supposing on the first of March your budget calls for three
State Tax Commissioners at $7,500 apiece, and three deputies,
at $5,000 apiece, and three secretaries. About the 20th or 25th of
April the Legislature, in its wisdom, or maybe upon the request
of the Governor, may see fit to reduce the Tax Commission to

134 ALFRED E. SMITH

one member. As soon as that bill is passed you have to amend
the budget, if it had only just become a law. Now I cannot offer
any remedy for that I am going to be very frank about it.
I cannot offer a remedy for it because if I attempt my remedy
for that, I am going to foreclose the Legislature from dealing in
any way, shape or form, after the budget passes in the first few
months, with the structure of government, so that they would
practically be reduced down to amending the penal code and the
civil code and such other laws as would not require any money to
enforce or any additional officials to enforce them.

Now about the ISth of April if the Legislature decides to put
new duties upon the Commissioner of Labor or upon the Comp-
troller, or upon the Superintendent of Banks, or upon any other
of the officials, what have they got to do ? You cannot send them
out to do a job and give them nothing to do it with. You have
got to make an appropriation. That comes afterwards in a
special bill What then happens to your budget? Again I
say, you have got to go all through the session laws to find
out just what ;was the record of a particular administration in
making provision for the support of government.

MB. PARSONS Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield for
a question?

THE CHAIRMAN Will the gentleman yield ?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes.

MR. PARSONS The gentleman has stated that there would be
thirty odd millions of appropriations which would not be covered
by this budget I do not find in the records of previous years any
such sum. Take the appropriations for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 1914, which are found in the Comptroller's report
for this year. The appropriation bill for the preceding year was
$29,518,069.25; the supply bill, $2,201,482.05. The special bills
I understand by that that it means construction, does it not?

MR. A. E. SMITH No, not necessarily.

MR. PAJRSONS I mean, some items would be considered as
construction?

MR, A. E. SMITH No, a great deal of it is construction and
improvement of existing structures.

MR. PARSONS Now, the special bills, the total is $16,895,-

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 135

442.87, but of that all except $8,849,193.34 is for canal fund
appropriations and the sinking fund installments, so that those
special bills really amount to only $8,849,193.34, and included in
those are the construction items. Now this proposed amendment
intends that in the budget there shall be included all the con-
struction and improvement items.

MR. A. E. SMITH It does not say so.

MR. PARSONS It says "all the financial needs/'

MR. A, E. SMITH Oh, no, it don't say anything of the kind;
"the needs of a department, classified according to relative im-
portance." Just the needs of the department

MR. PARSONS Well, every construction take the Education
Department If it needs additional construction, it is a need of
the Education Department, is it not ?

MR. A, E. SMITH Why, no, not under the system that has
been operating here. You are not changing the system and when
I get down to the private and local bills I will show you why you
are not changing the system.

MR. PARSONS How much did the private and local bills
amount to?

MR. A. E. SMITH Why, about fifteen millions.

MR. PARSONS The private and local bills ?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes. The private and local bills are of a
kind that the Governor will not take responsibility for in the first
instance.

MR. PARSONS Well, will the gentleman point out to me where
it is provided that local bills amounting to $15,000,000 appear in
the 1914 appropriation ?

MR. A. E. SMITH Why, the whole supply bill has practically
been a private and local bill.

MR. PARSONS But the supply bill is only something over
$2,000,000.

MR. SMITH That was in 1914.

MR. PARSONS Well, in 1915, the supply bill was $5,090,T
231.42 not $15,000,000.

MR. A. E. SMITH When I say the special bills, I mean they
all run up to $15,000,000.

I regard the maintenance and construction of the highways,

136 ALFRED E. SMITH

the maintenance item of the highways an item that would be
under dispute and that would come in afterwards, No^ let me
show you why that is so.

MR. PARSONS What is there in this proposition

MR. A. E. SMITH The Governor in his message says, in his
special message said to the Legislature on the 4th of February,
dealing with the finances of the State, in which the celebrated
$18,000,000 came into play, he said, the State is spending $100,-
000,000 in the improvement of so-called State highways, and in
order that the property of the State shall be conserved it has been
necessary to expend out of the treasury each year a large sum of
money for the repair and maintenance of the highways which
have been improved. Last year over $2,000,000 have been spent
for that purpose, this year $5,000,000 are requested, but if the
last appropriation is not exceeded we will be required to appro-
priate $2,000,000. But what did we appropriate? Four million
four hundred thousand dollars. Now, that was in face of the
statement that was made and not contradicted that the present
organization of the Highway Department was unable in one year
to spend more than $2,000,000, and the statement was made and
never contradicted that the State Highway Department, with
the money that they had left over and above that $2,000,000,
bought stone and oil and stored it away outside of the city of
Buffalo for the repair of the roads for the next year, notwith-
standing that $4,400,000 was appropriated for that item.

That $4,400,000 is the thing that I speak of, it will be in the
special bills because no Governor, after being in office a month or
two months, would undertake to say whether it requires two, four
or more millions, but he would let the Legislature decide that and
he would deal with it himself afterwards.

MR. PARSONS But it would be in the statement of the depart-
ment as some of the needs of the department, wouldn't it?

MR. A. E. SMITH Yes, it will be; no dojibt about that, and if
you leave it to the Highway Commission it would be up to the
top figure.

MR. BRACKETT May I file a caveat as a point of order

THE CHAIRMAN Mr. Brackett I don't know of any such
practice, but I have no doubt permission will be granted.

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 137

MR* BSACKETT If the questioning and argumentation, back
and forth under the guise of argument, which greatly delays the
game, continues, I am going to hereafter make objection*

MR. A. E. SMITH Now, I want to pass on to Section No. 21.
The Appropriation bill. "No money shall ever be paid out of the
treasury of this State, or any of its funds or any of the funds
under its management, except in pursuance of appropriation by
law." Now, stop there. Now, one of my proposals would amend
that to read this way : "No money shall ever be paid out of the
treasury of this State or any of its funds or any of the funds under
its management" and I add the words "nor any obligation in-
curred except in pursuance of an appropriation by law." Now,
what I am seeking to do by that is to prevent the department
heads and bureaus of the Government from incurring the liabil-
ities where no appropriation has been made for it. Now, that is
the present law, it is the State Finance Law, but nothing ever
happens about it for the simple reason that the appropriation bill,
when it passes, legalizes that action. The reason why I want it
in the Constitution is that there will be the same safeguard around
the highways where an obligation has been incurred with no
appropriation as there is now about the payment of money of the
State funds without appropriation.

I will show you exactly what I mean. Take the supply bill of
19 yes, page 9, under the heading of the Civil Service Com-
mission, for deficiency in appropriation for actual and necessary
traveling expenses of the commission, its secretary and other
employes of the commission, in the performance of their official
duties $1500.^ Now, that was incurred without appropriation.
And what happened? That department owes it to somebody,
there is nothing for the Legislature to do but to pay the just
debts of the State and then give it the expression of law by
writing it into one of the bills and, as Mr. Wadsworth says,
they have the effect of law and that legalizes their action.

Now, another illustration it runs all through the bills in the
State Probation Commission, for books, stationery, printing, sup-
plies, postage, etc., my memory happens to be keen on this item
it was denied by the conference committee of 1914, and they were
told by that committee that they had enough money for that pur-

138 ALFRED . SMITH

pose. But they went on and incurred the indebtedness just the
same, They came along next year and had it legalized by the
appropriation bill page 54, lines 10 to 13 of the bill, as a
deficiency in the appropriation for expenses of delegates to the
National Prison Congress, They asked for that, apparently,
but did not get it, but they went on, and attended the Congress,
and came back the next year under the head of the deficiency.
Now, there could be no deficiency in that if it was ever appro-
priated* The trouble is it was never appropriated and it was
afterwards called a deficiency in traveling expenses and that
thing will go on continually in this State unless you put into the
Constitution that no obligation shall be incurred except in pur-
suance of an appropriation by law.

It is going to have another good effect; it will stop the increas-
ing of salaries in departments until the Governor and the Leg-
islature can act first

MR. CtnxiNAiT Mr. President, will the gentleman give way ?

MR. A. E. SMiTHYes.

MR. CULLI^TAN* Doesn't what is known as the Higgins Law
prevent the incurring of the expenditure to which you call our
attention?

MR. A. E. SMITH I so stated, Judge, but the great trouble is
that this legalizes the violation of it because this then becomes
law. I don't know, if it is in the Constitution I presume some-
body could attack the legality of the enactment. That would be
the difficulty.

Now I come down to what I regard as probably the most im-
portant thing about the bill, m Document 32. The Committee has
spoken strongly about log-rolling methods in the Legislature to
secure appropriation bills. On one page they deal with the
manner of a passage of a bill in the Senate with only two mem-
bers voting against it, but you haven't done a single thing to
cure that. There is absolutely no cure for that. These special
bills will never be in the budget ; they will be in the class of bills
that you refer to beginning on line 17 of page 3, neither House
shall consider further appropriations until the appropriation bills
sent by the Governor have been acted upon. Now after that is
over and the fixed charges of the State are comprehended, the

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 139

budget or appropriation bill is finished, then comes the log-rolling
all over again, and you haven't done anything to prevent it and
you can do something, it can be prevented.

Now, in 1894, there was written into the Constitution, Section
20 of Article III, and it reads as follows: "The assent of two-
thirds of the members elected to each branch of the Legislature
shall be requisite to every bill appropriating the public money or
property for local or private purposes."

That is the present Constitution. Now, there is no question as
to what that means. But the courts, in their decisions, have de-
feated its purpose, because they have held that while an appro-
priation may mainly benefit a single section, it may, at the same
time, benefit the whole State.

So that they have defeated its purpose. Of course, every
dollar spent in this State upon an improvement, it would be
difficult to say it did not include the State; but it mainly benefits
a single locality, and it was the intention of the Constitution
framers in 1894 to require that that class of bills receive a two-
thirds vote in order to pass.

I propose a constitutional amendment today. I say: "The
assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each branch of
the Legislature shall be requisite to every bill appropriating
public money or property for local or private purposes," and
now, I add this "or for State purposes when less than the whole
State is to be directly or mainly benefited by the expenditure of
the moneys appropriated, except appropriations for the repair
and maintenance of the canals, or the support and construction
of State institutions,"

The reason why I make the exception is that I hold the canals
and their maintenance and repairs and their construction to be
a State-wide purpose even if a single locality may be benefited by
it, and I maintain and I hold that the construction and the equip-
ment and the care of the institutions for the insane is a State-wide
purpose, even if the construction of one building or a set of
buildings in a single locality may be deemed by some I won't
imagine that there are some who do but it may be deemed by
some to be mainly benefiting one section.

MR. M. SAXE Mr. Chairman.

140 ALFRED E. SMITH

THE CHAIRMAN Mr. Saxe.

MR. M. SAXE Will the gentleman yield?

MR. A. E. SMITH Surely.

MR. M. SAXE Merely for the purpose of an explanation. Why
does the gentleman exclude highways from that definition?

MR. A. E. SMITH Well, because there is no specific appropri-
ation made, nor can there be any made for any given highway.
That is the reason. There is no occasion for including highways
because the Legislature does not appropriate a sum of moneys to
improve the highways in Herkimer county or in Orange county.
That is apportioned and must be apportioned under the referen-
dum by the State Commissioner of Highways.

Now, that is the class of bills that all the log-rolling takes place
on. That is the class of bills that the greatest possible pressure,
pressure of all kinds is brought upon the Legislature to pass and
upon the Governor to sign, these private local bills.

Now, in the Governor's special message to the Legislature, he
said, that the present condition of the finances of the State was
such that no new work should be undertaken. "Appropriations
for the starting of new activity can wait The extension of
present activities can wait In most cases additions to existing
institutions can wait. Many other propositions, desirable in
themselves and justifiable under other conditions can wait and
should be compelled to wait."

Notwithstanding that, notwithstanding the fact that it was
presented to the Legislature that we were looking squarely in the
face of an eighteen million dollar direct tax, the Legislature
went right on, passing special, private and local appropriation
bills, and the Governor signed a great many of them.

Now, let me give you an idea of what I mean by the kind of
bills which require a two-thirds vote on.

"An act to provide for the reconstruction of the old portion of
the Potsdam Normal and Training School/' Now, education is
a State-wide purpose; there is no doubt about that. But the
reconstruction of a normal school in one section of the State, in
Potsdam, in St. Lawrence county, it seems to me, is rather local
in its nature. I picked that out first because that is the best one
of them all. That is the one that I probably would stand for first.

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 141

Here is one that, to my way of thinking, is a monstrosity;
an act that commits the State to an initial expenditure of $150 } ~
000 for straightening out Olean creek. That is purely a local bill,
and by its express terms, to show that it is local, the city of Olean
proposes to expend as much as the State does for the same pur-
pose. They acknowledge by their own bill that it is a city pur-
pose, for the city of Olean; they "fifty-fifty" it with us. Now
what do they do for the protection and the safe-guarding of the
tax-payers in Olean? For their $150,000 they propose a refer-
endum to the taxpayers ; but for our $150,000, that is immediately
available. The minute the taxpayers of Olean say "yes," we
have to say "yes." Now that is a great public improvement in
the interest of a taxpayer over in Flatbush or down in Brooklyn
or down in Richmond. Everybody can readily understand the
great State necessity that exists for straightening out that creek,
If that creek is not straightened out, then property on Manhattan
Island has got to depreciate ! Unquestionably that bill is a bill
that comes under section 20 of the old Constitution and should
require the assent of two-thirds of the members of both Houses.

Here is a bill making an appropriation to reimburse Philip
Becker for money that he paid to the State for a grant of land
under water. That is a private bill. I haven't any quarrel with
"Phil" ; it probably belongs to him, but it is a private bill.

"To provide for the construction of a bridge over the Barge
Canal in the Village of Lyons, and making an appropriation
therefor/' The history of some of these bills should be known in
order to appreciate the abuse of this special legislation. Some of
these bills have been introduced so often that you do not have to
introduce them any more ; you can leave them up in the back of
the chamber and they will find their way into the bill-box them-
selves. ( Laughter. )

Here is one making an appropriation and a reappropriation for
continuing and completing the construction of a bridge over the
Black River and the Moose river at Lyons Falls. Here is another
to provide for the construction of a foot-bridge on the north and
south walls of Lock No. 3 of the Cayuga and Seneca Canal. That
is absolutely a local bill. It is either a local bill or it is a part
of the canal construction. It cannot be anything else. If it is

142 ALFRED E. SMITH

local, it should be paid for by the locality; if it is a part of the
canal, it should have been paid for out of the canal money. There
is no possible way that you can justify that payment by the tax-
payers of the whole State.

Here is one to provide for lowering another bridge one of
them is too high.

MR. WADSWORTH Did they pass ?

MR. A. E. SMITH They became laws.

Ma. WADS WORTH All of them?

MR. A. E. SMITH All of them, all except the Lyons Fate
bridge. That has only been introduced three times ; that is not
old enough yet, (Laughter,) That is one that has not reached
the proper age; it has not ripened.

Here is one to provide for the removal of a farm bridge over
an abandoned section of the canal $12,000, The small amount
of that indicates clearly that that is a special, local, private bill ;
because if the State was to adopt the general policy of taking
down all bridges over the abandoned canal and filling the place
up with concrete, it would cost a couple of million dollars. But
in this particular section of the State, in this one place, for the
benefit of the farmers of this particular community, a wood and
iron bridge is to be removed and a solid concrete roadway to be
built right across the bed of the old canal. That is purely a local
bill and it is interesting it just occurs to me at the time of the
discussion of it the man that introduced it said that it was put
there to let the farmer get to the other side quicker. He had
to go a couple of blocks if that was not done.

A bill to provide for the construction of a bridge over the
Oswego river at Minetto purely local.

MR. D. NICOLL May I ask a question ? Why wouldn't all your
objections be met if, instead of striking out all on page 3, as you
now suggest, you provided that as to these further appropriations
as to the budget, they should not be made except by separate bills,
as the amendment now reads, and with the further safeguard that
they should require the assent of two-thirds of the members
elected to the branch of the Legislature?

MR. A. E. SMITH No; that would be too much power; it is
giving too much power to the minority. The minority could hold

THE EXECUTIVE BUDGET 143

up the whole constructive program of the majority because they
could stop any bill that made an appropriation for carrying out
its purpose, and under the plan suggested here, all such bills will
have to carry appropriations, because early in the session the
budget will have passed, and I don't believe in giving the minority
of a body the power to obstruct or hold up legislation of the ma-
jority. That would not be in keeping with our ideas of good
government.

MR. D. NICOLL But if the appropriations are necessary, the
minority would yield.

MR. A. E. SMITH They may not. Supposing it should hap-
pen to be the kind of a bill that would enlarge, for instance, the
Court of Claims, creating two new judges at six thousand a piece.
That would be an appropriation of which the minority could say,
"No, we don't want the two judges." I only want this two-thirds
to apply to what the people intended it should apply to twenty
years ago local and private bills; and the language that I use
in my proposed amendment is taken right from the Court of
Appeals where a section is mainly or directly benefited. That is
the point.

My bill, No. 343, found its way into the form of the amend-
ment that I suggested to Section 21, which I think there can be
no possible objection to. That is the one that prevents any officer
or any department head from incurring an obligation without an
appropriation.

So that summing it all up so that 1 may conclude, the fault
that I find with it is that it simply gives constitutional authority
to the present law and the present practices. With the excep-
tion of taking away from the Legislature the right to increase an
item or to add an item, something that they seldom do, as I
said before, they have the same powers.

It contains no method for ascertaining facts. It is just an
estimate. I seek to cure that by the oath ; and its principal defect
is that it does not go to the great body of fluid appropriations.
Those are subjected to change from year to year and can be made
to a certain size to meet certain political conditions, if you please.
It makes no provisions for any control over these appropriations
whatever. They are thrown into the Legislature to be acted upon

144 ALFRED E. SMITH

just as they are at the present time, after the passage of the bud-
get, and without my amendment requiring the two-thirds vote all
the private and local bills, you have the whole system open to the
same log-rolling that has taken place in the past ; open to the same
criticism that has taken place in the past ; and I hold again now,
and I claim that I am exercising only plain common sense when
I say that no Governor will put this character of bills into the
appropriation bills, in his estimates, and certify to it that the
needs of the State will require it, and the same situation will exist
as before. You have left it open to the same abuses, and you
have left it open to the old-fashioned criticism, and the only way
to cure it, and the only t way to do away with that criticism is by
the adoption of my amendment, and if you do not adopt h you
have onty completed about one-third of the job.

CHAPTER XXIII

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT RETRENCHMENT

It was a tense moment in New York political history when
the Reconstruction Commission met to organize at the City
Hall. The Governor made an address with some emphasis
and made a plea for the adoption of an extended welfare
policy. He took up other reforms, to be sure, but he dwelt
likewise upon the need for reduction of the cost of govern-
ment, unless some way were found to increase revenues. In
response, the Reconstruction Commission appointed a Com-
mittee on Taxation and Retrenchment.

This committee studied each department of the State gov-
ernment. It exposed the cumbersome character of the whole
structure. It should be mentioned that this committee was
headed by Alfred E. Marling, then President of the New
York State Chamber of Commerce, a lifelong Republican.
Among" its members were Michael Friedsam, Mortimer L.
SchifF, V. Everit Macy, Arthur Williams, Charles P. Stein-
mete, Bernard Baruch, John C. McCall, Charles L, Sabin,
men of reputation in the business and financial world.

The committee submitted its report in October, 1919. In
its bold retrenchment policy which advocated cutting down
many needless jobs held by Democrats and Republicans alike,
the Governor supported the committee without a suggestion
of political consideration. Seldom has the sincerity of a man
been tried as his was when he faced these business men and
put no other test to their recommendation than the most
efficient method of running the State's business.

(145)

146 ALFRED E. SMITH

Briefly the Commission's program comprised three consti-
tutional amendments,

L The reduction of the 189 agencies of the State with
their overlapping and costly functions to a compact organiza-
tion restricted in future by the Constitution to twenty depart-
ments, and a short ballot consisting of the Governor, Lieu-
tenant Governor and the Comptroller. This amendment is
known as the consolidation amendment.

2. An Executive! Budget System,

3. The lengthening of the present two-year term of the
Governor to four years.

The aim of the program was to simplify the structure of
the State government and to give the Governor the needed
initiative and authority so that if he fails he has no alibi.

The Commission advocated many statutory consolidations
of the departments and bureaus which by eliminating dupli-
cation and waste would immediately effect savings. They
would, in addition, pave a constitutional way for the reorgan-
izations to be brought about by the constitutional amend-
ments, which required the successive approval of two legis-
latures with a different Senate before they could be sub-
mitted to the people.

Amendments were first submitted to the Legislature of
1920,

Business and civic organizations of the State studied its
findings. The earliest of such studies was made by the City
Club of New York, which appointed a, Committee on Recon-
struction with ex-Governor Charles E. Hughes later Secre-
tary of State, as its chairman, and Congressman Ogden Mills
as its vice-chairman. The committee consisted of some of
the ablest lawyers of the city and experts on government.
After weeks of study it published its report favoring the
recommendations.

On December 8, 1919, was held the meeting of the City

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 147

Club of New York at which Smith spoke. Mr. Hughes also
spoke from practical experience as State Executive and he
advocated the changes recommended just as Governor Smith
had done.

Smith sincerely appreciated the compliment paid him by
the City Club "to come here practically at the end of my first
year as Governor." It had been suggested to him that any-
body may be invited to come to the City Club just after being
elected. It meant something to be asked after a year in office.
It at least indicated how well the City Club understood that
Smith as Governor was "trying hard/* He went on :

I appreciated after I arrived at Albany in fact before I left
New York this time a year ago that there would be the neces-
sity for a study by some commission, made up of men aiid
women who had given of their time and of their thought to the
problems which confronted the country during the war, to the
problems which we had to meet after the war unemployment,
proper housing, health measures, and conditions due to- the ter-
mination of the war, but this particular study of retrenchment
was suggested more by the fact that the State was obliged to
resort to an Income Tax in order to meet its expenditures than
from any other reason. When I arrived in Albany on the first
of January, according to the Comptroller's figures, the State
was some $25,000,000 short in its anticipated revenues by com-
parison with the actual needs for the operation of the govern-
ment for this fiscal year.

It was a golden opportunity to resort to an Income T^x be-
cause no political party could be blamed for it It had to* be
passed by a Republican Legislature and accepted by a Demo-
cratic Governor to become a law and everybody thought that
it was the only thing to do. Not for that reason alone, though
that supported the contention, but also for the reason that the
time had arrived in the history of the State when it became
necessary to resort to some form of direct taxation which would
let the citizen of the State understand that he was contributing
to- its support.

148 ALFRED E. SMITH

So that the time arrived in the history of the State [when it
was not only necessary to find a way of financing the State,
but to find a way of doing something for the various munici-
palities of the State, and at the same time impressing upon,
the citizens the necessity for a greater interest in the busi-
ness and affairs of the State.

It was apparent to- everybody that as soon as we adopted
the principle of taxing the incomes that, unless there ,was some
check on the other end of the string, the temptation would be
very strong upon the Legislature year after year to move that
tax up a quarter, a half or a point; and it was with this thought
in mind that the Reconstruction Commission began the study
of a reorganization of the State Government, not so much for
the cure of the evils which exist to-day but to prevent a re-
currence of them.

I believe, and I think we all believe, that one of the reasons
for the high cost of living to-day is the heavy taxation on
the business of this country. It is passed along to the ultimate
consumer, and in the last analysis these taxes t w;ill be paid by
every citizen in this State, whether his income comes up to
the amount stipulated in the statute or not.

Now, the great trouble is this: The State o-f New York
in twenty-five years has grown apace; it has 'embarked in
new lines of endeavor; it has taken upon itself new duties
and new obligations; and it has attempted to do it with ma-
chinery which was constructed fifty years ago. The govern-
ment of this State is not understandable to the man on the
street; it is a very difficult thing for a man in public office
to get a proper understanding of it. One must have been in
Albany for a long while and been a real good, student and paid
close attention to it, or he will not understand it

I thought I was around Albany a long while, with my twelve
years in the Legisature and one year in the Governor's office;
and I found out only a few months ago that we had a commis-
sion in this State known as the Board of Geographical Names.
I heard of it when a man resigned and it became my duty
to appoint his successor. I made a little investigation, and I was

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 149

sure after I had the matter explained to me that the duties
being performed by that Commission undoubtedly should be
performed by the Department of Education or by somebody
in that Department ; but there was a separate Board for it.

I t was amused about two months ago to pick up a newspaper
one day and find that the State of New York bought $560,000
worth of land in the Adirondack Mountains, purchased through
the Land Board. Nobody around the capitol around the execu-
tive office, surely knew anything about it.

The government of the State to-day is conducted by 189
commissions and boards of different kinds, spread over the
State. The diagram whch accompanies the report of the Recon-
struction Committee best illustrates it. This report proposed
to put the work of these 189 boards into eighteen State depart-
ments and to give the Governor the certain control over the
State departments. For instance, take the deparment of Mili-
tary and Naval Affairs. As that department stands to-day, we
have the Adjutant General appointed by the Governor; we
have the Major General, and the Commander of the Naval
Militia. The appointment of these officers is as far as the
influence of the Governor reaches. But look at all of the boards
and commissions in the State which really belong under that
title: the Monument Commission of Miles' Irish Brigade, the
Adjutant General, the Armory Commission, the New York
State Monuments Commission, two soldiers* institutions, the
National Guard, the Naval Militia, and the supervision of
expenditures of State money by the G. A. R., and the Spanish
War "Veterans.

For years back the practice in Albany has been to either
create a new commission or to put a duty into some department
which is in no way related to it For that reason, we have the
Secretary of State collecting the automobile tax. We have
the State Board of Tax Commissioners collecting the corpora-
tion tax; and now the Comptroller is going to collect the
income tax; so that the tax collecting functions of the State
Government are spread out; and the Comptroller's office has
ceased to be what it was intended to be at the time the first

ISO ALFRED E. SMITH

Constitution was adopted it is no longer an auditing office, but
a great, big administration office, performing functions which the
people of the State look to the Governor to perform. Nobody
comes to Albany to complain to anybody but the Governor. I
meet them all: I have to listen to all. And it is difficult to make
people believe that there are these different agencies of govern-
ment which are not under my control, for that matter, under
control of anybody.

I said a moment ago that this report was intended not only
to show how to cure the mistakes of the past, but to prevent
them in the future. Mistakes are made every year.

At the last session of the Legislature, or the session before
the last, there was created a new commission to look after
narcotic drug control.

In my annual message to the Legislature, my first message,
I recommended that this Commission be abolished because the
appointments had not yet been made, and I also recommended
that the function of the Commission be transferred to the
Department of Health, where it belongs. It would be very
easy to give the Health Department the control of narcotic
drugs, but the Legislature did not see it that way. So, after I
appointed a Commissioner, the Legislature gave him $51,000 to
perform all of the functions of his office, including his salary and
the salaries of his deputies and his and their traveling expenses.
I regarded it as money wasted, whereas if the function was
placed in the Health Department the State might get some return
for the money appropriated and expended.

There has been some criticism of the report on the ground
that it was taken from the Constitutional Convention, of 1915;
and somebody said I spoke against the adoption of that Con-
stitution. That is true; I did; but I favored this particular
part of the Constitution. And when I was called into the
Speaker's room for conference with Senator Root and George
W. Wickersharn and the leaders of the Convention, I frankly
told them I thought they made a grave mistake in not sub-
mitting that Constitution in sections. They insisted that it be
submitted as a whole, and with the Apportionment article con-
tinued in it, I voted against it I felt so strongly against that

THE FIRST PICTURE OF HIM

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 151

Apportionment article, and I felt its injustice so strongly, not
only the injustice to this city but to every other city of the
State, that it put me against the whole program.

Now, there will be no real arguments made against this
report. There is no influence in the State working against it.
This is in the interest of the State; it is in the interest of the
people; it is in the interest of the taxpayers. My only fear is
that politics might creep into it. If there is anything I can do
to assure the Republican legislators that they can. have their
full measure of credit if they jvill pass it, I stand ready to do
it. The only fear I have for it is that there may be the disposi-
tion on the part of the leaders of the Legislature to feel that
if they adopt this program they will be recognizing the work
of the Reconstruction Commission, and that they will be doing
something which may be of some political benefit to me. Now,
if all the candidates for Governor ;yrill get together in one
room, and talk it all over, I will sign any release the rest of
them will sign.

Another criticism which will be made was made in 1915.
Some fellow will jump up and say, "It makes the Governor a
czar." Well, it does nothing of the kind. The President of
the United States is not a czar, but he names his whole cabinet.
The Mayor of the city names his whole cabinet. In fact, the
charter has every city commissioner's term conterminous with
that of the Mayor, and they automatically go out on the expira-
tion of his term.

From the standpoint of economy there is no doubt in the
minds of reasonable men that the waste in this State is due
entirely to the duplication of effort on the part of the different
departments. Inspectors of all kinds are constantly traveling
through the State. The State of New York is the greatest
patron the New York Central Railroad has. We probably
pay out more money for traveling expenses than the combined
outlay of any five concerns in the State. You must remember
that every Board created, and every Commission has to have
a secretary and an assistant secretary and a stenographer. A
great many good people ^work for the State for nothing on

152 ALFRED E. SMITH

these Commissions, but they must have help* They must have
secretaries, and it would be hard, practically impossible, to
estimate what a saving there would be in consolidation and
elimination; but I am sure if you consolidated all the business
of this State into eighteen Departments and fixed the Constitu-
tion so that hereafter every new activity of the government
must go into one of these Departments, you would materially
cut down the cost of the State government.

There is requested by the different Departments for the
coming fiscal year $141,200,000. That is not extraordinary, and
it is not out of the way. The State of New York has felt
the high cost of living, the way every one else has. You cannot
feed and clothe the patients in the State Hospitals and other
State institutions at the price which you did even two years ago.

The real fact is, that the State is not paying enough money
for the service it is receiving.

So that we want to banish from our minds the idea of cut-
ting down the expense of the State by any other means than
what is comprehended in this report, because the consolidation
of these departments will, without doubt, decrease the cost of
running the State, because it will be another class of employees
eliminated.

After we have reconstructed the State Government, as I
hope we are going to do, we ought to have a little committee
to look over the laws of this State and find out if there isn't
some way to have the Governor working at things which mean
something to the people of the State.

Years ago when I say years ago, I mean long before the
time of Judge Hughes or myself I am informed that the Gov-
ernor had very little work to do-, but after the adjournment of
the Legislature he was practically free until it was time to
write his message. Well, I can imagine that that would be
so, because the activities of the State Government twenty-five
or thirty years ago in comparison with to-day were very small,
so it was a common thing to pass a statute and say, "With the
approval of the Governor/* "Countersigned by the Governor,"
so that the Governor finds himself to-day spending the largest

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 153

part of his time signing his name, and under the law he is
the only one who can do it. Now, for instance, every time the
New York Central Railroad appoints a policeman on their rail-
road I must sign his appointment, so that the other night I
found a large bundle of certificates of railroad appointments
that I had to sign. Every man who is let out of prison cannot
get out until the Governor signs the parole sheets, even, at the
expiration of his term, after he has satisfied the State for his
offense; he cannot get out until the Governor signs that paper.
When the Legislature created the State Constabulary, for some
reason of its own and which I never could clearly understand,
it prevented the Constabulary from entering any of the cities
of the State except by the direction of the Governor, so I find
myself the State Police Commissioner when it comes to the
activities of the Constabulary within the cities ; and I have had
this happen; the President of the Common Council and the
Police Commissioner certified to me that the city did not need
the State Police, and the Mayor certified that it did. Where-
upon the Mayor charged the Police Commissioner with being
in league with the strikers, and the Police Commissioner said
that the Mayor ( was a friend of the manufacturers; so there
wasn't anything left in the world for me to do but to send
the Superintendent of the State Police to that city and let
him stay down for three or four days and decide for himself
whether his forces ought to go in or not

Every time the State makes a lease Public Service Com-
mission hired gas-testing station over in Queens at a rent of
$55 a 7 ear I have to sign four copies of that lease before it
means anything. The Governor has to pass upon the contract
for removing the ashes from the power house, and when the
contractor who had it found himself thrown into ;war~time
prices, and unable to go on with it, he came over to the Execu-
tive Chamber and the only man he could sit down ;with to talk
about the cost of moving those ashes was the Governor. So
we want a committee, after we have got this reconstruction job
out of the k way, to just go through the statutes and see if the
Attorney-General or the Secretary of State cannot sign some

154 ALFRED E. SMITH

of the leases and contracts to move the ashes, and leave the
Governor to direct his attention to the great, big problems, the
big things that the State is interested in, like the Health De-
partment and the care of the insane and the mentally deficient,
great questions of conservation, water power development, or
any number of such questions which nobody is studying because
no living man can do it and attend to routine work at the same
time.

Now, I think I have briefly summed up the situation. This
is the best place I can find to make a strong appeal for non-
partisanship in dealing with this report I believe that I enjoy
some little reputation for keeping my word. I will give it I
will give it to the Legislature that if they will come in with
me, take this report, do the best that they can with it, I am not
going to be like the fellow who insists on getting his bill the
way it is printed because usually that fellow don't want the
bill. If they won't take it all, I will go along with them as far
as they will gO', and I will promise them now that at no tim'e
in the future will it ever be referred to by me or by anybody
over whom I have any control as any program of mine. The
fact of the matter is: it is not my program. The real truth
about it is I could not think that all out myself. I wouldn't be
able to do it; I wouldn't be able to write that report in all the
years I was in Albany. It comes from an absolutely non-
partisan commission, and it is the joint thought of men who
are interested in the welfare of the State jwithout regard to
parties, Democratic or Republican.

Now, if the Legislature will meet me in the spirit which I
feel toward this Commission, and toward the Legislature, we
will get it across.

Reorganization and retrenchment of the State government
being essentially a business problem, the Governor naturally
turned to organizations of business men versed in practical
affairs for aid in getting his program accepted by the legisla-
ture. He addressed many Chambers of Commerce and busi-
ness organizations in the course of his campaign for the

REORGANIZING THE STATE GOVERNMENT 155

amendments. Soon after the legislative session opened he
spoke with Senator Sage, the Republican chairman of the
Senate Finance Committee, at a noon-day meeting of the
Merchants' Association in New York. The speech is
permeated with his characteristic good temper in the pres-
ence of an adversary and was received with great approval.

As the 1920 session of the Legislature proceeded it was
evident to the Governor that his program would be blocked
by the Republican legislators. His speeches, therefore, be-
came more aggressive. He presented his arguments in the
fighting vein of the campaigner.

He spoke in many cities and several times in New York,
but without avail, except to secure the passage of that one of
the three amendments which consolidated the 187 agencies of
the Government into twenty and adopted the short ballot.

CHAPTER XXIV
EX~GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY

With the Harding landslide the Governor was able for the
first time in twenty-one years to consider his personal affairs.
He had to work for a living. He became chairman of the
Board of Directors of the United States Trucking Corpora-
tion, a business to which he came naturally, as hiq father was
a truckman. As a private citizen he displayed the fitting
restraint and dignity of an ex-Governor* He refrained from
any partisan criticism of his successor. He did all in his
power to co-operate with him. Regarding the reorganization
program as a non-partisan matter approved by the leaders
of both parties alike, he broke his silence and responded to
the appeal of the New York State Association, a civic organ-
ization of state- wide character which continued the fight for
the constitutional amendment, to speak at a hearing before
a joint legislative committee on the subject. It was his first
appearance In Albany after his defeat for re-election.

The announcement that ex- Governor Smith would appear
at the hearing sent a thrill through Albany. The people of
the State Capitol City loved him no less than his own towns-
men have always loved him, Albany was the scene of his
fourteen years* public career. He regarded It as his second
home.

When the Governor arrived at the station he was surprised
to see a large gathering of the citizens. They gave him an
enthusiastic greeting. His trip through State Street to the

(156)

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 157

Capitol building was a triumphal procession. The Senate
Chamber where the hearing took place was packed to the
doors. Representatives of important business and civic or-
ganizations and publicists of both parties appeared in favor
of the amendment. But the audience was tense with ex-
pectancy to hear the former Governor. He was introduced
by Adelbert Moot, the President of the New York State
Association. When he rose to speak the Senate Chamber
rang with prolonged cheers.

Contributing to the good cheer and the congenial atmo-
sphere was his informal and friendly approach to the repre-
sentatives of the opposition party on the committee. He
would refer to their common experience in past legislatures
to make his point, and the Assemblyman or Senator involved
would respond with a knowing chuckle or a smile.

While waiting for the hearing to begin, news was brought
to him that the emergency rent laws (the outcome of the
Special Session of the Legislature which he had called in
1920 and which he had signed) had been that day upheld
by the State Court of Appeals as constitutional, and legisla-
tors and spectators gathered round to congratulate him. The
old colored veteran page in the Senate Chamber guarded
with his very life the seat he had himself selected for his
Governor, and he would permit no one but himself to usher
him and provide for him the now proverbial glass of ice
water he always uses when he speaks.

Smith was heard in tense silence as he began :

I said when I left the Capitol that if I returned at any time
it would be to debate constitutional questions ; that the ordinary
everyday matters were not of so much importance.

I was interested in listening to the chairman repeatedly call
for the opposition to the proposed constitutional amendments. So
far as the amendment that has to do with the reorganization of
the government itself, the budget and the four year term is con-

158 ALFRED E. SMITH

cerned, there was in the chamber the silence that might be ex-
pected, because the opposition to this has never come out into the
light. You have it before you now as the result of an attempted
campaign of opposition to it.

The twenty-five minutes or so that was given to the opposition
I would not say was lost, because we are willing to sit around the
table and discuss everything, but it was given entirely to a mis-
understanding of the provision that has to do with the inspection
of state institutions. Nothing that appears in this amendment
has anything at all to do with any of the work of the Department
of Education or anything that it is doing or attempting to do in
the interest of mental defectives that are in our school system. It
has only to do with the people who become the wards of the
state, and there is created by it simply a department with one
presiding official.

It would be supposed from the character of the argument from
the opposition that the mental deficients and the insane were all
going to be put into one building and all cared for by the one
man. No such thing is contemplated. In fact, no such thing is
even possible under its provisions. But it is possible for the state
to have one great department of government that can deal with
that whole subject and let it be divided as the Legislature sees fit
to divide it into the different bureaus and the different depart-
ments presided over by as able men as the State can find in its
different lines of endeavor.

There is nothing new about that. The city of New York suc-
cessfully carries it on through its Department of Public Welfare,
but it does not mean that the wards of the charity hospital are
in the same room and are receiving the same supervision that the
addicts of narcotic drugs are, or the feebleminded who come
under the supervision of the city.

I think that it is agreed by everybody that we are struggling
along in this state under a constitution that we have grown away
from. Is there a man in this room who was present in the Con-
stitutional Convention of 1915 who is ready to dispute that
statement ?

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN" You and I didn't have very good
success amending it.

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 159

GOVERNOR SMITH We did our best, Judge.

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN The people did not think so.

GOVERNOR SMITH 'You know why they did not, better than
I do, and you know as well as I do that it was not anything that
had to do with the reorganization of the government that inter-
fered with the passage of the constitution.

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN I agree with you on that.

GOVERNOR SMITH Then we are all right, as far as that is con-
cerned.

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN We agree on that point.

GOVERNOR SMITH You know it does not make any difference
how good a document is, you can overload it; and when you ex-
cite the suspicions and the passions of the people against an en-
tire document, that which is good has to go with the other part.
We have naturally in this state a great many people who do not
believe in doing anything. You have always got to count them
in. They start with the forces of reaction, before you begin to
move at all. They are the ones who say, " Now, let's ;wait." I
know men who have sat in this chamber in my time and who
would be entirely satisfied if the Legislature adjourned before
Lincoln's Birthday, feeling that if nothing happens at least no-
body is hurt. There may nobody be helped, but nobody is hurt.

We are trying to fit the activities of a great state into a set of
constitutional machinery that was manufactured before anybody
in the room was born. Do not make any mistake, gentlemen of
the committee, about the attitude of the people of this State
toward this question. I speak to Senators who were here last
year, and you know that you would not 'have this amendment
before you this year unless you became convinced that the people
of this State want it. Why do I make that statement? Why do
I put so much force behind it?

Because the chairman of the Finance Committee of the Senate,
speaking for the Senate, because, when he spoke he said, "We,"
left Albany and started a tour through this State in opposition
to these very proposals, and I am certain that I violate no con-
fidence when I tell you that I sat in the Wolverine Express with
him on a Monday afternoon a year ago, after we had both ad-
dressed the Merchants' Association in New York, and he told

160 ALFRED E. SMITH

me to take a little quiet time for myself and not to be over-
anxious about this reorganization, that nothing would come of
it.

But if you make a memorandum of the date upon, which the
Senator made his Rochester speech, and look at the date of the
introduction of the amendment, you will find that after he left
Albany and went around the State a little bit and gathered up
a little public sentiment he came down and introduced for the
consideration of this house and the Assembly amendments car-
rying into effect the very things he declared against, speaking
for the Senate.

A great deal of fun has been poked at the reconstruction
theory by the opposition of the members of the boards and com-
missions that we have in the state. Let us not underestimate. If
you think there are not as many as we think there are, sit in the
Executive Chamber for two years and be obliged to confer with
somebody from everyone of them, and by the time you have
finished, 180 or 187 will look too small to you. You will think
there must be more.

I am taking* a good, cold, practical common-sense view of it,
and if there is any man in this state who can give me any good
reason why the people of this state should elect a 1 State En4
gineer I would like to hear it I never heard it from anybody.
I have a great deal of difficulty in finding any number of people
that know who he is. The same thing applies to the Secretary
of State. The same thing applies to the State Treasurer. Still
we go on in solemn fashion every two years putting forth can-
didates for all of these State offices,

Is there any reason why we should have in this state five or
six different tax collecting agencies? I notice Senator Knight's
face when he says, "We are going to change it," but let me go
back a couple of years over a little bit of history, and he knows
about it, too>, because he was right here with me. He knows the
things that Governor Whitman started out to change, and he
knows what happened to the Governor's proposals. The one
constructive feature, the one big idea in Governor Whitman's
first message to the Legislature, was the consolidation in the
interest of a greater efficiency and economy of the different tax

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 161

collecting agencies. But there was another state official elected
the same day that the Governor was and he had just a little more
patronage to give out than the Governor had, and he came over
here to this building and he put the blocks to the Governor, and
you remember it.

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN Do you want to keep on electing
him?

GOVERNOR SMITH Who?

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN That official you are talking about.

GOVERNOR SMITH I do not think the personality enters into it.

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN I mean the system.

GOVERNOR SMITH The Comptroller?

ASSEMBLYMAN MARTIN I did not say who it was.

GOVERNOR SMITH You know who it is and you know how
successful he was and you know what it meant to the State when
they both fell out and the Governor was deprived of the advice
he ought to get from the Comptroller's office, and you know how
dearly the taxpayers paid for the mistakes that grew out of the
quarrel between them.

However frequently in the course of the ensuing remarks
the former Governor was interrupted by outbursts of laugh-
ter, he strove to ridicule rather than to be amusing. He
drives his points home. In doing this he does not resort to
devices that are literary. He expresses himself if there be
any meaning in the term athletically. His forms of speech
are gestures of themselves. The least attentive reader gets
from this speech, for instance, the impression of a man in
action. He has no time to exploit melodramatic or historical
allusions. His speech, however carefully prepared, is not
cooked up as if it were a feast. It is an argument not a
dry, dull, ill-informed argument which must be conclusive.
The effect upon a hearer has to be such that no subsequent
speaker can weaken the force of it. From this point of
view, Smith is a genuine orator, but he is not ornate, like
Edward Everett, or overwtielrning, like Webster, or stormy

162 ALFRED K SMITH

like Douglas. He is simple, straightforward, direct, lucid
and above all well informed. Nobody ever listened to him
on a platform, perhaps, without feeling that Smith knows
what he is talking about. Consider the rest of this speech
by way of illustration :

I was going to say something about efficiency but it is related
also to the question of economy in administration. What man
can give us any reason for having four or five commissions deal-
ing with prison matters in this state ? We have a commission on
prisons. We have a Superintendent of Prisons. Then we have
a Board of Parole and for fear that may not be enough we have
a Probation Commission. Now the day that the Board of Parole
leaves Sing Sing, on their way out they are liable to meet the
Commission on Prisons going in.

Does it look to efficiency? Does it look to responsibility in
government? No, it looks to confusion* What happened in the
last six months that shows that confusion? The Commission on
Prisons after the plans had been drawn for the new death house
at Sing Sing found a provision in the law that gave them the
power to say whether or not it was to be done, and they decided
to hold it up. I summoned them to the Executive Chamber and
discussed it with them in the presence of the State Architect and
the Superintendent of Prisons, and we were all agreed that the
building should be built, as long as the plans were all drawn, and
about to submit them for public letting, and the Commission on
Prisons changed its mind about it, and there we are.

We have got the death trap down on the Hudson River years
after the Legislature declared its purpose, years after the State
speaking through its law-making body declared that they desired
a new building built, and the old one is still standing there. On
the 6th of last December five men were put to death there on
one night, and the inmates of the death house awaiting execu-
tion could hear the buzz saw when the surgeons were cutting the
tops of the heads off of the men that had been executed. Bar-
barous ! It is something that belongs to the dark ages. Can you
remedy it ? You can, providing you get the commissions to stay
in harmony long enough to let you do it Is there any reason for

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 163

it ? Would a good business institution stand for it for a minute ?
Why should the State stand for it? If the State could have a
single department of correction presided over by some able
citizen appointed by the Governor and responsible to him why is
not that man able to carry out all the duties the State feels it is
best to perform toward the people that are guilty of infractions
of the law?

Why should there be a different notion in one part of the
State as to how an institution should be run as against another
part of the State? I think if you will take a simple man's view
of it I can tell you why, in my opinion, it started in that way.
It is so old and belongs to a time so far back that the State was
not able to function in any other way. But with the modern
means of transportation, with the automobile and the regularity
of trains, is there anybody willing to say that one man, properly
equipped and properly trained could not from this very building
preside over all the correctional institutions of the State ? I am
satisfied that he could, and I have had it proven by practical
experience to my satisfaction.

I think the most salutary part of this scheme is the part of it
that prevents the creation of any more commissions. After you
have established eighteen departments of the government to take
care of every conceivable thing that the State can ever take care
of, why should not any new activity be put into one of those de-
partments ? Isn't it a fact and if we want to be square with our-
selves will we not admit that the creation of commissions in the
past has been to, take care of some particular political situation ?
What was in the minds of the legislators when they created a
Department of Narcotic Drug Control? What was In their
minds when they were enacting three or four new sections to the
Public Health Law, and the original bill gave to the Commis-
sioner of Health the execution of the additional duties compre-
hended in. these three new additions to the law that he was super-
vising? Here we have a Department of Health with sanitary
supervisors spread out throughout the State in inspection dis-
tricts, with a costly machine already installed in this building, and
we create the Department of Narcotic Drug Control for the

164 ALFRED E. SMITH

purpose of enforcing three sections of the Public Health Law.
We have to sit down here in solemn conclave and find an office
for them, and find a place for them to function, and have to
supply them with all the secretaries and all the help that they
need, just as though we were beginning something new in the
State of New York, instead of doing a duty that the state has
performed for a number of years the preservation of the public
health.

The abolition of the Narcotic Drug Control Department is
now included in the program of economy. I recommended
twice that it be abolished, and so solidly entrenched and so
necessary was it for the State that it lasted during my twio
years.

I think that the general scheme of a constitutional amendment
to reduce the number of elective offices and provide for the cre-
ation of these eighteen departments of government is pretty well
understood throughout this state. I believe that the members
of the Legislature understand it pretty well. I believe that- it was
because they understand it that we have it before us this year,
not as a new proposition but for second passage prior to its sub-
mission to the people of the State for adoption.

I will pass to the second amendment, and that has to do en-
tirely with the constitutional provisions that have to do with the
inspection of our Prison and Hospital Departments. I regard
them simply as companion bills, or companion measures, to the
whole general reorganization scheme, and of themselves they
create no State policy. They simply take out of the fundamental
law certain fixed things that have been in there for years and
which I do not believe should ever have been in there, and they
leave the Legislature free to deal with those departments, under
this one commissioner, in any way that it pleases.

That brings us to the budget system. The proposal for an
executive budget was defeated last year by one vote in the
Senate. Reading Senator Sage's speech about it, I cannot help
saying that the whole proposition has been grossly and gravely
misrepresented. Now, I would be the last man in this State who
would stand in this chamber or in this building and urge any-
thing that would take take either power or dignity from the
Legislature.

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 165

I have as clear an understanding of it as any man in this
State. I understand it as a branch of the government. I under-
stand it as the essential of representative democratic government.
I believe that what it ultimately does is all right, anyway,
although we may quarrel while the session is on. That is my
faith in it. That is the best expression of faith that I can give
you. I think it is all right, and I would be the last one to suggest
anything that would detract in the slighest degree from its
power, and nothing in the budget system, as proposed, takes any
power away from the Legislature.

Now, what does it propose ? It proposes that after the govern-
ment is organized into eighteen departments that the Governor
and the heads of the departments, under appointment by him-
self, and I will explain the necessity for that when I come to
the four-year term, sit down and make up a budget. What is a
budget, as we understand it ? A budget is the necessary expense
of running the State. It is overhead. It is that which you
cannot get away from. Just exactly as the family sits around
the table once a month and you put down the rent, the gas bill,
the morning and evening papers, .and the things that you have
got to have, and then you talk about the luxuries afterwards.
It means that that budget will be prepared by the Governor
and the heads of his departments and submitted to the Legis-
lature, and it will have the power of reducing but not increasing
any item. Is there any reason why they should increase it?

SENATOR WHITLEY What about an outgoing Governor?

GOVERNOR SMITH You have the same proposition in the city
of New York with an outgoing Mayor, and the same proposition
in Washington. It becomes the duty of the Governor and he
will establish within his department, and he will have to, a
scientific budget-making department. You know why you
haven't got it now. Every Governor has got to regard the
present budget system as a kind of a joke. If he knows anything
he cannot do anything else, because that is what it is just a
joke.

Do you remember the dinner 'down in the Ten Eyck the night
the newspaper men gave the dinner, and George Janvrin, the

166 ALFRED E. SMITH

policeman, ran in and said: "One minute; stop! Don't eat the
soup. Don't eat that soup. Wait a minute." Everybody sat back
to find out what was the matter with the soup, and the policeman
went down in the kitchen and brought the chef up with his white
cap and white jacket, and he said, "He is under arrest for poison-
ing the soup." The chef explained that he didn't poison the soup,
he only threw something into it at the instigation of Senator
Sage, and when he was asked what it was he said, "The Gov-
ernor's Budget."

Could you imagine me wasting my time preparing a budget?
There is not a man in this chamber or in the Assembly that has
any regard for my ordinary common sense who would suggest
that I ought to draw a budget under present conditions. I
would not know it twenty minutes after it came up here, nor
would the man who drew it, so don't let us talk about any execu-
tive budget system that we have, because we haven't got any.
Senator Sage himself was responsible for the statement that
there are not twelve men in the Legislature, not twelve, who
know where the money is coming from to support the budget
that they all get up and vote for.

SENATOR KNIGHT : Didn't he say ten ?

GOVERNOR SMITH : Twelve, and he didn't divide it, and I don't
know how many were in the Senate and how many in the
Assembly.

After the Governor and the heads of the departments have
agreed upon what is necessary for the overhead of the State,
what reason is there for increasing it in the Legislature? What
State purpose is served by increasing any of the items? You
may say that we deprive the Legislature of the right to increase
them. Not at all. We do say that when they do it they do it out
here on this floor and in the open by a single bill, so that it can
be decreased. Nobody would want to take away policy-making
from the Legislature, for it costs money; and every new policy
and every new activity of the State naturally costs some money.
Nobody intends to take that away.

It was never intended by any provision of these amendments.
After you have made provision for the support of government
you have put down in black and white everything that, in the

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 167

opinion of the Governor and his department heads, is absolutely
necessary, and you have had your opportunity to reduce it where
you thought it was extravagant. You have thereafter all the
opportunity and all the chance that you desire to embark upon
any new endeavor, and if you desire to increase the salary of the
janitor of Agricultural Hall you can even do that, but you have
got to do it by a bill and not by writing it into the big bill of
six hundred pages or more, which nobody reads. Why should
the Legislature tell a department head that he ought to pay
somebody more money than he thinks they are worth?

It is a matter of good practical politics, and we have all had
our day at that, and wouldn't it be a good thing to be able to
say to the army of men that come after you, "See the Depart-
ment head, he understands the value of your services, and if you
are entitled to a small increase he will give it to you. Don't
come up to the Senate. We are a legislative body. We are not
running the Highway Department. We are simply providing
for its maintenance, and we do not go any further."

Would it not release time 'to debate upon the floor of both
Houses larger and more important things which mean more to
the State, some of the brains and some of the time that has now
got to be spent by legislators in going over the picayune things
at the request of constituents and admiring friends as to how
much the janitor of Agricultural Hall is to get next year?

Won't the State benefit by that? So far as I am concerned
there would be no question.

Don't let anybody talk to you about the executive budget system
interfering with the power of the Legislature. No suggestion
of that kind appears in the amendment.

He was heard attentively. His listeners knew he was
speaking from experience. Smith has this immense advan-
tage as an orator he can draw upon his own, record for his
material. There never was a piiblic speaker who needed
"literature" so little. He has lived with his subject, what-
ever it be. Not that he subjects an audience to the fatigue
of merely receiving information, as if they were empty jars
to be filled. He expounds, he reveals. His speeches are

168 ALFRED E. SMITH

chapters from the story of his life. He is like a commander
who can teach the art of war from the recollections of his
own campaigns. For example

After you have made that provision for the support of govern-
ment that the Governor and his executive heads believe should
be made, you can go as far as you like, if you can get twenty-
six votes in the Senate and seventy-six in the Assembly. It
doesn't make any difference whether you are appropriating
$L25 or $60,000,000.

What position do you put the Governor in under the present
system? He has to take your appropriation bill or leave it. He
has either to cripple a department by cutting out the amount or
take whatever you say about it. I do not believe that that is the
general public understanding of the function of the Legislature.
Certainly, the Governor has to answer for it, and the present
Governor made a vigorous campaign on the question of economy.
I am in hopes that he will be able to make good, but he cannot
do it himself. He has promised something that he knows in his
heart and soul he cannot personally deliver. He has got to rely
upon somebody else. Is that right? Is it fair to him? Is it
what the people of the State expect ?

Now then, we come down to the four-year term and the con*
trol by the Governor when he comes into office. Prior to 1894
in the city of New York you had the identical situation 'that
you have in this State. You had commissioners of important
departments in that great city government appointed for given
terms. 'Some of them exceeded the term of the Mayor. The
Legislature itself declared that no man could be held responsible
for the government of the city of New York unless he was given
that freedom of selection which permitted him to surround him-
self with men of his own choice.

President Harding was inaugurated President of the United
States last Friday. He 'brought into office with him, and de-
clared it throughout the land, a Cabinet of his own selection to
take charge of every activity that comes under him as President
of the United States, and the people are looking to him. What
have you got here?

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 169

You elect a man for two years. He comes in here, and he
finds himself surrounded on all sides by men appointed for all
kinds of terms, many of them longer than his own. They are
out of sympathy with him but glad to see him arid unwilling
to do anything for him that they do not actually have to do.
What man who never served in the Legislature, or never had
any experience, can get any understanding of this government in
a year ? I do not believe that the man lives, and I do not care
how much of a lawyer he is. I do not think he lives. I have
sat around this building and I have watched Governors who
have come here since 1903, and I know the number that we
have elected in that time who came here without any under-
standing of the job that they came to. Some got it in the year
and some more never got it.

At the end of the year he is projected into a fight whether
to retain his place or stand up and say, "I have enough," or lie
down. IJnder the primary system he begins to run about a week
after the 4th of July, and he is not any good to himself or the
State for about three months, and then after election, unless
he is made out of something that humans are not made out of,
he has to go away and lie down and sleep for himself or he will
die. So that out of twenty- four months you automatically elimi-
nate six months of his usefulness by compelling him to run again.

Let us go back a little bit and see when the two-year term
was fixed for a Governor. There was not very much to this
State at that time. It had very few activities. It is well known
of some of our Governors that as soon as the Legislature ad-
journed they went home home to the Executive Mansion?
No, home to where they lived, and they stayed there until the
Legislature was about to convene again. That was possible in
the good old times when Governors rode around behind their
four horses and did not have any work to do. But with the
present activities of the government, the present business of
this State, and with its enormous expenditures and its widely
divergent lines of endeavor, all requiring his time and all requir-
ing some study, why elect him for two years? He is of no use
to the State until he has been in for some time, unless he has
been around here for a long while.

170 ALFRED E. SMITH

You made the term of the Mayor of New York City in 1904
four years, for that reason, and it was urged on the floor of
this House and on the floor of the Assembly that if we were
to get continuity of effort and endeavor in the city of New York
it had to be done by extending the term of the Mayor, and
that is why you made it four years instead of two years, and
that was done seventeen years ago. But the State, afraid of prog-
ress, afraid of anything new, and moving along behind the
footsteps of that fellow who wants nothing done, nothing done
at all, is living in an age long past, and electing the Governor
for two years.

Senator Sage said, "If he is a good Governor he can submit
himself again," forgetting that it takes him six months to sub-
mit himself. You would think all you had to do was just say,
"All in favor, say Aye," If you could only elect him that way,
there would be nothing to it. That is not the w.ay it is done,
however, and we have to take a count by our political system.

I have said nothing at all about the question of the right of
the Governor to name his own aides and assistants. It ought
to be. It ought to be. A man who comes into this building as
the Chief Executive of this State is entitled, by every fair process
of reasoning, to be surrounded in the great departments under
him by the men of his own selection. A great many of the
Governors believe they ought to be anyway, and what do they
have to do to bring it about? They have to turn the 'department
inside out for about six months while it is undergoing a process
of reorganization, as referred to in 'high class language, but
by bills that have been designated by the vulgar term of "Ripper."

In urging this, gentlemen, I assure you that I have no par-
tisan purpose. There 'is nothing that I could say to you this
afternoon, nor could I find words to say it, that would have
you feel as strongly as I do that I have no partisan purpose in
coming up here to talk on this reorganization. I have had all
the elective or appointive places that I will ever hold while I am
alive. I have discovered in two months that I am a very good .
truckman, and I am in that business. I am here to do what I can,
doing it upon the time of the men who pay me, for the State of
New York, largely from a sense of gratitude to it and largely
for what return I can make for what it did for me.

EX-GOVERNOR SMITH IN ALBANY 171

This is backed up by men of all parties. I spoke for it from
the same platform with Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes,
and nobody ever accused him of being a member of Tammany
Hall. I spoke from the same platform with Henry L. Stimson,
right on these very things we are talking about this afternoon,
and from the same platform with Martin Saxe, Republican
Senator, who I understand is here today in advocacy of the very
things that I am talking about. So r do not let us get any political
notion about it. There are plenty of political bills up here I
could come up and talk about, if I wanted to create a little storm
or a little uprising on the political horizon. I regard this as
being something above party and a matter of duty for citizens
who are interested in getting this government right, and I do
not think there is a man in the Legislature, possibly with the
exception of that rare individual 'here who must disagree in
order to preserve the eternal fitness of all things who does not
believe way down in the bottom of his heart and soul that this
is right and that it is in the interest of the State of New York.

That is the reason why it got such undivided support and
that is the reason why it attracted to its cause men of every
party, and of all parties, and men who know nothing about
parties. That is the reason why merchants' associations, cham-
bers o commerce, boards of trade and civic organizations from
one end of the State to another have stood up so strong behind
it, and that is the reason why Nathan L. Miller, the Governor
of New York, accepted a position on the Executive Committee
of the non-partisan group which urged its passage by the
last Legislature because he knew it was right.

I submit it to you. I feel that the Legislature will pass it on
to the people and let them vote upon it. If there is a funda-
mental question of our democratic government involved in it
let them settle it

It will be seen from what has gone before that Smith
does not "orate/ 1 Neither does he try to come down to the
level of his audience. Smith, indeed, has a profound respect
for the intelligence of any audience and this is the secret of
his effectiveness.

172 ALFRED E. SMITH

After the speech he was seen paying visits to the Republi-
can chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the
Assembly. He held a mysterious conference in the minority
leader's office in the Senate. When he was on the way back
to New York it leaked out in Albany that he had used the
hour before train time to see that a widow with two children
employed in one of the State departments (who had been
slated to be dropped from the payroll) was restored to her
place.

In spite of his effort, the consolidation amendment failed in
the Republican Assembly of 1921 although carried in the
Senate. The reorganization program became an issue in the
1922 campaign for the governorship. Miller; and Smith de-
bated it in their speeches everywhere.

Promptly on his return to the governorship in 1923, Smith
resubmitted the amendments to the Legislature, He again
took his case direct to the people. He made a series of
speeches to audiences in every part of the State, beginning
with the State League of Women Voters in Albany in
January, visiting Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Utica,
He wound up with an appeal before a joint audience of the
City Club and the Women's City Club of New York.

Conferences on the consolidation amendment were re-
quested by the Republican Assembly leaders. There ensued
a few minor concessions to their views. It triumphantly
passed the 1923 Legislature, Once again it was launched
on its journey to the people.

But on the Executive Budget and the Four Year Term for
the Governor the Republican Assembly has remained ada-
mant. No persuasion of their own leaders, no eloquence of
the Governor, however logical the argument, has yet con-
vinced them of the wisdom of submitting these questions
to the people.

CHAPTER XXV
ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY

Never will Smith forget a meeting of the Community
Council a body originally subsidiary to the Council of
National Defense. The business of that gathering was dis-
cussion of a subject concerning which the memories of Gov-
ernor Smith were exciting the price of milk as it affected
poor people.

He had been asked to meet this audiencd so that he might
speak direct to the people from the standpoint of the State
as a whole. The first thing to meet his eye when he got upon
the platform were diagrams and figures tending to illustrate
to the audience the cost of the distribution of milk.

Smith began by saying that the question of milk produc-
tion, milk transportation and milk distribution was a question
to be considered not from the economic standpoint but from
the standpoint of public health. There was wild applause*
The incidents attending that meeting, the circumstances con-
nected with the milk strike and the episodes preceding and
following, left a deep impression upon the public as well as
upon Smith.

It was characteristic of him to exploit this episode before
a gathering of the National School of Democracy at the
Town Hall early in: 1923. He was reviewing the record of
New York State in the matter of progressive legislation.

At the beginning of his term of office, he reminded his
hearers, there had been a "milk strike." There was a dis-

(173)

174 ALFRED E. SMITH

agreement, he explained, between the association representing
the producers and the consumers of New York. "Some-
thing," he said, "unheard of and unthought of and not
regarded as possible in this advanced day, took place in 'this,
the metropolis of the western world/ " The whole city of
New York was deprived of over fifty per cent, of its milk
supply for a week or more. Nothing could reveal more
clearly the retentive quality of Smith's mind, his faculty for
lucid narrative, his mastery of his medium as a speaker,
than the account he gave them and that merely by way of
illustrating a point of those exciting events.

He showed how he had lived with the subject; gave in-
stance after instance, then cited the Night Work Bill to
prove that the question of "Constitutionality," so often
raised against a liberal measure, could be met in this case,
too.

Let's see how far the state has gone and how far the Court
of Appeals of the state has been willing to go, ;whett the ques-
tion involved was one of public health or public welfare. In
1904 the Legislature passed an act prohibiting women, from
working in factories of this State after a certain hour at night
and before a certain hour in the morning, commonly called the
Night Work Bill Judge Gray, the presiding justice of the
Court of Appeals, declared that act to be unconstitutional back
in 1904 upon the ground that it interfered yvith the liberty of
women to contract to work whenever they pleased. There was
nothing before the court except the bare statute.

But in 1912, eight years later, when the same identical bill
was passed, word for word, and it was backed up by testi-
mony and evidence taken by the State Factory Investigating
Commission, containing the sworn affidavits of our most
eminent physicians that night work for women was dangerous
to their health, the very same court on the identical bill in
an opinioa written by Judge Hitchcock, declared the act to
be constitutional, and took occasion in the written opinion to

DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY 175

say that that change in opinion in the Court of Appeals was
due to the fact that the Court had before it documentary
evidence under oath from a member of the Legislature indi-
cating that the bill was in the interest of public health and
was therefore predicated on the State's police power to
protect the health and welfare of the women of the State.

I hold and I don't believe there is a lawyer in the State that
will contend otherwise that you can say with equal force to the
Court of Appeals, "here are the documents; here is the testi-
mony, and here is the evidence that the regulation by the state
of the production, transportation and distribution of milk and
the fixing of its price by the State is in the interest of the public
health and comes under the State's broad police power/'

Now before I pass to the next subject let me say that any-
thing and everything that can possibly be done to find a per-
manent solution of this question has been done by everybody in
the State, private citizen and official alike, except the law-mak-
ing body. It is right up to them. There is nothing further that
I can do. There is nothing that the Council of Farms and
Markets can do even if it was functioning properly, which it
is not, and why it is not functioning properly I will try to ex-
plain to you in a few minutes. And I say that all the power
that can be brought to bear in this State is worthless unless
the Legislature will confer upon some agency the power to do
the acts comprehended in the bills for milk control that are now,
pending in both houses.

At the meeting of the Community Council in December,
Smith spoke at some length about the Council of Farms and
Markets. It is a curious institution. Smith wonders if any
other state in the Union has anything exactly like it. It is
apparently out of the control of everybody. He explained:

The Governor of the State means nothing to them. I can get
a respectful reply to my letters telling me that they will receive
consideration, but that is all I can get Let us go back and find
how it came about. For years we had in this State a Depart-

176 ALFRED E. SMITH

ment of Agriculture whose function it was to promote in every
way the science of agriculture in this State and to provide for
the enforcement of pure food acts. In 1914 there was created
a Department of Farms and Markets. The underlying theory
of its creation was to devise a ways and means and to bring into
action machinery that would bring the farm closer to the city
and bring the producer and the consumer closer together and
eliminate some of the unnecessary evils of the middleman who
was sending the cost of food so high up in this State. Starting
at this point with this as its purpose, it was organized in 1914.

Well we have interests in this State. The farming interests
of the State are very powerful and they are very thoroughly
organized, and under our constitution they can elect more peo-
ple to the Legislature than we can, no matter what our popula-
tion may be. We can grow in this State to forty millions but
we cannot get any more -representation, and this is fixed in our
Constitution and seems to be irremovable. You certainly can-
not pass a bill for an amendment to the Constitute*! changing
that condition when the very beneficiaries of it are the men
who have got to vote for the bill. And I might say here to-
night frankly that it makes no difference whether they are
Democrats or Republicans. There seems to be no question of
politics here; it seems to be a question of interests and it su-
persedes, goes ahead of political consideration.

These interests came together and they decided to get con-
trol of the Department of Agriculture and the Department
of Farms and Markets, and when I say "control," I mean effec-
tive control, that kind of control that tells the other fellow,
"You keep out You cannot come in." So they conceived the
idea of erecting a regency over agricultural matters, such as
we have over education a ridiculous proposition, comparing
regulated business with the function of education.

Education upon the one hand standing out as the most sacred
duty that the State owes to its people, and agriculture on the
other, a business, stimulated, of course, but regulated, it seems to
me, in the interest of all the people. So this regency was created
and the Council of Farms and Markets was erected by act of

DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY 177

the Legislature, one member from the Judicial District of New
York, the Commissioner of Markets, and representatives of
each of the nine judicial districts and one member at large^
making a board of eleven members, brought into existence by
the Legislature itself and appointed by it

Strange to say, when the original bill was brought before the
Governor, the Governor very heartily subscribed to the beauti-
ful theory of this regency. He was in harmonious accord with
lifting agriculture out of the mire of partisan politics and put-
ting it upon the high and elevated plane that was promised*
except when he said that, he also said, "I will appoint the first
council and after I get finished you can do what you like with
it"

Accordingly, we have this unique situation that the agricul-
tural, market and farming interests of the State are presided
over by this regency. This Council created a Division of Agri-
culture and a Division of Farms and Markets and they appointed
two men that get along as t well together as a tame cat and a
bull terrier. And we were coming towards election and it ;was
necessary to have political fences built, and therefore the depart-
ment was created practically by statute, not by any trained
mind, not by any man that brought any scientific thought to
what he was doing; no such man was put at the head of the
department, but by this, that or the other fellow, and they ( were
arbitrarily written, into the law so that there would be that much
political patronage no matter what else happened and conse-
quently we find the Department of Agriculture manned by a
floorwalker from an Elmira dry goods store !

I know all about that Department There was nothing new
in it to me. I sent for the Agricultural leaders of this State.
I know them all I have known them for years. I can talk to
them. I brought them right to my own home and I talked to
them right from the shoulder and they knew that I was right
They knew that I knew what I was talking about because I
called a spade a spade. I told them what I knew, and they
knew I knew what I was talking about and they ail agreed with
me that the condition ought to be remedied. We had a bill

178 ALFRED E. SMITH

drawn that was calculated to remedy this condition and intro-
duced it in the Legislature last year.

It went along from day to day, the Agricultural interests and
the Bureau of Farms and Markets were talking to the Speaker
and the majority leader and they talked to the other leader. So
finally the day came when I said, "Let us get down to- business.
We have conferred about all we are going to about this. It is
coming close to adjournment What are you going to da about
it ? And I asked the Chairman of the Council of Farms and Mar-
kets to go and get the decision and he came down and opened
the door of my office and he said, 'Nothing doing/ I sai'd,
'What is the reason. No reason given? 3 'No reason/ "

But you know what it is. There is too much patronage there.
It cannot be disturbed. So the Legislature turned it down and
the same conditions continued to exist in the Council of Farms
and Markets. I was in this predicament. I knew it; the agri-
cultural interests of the State knC;W it. We did the very best
that we could do to get publicity for it but it was difficult So
I bided my time until the day arrived and I appointed the Chair-
man of your meeting tonight to go into the Department and
open it up, and he went in there and he did open it up, and he
brought forth a report that has been inquired about and hais
been asked for in every State of this Union, He has laid the
whole thing "bare, not only incompetency, not only lack of
ability but what approaches upon scandal, is disclosed in that
report

If the same report came from a department presided over
by men that come from a well-known organization in New
York that I belong to, there would not be room enough in the
city prison for them. There it is. It has been in the hands of
the Legislature since the middle of January. Specific recom-
mendations are made to cure palpable evils, evils that stand out,
evils that nobody can dispute. Not a single member of the
Council of Farms and Markets up to and including this minute
has attempted to make any kind of an answer to it They have
simply rested back perfectly quiet and the bills carrying the
recommendations into effect are introduced in both houses and
there they are asleep.

DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY 179

Now let us see what that has to do with this. There is no
more important department of this government than this Coun-
cil of Farms and Markets. Aside from the Educational Depart-
ment and the Department of Health this is the most important
public department that the State is supporting. If properly
managed, if properly handled, if properly directed, if intelli-
gence was displayed in its management the very least that the
people of this State would get from it would be an accurate
knowledge of what it is doing on this important question of
food production, transportation and distribution. It is a mortal
sin to have to support this department with the very generous
appropriations that it gets and then not have it function. It is
one thing to be denied the service but it is an entirely different
thing to pay very well for it and then not receive it

There is asked for in the budget for 1920 for the agricultural
activities of the State and its supervision $3,155,420. Now that
is what it costs to run the department and aside from the en-
forcement of regulatory statutes absolutely nothing is being
accomplished by it.

The Police Departments of the different cities, the sheriffs,
the district attorneys, any ordinary police force could enforce
the regulatory features of the law but the great, prime moving
reason- for its existence and for this enormous appropriation,
the stimulation of agriculture, the regulation of the production
and distribution of food, is being entirely lost sight of and
nothing is being dene by this enormus political machine. It is
responsible to no branch of government, responsible to nobody.

The audience listened in something like amazement. Smith
grew even more emphatic. There is not a man in the Legis-
lature he said willing to stand up and defend this condition.
They can make no answer to the people. They have made
no attempt to do It.

But, he continued, that is not all : There are a number of other
very important legislative matters pending that affect the health
and well-being of the people of this State that have been recom-
mended by me in my first message or in subsequent messages.
I have asked for legislation to define the State policy with regard

180 ALFRED E. SMITH

to the development of water power. During the month of July
I went up on the canal between the City of Albany and Cham-
plain. As we rode along in the boat, on the left bank of the
canal, going north, great big industrial establishments and great
big" factories were 'using all of their energy turning all their
wheels bringing forth every ounce of their product with power
developed from the water on the left bank of the canal. On
the right bank, the property of the State of New York, that
which belongs to us, with the identical water power, equal in
force, equal in value, Is running to waste. At two points of
the canal within striking distance of the City of Albany sufficient
water is running over the dam to generate electricity enough
to light the City of Albany, the City of Troy, and two other
cities. What is the matter? What is the trouble?

What great business concern, Smith now asked his hearers,
would sit by and permit that great waste? Here is the
problem, he added : You have three groups of men in ,the
State studying water power. The first group is made up of
men who give the right to develop this to private individuals
for a small return. The second group believe in development
by the State and thenj turning It over for private lease there-
after. The third and the right-thinking not radical group
believe in development and ownership by the State !

I stand with group No. 3. There is no question about where I
stand. I have put it into my public messages and into my public
papers. I fought for it for years in Albany and I was the instru-
ment that kept out of the Constitution when it was written for
submission to the people the part which omitted to provide for
electrical development. Bills declaring that policy are lying in
Albany alongside of the Milk Commission bill and the food
bill. And it will die the same death unless there is an arousing
public sentiment clearly indicating that the people want the
development of their water power resources along these lines.

Smith told them next he had asked for amendments to
the Workmen's Compensation Act extending its benefits to

DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY 181

men suffering from occupational diseases. "Perfectly simple
thing!" he exclaimed. There is absolutely no reason why
the act should not give relief to the wife, the children, and
to the man himself who suffers from any disease because of
his occupation. Smith said that in his message the previous
year.

And one of the most prominent representatives "only
Tuesday of this week" said it was "passed last year !" Smith
looked at him for a minute. "Did you read my message this
year?" he asked. The other said he had not. "Do you
think 55 asked Smith, "I sit in my office this year recommend-
ing what had been passed last year?" That, he said bitterly,
is how much attention it received!

I have for years urged the creation by law of a Wage Board
to correct what to my way of thinking is a great industrial
injustice. I advocate Wage Boards for the fixation of living
wages for women and children in factories and mercantile estab-
lishments; exactly as the State regulates their employment. In
the interest of public health, this State can, with equal force say
to anybody that it is just as cruel and just as inhuman to under-
pay a woman as to overwork her. I have heard no argument
against it. It is simply put down on the list of bills not desired
by certain reactionary interests the Manufacturers* Association.

They have organized in the City of Syracuse and call their
organization the League of Americanization. Under the guise
of spreading the doctrine of America's free institutions, they
are throttling free speech and issuing an insidious propaganda
against the legislation introduced for the health and well-being
and morals of the people of this State.

An organization that starts out with its avowed purpose, throt-
tling free speech and shutting off debate and preventing men by
the power and influence of their machine from expressing them-
selves has to have its allies. Of itself it is not a very potent
force and it usually comes to the place where you least expect
to find it looking for an ally, so that everybody may be lulled
asleep.

182 ALFRED E. SMITH

There is a man in New York City, Smith reminded them,
by the name of Hearst. "He makes the finest kind of an
ally that they can have at this time. And make no mistake,
he is the kind who is very effectual! In what way? All
last Summer and last Fall when there was nothing that any-
body could do, when there was nothing that the Governor
could do, his morning and evening newspapers carried whole
columns and cartoons about the awful condition down in
New York." Smith spoke in his best manner as he made
these sarcastic remarks. He enlarged upon Hearst :

That was the time that he was venting his spleen against the
Governor personally because the Governor was only satisfied to
regard him as a friend but wouldn't look upon him as a boss.
Now that we are in the front row trenches, now that we are
battling, now that we are face to face with the real common
enemy of the interests of the people who want this legislation,
where is Hearst? The day of the hearing, up in the corner of
his Gazette, was just about an inch saying it happened; and
just because the rest of the newspapers carried in broad head-
lines that there was real activity, he came out the next night
with a whole page editorial denouncing the Governor, saying
the Governor was insincere.

In desperation to try to make somebody believe that there
was really something to his own paper, he has to advertise in
two column sheets in the other newspapers. This is supposed to
be a letter from a school teacher. I know as many school
teachers personally as any man in the United States, and I know
their habits of thought, and I feel a certain security tonight for
the future of this State and the future of this country because I
believe that school teachers think along right lines.

Of course, you can take that either way you please. I am
reading it, jumping over you know, like years ago up in the
Assembly, poor old Ed Merritt, from St. Lawrence County, who
was the majority leader, and he had argument one day with
a man on the floor. This man was reading a certain bill and m
reading the bill he was jumping from one place to another in it.

AT EIGHTEEN AND IN THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS

DESPOTISM AND DEMOCRACY 183

Ed said to him, "Now wait, now wait, don't do that. Don't read
that bill that way. That is not the way to read it. You can't
get regular sense out of it in that way. If I read the Bible the
way you are reading that bill, let me show you what I could
find in the Bible?" So he said, "I will open the Bible and I
read at the top of the page, 'And Judas went out and hanged
himself/ Then I will open at the top of another page and I see,
'And Christ, speaking to the multitude, said, *Go thou and do
likewise/ "

That won't happen in my manner of reading because I will
take each subject as it stands. This school teacher says, "Edi-
torially the New York American is in a class by itself/*

"The New York American is a mighty educational force
among the people. I express admiration for the wonderful work
that it is doing for Americanization among our school children."
Let me say here tonight because I like to say it; I like to say
it because it is so true ; I like to say it because there is so much
meat in it, exactly what I said from the platform in Carnegie
Hall that was printed broadcast throughout this country and
went right out into his own home in California, if the Hearst
newspapers and their editorials were the textbooks for the
children in our public schools, what would they have to believe
about America? They would have to believe that no man, no
matter who he was, ever was elevated by the voters of his own
people to important public office and thereafter remained true
to them.

Speaking about the unrest, Smith added, it is quite natural
**af ter a great conflict such as the whole world was engaged
in, practically the whole world for four or five years/* that
from it must come some unnatural conditions. The govern-
ment took a particular control over the country., over the
business of the country, justified only by the power of the
President as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and
Navy, justified tinder our constitution and under our laws
only by the stress and emergency of war and as soon as the
Government realized its grip, there had to come certain forms
of unrest and of dissatisfaction :

184 ALFRED E. SMITH

What is our duty? Our duty as a people and as a State is to
allay it, it it can be; listen to it that which is right, that which
has behind it justice, should be, 'if it can be, remedied by the
government itself, but you can't do it by throttling up free
speech. You can't do it by taking the bills and putting them
into the waste paper basket and denying the representatives of
the people a free opportunity to talk about them. Nothing that I
can think of would go further to promote that unrest and to
give a real reason for it, even though an artificial one may now
only exist.

Everybody has the freedom of expression through representa-
tives and by communicating with them and letting them know
that there is behind these bills this bill for a milk commission,
the bill for food control, the bills for proper inspection of cold
storage warehouses, the bills for licensing dealers in food so
that the State can have some grip upon them, the bill for mini-
mum wages, the bill for the development of water power, the
bill for the extension of Workmen's Compensation, bills regu-
lating and changing and reorganizing the Council of Farms
and Markets, bills making stronger, making better and more
effective the Workmen's Compensation Act, increasing the
amount of money to be given to the widowed woman for her
children upon the death of her husband by accident all these
things are matters of concern to every man, woman and child
in the State.

It is with you. I say to you from the bottom of my heart that
I believe we are right. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute, if I
thought there was anything about this legislation that wasn't
for the best interests of this State and its people I would let it
fall myself even in the face of adverse criticism from those
that wouldn't understand it, but I believe it is right, and that
is why I am standing for it, and I have a heart full of gratitude
for everybody that came tonight to make this meeting a success
so that this message going through the press may be heard
throughout the State.

CHAPTER XXVI
AGRICULTURE

A wide-awake legislator of eleven years* experience at
Albany learns many things about the State government
which is a sealed book to the ordinary citizen. If he happens
to be a good mixer, the legislator gets an inside track on the
State's agricultural policy reserved only to the knowing few.

Assemblyman Smith frequently attended county fairs and
the State fair, the big yearly event for the farmer folk. He
enjoyed a large acquaintance among the leaders of the farm-
ers and in the unreserved intimacy of a social hour among
them, he learned the truth about agricultural conditions and
the underlying reasons for certain State policies affecting
them, withheld on formal occasions or in prepared public
speeches and statements.

From this illuminating social intercourse a conviction grew
upon him that the rank and file of the farmers were being
duped. A group of politicians who claimed to represent the
farmers and who built up a political machine in the Republi-
can party; in their own interest and not for the benefit of the
rural population of the State comprised a ring. He saw the
jobs manufactured in special legislation for these leaders and
their friends. He watched appropriations flowing in their
direction but he saw little done that was of substantial ad-
vantage for the mass of the farmers who were in need of
real aid.

With a rich store of this knowledge in the back of his
head, Smith advocated an agricultural policy which hit the

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186 ALFRED E. SMITH

professional political elements among the farmers where they
lived. They knew it. They resisted his efforts. They were
aided by the legislators of the Republican party which used
this agricultural machine to roll up the rural vote on election
day.

The agricultural section of his first message indicated
his point of view and suggested a policy which he was soon
to make irritatingly concrete to the agricultural political
crowd in} a special message which he sent to the Legislature
on April 7, 1919. He proposed to eliminate useless jobs and
to make out of a patronage-ridden inefficient department an
effective agency working in the interest of the agricultural
population of the State. Hence he wrote in his plea to the
Legislature:

I desire to call to your attention a condition in the Depart-
ment of Farms and Markets that, to my way of thinking, needs
remedy.

The Council of Farms and Markets was created by an act
of your honorable bodies in 1917. It was patterned after the
State Board of Regents and was intended to create a condition
in the agricultural affairs of the State that would take them
entirely out of the realm of partisan politics. The bill provided
that there should be two divisions, one headed by the Commis-
sioner of Agriculture and one by the Commissioner of Foods
and Markets, both appointed by the Council, and provided numer-
ous functions which, should be carried out by the Council itself.
It also created a number of Bureaus to be under the direction
of the two Commissioners. It is apparent to all that the plan
has not worked well in operation. The Council itself has been
unable to perform many of the functions given to it, and instead
of being an advisory body, as undoubtedly was intended, it has
been loaded down with administrative duties, which it has been
unable to carry. It is agreed by everybody interested that the
plan of two administrative heads and divided authority has also
failed. I have reached that conclusion after taking counsel
with many interested in agriculture, food distribution and farm-

AGRICULTURE 187

ing interests generally, I have held meetings of the various
agricultural societies and groups throughout the State and have
confirmed my opinion that the only way to get this important
function of our government out of the political arena and give
it stability and permanence is to confer the power upon the
Council to appoint a single head to be responsible to the Council
and to the public at large for the proper functioning of the
various bureaus, which are necessary for the best interests of
this department. I believe that the Council as composed today,
if left to itself, can find a man forceful and able enough to
reorganize the entire department, which is undoubtedly over-
manned, extravagant, theoretical, and too far removed from
the very people it was intended to assist. As it stands today, it
lacks force and initiative and seems to be chiefly concerned in
the enforcement of regulatory statutes. While that is abso-
lutely necessary, it is also necessary that the Department initiate
movements looking towards stimulation of production and a
solution of the questions of distribution. It is not my purpose
to outline what, in my opinion, could be done to make more
efficient this important bureau of our government, but I do feel
free to say that the eighteen bureaus with high-salaried directors
and assistants, for the most part new men placed over the heads
of old employees of the department, have produced an organiza-
tion top-heavy and unwieldy. I believe very firmly in the effic-
iency of a single-headed Commission. I believe that the agri-
cultural law should be amended so as to continue the present.
Council of Farms and Markets as now constituted, b.ut that
their functions shall be purely advisory, and that they be given
the power of appointing a single Commissioner of Agriculture
with a salary ample enough to induce a man o the highest attain-
ments in these lines to take the position. I believe also that he
should be given absolute power to revise the division of work in
the department and that he should not be hampered by the pres-
ent provisions, which continue in existence the various bureaus
making it mandatory for him to continue the functions as they
now exist and being unable to direct the departments as he
chooses in the best interests of the State. I therefore call to
your attention the advisability of immediately enacting a measure

188 ALFRED E. SMITH

feH i

to revise the law so as to embody the changes stated, and appro-
priate a lump stun of money sufficient to enable the new com-
missioner to reorganize and revise in any way in which to his
judgment is best, the various bureaus. To accomplish this prop-
erly, I stand ready to veto the items in the general appropriation
bill for this department and to sign a bill embodying the above
suggestions and making appropriation generously sufficient for
the reorganized department to carry on its work for the fiscal
year beginning July 1, 1919, My sole desire is to do what is
best for all the people of the State, and I can attribute to your
honorable body no less desire. I therefore ask your immediate
consideration of the bill embodying the above suggestions, which
has been prepared and which will be introduced immediately.

He supported his recommendation by a number of impar-
tial studies of the department. Particularly enlightening was
the report of George Gordon Battle appointed by the Gover-
nor Commissioner under the executive law to investigate the
organization and management of the Department of Farms
and Markets. He gave chapter and verse proving inefficiency
and even questionable practices. Again the Governor urged
his reorganization program in his messages transmitting the
report.

He made, in fact, a number of public addresses on his
agricultural policy. At a meeting of the New York State
Agricultural Society on January 20, 1920, he set forth his
aims and his program in the following address :

As the Governor of the State I am personally dissatisfied with
the present organization of the agricultural interests in this
State, By that, I mean that I am not satisfied with the regency
idea as attempted to be carried out by the Council of Farms
and Markets. I do not believe that it is successful. I do not
believe that it is doing for this State what could be done for it
with a similar appropriation. I believe that our agricultural
interests will best be promoted by a single, responsible head I
would look to a Commissioner of Agriculture in this State as

AGRICULTURE 189

probably next to the Commissioner of Education being the most
important single official in the whole State, and if we can
afford to pay a Public Service Commissioner, of which we have
to have five to make up a Board, a salary of $15,000 a year for
the regulation, the very meagre regulation that the law permits
them to exercise over public service corporations, we certainly
can spend $20,000 or $25,000 for the biggest agricultural expert
that this country has and put him at the head of the agricultural
interests of this State, and give him some power along with
some responsibility. There is nothing very radical about that.
It was the accepted procedure in- this State for a good many
years and under certain commissionerships it was highly satis-
factory. . . * Now we have an elaborate regency, all
very good men. There is not any doubt about that Stand
them here on the Assembly floor and representing the various
judicial districts of the State, they are probably the foremost in
their districts, but you cannot carry any job to a successful con-
clusion that is handled by 6, 7, or 10 men. We have been all
through that. The government has been through it. We had
the lesson brought home to us with a great deal o force during
the period of the war. When we were fighting we had to bring
to our men the very best that we had, and invariably that led
us to the idea that a single-headed responsibility, one man you
can look to, that you can hold responsible, and consequently
give him responsibility and power. The law as it reads today
attempts to give certain power to the Commissioner of Agri-
culture, to the Chief of the Division of Agriculture and the
Chief of the Division of Foods and Markets, but all that power
in the last analysis is exercised through the Council. What is
that power? Nothing more than a wonderful bureau of
investigation, absolutely lacking in initiative, which is the
one great thing we need, the one big thing the State desires,
the one thing that you can expect from a single, responsible
commissioner and that you will never get from a council of this
kind. It is idle talk to say you can erect a regency over agri-
culture as you do over education. There is nobody pulling
against education in this State. It is an entirely different sub-
ject. It is another matter. If you want to find some way of

190 ALFRED E. SMITH

perpetuating a good commissioner when you get him in office,
either elect him by the people for a long term, or have him
elected, if you please, by the Legislature for a long term. If
yon get the right man it makes very little difference how you
get him. In the last analysis when all is said and done, the
regency over education is wholly an advisory body and the real
moving spirit after all is the single-headed commissioner of
education controlling his deputies in the various activities of that
great department. I would have the Commissioner of Agriculture
be the man who would have something to say about the appro-
priation of every dollar of State money for agriculture in this
State. The present Council has not got it, You have a number
of agricultural schools spread out all over the State, their man-
agement resting in the hands of their respective Board of Man-
agers. No co-ordination whatever, separate and distinct agen-
cies all operating according to their own notions and their own
ideas, removed entirely from any central authority or power,
in many instances resulting in constant quarreling between the
Manager and certain of the Directors as to procedure. Par-
ticularly is that noticeable in the school at Farrningdale.

In the budget of 1920 I have recommended for agricultural
schools, including the Experimental Station at Geneva, $2,159,-
730. That is a very generous and a very liberal appropriation.
There is no one in this State who controls it after it is ap-
propriated.

The Speaker mentioned the State Fain I would have the
State Fair come under your Commissioner of Agriculture.
That is where it rightfully and properly belongs,

I would have a Bureau of County Fairs within the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and I predict that unless that is done, in a
short time your county fairs are going to lose all the semblance
they ever had of educational institutions so* far as agriculture
is concerned. Now, I would be the last man in the world to
say the children of the countryside were to be deprived of that
week of amusement The $250,000 appropriated by the State
to the various county fairs is .well spent if it serves no other
purpose except a week of recreation for women and children
in the country, but they could attend and agricultural education

AGRICULTURE 191

could retain its place at the fair just the same. There is no
reason why the horse race and the performing bear and the
frankfurter man should be the whole show. They have their
places, but until you have intelligent direction in your county
fairs, you are wasting time and money so far as education is
concerned, so far as any effort on the part of the State for the
promotion of agriculture is concerned. You are wasting money,
and I speak from some experience. In 1918, the fairs of 1918,
I was one of the large side-shows, I was advertised ahead of
time and billed ahead of time. "We have with us today the
Tammany candidate for Governor" a drawing card. It meant
something for the gate receipts. I was perfectly willing to
offer myself for exhibition, and I, therefore, speak of our county
fairs with some knowledge of what takes place there.

When you take the Department of Agriculture and the De-
partment of Markets out of politics you will find that the heads
of the bureaus will be men with some peculiar qualifications,
some peculiar training either in experience or education, to man
these bureaus. Is that the case today ? Everybody in this room
knows it is not. There is no use fooling ourselves about it II
I was asked what I would do about it, I would say this : That if
the Legislature is willing, I will stand for a lump sum appro-
priation made to the Department of Agriculture for its reor-
ganization from top to bottom and allow some men who under-
stand the business to reorganize that big department from top
to bottom and let us have some confidence in it. Let us be will-
ing to leave with them the State's money for that reorganiza-
tion, and let me make the prediction that if you don't do it you
are just continuing a cumbersome machine in the government
of this State that will never get any place.

A survey of Smith's efforts in the farmers' interests indi-
cates that this city-bred man was deeply interested in the
needs of the rural communities and made substantial contri-
butions in their behalf. He approved generous appropria-
tions for the State's agricultural schools.

He approved the building of the Coliseum at Syracuse for

192 ALFRED E. SMITH

the holding of annual conventions of the dairy industries of
the State.

He stimulated the building of good country roads in the
rural districts by approving a dollar for dollar subsidy by
the State for rural county road construction.

In 1922 he came to the relief of the farmers by approving
an appropriation of five million dollars to reimburse them
for the slaughter of their tubercular cattle by the State. Half
of this sum was incurred by the preceding administration and
he risked the charge of extravagance by adding so large a
sum -to his annual budget. He was unwilling to make an
economy record at the expense of the farmers who could not
stand the financial strain of an unpaid State debt.

The Rural Health Bill passed as a result of conferences
with leading medical authorities of the State called through
his initiative and meets one of the most neglected needs of
the rural communities in the Stated-proper medical attention
and hospital facilities in communities where doctors are not
attracted to practise.

Efforts of the State Education Department and public
spirited citizens to pass legislation enabling rural communi-
ties to unite and to co-ordinate their school facilities to secure
for country children the modern educational facilities city
children enjoy, have found him a consistent supporter, and
just recently he approved legislation promoting co-operative
marketing among the farmers of the State to enable them to
enjoy the benefits of common effort which the co-operative
movement among the Western farmers has clearly demon-
strated.

In his policy for the farmers he has been no less the
progressive than he is in his program for justice to the
industrial workers.

CHAPTER XXVII

WELFARE LEGISLATION DEBATE ON THE BARNES

AMENDMENT

No question considered by the constitutional convention
was more basic and far-reaching in its effects on State policies
dealing with social problems resulting from an industrial
society than that presented by the Republican leader from
Albany County, Mr. William Barnes, His influence in the
Republican party extended throughout the State and even
to the national organization. Mr. Barnes was the leading
opponent of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive party
in New York State. In the National Convention of 1912,
Mr. Barnes was a tower of strength for the Republican Old
Guard. He had helped considerably to win their fight for
control of the Republican organization.

Barnes submitted a proposition in the form of a constitu-
tional amendment that "the Legislature shall not pass any bill
granting hereafter to any class of individuals any privileges
or immunities not granted equally to all the members of the
State/'

He later accepted the following amendment to his own sub-
mitted by Mr. Olcott: "The Legislature shall not grant
any privilege or immunity not granted equally to all the
members of the State/*

In an eloquent address Mr. Barnes defended his thesis by
declaring that it represents the theory of equality upon which
American institutions are based. In recent years, he con-

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194 ALFRED E. SMITH

tended, the social legislation advocated by popular leaders
and passed by legislators was in violation of this American
principle.

Mr. Barnes* address was an exposition of ?n abstract
conception of equality. It had all the logical cogency of an
Eighteenth Century political philosopher. He classed the
advocates of social legislation as potential socialists who,
with the same tools that Bismarck used against the socialists
of Germany namely social legislation to buttress an auto-
cratic state were leading free America into the autocracy
Bismarck had desired for Germany. Like Bismarck,, instead
of combatting socialism they were strengthening the move-
ment. For every violation of the principle of equality natu-
rally tended to establish its opposite, the principle of privi-
lege which led to autocracy. ,

The implications of this amendment were clearly grasped
by the progressives in his own party like General Wicker-
sham, Henry L. Stimson and Herbert Parsons. They
pointed out that this amendment if a part of the Constitution
of the State would prevent further labor and humanitarian
legislation like Workmen's Compensation, Child Welfare,
and other labor legislation relieving the injustice to the work-
ers arising from modern social and industrial conditions.

The debate represented a clash between a, static conception
of government and of society held with profound conviction
and tenacity by groups which Mr. Barnes led, powerful in-
dustrial and rural interests and a dynamic conception of
society and government held by the progressives who* recog-
nized the need of adapting laws to changing conditions and
who realized that such changes resulted in the grossest privi-
lege and in actual inequality by adhering to an abstract
equality.

To remedy these abuses of actual inequality was the pur-
pose of social legislation. They contended for the need of

WELFARE LEGISLATION 195

adjustment in a democratic society. They repelled the no-
tion that such adjustment was inconsistent with real freedom
subject to the general welfare.

Smith participated in the debate on the progressive side.
His speech was one of the most powerful justifications of
social legislation presented in the convention.

To give only a brief excerpt :

The second clause providing for or authorizing the expenditure
of public money: It is said that that has reference to two
things. First we will take up the so-called mothers' pension.
That is a wrong name for the act. There is no pension to a
widowed mother. The State long years ago adopted the policy
that it was, through its civil divisions committed to the care
and education of the homeless and destitute children of the
State. The formation of the child welfare boards ,was simply a
change in the method no new policy but a change in the
method. Rather than have the institution the agent of the
State, the State decided that work could best be done by the
mother if she was a fit and proper person, and forthwith It
transferred that agency from the institution to the mother her-
self. The mother, as such, receives no money; or, rather, not
one dollar is contributed to her for her support Everything
she does, she does as the agent of the State, just as surely as
did the institution do it, and for the care and maintenance of
her children, her home is temporarily turned into a State insti-
tution. Now in regard to pensions, a pension is not a payment
of money for services not rendered. As long as there has been
in any civilized community a pension, whether it be private or
public, the theory of it was that it was an increase in salary to
be paid to the man between the time he was able to render ser-
vice and the time of his death.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE PUBLIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE'S WATER
POWER

Smith stood like a rock against the private exploitation of
the State's water powers. Nothing could in his opinion
prove more detrimental to the public welfare. The consti-
tutional convention afforded him a capital opportunity to
prevent private interests from capturing these precious natu-
ral resources of the State.

Smith was not present when the report of the article on
conservation was proposed. He was on hand very soon to
make a forceful plea and to effect two amendments directed
toward truly conserving the State resources. His speech
and the incidental debate arising from it illustrates his knowl-
edge of past legislation on the subject, his persuasive debat-
ing power and his influence over a deliberative body. He
succeeded in securing two amendments to the conservation
article, the first designed to prevent representatives of
private power and of related interests from qualifying as
conservation commissioners and the second made State
development of water power possible under the constitution.

This story can best be told by Smith himself:

It was a matter of regret to me that I was unable to be present
on the day this proposed conservation article was reported from
the Committee of the Whole to the Convention for passage.

It seems to me we are setting the clock of progress, in the
matter of the development of our natural resources, back at

(196)

STATE WATER POWER 197

least ten years by our action. I hold the Constitution should
contain nothing except the bare statement, included in the
report of the State Officers Committee, that there should be a
conservation commission appointed by the Governor by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, and the make-up, member-
ship and the details of how that commission is to be composed
should unquestionably be left to the Legislature in order that
it may deal with the new problems that arise from time to time.

There is a long history connected with this question of water
power development in this State. It goes back to the year after
the last Constitutional Convention. Beginning in 1895, it was
the policy of the State, or, rather the State lacked a policy with
regard to the treatment and the development of its water power
resources. As a result of that lack of policy, from time to time
the grants of water power in the Niagara river were such that
in 1905 or 1906 it was necessary for the Federal Government
to step in and put its hands on Niagara Falls in order to prevent
it from being despoiled by the water power interests of this
State. - ,

At the time the so-called Burton Act was pending in Congress,
it was Horace MacFarland, I believe, the President of the
National Civic Federation, who made the remark that New
York State's record with regard to her water powers in the past
was very bad; that the State itself had jobbed out all the sacred
glories of Niagara for no return or recompense whatever to
the people.

An instance of how some of the grants on the Niagara river
were made can be imagined from one single grant that in the
terms of the contract read that the quantity of water to be
taken was that which would pass through an opening or a ditch
two hundred feet wide by about fourteen feet deep.

The agitation for the preservation of Niagara and the other
water powers of the State was so great that Congress authorized
a treaty between this country and Great Britain, limiting or
holding back the amount of water that could be diverted from
the Niagara river for water power purposes. Immediately after
the passage of the Burton Act, and the ratification of the treaty,
the water power interests of the State turned their attention

198 ALFRED E. SMITH

from Niagara Falls to the St. Lawrence river, and in 1907 there
passed in the Legislature, and it became a law, what was known
as the incorporation of the Long Saulte Development Company.
Under the terms and the provisions of the charter they were
permitted to dam the St. Lawrence river at the Long Saulte
rapids. The conservation engineers conservatively estimated that
at that point in the St. Lawrence river there was capable of
development a million horse power, which, under the terms of
our treaty with Great Britain, five hundred thousand of that
horse power belonged to the State of New York, because the
boundary line between this State and the Dominion of Canada
was approximately in the center of the river.

The bill went down to Governor Hughes and he hesitated to
sign it. He sent it back to both Houses for amendment, requiring
that a certain percentage of the horse power therein developed
was to be paid to the State of New York.

He was entirely without knowledge of the subject, as were
a great many members of the Legislature. Nobody really dreamed
at the time that there was granted to this power development
company 500,000 horse power, the return to the State on which
was something in the neighborhood of $25,000 a year. Anybody
who knows anything about hydraulic development can understand
very readily the value of 500,000 horse power.

Now, immediately after the signing of that act, Governor
Hughes realized what he had practically given away to the water
power interests, and he insisted upon the passage of a bill imme-
diately after that which very clearly defined what was to be the
future policy of the State.

After continuing with this subject in the minutest detail,
Mr. Smith met arguments in debate, and then proposed
his amendment, which was carried..

CHAPTER XXIX

THE LITERACY TEST AND A HUMOROUS INCIDENT IN THE
CONVENTION

Whenever an attempt was made to abridge the rights of
the mass, whether citizens or immigrants, Smith's voice was
heard on behalf of the rank and file. In the debate, which
waxed very warm, on a proposed constitutional article pro-
viding for a literacy test of voters, Smith relieved the tension
by the following bit. Referring to the previous arguments in
favor and in opposition to the literacy test, he said:

Now, I do not know any better food for the Socialists and
the Anarchists or any better thought that the wild-eyed Socialist
can have in his mind and shout from the street corners, that
goes to the foundation of the State and the dissolution of the
Union, than to be able to point to the fact that a man owning
property, participating in the benefits of the government and
upholding the government, is refused a voice in the management
of that government through the ballot, simply because he cannot
read English. We have sent one Socialist Congressman from this
State, one Socialist is sitting in the Congress of the United
States from this State, and the reason it took them so many
years to elect one is because we have by their constituency
taught them that all men are equal in this State, that they have
the same opportunity and the same chance with their neighbor.
During my membership in this House, a Socialist from Schenec-
tady sat on this bench and when he found that the debate was
open, free and unrestricted and he was enabled to participate
absolutely freely in the discussions that came before the Assem-

(199)

200 ALFRED R SMITH

bly, and he found that seventy-six votes and seventy-six only
did anything in this chamber, he went immediately down to the
Ten Eyck barber shop and got a hair-cut. (Laughter.)

Now, in 1908 or 1907, there was written into the election
law a provision that in New York City or the Metropolitan
district, a man had to sign his name when he came to register.
I opposed that very bitterly, in this House. I watched its opera-
tion and it was a surprise to me to see the number of men who
were able to speak the English language, that were not able to
write their names in English. Some of them were fathers of
families. One I have particularly in mind whose son is as bright
a lawyer as any practising at the bar in the city of New York
to-day, and I would not advise him to take his hat off to anybody,
and his father struggled through the long days and nights to
educate the son and the rest of the family and he was not able
to read the language, although he fluently spoke it. And there
are a lot of good readers and writers residing down in Mr.
Osborne's Riverside neighborhood that cannot only write their
own names but somebody else's as well.

He meant in the State Prison at Sing Sing !
Speaking in New York City eight years later he defined his
conception of citizenship:

Now, let me see what a good citizen is. How do we measure
him? What is the yard stick? What is the standard? I come
from a good, old-fashioned neighborhood where the city began.
In that neighborhood I met a great many of our citizens in my
time, and it gave me my idea of a good citizen. I believe him
to be the man who puts everything he has in him into the job
to which he is dedicated that helps to keep open the channels
of trade and of commerce, who raises a family and gives them
all that he possibly can to let them have the benefits of an
education which he himself was probably denied. A man who
pays obedience to his church, who obeys the laws of the State
and the ordinances of the city that is my idea of a good citizen.

CHAPTER XXX
DEFENSE OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION

Congressman Herbert Parsons proved a tower o strength
to the progressive forces in the constitutional convention
interested in adopting the constitution to changing social and
industrial conditions. It was he who submitted an amend-
ment providing that "the Legislature shall have the power to
regulate or prohibit manufacturing in tenement houses."

Mr. Parsons stated the purpose of the amendment in the
opening of his speech. It was desirable, he said, to insert
in the constitution some such provision as this in order to
overcome the Jacobs case, cited by the Court of Appeals
some years previously. The Court held that it was uncon-
stitutional for the Legislature to pass a bill to prohibit manu-
facturing of cigars in tenement houses. The result of that
decision had been to raise a doubt as to the power of the
Legislature to deal with sweat shops.

The amendment was opposed by Mr. Barnes on his general
theory of not abridging the right of individual freedom.
Other upstate delegates feared that the Legislature might
define a tenement so as to prohibit cheese-making in a one-
family home. Others feared prohibition of manufacturing
in homes tinder housing conditions in small towns which
were not socially harmful. After some parleying among the
delegates as to the definition of a tenement house under the
statute, and concerning the scope and implication of the deci-
sion in the Jacobs case made famous by Theodore Roosevelt

(201)

202 ALFRED E. SMITH

in his Progressive party campaign of 1912 for social justice,
Smith took the floor and clarified the atmosphere with the
following address:

MR. A. E. SMITH I just want to make answer to one or
two suggestions which have just been made. I think that the
history of the operation of the Legislature, or the dealing of
the Legislature with this question, of tenement manufacturers,
has been long recognized as along wise and sane lines, and that
there can be nothing to the contention of my friend, Mr. Leggett

If, however, this Convention believes that at any time in the
future the Legislature would be so stupid in its handling of this
question as to provide that a man could not make cheese up in
his house on the farm, why then they had better not put this
into the Constitution, but I don't think you can get many men
to follow Mr. Leggett's idea along that line.

All legislation on this question is after investigation; it is
with a knowledge of the facts. No man would come to Albany
and put a bill in the box prohibiting manufacturing in tenements
right away. You could not pass any such bill as that. I would
be the last man in this Convention to vote for any such bill as
that. But what we want to do is to leave the power with the
Legislature for the proper regulation of something that it has
been doing right up to the session before" the last.

Now, my friend, Judge Dunmore, refers to it as social reform.
It is not social reform. That is not the theory which is behind
legislation which regulates manufacturing in tenement houses.
It is for the welfare and the benefit of all the people of the State
and the health of the community, as I will show in a very few
moments.

Now, Mr. Barnes, of course, quotes a decision with which
none of us disagrees, but sometimes it is more interesting to
know the facts that led up to the decision than it is to read the
decision, and it is more interesting to find out whether it could
apply to an entirely different set of circumstances.

Now the facts that were presented to the court, to just take a
second of your time, in the Jacobs cigar case, were these : The
facts as they appeared before the police justice were these. The

DEFENSE OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION 203

relator at the time of his arrest lived with his wife and two
children in a tenement house in New York City, in which three
other families also lived. There were four floors in the house
and seven rooms on each floor, and each floor was occupied by
one of the families living independently of the other, who did
their cooking in one of the rooms so occupied. The relator at
the time of his arrest was engaged in one of his rooms in pre-
paring tobacco for making cigars, but there was r.o smell of
tobacco in any part of the house except the room where he was
thus engaged*

So that the evident intent of the statute held unconstitutional
here was for the protection of the health of the other occupants
of the house, and the facts are such as to establish that there
was no occasion for such a statute in this particular case, and
the gentleman from Albany would not hold that that wo*ild be
true in the light of the facts about tenement manufacturing that
were disclosed in the recent investigation.

Now, the State has undertaken the regulation of tenement man-
ufacturing. That is not a new thing. That has been in the
Labor Law for some time. Section 100 of the Labor Law provides
for the licensing of tenement houses in which there is altering,
repairing or manufacturing of articles of any kind. But, as the
Congressman told you, because of the great number of tenement
houses, because of the great number of apartments into which all
of these tenement houses are divided, a proper regulation o it by
the State is nearly impossible. The corps of inspectors that would
be required would be more than that activity on the part of the
State would warrant.

There has never been any question of any legislation tinder
the police power, where it could be shown that the regulation
was for the health of all the people of the State. For instance,
we provided by law some time ago that certain articles of cloth-
ing were not to be manufactured in tenement houses and we
excepted from that articles that had to be laundered before they
were worn, consequently showing that the Legislature some time
ago, before the days of the Factory Investigating Committee,
had in mind the care and the protection of the genera* health of
the people of the State in dealing with this question of tenement-

204 ALFRED E. SMITH

made goods, so that germs of disease might not be carried from
the tenement in clothing and stuff there manufactured, and any-
thing that was laundered was exempted from it.

Now, as a result of our investigation, we undertook to amend
the Labor Law, and it is contained in Section 104, and I believe
that it comes dangerously close to the reasoning in the Jacobs
case, but the Court of Appeals in its recent decisions in all of
these kinds of laws have taken into consideration all the facts.

Judge Hiscock in his opinion in the night-work case distinctly'
said that the opinion of the court was influenced by the evidence
that was produced to show the public necessity for some of these
rather drastic regulations.

CHAPTER XXXI
SMITH AND LABOR

In a gathering of laboring men Smith is always at home.
During his two terms as Governor and often as legislator
it was his custom to address the annual convention of the
State Federation of Labor. With the humane legislative
program of the American labor movement he is largely in
sympathy. When the Governor appears before them their
greeting is genuinely fraternal. The friendliness of the
atmosphere, the feeling that he is among his own people is
impelling. His speech is filled with the vernacular that
working men understand. He and his audience have a good
time together.

What follows are extracts from his addresses before the
State Convention of Labor at Syracuse in 1919 and at
Binghamton in 1920. They cover the labor and social wel-
fare program of his first administration.

In the morning address at the Syracuse Convention of 1919
he made some pertinent remarks on the contribution of labor
during the war and upon its obligations to meet the post-war
problems, especially housing.

In the afternoon session he had a heart-to-heart talk with
the members of the joint legislative conference. This body
was organized to carry out the legislative program adopted
by the convention itself. The talk was not merely a historical
retrospect of the relation of judicial decisions to a progressive
labor program. It was a statement of Smith's position on
the major labor and social welfare measures he advocates:

(205)

206 ALFRED E. SMITH

I view the matter of labor legislation from an entirely differ-
ent attitude from the one in which I have seen it regarded dur-
ing my time in Albany, not only as Governor for the last seven
months, but as a member of the Constitutional Convention and
as a member of the Assembly for twelve years. I view labor
legislation from the standpoint o-f the benefit that I see it bring
to the State itself.

During my years in Albany I have had members of the reac-
tionary forces from time to time say to me: "Haven't you done
enough this year for labor? Why not let this go over until
next year ?"

My attitude to t ward that line of questioning and that particular
attitude has been that nothing has been done for labor itself;
what has been done has been done as a matter of State policy
for the benefit of the State.

We spend in a year countless hundreds of thousands, yes, and
millions of dollars for purposes of conservation. We conserve
the animal life of the State, we conserve the forests; we con-*
serve the State property wherever it may be. But wo have
given little thought to the conservation of the State's greatest
asset, and that is the health and the strength of its men and
jvomen,

As I have declared in the Legislature, and in the Constitu-
tional Convention, and from the public platform in the course
of my various campaigns, the State is not in the last analysis
made up of great industrial centers, it is not made up of great
farm lands, great forest preserves, big cities and villages; the
State, after all, is people, and if its people are not healthy,
vigorous, and happy in their work, the conservation of all the
rest does not mean much to the State in the end.

Now, we ought to have gained much from the experience of
the recent great world conflict The Selective Draft Act, some-
thing new to this country, something not kno^vn or heard of in
this generation, or ever before the Selective Draft Act, for
example, brought out the fact that one-third of the men between
the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one, who were called to the
colors by the country, were physically unfit to fight I cannot

SMITH AND LABOR 207

believe that as a State or as a nation, we can afford to allow
a lesson of that kind to go by unnoticed and simply enter into
a declaration of peace and go back to our old habits and cus-
toms and let the world move along as it did before the conflict
I cannot believe that our industry, our American people, ;will
be so blind to their own advantages as to neglect the teachings
that come from a lesson of that kind. And the lesson shows us
the need of legislation for conserving the health of our people.

In ten or fifteen years there has been a very deci<Jed change
in, public opinion with regard to labor legislation. There can
be no doubt about that We have abundant reason today to say
that we are making substantial progress. When I entered the
Assembly first in 1904, some of the labor legislation that after-
wards came from the Factory Investigating Commission, of
which your vice-chairman, Miss Dreier, was a member, could
not have passed either House in Albany, could not have received
any real support It was looked upon as revolutionary. I think
the Court of Appeals decision in the night work case for .women
is the clearest indication of the change of attitude, not only on
the part of the people themselves, but on the part of the highest
judicial tribunal in the State.

The law that was in 1904 regarded as a violation of the Due
Process Law of the Constitution was ten years later declared
to be unconstitutional upon the same set of facts. So there has
been apparently, a general loosening up of the attitude of the
people throughout the State, and particularly of the courts, to-
jyard labor legislation.

I speak, of course, about court decisions absolutely as a lay-
man. I am not a lawyer, but nevertheless I have ideas of my
own, and my idea is that the Due Process of the Law clause
in the Constitution was never intended to prevent the State
from enacting legislation to safeguard the health and welfare
of the people of the State. The "liberty" spoken of in the Four-
teenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution, that afterwards
was incorporated in the Constitution of this State, meant the
liberty of the person. It was put into the Constitution imme-
diately following the Civil War as a guarantee to the people

208 ALFRED E. SMITH

that blood was shed then for a real constitutional right, and that
liberty meant the liberty of the person. It meant that no person
could be detained in any place against his will, or (without due
and orderly process of law.

But the courts afterward construed that word "liberty" to
mean liberty of contract as well as liberty of person, the liberty
not only to move freely in your person, but to live your own
life in your own way. And the Court of Appeals said, in its
first decision on the night work case for women, that the Leg-
islature could not enact any law that t would in any way abridge
a woman's liberty to contract to work whenever she pleased
whether it be in the night time, or in the day time, Sunday, or
any other time. But the same court afterwards sustained ,the
very same law upon evidence before the court adduced by a
committee that was itself the creation of the Legislature. This
evidence held that that law was enacted to safeguard the health
and the welfare of the .women of the State, and to protect the
health of the future citizens of the State, and that therefore it
was a proper and lawful exercise of the police power of the
State in the interest of the public welfare.

Speaking of the legislation .which interested the women of
the Women's Conference, and interested labor, and, for that
matter, interested the State itself, there were a number of im-
portant measures introduced and passed in the Senate during
the last session of the Legislature. Seated on the platform is
Senator Davenport from Utica. Senator Davenport and myself
belong to opposite political parties, but I want to pay this tribute
to him in- this public place, that when it came to legislation in
the interest of men, women and children in this State, Senator
Davenport was neither a Republican nor a Democrat; he was
a State Senator with a proper understanding of legislation.
And I think I conferred. with him during the legislative session
about as often as I did with any member of my own party.

The Health Insurance bill t was his own act. He passed it in
the Senate. I will not speak upon it because he is full of the
subject, knows a great deal more about it than I doi, and has
given it a much greater study than I would be able to give it,
with all my other duties.

SMITH AND LABOR 209

The eight-hour law needs no discussion. It passed the Sen-
ate and was not reported from the Committee on Rules of the
Assembly.

The amendments to the Workmen's Compensation Act, ex-
tending the benefits of that act to men suffering because of oc-
cupational diseases, also passed the Senate, but it was not
reported from the committee in the Assembly.

As for the extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act,
there is no doubt in my mind that the framers of the original
constitutional amendment permitting the enactment of work-
men's compensation insurance in this State believed that it
could be applied to occupational diseases. The problem hinges
on that word "injury." Now an occupation can injure a man
in ways other than by accident A man who suffers from lead
poisoning because of his occupation is injured by that occupa-
tion just as much as if he jwas accidentally hit with something
in the performance of his duty. This was discussed at very
great length in the Constitutional Convention, and my recollec-
tion of it is that the ablest legal minds in the Constitution held
to the theory that the Legislature could enact legislation ex-*
tending Workmen's Compensation Act to take care of occupa-
tional diseases.

It proves nothing that the attempt to write it into the Con-
stitution was defeated. There were attempts made to write
numerous things into the Constitution that the body itself agreed
could be done by the Legislature. It was offered simply to
safeguard the constitutional provision and to take out of it
any possible element of doubt that may exist regarding the
ability or the power of the Legislature to extend any of this
labor legislation. In fact, there was introduced in the Con-
stitutional Convention a provision jvhich specifically said that
that section of the Constitution dealing with the due process
of law had no application to legislation that was enacted tK>
protect the health or welfare of workers. This opinion jyvas
laid before before the Committee on Industry, Labor and Indus-
try, of the Constitutional Convention as a resolution, and was
reported from that body, although my recollection is that it
was not adopted by the convention itself.

210 ALFRED E. SMITH

The same thing applies to the minimum wage law for women
and children. While the attempt was made in the Constitution
to write into that document in so many words the delegation
of power to the Legislature to enact it, the belief still exists
that it can be enacted and should be enacted. It also is one
of the bills that passed the Senate and was lost in committee
in the Assembly. It gives us no new principle in the govern-
ment of the State. The municipalities themselves are fixing
minimum wages for their own employees. A strange thing
about it, a strange thing about all the labor legislation, is that
there was practically no debate upon it. The opposition, if
there existed any, ,was never made known. You know you
can't conduct a one-handed debate. In order to have a debate
there must be two sides presented. I never heard anybody
make an argument against the creation of wage boards.

I remember in the Constitutional Convention one of the
members talking against it read about something that happened
in England in 1320, when there was a movement on the part
of Parliament assisted by the Crown to fix the price of pro-
visions or supplies of some kind, and that ;was urged as an
argument against the creation of wage boards to fix minimum
wage rates for women and children.

This legislation means progress, and I do not have to tell
a man or woman in this hall to-day that progress is hard to
make. It is very difficult. Take any great labor reform and
make a study of how long it took to enact it in this State; the
Workmen's Compensation Act, probably the most forward
looking piece of legislation of its kind ever enacted in this
State, was a long time being put through. The people them-
selves at a general election were obliged to amend their own
Constitution before we could get that legislation and organize
a commission in this State. But I am optimistic enough to
believe that we have arrived at a point in this discussion jwhere
public sentiment will be strong enough behind this progressive
legislation to put it through.

There is one other subject that I want to speak about, and
that is the operation of the State Fund and the State Industrial

SMITH AND LABOR 211

Commission. When I came into office I had in mind that
during the campaign I spoke very vigorously against the law
that provided for direct settlements between the insurance
companies and injured men or women. I fought it in 1915. I
was in the minority, the steam roller crushed us down the
Senate's aisle, and the law went into the statute books of this
State. After an investigation of some of the awards made
by agreement between the injured and the insurer we produced
sufficient evidence to put through a bill abolishing the direct
settlement at the last session of the Legislature, something I
didn't think was possible to do, but the evidence was so strong
that they couldn't get away from it

I .want to say here to-day that I have confidence, absolute
confidence, in the State Industrial Commission. Nevertheless,
I owe it to the Commission, and in this the Commission,,
stands with me; I owe it to the working people of the State
and I owe it to the business people of the State, to have that
law such that industrial insurance must either cost less to the
manufacturers of the State, or the injured man must get
more. A comparison between the rates in this State and the
rates in the State of Ohio shows that either our manufacturers
are paying too much, or our injured men and women are
getting too little. One of the two things must be the fact, and
before we finish we will find out just ;what the real situation is
and do what can be done to remedy it either by administra-
tion, which the Commission is no\v doing, or by legislation if
the Commission cannot remedy it by administration.

His 1920 "annual message to the State Federation of
Labor," as he termed it, accounted for some of the progress
made in furthering the Governor's labor and social welfare
program which the Federation actively endorsed and sup-
ported. Among other topics, he referred to a statute in
which labor was deeply concerned. It permitted the State
to extend the benefits of workmen's compensation insurance
to men who suffer because of occupational diseases. Smith
felt that it was the intent of the constitutional amendment

212 ALFRED E. SMITH

permitting workmen's compensation laws, to legalize this
part of the statute. Some lawyers thought the amendment
had reference only to accidental injury. Nevertheless Smith
thought and said that a great deal had been accomplished
when statute law was made to recognize the constitutional
amendment as comprehending illness brought about by an
occupation which in itself and by its very nature is harmful
to the health of the worker.

CHAPTER XXXII
ON LIVING WAGE FOE. WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN INDUSTRY

The reports of the State Factory Investigating Commission
made a profound impression upon leaders of progressive
thought throughout the State. Even after its influence was
registered in the enlightened labor laws of 1911, 1912 and
1913, its studies continued to stimulate thought and action
along humanitarian lines. In the debate on the living wage,
Smith based its necessity for women and children upon the
results of the Commission's investigations.

His address on the living wage in the Constitutional Con-
vention presents a cause for which he was to wage many a
battle with his political opponents. The fight is still on.

THE CHAIRMAN Mr. Smith has the floor on general order
No. 55.

MR. A. E. SMITH Mr. Chairman., this is Intended to give to
the Legislature the power, either by its own action or through any
properly constituted agency, to prescribe a living wage for women
and children employees. This comes to this body as a rec-
ommendation from the State Factory Investigating Commission.
It was continued in 1913 after being in active operation for two
years for the express purpose of investigating the question of
salaries and wages paid to women and children employees in mer-
cantile establishments and in industrial occupations.

The exact wording of the report subscribed to by the majority
of that Committee, and, as I understand it, by the minority rep-
resentatives as well, removing it entirely from the question of

(213)

214 ALFRED E. SMITH

politics, was, briefly, as follows: "After careful deliberation and
study of the results of its investigation and the testimony taken,
the commission has come to the conclusion that the State is jus-
tified in protecting the underpaid women workers and minors
in the interests of the State and society. It finds that tfiere are
thousands of women and minors employed in the industries
throughout the State of New York who are receiving too low
a wage to adequately maintain themselves in health and decent
comfort. The commission believes that this unjustly affects the
lives and health of these underpaid workers and believes that it
is opposed to the best interests and the welfare of the people of

the State."

The evidence taken was something like this : Let me read you
one or two paragraphs from the evidence :

Subject: "Living on Six Dollars a Week," by Esther Pack-
ard, one of the employees of the commission. "How do they
manage to do it? In what mysterious ways do girls stretch a
less than a living wage into a living one?" is the question which
the public most often asks when it hears of girls living on five,
six and seven dollars a week.

"Miss C. W." this is an actual conversation had with a work-
ing girl in a department store. The names are not mentioned.
The initials are given and all the facts, the right names, the
addresses, all the circumstances and the name of the department
store are in the possession of the Factory Investigation Commis-
sion. "Miss C. W., a department store clerk, answers quickly,
When I have to pay for a pair of shoes or something like that,
I don't buy meat for weeks at a time.' 'You see yourself the
only thing that is left me to economize on is food/ says another
department store clerk; 1 never eat any breakfast at all. By
experience I found that was the easiest meal to do without/
Annie B. reasons thus: "When I don't spend any money on
pleasure and only what I absolutely need on clothes, how else can
I economize except on food? What else is there to do T "

The State, not in the interest of the worker, not in the inter-
est of, the individual, or a class of individuals, but 'in the interest
of the State itself has undertaken to regulate this question of
woman and child labor. If it is essential to fix the number of
hours that they are to work and fix the time that they are to

ON LIVING WAGE -215

work, prevent them from working in the night time, is it not
only natural to say that the State should have power to say that
they shall not be worked at a salary less than sufficient to keep
them in health and in decent comfort ?

Now, one of the arguments against the minimum wage that
can be dissipated into thin air by a wave of the hand is the argu-
ment that it may some time be made to extend to men.

Everybody around this chamber knows that by labor unions
and by labor organizations men have it in their power, and they
do to-day, exact a certain minimum wage. I had the personal
experience one time as a trustee of public buildings upon the
repair work on this capitol after the fire. I found that the
Bricklayers' Association of this country had fixed the minimum
wage for this county; that it was a different one for New York
county ; varying, I presume, with the cost of living or with the
surrounding conditions. They had the strength and the force
because of their organization to demand a minimum wage, and
it is fixed, if not by law, it is so thoroughly fixed by custom, that
you cannot conduct a public work or a public operation in this
State without a full recognition of that fact.

Women and children have no organization. No woman goes
to work, or no young girl goes to work with the Intention of
forever working in the department store or a shirt factory or in
a shirtwaist manufactory. She goes there for a start in life.
Her ultimate desire is the desire of all women, that she have her
own home and her own family. Consequently they never organ-
ize. Consequently they are without the power to present their
claims, and it is proposed by this Legislature that the State itself
help them to present the claim.

A great many people say a minimum wage interferes with
individual bargaining and it interferes with the rights of the
people. Not at all. Not at all. This is really an inhibition rather
than a minimum wage. This wage board says, *You can make
any bargain you will with your employer; you may make any
arrangement as to salary which you please among your classes,
but in the interest of the State and of society, you cannot pay less
than this amount for this age girl in this part of the State.

I was very deeply impressed by the testimony which you will

216 ALFRED E. SMITH

find was given by the president of the National Cloak and Suit
Company, the largest employer of women and children in the
State, and the very thing, the very principle that it was sought
to write Into this Constitution, that great company has had in
operation for a long time. Not only have they conceded that
there was a minimum below which they should not pay anybody,
but they have felt that there rested on them some duty to con-
tinue the education of every young girl who was obliged to go
to work for them.

Now, what is the effect of it upon the employer ? The eflf ect is
that he gets better work. Professor Brandeis, before the Com-
mittee, quoted a great English authority that a railroad costs the
same per mile to complete it, whether you pay a man two cents
a day or two dollars a day, and it is predicated on the reasonable
and unquestionable theory that you get what you pay for; no
more and no less.

There is another side to this, too, which deserves something of
our consideration. We have spoken of what must be the natural
effect upon health. The girl who is insufficiently paid, and im-
properly clothed will in time become a charge upon the State.
About that there can be no question, and if she is to be the
mother of the future citizens, look straight and deep down into
your heart for a moment, and see what we are looking forward
to, if the State refuses to bring them up in health and decent
comfort.

There is another side worthy of consideration. I will quote
from a part of the testimony of one of the investigators. There
is the moral side. It is an awful weight! It is an awful
temptation !

One of the investigators went out and among the employees
of the mercantile establishments and in the course of her testi-
mony she said :

"I do not think the problem ever presents itself to a girl,
'Shall I sell myself in order to make more than six dollars a
week P But the absence of amusement, the barrenness and the
ugliness of life, the whole thing combined with unemployment,
does tend powerfully in that direction. Low wages put too
severe strain on the moral strength of the individual/'

ON LIVING WAGE 217

Now, just one word in closing 1 . I said I wanted to give some-
body else a chance. We should not hesitate to clothe our Legis-
lature with this power. Gentlemen, will any man around this
circle think for a moment that this is going to be abused, or even
unwisely used? Remember what happens, happens after very
careful consideration, very careful deliberation. Just as sure as
we are to leave this hall to-night, so sure is this thing coming in
this State, and before you leave here, look into your conscience
and consult your conscience and see if you are not passing by
an opportunity to help it ; see if you can excuse yourself at some
future time, when its necessity may be much more apparent, upon
the ground that you are afraid to trust this great question to the
elected representatives of the. people in the Senate and Assembly.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FOR THE WIDOW AND THE ORPHAN

That the home is the normal environment of the child has
always been a truth confirmed by human nature. But that
the care of an orphaned child is best fostered by mother love
in a home is an application of this truth in a policy which
could not be established in New York State without a strug-
gle against the powerful interests of institutional charity
which had much at stake.

For a number of years a small group of women in New
York City complained that the relief given by charitable
organizations? to the widow and the orphan was inadequate.
They characterized the easy recourse taken by relief agencies
to separate a widow from her orphan children as inhuman
and often motivated by a desire to reduce the cost of relief
through a wholesale treatment of orphans in asylums.

They condemned the system not only because it provided
insufficient relief but chiefly because it was wrong to separate
a child from its worthy mother and confine it in the artificial
atmosphere of an institution. They argued that the best
institution could not compete in effectiveness and results
with a normal home where the child received the fostering
nurture of mother love. They were therefore led to the
advocacy of what was then a revolutionary policy. They
urged that the child should be kept with its mother and
that the State should regard the mother (if not disqualified
by character or other reasons) as its agent. The State must

(218)

FOR THE WIDOW AND THE ORPHAN 219

subsidize her instead of continuing the time-worn policy of
subsidizing an institution.

These women took the fight to the Legislature in 1913. It
appointed a commission to inquire into the subject of child
welfare and of relief for widowed mothers. The commission
after a careful study of conditions in the United States and
Europe recommended the policy of Child Welfare Boards. A
law known as the Hill-McCue Bill, providing for the pen-
sioning of widowed mothers through these boards, was
introduced in the Legislature of 1915.

No bill in that Legislature aroused more interest. The
battle line was drawn through the entire State. Arrayed
against the advocates of the bill were the mighty organized
charities powerful institutions which had been the recipients
of public bounties and private philanthropy. No lobby was
more active and insidious. Unlike the ordinary lobbies it
wrapped itself in the mantel of virtue. It condemned the
measure as reactionary and disastrous. The representatives
of these institutions predicted dire calamity for children if
the law was passed. They claimed that it would revive all
the old evils of outdoor relief with its waste and political
maladministration.

The pressure upon the Legislature by the enemies of the
bill was unusual. No device of the lobbyist was neglected to
defeat the measure. The atmosphere of the Assembly was
tense. Passions were aroused on both sides. Among those
who fought for the right of the orphan child to the fostering
care of its mother was Smith, then minority leader of the
Assembly. On March 24, upon the occasion of its third
reading, moved by deepest feeling, he delivered a speech urg-
ing its passage. At its close the Assembly was silent for a
moment and then, the account says, "burst into cheers."

Mr. Speaker, in the recent campaign and in the campaign
previous there was contained in the platforms of the two great
parties a plank which pledged the parties to the conservation

220 ALFRED E. SMITH

of our natural resources. As I see this bill and as I view the
policy on the part of the State in reference to such matters,
I am of the opinion that this bill should read, "An act to con-
serve the family life of the State."

What happens when death takes from the family the pro-
vider? The widow mother goes to the police court or to the
charity organization and her children are committed to an
institution, and from the moment the judge signs the commit-
ment the people of the city of New York are bound for their
support. Let us see what effect that has upon the State itself.
The mother stands in the police court She witnesses the
separation of herself and her children. They are torn away from
her and given over to the custody of an institution, and noth-
ing is left for her to do but to go out into the world and! make
her own living. What must be her feelings? What must be
her idea of the State's policy when she sees these children
separated from her by due process of law, particularly, when
she must remember that for every one of them she went
down into the valley of death that a new pair of eyes might
look out upon the world? What can be the feelings in the
hearts of the children themselves separated from their mother
by what they must learn in after years was due process of law,
k when they must in after years learn to know what was the
State's policy ;with respect to their unfortunate condition^

That is the old system. That is the dark day we are walking
away from. That is the period that, by this policy, we are
attempting to forget.

What new policy does this bill inaugurate? What new
system does this bill inaugurate? The State of New York,
under the provisions of this act, reaches out its strong arm to
that widow and her children and says to them, "We recognize
in you a resource to- the State and we propose to take care of
you, not as a matter of charity, but as a matter of government
and public duty." What a different feeling that must put into
the hearts of the mother and the children ! What better citi-
zens that policy must make! Why? Because it instills into
that young heart a love, *a reverence and a devotion for the
great State of Nejy; York and its sovereign power.

FOR THE WIDOW AND THE ORPHAN 221

We are pledged to conserve the natural resources of the
State. Millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money, untold
and uncounted millions have been poured into that channel.
We have been in a great hurry to legislate for the interests.
We have been in a great hurry to conserve that which means
to the State dollars and cents. We have been slow to legislate
along the direction that means thanksgiving to the poorest man
recorded in history He jvho was born in the stable at
Bethlehem.

We have been especially blessed by divine Providence in this
State. He has seen fit to make it the great financial and the great
commercial centre of the western world. I believe it will in
time be demonstrated that He intends to make it the market place
of all the world; and by this legislation, by the adoption of
this policy, we are sending up to Him a prayer of thanksgiving
for the innumerable blessings that He has showered upon us,
particularly in the light of the words of the Saviour Himself,
.who said: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid
them not. for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

The principle established by this bill is now accepted by
the best child-caring authorities.

As Governor, Smith was 'ever alert to protect the Child
Welfare Boards. He proved the friend of the widow and
orphan on many future occasions. He was instrumental in
liberalizing and improving the State's provisions, until to-day
New York is far in advance in methods and extent of the
application of this policy.

CHAPTER XXXIV
THE HOUSING CRISIS

Shortage of houses with consequent rise in rent was the
most important war problem pressing upon the people for
solution. It was not local or even national in extent but
international European governments and the Dominion of
Canada were confronted with the same economic and social
problems arising from the housing shortage and accumulated
difficulties due to the concentration of the world's productive
energies upon the industries essential for winning the war.

New York State and especially its cities needed housing
relief. The Legislature recognized it by appointing a Joint
Committee for its consideration. The city of New York
appointed a Committee on Rent Profiteering to protect the
tenants against the exorbitant sums exacted by landlords
who took advantage of the shortage.

Legislative relief had to be given to meet the emergency
arising from so abnormal a condition* Such minor measures
as could afford temporary relief to harassed tenants were
passed in the extraordinary session of June, 1919, But most
needed of all was the building of more houses.

The Reconstruction Commission went to work on the solu-
tion of this problem with sanity and thoroughness. It estab-
lished an advisory body consisting of architects, builders and
real estate experts with representatives of the public. They

(222)

THE HOUSING CRISIS 223

worked arduously to stimulate building. Conferences with
representatives of loaning institutions and insurance com-
panies were held to influence the flow of money into the
building of homes. But the money market is governed by
economic laws. It did not pay these agencies to invest their
funds in buildings. The costs of labor and of materials were
so high that the returns from financing housing enterprises
for industrial workers at prevailing rentals were not as at-
tractive as other building operations.

The Governor tried hard to stimulate home-building by
private effort and on May 16, 1919, at a conference with the
Reconstruction Commission he recognized that legislation
might have to be resorted to in meeting emergencies and in
preventing abuses. The only real solution was more houses.

Smith reminded them of what some seemed to have over-
looked. When he assumed office that very year he was con-
fronted with the fact that for two years at least all building
in the State was absolutely at a standstill. That situation,
of course, was caused by the fact that the federal government
itself had expressed the desire to the State and to its various
municipalities that no construction work that took men and
materials away from the purposes of the government be
carried on.

In transmitting the report of the Reconstruction Commis-
sion on Housing to the Legislature at the next regular session
in 1920 the Governor in a message under date of March 26,
1920, fully analyzed the problem, and the attempts made
partly to meet the emergency at the extraordinary session of
the preceding summer. He then set forth the need of a
constructive policy as recommended by the Commission.

The Legislature passed measures of temporary relief but
paid no attention to a permanent constructive policy. This
he urged again in a message to the Legislature called in
extraordinary session on account of the unrest and distress-

224 ALFRED E. SMITH

ing conditions arising from the housing shortage which had
become acute and required immediate attention. In his
message of September 20, 1920, he laid out a comprehensive
policy covering the emergency and the permanent solution.
The history" of his efforts to solve the housing problem
was ably given in an address to the conference of governors
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 1920. The
Governor could not attend in person. The speech was read
by the Honorable Edward F. Boyle, appointed by him as
chairman of the Industrial Commission.

Symptomatic of the fundamental housing problem, and . so
marked as at last to have attracted the attention of the whole
world, is the excessive rental cost of housing in centers of popu-
lation, which has been driven to the point of profiteering. In
approaching the problem it is easiest to believe that a cure of
profiteering in rentals will bring about readjustment of the
housing problem, and that, therefore, homes will immediately be
found for everybody and at rentals which they can afford to pay.
This is such a common error that it is not at all extraordinary
that in the early stages even the Federal government approached
the question from this angle by attempting to enact rent laws in
the District of Columbia, expecting that these would put a suffi-
cient number of housing accommodations in Washington at the
disposal of a greatly increased population.

The situation in New York City is of vital interest to the whole
country because what is happening and what has happened in the
metropolis on a large scale is taking place in a lesser degree, and
more slowly, in every city or town throughout the country. No-
where is private initiative filling the demand for houses. In
New York, because of the scale of the problem, it is easier than
elsewhere to measure the inadequacy of the effort to meet the
present situation by our former method of supplying homes. It
is apparent and will become more and more apparent in the other
cities of the country that government action alone can prevent
serious trouble.

THE HOUSING CRISIS 225

At the beginning- of my term of office it was apparent to me
that housing would claim a great part of the attention of the
public. The shortage due to lack of building during the war
was just becoming manifest and was evidenced by the increase of
rentals. Immediately upon assuming office, I appointed a Re-
construction Commission, composed of men and women who were
experts in their various lines, and to them I entrusted the study
of the general policies of readjustment and reorganization that
I believed were necessary to guide the State during the period of
reconstruction. I charged them especially with making a careful
study of the housing conditions of the State. I asked them to
make every endeavor to secure the fullest information, and after
carefully studying it to recommend either legislative or executive
action. I stated that I was particularly anxious that the Commis-
sion "find a solution of our housing difficulties that looks to the
future and that a program may be initiated that will make for
the permanent welfare of the State."

Housing being a social problem, whose pressure is felt by rich
and poor alike, there proved to be great readiness to seek rem-
edies, and after the Reconstruction Commission had appointed
a Housing Committee and they were well on their way in the
study of the existing conditions, the Legislature, feeling the press-
ure, appointed a Joint Legislative Committee on Housing, which
also was charged with the duty of studying high rentals and
housing conditions.

The Committee on Housing of the Reconstruction Commis-
sion immediately associated with itself two advisory committees,
one for New York City and one to consider upstate problems.
The members of these advisory committees were chosen from
the various fields of activity having to do with the creation of
housing facilities. They were chosen because they represented
finance, building, architecture, city planning, tax experts, build-
ing loan associations, social organizations and others having a
community interest in the problem.

Thoroughly organized with these advisory committees, the
Commission undertook an immediate examination of all phases
of the situation. They made a study of land values in relation to
housing, co-operative housing, municipal housing enterprises,
taxes and assessments, money (which they considered from the
point of view of its source of supply), building and loan associa-

226 ALFRED E. SMITH

tions and other types of loaning institutions, city planning, costs
of construction, large scale planning, building loans, and the
effect of restrictive legislation and management.

The Committee made a thorough survey of existing conditions ;
questionnaires were sent out to cities and towns throughout the
State, In New York City where conditions were most acute, a
detailed house-to-house survey was made of thirty square blocks
containing a population of about 50,000 persons. This block
survey was intended to compare rental increases with actual liv-
ing conditions, and also to determine whether the worst type of
building construction was capable of salvaging, since new con-
struction was most costly. This survey necessarily dealt also
with the social implications of housing.

During the summer of 1919 it was necessary for me to call a
special session of the Legislature in order to ratify the suffrage
amendment, and since no action looking toward a remedy for the
housing situation had been taken at the regular session of the
Legislature in that year, and it being apparent that the crux of
the situation lay in the acute shortage of houses, a group of those
interested in the solution of the question suggested the enact-
ment of four statutes that were presumably capable of immedi-
ately remedying the housing- situation as it existed at that time.
The first of these liberalized the Savings Bank Law and em-
powered savings banks to loan money on buildings in the course
of construction. The second and third related to proceedings
against tenants, who were holding over beyond the period of
termination. The fourth made a change in the Tenement House
Law and approved the alteration of a certain class of houses.
We were assured that this would make possible accommodations
for 20,000 families. This particular change in the laws brought
no relief, as no operations were undertaken under its provisions.

In the meanwhile the housing shortage which was most acute
in the largest centres of population began to spread to the
smaller cities of the State and attempts were made by some
of the communities to solve them by means of the organization
of housing corporations made up of the business men and manu-
facturers in the town, either for the purpose of making loans
to workers desiring to build houses or for the purpose of con-
structing groups of houses to be sold to workers.

THE HOUSING CRISIS 227

At the suggestion of the Reconstruction Commission, the Joint
Legislative Committee devoted some time and study to the con-
sideration of the effect of the high costs of building materials
on construction and the reasons for these high costs.

In March, 1920, the Reconstruction Commission filed its report
on housing with me.

In the meantime the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing
had conducted its examination along the lines of increased rentals,
and their recommendations for legislation confined themselves
to applying remedies to these conditions. They acted on the
assumption that an emergency existed and applied their legis-
lative remedies with that idea in mind.

The Reconstruction Commission had pointed out in its report,
and by this time it had become apparent to all that legislation
does not build houses and that the fundamental cause of the
whole difficulty was that there were not enough houses for the
population. Figures showed that there were actually less houses
in New York than in the year previous, although a larger
number of tenements that had hitherto been unused because of
wretched conditions were put to use, and although the population
continued to increase in normal ratio. The Reconstruction
Commission viewed the remedies for the situation entirely from
the angle of creating a permanent housing policy for the State,
but the Reconstruction Commission also called attention to the
fact that without fundamental changes in our methods of sup-
plying houses it would be impossible to secure a sufficient supply
of homes for the workers of the State, They stated in their
report "It is economically unprofitable now, it has been eco-
nomically impossible for many years, to provide a large part
of the population of this State with decent homes according
to American standards of living. Decent homes and wholesome
environments in which to bring up children cost more than
most workers can afford. It is impossible to supply the popu-
lation of this State with decent homes, unless the cost of living
be reduced."

As a result of their study, a majority of the members of the
Commission made the following recommendations:

L That a law be enacted requiring the appointment of local

228 ALFRED E. SMITH

housing boards in communities having a population over 10,000,
the members of such boards preferably to serve without pay,
and for the appointment of a central State housing agency for co-
ordinating local effort. The function of the central and local
boards shall be

Aiding each locality in meeting the immediate pressing need
for sufficient homes.

Collection and distribution of information relating to housing
and community planning.

Assisting in the preparation of housing laws, zoning ordi-
nances, State-wide regulatory or restrictive housing and build-
ing codes, etc.

Study of the means of lowering the cost of housing through
better planning in the construction of homes and through their
proper location*

Development of a means for using State credits to apply to
housing at low rates of interest without loss to the State. To
set the standards for the use of such credits and to fix limitations
upon the return of money borrowed from the State for housing
purposes. To assist in the most practical manner possible in
the erection of adequate homes in wholesome environments for
workers at a rental cost dependent on the actual cost of land
and building.

2. The enactment of a constitutional amendment permitting
extension of State credit on a large scale and at low rates to aid
in the construction of moderate-priced homes. This does not
mean that the State itself shall build such homes. It does not
mean that the State is to own or operate houses, It does not
mean that the State is to offer subsidy for the construction of
homes. It does mean that the State shall be enabled to loan
money on its credits to limited dividend corporations or to indi-
viduals^ or to' organizations, to build houses of such standards
as to light and air as the State or community may determine
to be desirable, the rentals of such houses to be controlled.

There are many methods by which State credit might be
made available. It should be one of the first duties of the Housing
Bureau and the local boards to make a thorough study of this
matter.

THE HOUSING CRISIS 229

3. Passage of an enabling act permitting' cities to acquire and
hold, or let adjoining vacant lands, and if necessary to carry on
housing. This legislation should be such as to permit conservation
of the increment of land values for the benefit of the community
creating it.

The Legislature passed none of these constructive recom-
mendations, gave them no study whatever and permitted the situa-
tion to go on, developing an even more acute crisis. The Joint
Legislative Committee was continued, and both that committee
and the Reconstruction Commission made further studies of
the situation.

May first and October first are the two great periods in the
year in New York when leases terminate. The May first period
was partially tided over by the legislation passed at the 1920
session of the Legislature on recommendation of the Joint Legis-
lative Committee, but it was soon apparent that this was utterly
insufficient to meet the crisis of the principal moving day, which
was October first, and there were pending in the municipal
courts of New York City over 100.000 dispossess cases that
would have to be argued on or about that date.

To meet this threatened emergency, I called the Legislature
in extraordinary session on September 20, 1920, and in my
message to the Legislature at that time I stated that the experi-
ence of several months had revealed to us the weaknesses of
the temporary expedients, and had made more acute the neces
sity for encouragement of building operations so far as it could
be done by law, and made more apparent the necessity for the
creation of State agencies for further use, and I therefore
asked the Legislature to deal with three phases of the subject:
First, the strengthening of the temporary statutes enacted at
the regular session to meet the emergency. Second, to attempt
to stimulate building construction. Third, to establish at once
agencies in the State that would provide a permanent and con-
stantly developing housing policy.

I had in mind the distinct belief that no restrictive legislation,
properly drafted, would have any disastrous effect on honest
landlords. It has been my experience that only those who seek
to live outside the moral law have any great fear of legislation.
A State has a conscience and will regulate fairly.

230 ALFRED E. SMITH

In our State landlords have been given the special privilege
of summary proceedings in order to regain immediate possession
of their premises. This privilege does not belong to any land-
lord as a matter of inherent right. Inasmuch as the evidence
laid before us indicated that summary proceedings were being
grievously abused, in a crisis of this kind, the State does only
its duty when it withdraws or modifies them.

There was an abundance of evidence that undesirability or
failure to pay rent was not in the majority of instances the
basis of the application for the writ of summary removal, but
on the other hand, it was the operation of the profiteer who
would remove the desirable and paying tenant in order to create
a vacancy which might thereafter be offered to the highest
bidder. As a result of this, families have been shifted from
place to place without rhyme or reason, and the unscrupulous
and selfish have profited immensely by it. October first was to
have been the height of the harvest.

I believed the emergency to be such that I recommended that
the strong arm of the State should reach through its courts and
protect the people at least until the crisis should have passed
or the situation be relieved. I suggested that the courts be
empowered where it is evident that the dispossess is requested
for the purpose of unreasonable rent-raising, to suspend the
dispossess remedy for an adequate period.

For the stimulation of building construction, I suggested the
amendment of our taxation laws. While I do not, as a matter
of policy, favor tax exemptions, the emergency was such that
it appeared to be advisable to consider the enactment of a law
exempting from taxation for a period of years, with proper
restrictions, buildings used for dwelling purposes whose con-
struction would be undertaken within such a period as would
assure an immediate increase in housing accommodations. I
believed that this would aid in putting 'new construction on a
fair competitive basis with buildings erected before the war
and would assist in creating a market for new buildings.

Loaning institutions apparently have not kept in step with
the times and have spent their energy in securing investments
bringing a larger return than real estate mortgages. For in-

THE HOUSING CRISIS 231

stance, our savings banks and mutual insurance companies are
organized not for profit, but as depositaries for the people's
money, and it would be entirely in keeping with their purpose
if their funds were made available to a greater extent to meet
the people's needs by investing a larger portion of them m bond
and mortgage.

In 1914 there was created by statute a State Land Bank having
for its purpose assistance to building and loan associations. Inas-
much as the proceeds from the sale of the bonds of the Land
Bank are used for the building of homes, it seemed advisable
that the State should do everything possible to make the bonds
a more desirable purchase. We had already exempted them
from the provisions of the State income tax, but the abnormal
yield from other securities is such as to make them an undesir-
able investment* I suggested that it might be well that the
State use its moneys or a portion thereof now in the various
sinking funds of the State to purchase these bonds, and that it
might also enable municipalities of the State to invest in such
bonds.

These recommendations were made in the hope that the legisla-
tion which they suggested would bring voluntary capital into the
building market. I called the attention of the Legislature to the
fact that if the present condition were not thus relieved and the
health of the community continued to be menaced, then we would
have a grave public emergency to meet such as would confront us
in a time of epidemic or of catastrophe. I suggested that the
police power of the State, clothed with the proper safeguards,
should be extended to municipalities in order that they might
be enabled to build or lend their credit to the building of houses.

I stated that undoubtedly the State, as well as the municipali-
ties, should be in a position to extend its credit either through the
medium of the State Land Bank or a specially created agency.

Again I called the attention of the Legislature to the fact that
it had been brought to my attention that the high cost of building
materials was artificially stimulated, and I suggested that the
Joint Legislative Committee be given increased powers to carry
on further investigation of this situation.

In urging a housing policy for the State I called the attention

232 ALFRED E. SMITH

of the Legislature again to the fact that building houses for
some groups in the population has become an unprofitable busi-
ness. Hence, these groups have for a generation lived in the
left-over housing, or in the cheapest and most poorly planned
type of home that a grudging and unrealizing community would
provide. As a result of the present emergency, a still larger
portion of our population is being forced back into houses of a
standard below that which we have accepted as decent American
homes.

I pointed out to the Legislature that except for the report of
the Reconstruction Commission and the findings of the Joint
Legislative Committee, we have been aided by no State agency
in the consideration of this very important problem. In the
enactment of labor laws we are guided by the Industrial Com-
mission. In the enactment of health measures, by the State
Health Departments, In matters affecting the conservation of
our natural resources, by the Conservation Commission. The
Banking Department, the Insurance Department, and other State
agencies all deal with special subjects that need executive or
legislative action. But in housing, dealing with the elementary
need of shelter and establishing homes, there is no State or local
agency to aid the legislative and executive branches of the gov-
ernment either in meeting an emergency, or what is more impor-
tant, in helping to establish a permanent housing policy for the
State. Such a policy does not necessarily mean the building of
houses by the State, but it does mean the establishment of
housing standards and of local development that should underlie
any future growth of the cities of a State.

To this end I recommended for New York State a law which
will create in each community having a population of over ten
thousand a local housing board, which shall be charged with the
duty of finding a solution for the local housing situation. These
local boards should be required to prepare within a period to be
determined by the local authorities a plan for the future develop-
ment of the city ancf should consider local housing ordinances,
A State agency should be created and the local boards should
be required to report to it at stated intervals so that there may
be available at all times a body of information applicable tp
this subject.

THE HOUSING CRISIS 233

The State agency, on the other hand, should first of all be
directed to report to the next Legislature on a method for the
development of a system of State credits for housing purposes.
Through the State agency information should be made available
to local communities that should aid them in their housing
program.

Even at the extraordinary session, the Legislature enacted
only emergency relief measures. In acting on my recommenda-
tions that something be done to stimulate building construction,
a permissive statute was passed, allowing local communities to
exempt from taxation new construction. The net result of this
has been that only one community New York City has made
any attempt to pass a tax exemption ordinance and although two
months have passed since the legislation was enacted, no act is
as yet on the statute books, and new construction Is as far as ever
from being undertaken.

The Joint Legislative Committee with its increased powers
has gone forward with its investigation of the high cost of
building materials and an examination of the unlawful condi-
tions in the industry with the sensational results which are com-
mon knowledge to readers of the metropolitan dailies.

It seems, however, that proper housing is recognized as a
social and health necessity by other countries* The Canadian
Government is lending twenty-five million dollars to the prov-
inces for the building of homes. In England, where housing has
become a function of the Ministry of Health, not only is the
government making colossal loans to local authorities and to
public service corporations (limited dividend companies), but
it is offering subsidies of as much as one-quarter the cost of
houses to make up for the loss involved in building at a time of
excessive costs Britain knows that its welfare depends on
having sufficient decent homes and it means to have them no
matter what they cost. England is not only planning new homes
it is planning new towns. France also is doing constructive
work Paris has bought a large tract of ground on the outskirts
of the city on which is to be built a garden suburb. The policy
of Australia that has been in operation for some years, of stimu-
lating house building and ownership by loans on easy and long

234 ALFRED E. SMITH

terms, has been greatly extended to aid returning soldiers. And
so .we find in every civilized country the government has ac-
cepted its responsibility even in a greater degree than before the
war of solving the most difficult problem that confronts its citi-
zens, that of finding a home. In America our housing laws have
been negative laws restrictive laws. But in the light of the
present emergency we see that the State here, as elsewhere, must
offer a helping hand mpst find a constructive solution if we
are to have homes.

It is time that this country made adequate provision to meet
the problem. I do not believe that federal legislation alone would
meet the situation. The whole problem is too colossal to be
solved by a single bureau at Washington. Our State govern-
ments are in a different position than the national government
in meeting the housing problem. The political problem is les-
sened in degree. The number of geographical interests to be
served are much smaller. But, above all, in State legislation there
is the opportunity to try out various methods of building, aiding
and financing housing. There are innumerable suggestions in
the experiences of Canada, South America and Australia, as
well as European countries. Some will fit the local conditions
and habits of one part of the country and some another. Ameri-
can ingenuity will find new means of meeting this problem. The
solution of the housing problem of a comparatively newly settled
agricultural State will be different from that of New York with
its great cities. Some States may use their insurance funds,
other their farmers' banks, as sources for building loans. Ulti-
mately all these experiments may be used by the National Gov-
ernment as the basis for the organization of a great central
bureau. But that will be a problem of the distant future. In
the same manner that the States have tried out woman suffrage,
minimum wage, compensation and child-labor laws, so now they
should undertake experimentation and careful study of their
local housing conditions. We may have failures on the part of
individual States through choice of means that do not meet the
social conditions of the State. But how insignificant such failure
would be and how easily remedied as compared to a failure on
the part of a Federal housing administration.

THE HOUSING CRISIS 235

It would be manifestly impossible to fill all the needs for
housing everywhere. It does not seem to me that this is the
time to create a national housing fund of any kind. It seems
clear to me that the individual States should themselves work
out systems of State credits for State purposes. Out of intelli-
gent attempts to solve the question on this small scale, we can
evolve a national housing policy.

- With the control centered in each State, people will be in more
direct and more democratic control of their housing funds and
their application to local conditions. I am therefore not an
advocate at this time of a Federal system of housing loans,
although a central housing bureau for the co-ordination of all
available material is desirable and even necessary, but this is
something quite distinct from creating a national housing fund.

The Governor never relaxed his endeavors to enact his
housing recommendations into law. In the first year of his
second term the Legislature finally created the State Commis-
sion on Housing and Regional Planning. It was largely
owing to its investigations, public hearings and its report
proving the continued existence of a housing emergency,
that the emergency rent laws were continued for two years
and the Tax Exemption Law extended one year.

The Commission submitted a careful report proving that
60 per cent, of the urban population of the State cannot
be supplied with adequate housing through the efforts of
speculative builders and private loaning institutions. They
cannot be attracted to this class of building by an adequate
return on their money. The Commission, therefore, urged a
constitutional amendment making the credit of the State or
localities available if private financial sources fail.

The report was submitted to the Legislature by the Gov-
ernor with his approval. The amendment to the constitution
enabling the State or cities to use their credit to finance the
building of homes was approved by a Democratic Senate and
lost in a Republican Assembly.

CHAPTER XXXV
HOME RULE

The first important constitutional debate in which Smith
participated was occasioned early in the convention. The
report of the Committee on the Legislature and its organiza-
tion, amended the objectionable constitutional provision of
1894. This operates by limiting the representation of two
counties adjoining the city of New York. The committee
"remedied" the situation by providing a prohibition against
a representation of more than one-half of the Legislature
from five adjoining counties.

In 1894 the two adjoining counties were then the thickly
populated counties of Manhattan and Kings, known as New
York and Brooklyn. By 1915 the population had spread
throughout the five counties of Greater New, York. It was
deemed necessary by the Republican majority to freeze into
the State constitution a permanent minority representation
from the City of New York and a normal control of the
Legislature by the Republican party which drew its main
support from the rural communities.

The debate on New York City representation challenged
the fighting edge of the Democratic representatives from
New York City. The new proposal created a still wider
discrepancy between the basis of representation for New
York City and that of the rural communities.

Smith opposed the theory of apportionment based upon
territory and rested his argument upon the proposition that
the unit of representation should be the individual and not

(236)

HOME RULE 237

his place of residence. In this debate he sought to expose the
political motive of the Republican majority with a refreshing
candor.

Another proposed constitutional amendment over which
there was much contention was the one granting home rule
to cities. This had been submitted to the Convention sitting
as Committee of the Whole by the Chairman of the Cities
Committee, ex-Mayor Seth Low of New York City.

Mayor Low presented the majority report on the amend-
ments. It becam^ known as "General Order 50," This was
a very scholarly presentation. It analyzed every section
with lucidity and simplicity all the more noteworthy as the
application of home rule through constitutional grant, or by
the statute, presents serious technical and legal difficulties.
Home rule is easier to realize as a campaign slogan than as
a legislative or constitutional problem. Any solution of the
home rule problem must take cognizance of the relation of
the City to that greater sovereign, the State. How far the
City is an agency of the State and how far it can act inde-
pendently of it is a riddle that has taxed the subtlest legal
minds.

The majority report granted some clear home rule powers
to the cities. It provided checks by the State which met
with aggressive opposition on the part of the Democratic
minority. The latter, representing a party which made home
rule one of its principal demands for decades, were naturally
sensitive to what they regarded as unwarranted invasions
by State authority upon the rights of local communities.

Without attempting to discuss the underlying conception
of the home rule amendment as submitted by the majority
(which was ably criticized by Senator James J. Foley and
Judge Morgan J. O'Brien), two provisions of the majority
report particularly roused the ire of Democrats like Senator
Wagner and Alfred E. Smith.

238 ALFRED E. SMITH

One was the provision which required that after a city
had taken action on a charter or a charter amendment such
action must be laid before the legislature subject to its
approval.

Mayor Low disclosed that this check was provided in the
home rule granted to the Philippine Islands. The Democrats
were quick to characterize it as Philippine Home Rule,

The other provision made it "necessary to submit to the
Legislature every amendment of a charter and law which
changes the framework of its government/' The object of
this provision as set forth by Mayor Low was to prevent
'"ripper" legislation providing for patronage or other partisan
ends, in the shape of ordinances reorganizing departments
of a city. It was argued by the committee that freedom in
these matters offered ordinary human nature in politics
(whether of the Republican or Democratic brand) too great
a temptation for partisan manipulation. It was a peril and
required checking and restraining by the Legislature.

The Pemocratic minority was convinced that the adoption
of the minority report by the convention was not possible.
It resorted to the strategy of liberalizing the majority report
by submitting a number of amendments to the sections as
presented. No delegate was more active in deluging the
convention with changes in phraseology designed to give
the cities a greater measure of homei rule than Smith.

He first insisted upon the right of the city to apportion
its own aldermanic districts. The right was denied the
city as it affected the framework of the government and
must be referred to the Legislature.. He realized that such
power when exercised by a legislature dominated by the
Republican party would be used for political ends. He sub-
mitted amendments providing checks by the electorate of the
city giving them opportunity within thirty days (if one per
cent, of the voters protested against an amendment affecting

HOME RULE 239

the framework of the city government), to vote on them at
the next ensuing election.

When asked by Mr. Parsons whether that was the amend-
ment requested by the Citizens' Union, Smith replied, "I
believe that 15 either the Citizens' Union or the City Club.
I don't know which it is. They all look alike to me. When
they have a good idea I always like to line up behind it.
I don't mind annexing them when they are right."

The debate waxed hot. Smith put some very embarrassing
hypothetical questions to Mr. Low.

He flung amendment after amendment at the convention,
only to have it rejected. Finally he said, "I desire to offer
one final amendment. The good book says, While the light
holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return.' "'

Consistent with his fundamental policy of home rule, his
future career as Governor was to base itself to a large
extent upon a steady interest in the principle of home rule
for the cities of the State.

In his first term as Governor, he urged an amendment to
the constitution to give the municipalities a broader measure
of local self-government.

In 1922, the constitutional amendment passed the Legis-
lature for the first time. In the first year of his second term
as Governor in 1923, he urged its passage for the second
time despite the fact that it did not give as complete a
measure of home rule as he had always advocated. It
represented a compromise. To him, the whole subject was
closely interwoven with many other policies relating to ad-
ministration, notably the regulation of public utilities.

He said in his 1923 message, "... Probably no
political principle has received so much state-wide discussion
as the question of a greater grant of power by the State to
municipalities over such things as are wholly local. The
cities of the State today and particularly New York City,

240 ALFRED E. SMITH

find themselves restricted by what is really a charter of
limitation. The phenomenal growth of the cities brings up
constantly for settlement new problems that the city should
be left free to determine without interference by the
State. . . . "

When the home rule amendment passed the Legislature
in 1923 for the second time, the Governor urged that the
State be prepared for prompt action to make it effective
through the medium of the necessary statutory legislation.
This would require amendment to a number of laws. He
therefore suggested the appointment of a special commission
to examine and propose the necessary changes. Such a com-
mission was authorized by the Legislature. It began its
work immediately with the result that at the 1924 session
of the Legislature, an enabling act was at last passed giving
the cities a considerable measure of home rule. This had
the incidental advantage of freeing the Legislature to an
appreciable extent from the consideration of matters of local
interest only. These bills had, up to this time, consumed
much of legislative time and raised many difficult issues in
the Governor's office.

CHAPTER XXXVI
SUNDAY

The same Jeffersonian philosophy which dictated policies
on home rule and law enforcement is evident in his memor-
andum which accompanies the signing of the Sunday baseball
local option bill.

I realize that a very substantial portion of our people most
conscientiously oppose permission to indulge in recreation or
sports of any kind on Sunday. I respect them for their opin-
ions and I believe that in those opinions they are entirely
conscientious. On the other hand, I know that a great many
who are advocating this measure and who believe in reasonable
recreation on Sunday and who consider that it is that species
of rest which comes from change of thought and change of
activity are equally good citizens of the commonwealth, and their
opinions are entitled to equal weight.

After a thorough consideration of the matter, I am of the
firm opinion that those members of a community who oppose
all recreation on Sunday, or at least recreation permitted by
this amendatory bill, have no right, in law or in morals, where
they constitute a minority of a community, to impose their views
upon the majority, who disagree with them, and to prohibit the
latter from exercising rights and privileges to which they deem
themselves to be entitled, the exercise of which will in no wise
interfere with the orderly and proper observance of the day of
rest by those desiring to- refrain from attending amusements.

On the other hand, this bill provides that where a majority
of the community, as represented in its local legislative body,

(241)

242 ALFRED E. SMITH

is opposed to the playing of baseball on Sunday afternoon, such
amusement is prohibited in such locality. If representative
government is what we claim and believe it to be, the action of
the local legislative body will properly reflect, in each instance,
the wish of the majority of the citizens themselves.

The witnessing of a baseball game, either with or without
the payment of an admission fee, is a most harmless diversion.
It is in no sense deteriorating to the moral fibre of the wit-
nesses. Well-to-do people can and do on Sunday pursue their
amusements with entire impunity and under the protection ol
the laws. Our golf courses are crowded, our highways are
thronged with automobilists, seeking on Sunday a change of
scene and the beneficial effects resulting therefrom. The ac-
tivities of a poor man along this line are necessarily restricted
by the limit of his means. It comes, however, within the rea-
sonable reach of many to enjoy a baseball game and to obtain
the rest which comes from reaction by such an outdoor, health-
giving amusement.

Some such form of relaxation on Sunday is almost impera-
tive and certainly most beneficial in the cases of that great mass
of our people who during the six .week days are employed in
confining occupations, having during those days no opportunity
for recreation of any sort. I cannot think that if the sentiment
of the majority of any community, as represented by its duly
elected officials, is in favor of permitting, under such restric-
tions and regulations as they may see fit to impose, the enjoy-
ment of this very harmless amusement on Sunday, the rights of
the minority are in anywise invaded.

I believe that before any class of our citizens should be
given the right to impose their views upon this question, on
which people so widely and conscientiously differ, upon those
.who disagree with them, they should, at least, represent the
sentiment of the majority in their respective communities.

For myself, respecting most highly the opinions of those
who disagree with me, I believe that the witnessing of an in-
nocent amusement on Sunday afternoon, conducted in such
manner as not to interfere with" the comfort of those who are

SUNDAY 243

opposed to such amusement, cannot be harmful. In this belief,
I propose to let the communities of this State have the right to
decide this question for themselves, and determine .whether
baseball games may be played on Sunday afternoons, and, if so,
whether an admission fee should be charged.

CHAPTER XXXVII
THE ISSUE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

The rule of the majority has been the cornerstone of
Smith's political faith. In the Legislature and in the Con-
stitutional Convention he fought with all his force and vigor
to apply that principle to legislation and to the framing of
the new constitution itself.

Against any deviation from that rule, he set his face like
flint. Where legislation dealt with debatable restriction of
the personal habits of the people, he either opposed it or he
left it to the people themselves to decide.

Therefore, we find him approving the principle of local
option for Sunday baseball or Sunday movies. Therefore,
his keen resentment over the methods employed by the Anti-
Saloon League to put over the Prohibtion Amendment in the
State of New York.

The record of the League in clubbing legislators and even
governors into submission by threat of political death even
when they were not elected on the issue involved, roused
Smith's indignation. Such action violated the cardinal princi-
ple of his democratic faith. He gave vent to his criticism
with caustic irony in public speeches. He pictured weak
legislators wet in practice, clubbed behind the closed doors of
a party caucus, voting against their personal convictions at
the bidding of a lobby because the party considered it expedi-
ent at the time.

Smith consistently advocated the referendum to the people

(244)

LAW ENFORCEMENT 245

as the only truly democratic method of determining a policy
affecting their personal habits.

In his first message to the Legislature (referring to the
pending amendment to the federal constitution providing for
national prohibition) he said, "I believe it is our duty to
ascertain the will of the people directly upon this subject.
I believe we should consult them, and to that end I recom-
mend to your honorable body that legislation be enacted
submitting the question to popular referendum in order that
its determination might represent the expression of the will
of the majority."

But the whip of King Caucus was snapped over the heads
of wet Republicans, They ratified the amendment in the
legislature by a very narrow margin.

This elicited some direct reflections from Smith :

I am advised that there were members of the Legislature
whose personal sentiments and convictions were opposed to
ratifying the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, suf-
ficient in number to have prevented the passage by the Legisla-
ture of the resolution for ratification, if it had not been for the
action of the party caucus.

In view of all these circumstances, and in order that the true
opinion and position of the State of New Yo>rk in. regard to the
Eighteenth Amendment be ascertained and carried o-ut, and
made known to the people of other states, I recommend that the
Legislature rescind its prior ratification of the said amendment,
and submit the question to the qualified electors of the State,
at the general election of the year 1920.

I am unable to understand what reasonable argument can be
made against submitting to the people any question that inter-
feres with their personal liberty. The man who opposes the
submission of that kind of a question assumes the rule of the
dictator and sets himself up as being unwilling to abide by the
;will of the majority. He cannot be said to have much faith
in democratic government.

246 ALFRED E. SMITH

Once more the Governor argued not against the prohibition
amendment but against the undemocratic method by which
it was brought about. This method, however, having been
declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court
and the Volstead Act enforcing it having been enacted by
Congress as the law of the land, many states proceeded to
apply the "concurrent enforcement" provision of the amend-
ment by passing in the main State laws similar to the Vol-
stead Act. Such a law, known as the Mullan-Gage Law,
was passed in the administration of Governor Miller and
approved by him.

During the 1922 campaign, the Democratic platform con-
tained a plank favoring a memorial to congress suggesting
a modification of the Volstead Act in accordance with the
restriction imposed in the enforcement act passed by the
New York Legislature in 1920. A definition of alcoholic
content therein as 2.75%' had been declared by the Supreme
Court at Washington to be unconstitutional

The methods sanctioned by the Mullan-Gage Law for the
enforcement of the Volstead Act were resented by the people
of the State. Grand juries protested against it. The abuse
of powers granted by the police authorities were violative of
age-long Anglo-Saxon safeguards against search and seizure,
and double jeopardy. Arrests without warrant, and other
evidences of police oppression, created a spirit of revolt
among the people from one end of the State to the other.
They looked upon the Mullan-Gage Law as an invasion upon
their personal liberty. While the Democratic platform con-
tained no declaration against it, the people voted overwhelm-
ingly for the entire ticket in part as a protest against this law.

The memorial to Congress was passed by the 1923 Legisla-
ture. The Republican Assembly leaders, contrary to pre-
cedent, provided that the Governor also sign the memorial

ALFRED E. SMITH
The Coasting King

f /row ^ Wells-Fwgo Receipt-Sera}* Book)

LAW ENFORCEMENT 247

of a co-ordinate branch of the State Government. This he
willingly did as it carried out one of his platform pledges.

Among the letters he received from Congressmen and
Senators in response to the memorial was one from Senator
Fess. It reflected the point of view of those who, like the
Senator, favor theoretical total abstinence instead of genuine
temperance. Governor Smith lost no time in retorting, in
the form of a message taking into consideration every pos-
sible point.

But the memorial reflecting as it did the overwhelming
public sentiment for a modification of the Volstead Act, did
not meet the grievance of the people against the abuses of
the Mullan-Gage State Enforcement Law. Assemblymen and
Senators were deluged with telegrams and letters and met
irate delegations demanding its repeal. So strong was the
mass revolt against this measure that the Democratic leaders
of the Senate and the Republican leaders of the House had
to permit a vote upon it. It was repealed in the Legislature.

The repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law attracted the attention
of the entire country. Newspapers in every State of the
Union carried accounts of the Albany action. What will the
Governor do? became a question which was discussed in
every city and hamlet of the Nation,

When even the sporting fraternity take cognizance of a
legislative situation by making bets on the probably favorable
or unfavorable action of a Governor on a measure before
him it is indicative that the interest is widespread and intense.

Smith faced many a critical situation in his public career,
and he met this one with a serious openmindedness and a
common sense which impressed the people throughout the
country.

He, was receptive to all sincere argument but he rebuffed
any advice which referred to the political consequences of
his act. Whatever his decision was going to be, both his

248 ALFRED E. SMITH

friends and his opponents were convinced that it would be
based upon his own convictions, on the merits or demerits
of the measure regardless of its effects upon his political
future.

On June 1 he issued his historic memorandum approving
the repeal:

STATE OF NEW YORK EXECUTIVE CHAMBER

ALBANY, JUNE 1, 1923.

Memorandum filed with Assembly Bill, Introductory No.
1614, Printed No. 1817, entitled

"An act to repeal Article 113 of the Penal Law and
Section 11-b, chapter five of title two and section 802-b
of the code of criminal procedure, relating to the manu-
facture and sale of alcoholic liquors,"
Approved :

The bill under consideration proposes to repeal Article 113
of the Penal Law which enacted into the statute laws of the
State substantially the provisions of the Volstead Act.

Because of the far reaching* interest in this bill displayed
by all classes of our people, I have given nearly one month
of solid and 'careful thought to its final disposition. I deem
it wise to go into some detail in order to clear up misunder-
standing on the part of a great many of the people who have
written or spoken to me about it, and to make clear the reasons
for the action I am taking.

It is furthest from my thoughts to question the motives
of the men and women of integrity throughout the State, who
with an eye single to the right and the just, have arrayed
themselves on different sides of the question presented. Some
seem to think that my approval will mean the preservation of
American institutions. Many others impelled by equally patri-
otic motives seem to feel that my approval will be destructive
of American government. Obviously, both cannot be right,
and I have therefore given careful study to the question
involved and the arguments submitted in order that my final

LAW ENFORCEMENT 249

disposition of it may be in full and complete accord with what
my conscience dictates.

A brief review at this time of the entire question at issue
so far as the State of New York is concerned would be helpful.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution was
ratified by the Legislature of this State at the session of 1919.
In 1920 the same Senate and an Assembly presided over and
directed by the same leaders enacted the so-called 2.75 per cent
beer and wine bill This bill I approved. It was afterwards
held unconstitutional and the United States Supreme Court
declared in rendering its decision that the word "concurrent 3 *
in the Eighteenth Amendment referred only to concurrence in
legislation which Congress passed to execute the provisions of
"the Eighteenth Amendment and did not permit the states to
adopt a definition of an intoxicating beverage inconsistent with
the definition contained in the federal law. In short, the State
is therefore limited in defining an intoxicating beverage to one
containing not more than one-half of one per cent of alcohol.

In 1922 the Democratic State Convention inserted in its
platform a plank favoring an amendment to the Volstead Act
which would permit the states under certain restrictions and
after popular referendum to permit traffic in light wines and
beer not regarded as intoxicating beverages. That platform
and the candidates who ran upon it received the overwhelming
support of the people of this State at the last election. I cite
all this merely as indicating by history the attitude of a majority
of the people of this State toward this whole question. Never-
theless, it is a fact that the Eighteenth Amendment is the law
of the land and no one suggests, least of all the Legislature of
this State or myself, that it should be violated.

In 1921 there was enacted in this State what has come to be
known as the Mullan-Gage Law. It put into the penal statutes
substantially all of the provisions of the Volstead Act but
accompanied them by even more rigorous provisions as to search
and seizure.

I make no criticism of this action on the part of the Legisla-
ture, but I am entirely unwilling to admit the contention that
there was put upon the State either by the Eighteenth Amend-

250 ALFRED E. SMITH

meat, the Volstead Act, or the United States Supreme Court
decision, any obligation to pass any law adopting into the State
law the provisions of the Volstead Act. Learned jurists who
have given the best years of their lives to judicial service in
this State have so advised me. Leading members of the bar
of other states concur fully in this belief. Advising the elec-
torate of the State of Massachusetts, every living former Attor-
ney-General of that Commonwealth as well as many of her
distinguished lawyers, said:

"The Eighteenth Amendment gives Congress and to
each of the forty-eight states the concurrent right to enforce
the amendment. This is not a command but an option. It
does not create a duty."

I have read thousands of letters and I have listened to the
fullest discussion and no one has pointed out to me any provision
of the Constitution or of the statutes or any decision of the
United States Supreme Court which imposes upon our State
any. constitutional duty to maintain a State enforcement act,
and I am satisfied that as a matter of law this contention does
not admit of doubt.

I am dealing with three classes of people, the radical drys,
the radical wets and those who hold moderate views on this
subject The drys seem to see a moral duty on the part of the
State to maintain an enforcement act. They are undoubtedly
led to this conclusion by their own frame of mind because they
do not suggest that the State maintain an act merely enforcing
the Eighteenth Amendment in accordance with the wishes of the
majority of the people of the State, but they insist thrt th<*r*
be a State enforcement act exactly paralleling the Volstead Act.

Congress made its determination as to what constituted an
intoxicant. This State decidedly disagreed with that determina-
tion. After all is said and done, whatever may be the Inter-
pretation of the Eighteenth Amendment by any class or group
of our citizens, under our form of government we look to
the courts for the interpretation which we must all follow.
While legislative bodies make the laws, the courts must construe
them and we are bound by the construction put upon them by

LAW ENFORCEMENT 251

our judicial tribunals. The United States Supreme Court said:

"The power confided to Congress by the Eighteenth

Amendment is in no wise dependent upon or affected by

action or inaction on the part of the several states or any

of them."

If the right of Congress is paramount, its responsibility must
be paramount.

Expanding this idea, the statement signed by the Attorneys-
General of Massachusetts adds:

"Nullification, as defined by the highest authority, is the
action of a state intended to abrogate within its limits
the operation of a federal law."

This no one proposes to do. The mere omission to maintain
a State statute in no way abrogates a federal statute. It seems
to me that this effectually disposes of the loose talk about the
nullification of the Constitution by refusal on the part of any
of the states to enact separate statutes.

Inasmuch as it would be physically impossible for me to
make answer to all of the communications received by me from
citizens of our own State as well as from other states who
have sought to guide and advise me in this matter, I would
like as a mark of my appreciation of their efforts to deal here
with the considerations urged by them as well as with considera-
tions urged in the oral arguments made at the hearing.

Let me first say what the repeal of tfte Mullan-Gage Law
will not do.

Its repeal will not make legal a single act which was illegal
during the period of the existence of the statute.

Many communications I have received and arguments that
have been made to me, indicate a belief that its repeal will
make possible the manufacture, sale and distribution of light
wines and beer. So far as that is concerned it will still be
under the control it is to-day, subject to the provisions of the
Volstead Act. Repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law will not bring
back light wines and beer.

The Supreme Court of the United States said:

"The constitution, laws and treaties of the United States

252 ALFRED E. SMITH

are as much the part of the law of every state as its own
local laws and constitution."

That means that after repeal there will still rest upon the
peace officers of this State the sacred responsibility of sus-
taining the Volstead Act with as much force and as much
vigor as they would enforce any State law or local ordinance,
and I shall expect the discharge of that duty in the fullest
measure by every peace officer in the State. The only difference
after repeal is that to-day the police officer may take the
offender for prosecution to the State court, to the federal court
or to both. After the repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law the
prosecution must be where it belongs in the federal court.
In law and in fact there is no more lawlessness in repealing the
Mullan-Gage Law than there is in the failure of the State to
pass statutes making it a State crime to violate any other federal
penal statute.

Let it be understood at once and for all that this repeal does
not in the slightest degree lessen the obligation of peace officers
of the State to enforce in its strictest letter the Volstead Act,
and warning to that effect is herein contained as coming
from the Chief Executive of the State of New York.

At this point, with all the earnestness that I am able to bring
to my command, let me assure the thousands of people who
wrote to me on this subject, and the citizens of the State
generally, that the repeal of .the Mullan-Gage Law will not
and cannot by any possible stretch of . the imagination bring
back into existence the saloon which is and ought to be a
defunct institution in this country, and any attempt at its re-
establishment by a misconstruction of the Executive attitude
on this bill will be forcefully and vigorously suppressed.

Let me now say what the repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law
will do.

Its repeal will do away entirely with the possibility 'of
double jeopardy for violation of the laws enforcing the Eight-
eenth Amendment. By that we mean that no citizen shall be
twice punished for the one offense. Under the United States
Supreme Court decision in the Lanza Case, a citizen is to-day
subjected to double trial and even to double punishment for

LAW ENFORCEMENT 253

a single offense because such alleged offense is a violation of
both the State and the federal law. This is an unwarranted
and indefensible exception to the fundamental constitutional
guarantee contained in both the Federal and State constitu-
tions that no person shall be twice tried or punished for the
same offense*

The repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law will put the State in
harmony with the recent decision by United States District
Judge Knox, declaring a portion of the Volstead Act to be in
contravention of the Eighteenth Amendment. By that decision
the United States District Court in New York has laid down
the principle that the prohibition contained in the Eighteenth
Amendment does not apply to the necessary and proper pre-
scription of alcoholic liquors for medicinal purposes and that
the Federal Government gains no power under the Volstead
Act except to* prohibit traffic in alcoholic liquors for beverage
purposes as distinct from medicinal purposes. Provisions of
the Mullan-Gage Law if left in force would still maintain in
the law of this State the limitation contained in the Volstead
Act which the great body of the medical profession in our
State seems practically unanimous in denouncing as an inter-
ference with the necessary requirements of their profession.

The repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law will mean that viola-
tions of the Volstead Act will hereafter be prosecuted in the
Federal courts. This, to my mind, seems to be desirable, as it
will fix in the minds of the offenders the thought that they have
violated a federal statute intended to effectuate an amendment
to the constitution of the United States, rather than have them
harbor the thought that they are simply standing against what
a great many of them may be led to believe is merely a local
regulation.

The burden imposed on the State to prosecute traffickers in
liquor as violators of the State statute is a wasteful and futile
one because of the refusal of grand juries to indict and of
petit juries to convict.

Let us apply to this question the principles of good business,
good judgment and common sense. I promised myself that I

254 ALFRED E. SMITH

would not consider this subject solely from the standpoint of
constitutional law or political expediency and I have labored to
make my study of it practical. While there will be no let-up on
the part of the police officials of this State in the enforcement
of the Volstead Act, I cannot help thinking and saying, as I
owe it to the people of this State to say, that the real solution
of proper enforcement rests primarily with the Federal Govern-
ment.

The practical side of this question, to my way of thinking,
indicates that little, if any, of the liquor consumed in this State
is manufactured here. It is imported from foreign countries.
The Federal Government is the one agency that can attack the
base of supply. It is infinitely easier to stop the smuggling in
of five hundred cases of liquor before bulk is broken than to
trace the same five hundred after they find their t way into dif-
ferent parts of the State in small quantities.

The division of responsibility for primary execution of the
enforcement law may, in part, explain the failure of federal
enforcement officials to stop the smuggling of liquor in bulk
into this State, which has certainly raised a serious question as
to the efficiency and in some cases the earnestness of Federal
enforcement agencies. Whenever the ultimate responsibility
is divided there is a tendency for each authority or agency upon
whom it rests to rely upon the other. The State in the nature
of things cannot guard her frontiers of land and water against
this smuggling as well as the federal authorities should be able
to do it. If we place squarely upon the federal authorities the
primary duty and obligation to put an end to the enormous
smuggling of liquor from foreign countries into this State it will
be .where it rightfully belongs and we will have taken a long
step forward to the re-establishment of respect for and enforce-
ment of law.

Over and beyond all this, I believe the approval of this repeal
will reawaken in the public mind the fundamental conception
of the law of the land and re-establish beyond doubt what con-
stitute the essentials of the relation between the Federal Gov-
ernment and the sovereign states of the Union.

LAW ENFORCEMENT 255

Recently the President of the United States in reply to a
letter from a citizen of this State who had suggested to the
President that the repeal of this act bore the color of treason,
said without disclaiming this particular suggestion, "With much
that you say I am fully in accord."

I yield to no man in this country when it comes to respect
for the utterances of the Chief Executive of the United States,
but it is impossible for me to be unmindful of the fact that I
am the Chief Executive of a sovereign State, and I am entirely
in accord with a statement put forth in the course of this
discussion and signed by former Judges Willard Bartlett, Almet
F. Jenks, E. Henry Lacombe and Mr. Austen G. Fox, which
dealt with the letter of the President and which, in part, said?

"It would be a calamity to permit such fundamental miscon
ceptions of the relations between the states and the Federal
Government as may seem tot be suggested by portions of the
President's letter to pass unchallenged."

The children in our public schools have been taught to
believe that our government rests upon the foundation that
the states are sovereign with respect to all powers not expressly
delegated by them to the Federal Government, and tkat while
the laws of Congress are paramount within the delegated power,
the states are sovereign within the reserved power. History
gives us the reason for this. In the formation of the Union
our forefathers in their wisdom understood that with our vast
area and its heterogeneous population 4 with their varying local
interests, what may be sound local policy in one community may
be entirely inappropriate to the needs of another. To any
student of our government I think it must be apparent that one
of the great elements in the strength bf our democracy is the
supremacy of the Federal Government in its own sphere and
the sovereignty of the several states in theirs.

We have been taught that eternal vigilance is the price of
liberty, and how far we may wander from the thoughts and
ideals of the founders of our government is jwell illustrated
by the suggestion in the President's letter that because the
states have a larger police force than the Federal Government

256 ALFRED E. SMITH

has, and because the Federal Government has at this time what
the President describes as an inadequate machinery for the
enforcement of the Volstead Act, therefore the estates are
obliged severally to enact statutes duplicating the Volstead
Act I am unable to understand from what source he believes
this obligation to be derived and he does not disclose it. The <
President might, with equal force, suggest that at any time
Congress in its wisdom saw fit to withhold adequate appropria-
tion for the enforcement of any federal law, that there im-
mediately devolved a duty upon each State to enact that Fed-
eral law into a State statute and make every offense against
federal law not enforced, a duty upon the States to punish it
as a State offense and at State expense.

I am not here discussing the wisdom or unwisdom of pro-
hibition. The question is rather whether all vestige of the rights
of the States guaranteed by the Federal Constitution is to be
driven from our political theory of government. With all
respect for the President of the United States I must here
reassert this principle against his challenge and as the Chief
Executive of the greatest sovereignty in the Union, it is my
duty to declare and main-tain that sovereignty in exact accord-
ance with the guarantees of the Constitution. This does not
mean that a State has any right or power to enact any law that
in any way infringes upon a constitutional act of Congress, but
it does mean that the Federal Government has no right to im-
pose upon the State any obligation to pass any statute affirma-
tively embodying any federal statute.

The t whole treatment of this question, and I speak only from
history, has been marked by hyprocrisy. There should be no
such thing as carrying -water on both shoulders. What the
country is looking for to-day, if I read the signs of the times
aright, is a constructive, forward-looking suggestion that dis-
regards entirely the fanatical wets and the fanatical drys.

I yield to no man in my reverence and respect for the Con-
stitution of the United States, and I advocate nothing which
will infringe upon the provisions of the Eighteenth Amend-
ment It is, nevertheless, a fact that the definition of an

LAW ENFORCEMENT 257

intoxicating beverage contained in the Volstead Act is not an
honest or a common sense one. It is impossible to divorce from
the public mind the impression that the definition of an intoxi-
cating beverage as containing not more than one-half of one
per cent of alcohol >vas written by the fanatical drys in defiance
of the general experience 'of mankind and of actual fact. It seems
to nie that common sense, backed up by good medical opinion),
can find a more scientific definition of what constitutes an in-
toxicating beverage. Such a definition should be adopted by
Congress as a proper and reasonable amendment of the Vol-
stead Act and a maximum alcoholic content should be pre-
scribed by Congress which would limit all States to the traffic
in liquors which are, in fact, non-intoxicating within the mean-
ing of the Eighteenth Amendment. Subject to that limitation,
each State should thereafter be left free to determine for itself
,what should constitute an intoxicating beverage. States which
then wished to limit traffic to beverages containing not more
than one'-half of one per cent of alcohol would be free to do
so and those which desired to extend the traffic to the maximum
limitation allowed by federal statute would be equally free to
do so. There could be, within the limitations of the maximum,
many differences of degree, extending even to the complete pro-
hibition by some States of traffic in liquor containing any
alcohol whatever.

This would be in keeping with the freedom and liberty of dif-
ferent States with differing local conditions to legislate for
themselves, subject always to the maximum limitation enacted
by Congress, t which would be paramount.

I offer this as a constructive suggestion which will relieve
the tountry from the stress of this perplexing question which
affords such a widespread difference of opinion and thus give
our people a chance to turn their minds to other and greater
questions that are pressing for solution.

Much has been said in the public prints with respect to the
effect my action on this bill may have upon my own political
future. I have no political future that I am willing to attain
by the sacrifice of any principle or any conviction of what in my

258 ALFRED E. SMITH

mind is for the welfare and the benefit of this State and Nation.
Because I believe there is nothing to be gained either for the
Nation or for the State by the retention of this statute, while
on the other hand, I believe that its repeal is of distinct benefit
in the preservation of the rights of our people, because I believe
that the repeal of this statute in no way nullifies the enforce-
ment of the Volstead Act, because I believe that the fastening
of the primary responsibility for prosecution for violations of
the laws enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment should be upon
the federal authorities, and because I believe finally ard most
of all that the preservation of American democracy requires
the maintenance of that balance between State and Nation
which is, guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States,
and that the reassertion of that principle is to-day of vital
consequence to the preservation of the democratic form of gov-
ernment guaranteed to us by the Constitution, and being mindful
of the responsibility placed on me by the electorate of this
State, grateful for their overwhelming vote of confidence, de-
voted as I am to the welfare of the country and to the happi-
ness and the prosperity of the State, I have, after careful
thought, arrived at the conclusion that the bill before me should
receive executive approval, and I therefore approve the bill.
(Signed) ALFRED E. SMITH.

The Governor placed the same historic emphasis as does
the Democratic party upon the keeping of power in society
and resting this power on a government from above as little
as possible. Even in the enforcement of law the Governor
believes in taking cognizance of local and State sentiment.
For a law without public opinion behind it leads to its viola-
tion and to that disrespect of all law which is the parent of
lawlessness*

His was no argument against the prohibition amendment.
What he urged was a modification of the enforcing act,
bringing it into harmony with public opinion. His quarrel
is not with the necessity for enforcing the law as it stands.

LAW ENFORCEMENT 259

The record of the enforcement officials in the State since
the repeal of the Mullan-Gage Law did not bear out the dire
predictions of the fanatical drys. New York State was not
deluged with bootleg liquor. The sources of entry were not
adequately protected by the Federal Government either be-
fore or since the State enforcement law was repealed. In
fact the Governor was able since the repeal to show a better
record of arrests by the departments within his control.
However, he did everything in his power to co-operate. At
a conference of Governors held under the auspices of Presi-
dent Coolidge, a resolution was passed urging active support
by the Governors of the various states in enforcing the pro-
hibition amendment. Complying with those resolutions and
with a request by the Federal Enforcement Officer for the
State of New York, he called a conference of enforcement
officials at Albany. There he talked plainly :

The preamble of the Constitution reads, "WE THE PEOPLE
of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain
and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America."

While we may disagree as to what may establish justice and
what might promote the general welfare, or what may secure
the blessings of liberty, there is one thing that we cannot
disagree on and that is that unless the Constitution is obeyed
and sustained in its every letter, it can serve no useful purpose.
As the chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so also the
Constitution means nothing if any person or group of persons
be permitted to select that part that they are in accord with
and dismiss the part that does not meet with their approval.
When we as public officials swear to uphold the Constitution
of the United States in our oath of office, it means every part
of that Constitution whether we agree with the principle
involved in any one section or not.

260 ALFRED E. SMITH

The Eighteenth Amendment is a part of that Constitution,
and just as sacred as any other part. The so-called Volstead
Act, making" operative that Eighteenth Amendment, is just
as sacred as any other law in the country, and we are not here
for the purpose of expressing our individual opinions as to the
wisdom either of the amendment or the law sustaining it, but
we are here to discuss the best and most practical way of
enforcing the amendment and the laws sustaining it, so that
our conference is one upon law enforcement and does not
run to the principle involved. I think everybody will agree
that the proper and vigorous enforcement of all laws is the
cornerstone of democratic government. When any man or
group of men are permitted to respect and obey only such
laws as meet with their approval, we have not a democratic
government formed in perfect union, we cannot establish justice,
we cannot insure domestic tranquility, and we cannot promote
the general welfare and we cannot secure the blessings of
liberty to ourselves or our posterity, but we can bring about
a state of anarchy that has its life and its being in disregard
of all law.

The Governor then went on to show that the State, with-
out the Mullan-Gage Law, had ample power to enforce, and
was enforcing, the Volstead Act, and that the repeal of the
Mullan-Gage Law In no wise led to the lessening of the
activity of the State Police. He submitted tire following
figures in proof :

LAW ENFORCEMENT 261

Six Months Prior to Repeal of Mullan-Gage Law

Date

Arrests

Liquor
Cars
Seized

Value of
Liquor

Investi-
gations

December, 1922 ....
January, 1923

9
6

3
2

$5,435.00
3,200.00

7
16

February, 1923 . . .

1

2,080.00

11

March, 1923 .

10

2

400.00

8

April, 1923

7

4

7,035.00

12

May, 1923

11

6

3,399.00

10

Totals

43

18

$21,549.00

64

Six Months After Repeal of Mullan-Gage Law

Date

Arrests

Liquor
Cars
Seized

Value of
Liquor

Investi-
gations

June, 1923

23

17

$13,300.00

17

Ttdy, 1923

1

1

270.00

20

August, 1923

8

14

6,300.00

22

September, 1923 ....
October, 1923

16
40

8
28

4,000.00
8,240.00

16
10

November, 1923

36

31

9,250.00

6

Totals

124

99

$41,360.00

91

Comparison

Arrests

Cars

Value

Investi-
gations

Before

43

18

$21,549.00

64

After

124

99

41,360,00

91

262 ALFRED E. SMITH

To make the work of the State police more effective in
policing the international and interstate boundaries of New
York, he recommended and signed appropriations of an
additional half a million dollars for more troopers and more
effective enforcement equipment.

CHAPTER XXXVIII
"BETTER TIMES" FOR THE SICK AND THE DISABLED

In February, 1923, a fire broke out in the insane pavilion
at Manhattan State Hospital, resulting in the death of twenty-
three patients.

This tragedy shocked people into a realization that many
State hospitals were) fire-traps. Some had to be replaced by
new fire-proof structures. Others required fire-proofing.

Taking advantage of an aroused public indignation over
the conditions revealed by this and other minor ones occur-
ring* at the same time, the Governor determined upon a bold
policy to make the State institutions safe for their wards. He
realized that inadequate appropriations made year after year
could not meet a building program long neglected, especially
during the war. He advocated a Fifty Million Dollar Bond
Issue. The Legislature approved. It was authorized by the
people at the 1923 election.

On Wednesday, October 31, just a week before the
question was submitted to the people, the Governor addressed
1,500 leading citizens interested through their participation
in the directorate and management of the social and civic
institutions of the City and State. The occasion was a
dinner, all the more memorable from the presence of dis-
tinguished and efficient social workers. The banquet was
presided over by Robert W. De Forest, given under the
auspices of the friends of "Better Times," a magazine de-
voted to social causes in New York City.

(263)

264 ALFRED E. SMITH

Although this was in the heat of a campaign when he
was fighting for an Assembly to support him in his program,
the Governor; gave an entire evening to non-partisan discus-
sion of New York State's institutions, using stereopticon
views to expose the unsafe conditions prevailing among them
and setting forth a business argument for the bond issue
in addition to its social appeal. He added to it a plea for
his entire welfare program.

CHAPTER XXXIX
SOME THOUGHTS ON PRISON REFORM

Some suggestions on prison reform from mature reflection
upon the Governor's experience with the problem as a legis-
lator and especially as an executive of the State was sub-
mitted by him to the Convention o-f the American Prison
Association in New York City on October 20, 1919. He said :

So far as this State is concerned, the first thing I would say
is that the present system of putting upon the Governor of the
State the final decision as to whether a man should go to the
death chair, or whether he should serve a term of life im-
prisonment, is entirely yvrong. That should not be in the hands
of any man who is charged with the governorship of a State,
because he can scarcely do it and at the same time do justice
to the prisoner and the State,

The second thought that I have in mind refers to- the pardon-
ing power. I appreciate the arguments made against a Board
of Pardons; that it practically creates a new court of appeals,
but, on the other hand, here is a great group of men and women
in the prison's of our State, and under the Constitution of the
State I am the only man that can do- anything for them. How
is it possible for me to study each case? What case may have
proper attention? The only cases which get my attention are
those which are brought to me by some one traveling to Albany
to see me, perhaps about a specific case. Surely, I never would
have time to go through the list of applications for Executive
clemency. I would say that if any man did do that he could do
nothing else, and then he w.ould not do justice,

(265)

266 ALFRED E. SMITH

The next thing I would' speak of, so far as this State is con-
cerned, is industry within the prisons. I can think of nothing
which is so deadly, nothing which will so tear down the spirit,
nothing which will so sap up a man's energy and ambition as
confinement in enforced idleness. If we have no other idea in
mind except the question of punishment, then that is one thing;
but if, on the other hand, the State is interested in returning the
men or the women to society as useful citizens, it will never be
able to do it unless during that period of confinement their
thoughts and their minds are occupied by what they are able
to do in life. What work means, t what satisfaction it brings to
a person at the close of a day to say, here is what I have ac-
complished to-day !

. . . The trouble with the prisons in this State from the
standpoint of industry is this: We are trying to work with
antiquated machinery, old-fashioned tools and the finished
product as it comes from the prison is not useful except in rare
instances. In order to keep our equipment up to the style of
our building and in keep-ing with our surroundings we have
been obliged practically to get away entirely from prison-made
furniture, something the State buys a great deal of, because our
plant is not capable of turning out high-class goods in keeping
with the surroundings, and you can hardly blame a public official
who* would be loath to put a $32,00 desk in the corner of an
$8,000,000 building, 'Modern machinery and modern equip-
ment is absolutely necessary to keep the products of the prison
up to the standard required for public use.

My next suggestion, I am afraid, is too far in the future,
although I am strongly in favor of it But we might as well
talk of these things with the hope oi getting them some day. I
refer to the abolition of the cell block system,

I received the shock of my life when I went to a reformatory
in this State. I thought it k was a place to send the young man
whom we did not want to mingle with the hardened criminals,
I thought it was a place where we could send a young man to
let him feel a little of the charity of the State, the goodness of
the State. Let him feel that the State had a real heart and did

PRISON REFORM 267

not want to send him to prison. When I went into that reforma-
tory to look over the cell block system, with the single door
locking at night, the cramped-tip cell, the open toilet alongside
the bed, I said this is not a reformatory except in name. What
is there about this that is different from a prison and t why raise
a false hope in the heart of a young first offender by making
him believe he is going to a reformatory when he is going into a
regular prison? The fact of the matter is, I am reliably in-
formed, that where a young fellow knows anything about it he
asks to be sent some place other than the Elmira Reformatory.
He does not feel the State is doing anything for him when
sending him there.

We have a prison in this State of the modern type, that at
Comstock. Of course, the ideal system ,would be the cottage
plan if it could be put in operation. I really do not believe that
in the twentieth century we have to cage men up in the same
way they did in 1834 and 1835, even if we take it from the
standpoint of whether or not they $yill escape. To-day it is not
so easy to escape from prison even with an automobile or mo-
torcycle. A man cannot get very far away before he is found,
and probably it would be a great deal better if one 4 or two oc-
casionally did get away than to destroy hundreds of them by
tying them down to the floor.

I am coming to another subject, the earnings of the prisoner
while in confinement. I feel strongly on that subject. It has
been my experience not only since I have been Governor, but
all the years I was in the Legislature, that the real sufferers as
a result of a prison sentence are the dependent members of the
prisoner's family. I do not think it is a question that admits
of any discussion. The prisoner is taken over by the State, sup-
ported, fed and clothed; and his children, if he has any, and
unfortunately a great many of them have, and his wife are
thrown upon the mercy of friends and relatives or else -become
public charges. The most pitiable cases one can listen to are
constantly brought to the attention of the Governor, actual k want
and actual starvation, as the result of the breadwinner being
locked up in the State prison. In some instances it is unfair to

268 ALFRED E. SMITH

the State to hold a man in prison when the children are in
want; it is unfair to society to let them out In a great many
instances the man is where he belongs but that does not take
from the State the obligation to do something for the man's
wife and children while he is in prison.

This paragraph in his last annual message to the Legislat-
ure expresses his attitude toward prison administration.

In our administration of prisons I think it is safe to say that
the attitude of the State should not be one of seeking vengeance.
No man after offending against society should be kept merely in
restraint We should strive rather to rehabilitate. The
State should put it in his power If his will is properly directed
to become again a useful member of society. He should not be
forever frowned upon simply because with the human weakness
inherent in us all he made one stray step from the path of
rectitude.

As a result of Governor Smith's initiative, one of the
greatest of all the problems engaging him that of prison
reform is progressing towards solution,.

Impressed by the report of the prison survey commission
(appointed in his first administration) and by the recom-
mendations of an investigating staff appointed by him in
1923, he induced the passage by the Legislature in 1924 of a
notable bill. It provides for a complete reorganization of the
prison industries of the State. It will make them modern,
more productive. It furnishes the prisoners with that in-
centive to self-respect which comes from a fair wage for
work performed and from consideration of their industrial
record in connection with behavior records generally sub-
mitted in applications for parole. Prisoners will thus be
enabled to contribute toward the support of their families,
many of whom become public charges under existing condi-
tions. It will lay by a substantial sum of money while the
prisoner is acquiring the habit of industry on the basis
of a new start in life! when free.

CHAPTER XL
A CONSERVATION POLICY IN THE PEOPLE'S INTEREST

From the outset of his public career, Smith has been fight-
ing the people's battle for the ownership and control of
natural resources. He was particularly concerned regarding
conservation of water powers. In the Legislature he was
known always to advocate public development. We have
seen how in the Constitutional Convention he prevented the
interests from dominating the Conservation Commission by
disqualifying for membership on it any person having a
direct or indirect relation with hydro-electric enterprises. He
succeeded also in making a policy of public development
constitutionally possible.

In his first message to the Legislature as Governor, Smith
urged a definite policy on water power.

Ever on guard against the exploitation of the State's
water powers by private interests, he was quick to veto bills
which prepared a soil for future harvests when governors
or legislatures more friendly to such a program might be in
power.

Accompanying his veto of a bill creating a water power
commission and conferring upon it "certain duties of in-
vestigation as to the cost, transformation and transmission
and distribution of electrical energy created by the water
power of the State, the Governor explained at length that
there had been plenty of committees and commissions which
had collected data; what was needed was legislative action
to empower the State to control its natural resources.

(269)

270 ALFRED E. SMITH

After the close of the session of the 1919 Legislature, the
Governor made pertinent references to the attitude of the
Republican Assembly on the general and practical phases of
water power development. To quote one :

On Tuesday last I visited the city of Oswego. That city owns
possible water power development on the Oswego river of one
hundred thousand horse power, I am told, and I believe it to
be the fact that the electric light monopoly in the city of Oswego
has influence to stop that city from developing that water power.
It was given to it by the State. The State erected the dam. All
the preliminary arrangements were attended to and just as soon
as the city began its development the electric light company got
an injunction restraining them from using it on the ground that
the city charter did not give to the city officials the power to do
so. In the last session of the Legislature an attempt to pass a
bill granting such power went to the Assembly and there went
down to defeat. So that a handful of men owning monopoly privi-
leges were able to push that city up against the wall.

In his second message to the Legislature he again urged
upon them to develop a definite water power policy. He said :

Another year has passed and added further to our history the
folly of permitting our great natural water resources to go unde-
veloped. We are continuing to drag coal into the State for the
purpose of generating electrical energy that could be brought
into being by harnessing our great natural resources, and we
sit by and permit this energy to run to waste.

There are three classes of people interested in water power
development The first class is the old-time reactionary indi-
vidual who believes in private ownership and private develop-
ment with a very small if any return to the State. The second
class is made up of the men who believe in development by the
State, with long leases to private individuals. The third class is
composed of men who believe in ownership, development and
operation by the State. If the people themselves are to get the
full benefit of the development of their water power resources,
it will have to be done in conformity with' the ideas held by the

CONSERVATION POLICY 271

third class. In every spot in this State where by our past policy
we have permitted private development, nobody has benefited
but the individuals who have been lucky enough to secure the
rights.

Once more he thwarted an attempt of the power interests
in a veto memorandum of a law permitting certain private
individuals or corporations to use some of the water power
of the State for hydro-electric energy.

In the 1920 campaign against Judge Miller for the gov-
ernorship, Smith carried his water power fight to Miller's
home town of Syracuse and devoted a greater part of his
speech in criticism of the Republican water power policy-
friendly to private development and in justification of his
own position.

In the 1923 election the people of the State rejected by
an overwhelming vote, a proposal to amend the constitution
permitting the development of water power in the Adiron-
dacks by private corporations, the building of transmission
lines for a superpower system through the Adirondack Park,
and legalizing the unconstitutional development of water
power in this park under the guise of river regulation. Only
two counties out of the sixty-two in the State voted in favor
of this amendment.

What was known as Adirondack! power grab (one link in
a chain of grabs which the private water-power interests
of the State were forging) was frustrated. The people had
spoken by an overwhelming vote against the policy of private
development and in favor of public ownership, control and
development

Governor Smith was heartened by this expression of popu-
lar sentiment. He submitted to the Legislature of 1924 a
practical plan of water power development. It applied the
principles of public ownership and operation. It also en-
abled those privately interested in water power development
to co-operate with the State (under its control of water

272 ALFRED E. SMITH

powers at their source) for a reasonable return on any
capital invested, but no more.

During the years the Governor fought the private interests
by an out and out public operation policy, it was difficult to
meet the argument that public operation required a bond
issue amounting to many hundred millions for its realization.
The State either could not afford it or would not attempt it.
But with his experience on the Port Authority and with his
knowledge of its organization and legal powers, he recom-
mended a solution for this complicated problem. It met the
dilemma of either private water power exploitation or im-
practical public development.

The Republican Assembly leaders were taken by surprise.
Here was a solution based on knowledge, and in the opinion
of practical men it was a sound financial proposition. Ob-
jection wass soon made by advocates of private development
that the bonds of the Water Power Authority would not
be marketable ! Everyone familiar with the Niagara River
project with its possibilities of a 500,000 horse power de-
velopment (and the demand for power as soon as it was
ready for transmission) knew that the power could be sold
as soon as it was generated.

The Republican Assembly ostensibly accepted the bill
embodying the recommendation of the Governor, but refused
to embody in any bill the principle that the ownership of
the State's water power can never be alienated from the
people.

They were willing to survey and to investigate, even to
create a Power Authority. They were not willing to commit
themselves to the principle of public ownership and control.

Moreover, they were unwilling to abolish the State Water
Power Commission created by a Republican Legislature in
1921 and approved by a Republican Governor and to central-
ize the functions relating to water power in the proposed

CONSERVATION POLICY 273

water power authority. The State Water Power Commission
had the power to grant licenses for private developments.
Two applications for licenses were pending before it. But
for Governor Smith's resistance, valuable power grants
would have been, leased to private companies.

The Democratic Senate passed the Governor's bill and the
Assembly enacted its own legislation, leaving out permanent
State ownership. A deadlock ensued. The Governor made
a final plea to the Assembly for his legislation in the last
hours of the session, but the water power interests retained
their grip and it did not pass.

CHAPTER XLI
REVIVING THE PORT OF NEW YORK

The first task of the Port Authority, created by the legis-
latures of the States of New York and New Jersey was to
work out a physical plan of developing the Port of New
York. This plan was to be presented to the legislatures of
both states. Commissioner Alfred E. Smith contributed
greatly to this task. When the plan was ready for submis-
sion to the Legislature of 1921, he fought one of the hardest
battles of his career for its adoption.

He was opposed by powerful railroad interests. They
clung to the policy of competition for terminal business. They
opposed the Port Authority's recommendation of unified
terminal operation, which they contended would reduce the
cost of transportation to the shipper, and would be reflected
in lower costs to the consumer.

Strenuously opposed to the plan, was the government of
the city of New York. Democratic officials declared that
the plan favored the New Jersey side of the port. They
submitted a counter-plan involving a freight and passenger
tunnel running from Staten Island to South Brooklyn and
connecting with the trunk lines in New Jersey, and located
the principal belt line connection far out behind the 'New
Jersey hills.

Against the powerful opposition of the railroads and the
parochial point of view of the city government, Smith ap-
peared at a hearing in Albany on January 30, 1922. It was

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PORT OF NEW YORK . 275

held in the Assembly Chamber, which was packed to the
doors.

To Smith it was a business question of supreme import-
ance, and politics had nothing to do with it. He sat in his
old seat in the Assembly ,- which brought memories of many
past debatesi he had led. When he arose to speak from that
seat, dangling his watch chain, a familiar gesture, he was
warmly greeted. Smith's speech at that hearing made the
plan clear to the simplest intelligence. His sense of humor
threw light on his subject and brought the laugh of
recognition.

This speech along with all of Mr. Smith's speeches on
other concrete measures, such as water power development,
child welfare, widows 7 pensions, night work for women,
labor laws, the executive budget, prison ref orm > must fill the
reader with amazement over his tremendous and accurate
information. It is as though he took about with him an
invisible prompter who poured all the facts and dates and
names and incidents into his 'ear as he spoke, Never is he
at a loss. That is his great weapon against his opponents
his absolute knowledge of any subject that arises for discus-
sion. It is not alone his retentive memory that must arouse
astonishment; 'even more miraculous seems the immense
amount of research implied in each speech,

For instance, this speech on Port Authority (too long to
quote) is packed with all the data of the case covering the
period of the past five years during which the case had
become active.

At Albany he talked to the man in the street in the col-
loquial, spontaneous, man-to-man fashion characteristic of Al
Smith in a fighting speech. The address delivered on March
18, 1922, before the Lawyers' Club covered the ground in a
manner more appealing to the trained legal minds who heard
it. He got the same response from both types of audience*.

CHAPTER XLII
THE QUALITY OF SMITH'S AMERICANISM

The celebration of Independence Day has been a hallowed
custom of the Tammany Society. The sachems and mem-
bers gather together in their historic hall on Fourteenth
Street and there listen annually to a reading of the Declara-
tion of Independence. A set oration, historically known as
the long talk, is delivered by an invited orator, usually a dis-
tinguished Democrat of national reputation. Following him
short talks are given.

On July 4, 1923, Governor Smith spoke.

After outlining the historic meaning of the Declaration of
Independence and its effects both upon this country and the
rest of the world, he concluded :

Now, after 147 years of experience in democratic constitu-
tional government we note a tendency among progressives in all
parties to go back to the principles of Jeffersonian democracy as
a refuge from the oppression of privilege. What is the demand
to bring the Government back to the people but a demand for
return to the principles of democracy as set forth in the Dec-
laration of Independence. Nothing is clearer today than that
the only type of government which is stable and lasting in the
long run is that which receives its sanction from the majority
of the people.

I could spend a great deal of time outlining to you how suc-
cessful we have been as a nation during the comparatively short
period of our national life. When our Constitution was adopted
in 1789 the population of the whole country was less than half

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SMITH'S AMERICANISM 277

of the population of Greater New York today. It can all be
summed up in a few words when we say that America today leads
the world, and that it is the commercial and financial center of
the universe, and each recurring anniversary of that memorable
day in our history should bring home to us the lesson of our
duty.

Liberty is an elusive thing. It is something that must be
guarded and protected. An eternal vigilance is the price of our
soul's salvation, so it is the price of our liberty. Let us, therefore,
on this day, as a lesson and an inspiration to the youth of the
country, once more proclaim our allegiance to the immortal docu-
ment to the Constitution that sustains it, and to the flag that
represents them both, and when we retire to our homes let us
thank God for his watchful care of our country since its dis-
covery, and let us pray for his blessing upon our future, asking
it all in the name of his Divine Son who gave the world the
greatest lesson and example of the equality of men.

Here is how; he responded to a request made by the New
York World for a statement to be published on Armistice
Day in 1923 :

Though the armistice was signed five years ago today, the war
in Europe is not over. It is not over because the seeds of war are
in the governments and in the hearts and minds of many of the
people who fought the war. The historic hates and suspicions
which led to the greatest man-made carnage in history have not
yet been obliterated. As long as we think and feel in terms of
war we cannot have peace.

Why have the conferences at Geneva, at Cannes and other
places resulted in futile talk? The answer is that as long as
people do not think and feel in terms of reconciliation, states-
manship and diplomacy are as insubstantial as air.

Europe of today is the victim of the war mind. The hope of
civilization is in the birth of a new statesmanship, which recog-
nizes that hate is a barren and destructive emotion and that good
wilt is not a sentimental feeling but a positive constructive force.

The statesmanship which Europe sorely needs must emanate
from hearts filled with a desire for unity and reconciliation.

278 ALFRED E. SMITH

The history of our own country is a shining example of the
fruits of such a policy. It took a bloody civil war to maintain
the Union. But this precious unity was actually achieved by the
spirit of reconciliation so beautifully expressed by Abraham
Lincoln, "With malice toward none, with charity for all . . , let
us finish the work we are in ... to bind up the Nation's wounds."

Such a statesmanship could also achieve for Europe a unity
amidst variety, a federation of Europe and not the prostrate body
politic it now presents.

CHAPTER XLIII

AN EVEN KEEL
THE RETURN TO FUNDAMENTAL AMERICANISM

The second year of Governor Smith's administration
brought to a climax the problem of handling the revolutionary
elements. Their efforts were stifled by a vigorous policy of
government repression, sanctioned in large part by public
opinion reflecting the will to victory during the war, and
recognizing the necessity of dealing forcibly with any prop-
aganda which tended to weaken national unity and lend aid
and comfort to the enemy. War is an emergency, and good
sense dictates that under war conditions emergency measures
limiting our freedom may be necessary to achieve results.
Unfortunately, such temporary lapses from democratic prac-
tice are often accepted by many as normal procedure when
war is over and peace has set in.

In peace, the cause of ordered liberty under law which is
the essence of American institutions is endangered and
jeopardized by the method of violence to fight violence

The war unsettled not only the things but also the minds
of men. A period of hysteria set in which sanctioned official
acts violative of the very principles of freedom under law, of
the rights of individuals against the clamor of the mob, of
the constitutional guarantees of free speech and free assembly
and even of representative government, principles which are
the warp and woof of any Democracy worthy of the name.

New York State was not free of this hysteria. It was

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280 ALFRED E. SMITH

stimulated by a prejudice against aliens. Some of these,
though unrepresentative of the mass of foreigners, were
doubtless leaders of Bolshevik and extreme radical groups
organized to undermine and destroy our government by con-
spiracy and force. When passions are hot, the true leader
is he who can keep his head and navigate on an even keel.
In such an atmosphere Smith used healing words in his mes-
sage to the Legislature. When referring to the Bolshevism
and unbalanced radicalism, he said :

We are a government by the will of the majority. No other
kind of rule is democracy to an American. We ascertain that
will by free public discussion. Such rights as that of free speech
and free assemblage are fundamental, for without them govern-
ment by enlightened will of the majority is not possible.

During the war in the interest of national unity and for our
common defense against our enemy, every sane American relin-
quished some of his freedom.

Now that the war is over, we should return to a normal state of
mind, and keep our balance, and an even keel.

The anarchist, the violent revolutionist, the underminer of our
institutions should receive no mercy at our hands. He does not
belong here. But while we should be relentless toward this type
of distorted personalities, we must not confuse them with the
hundreds of thousands of our brothers of alien stock, who have
made America their home and who have helped to build up our
great nation by self-respecting labor and their citizenship. Their
sons have added luster to our name in the battlefields of the great
war- Let us remember them now and let us resent as sinister and
as a new expression of the old knownothing spirit, the attaching
to all citizens of foreign birth the stigma of radicalism.

I express myself thus feelingly because I know them. I have
lived among them. Many of them have been my friends and
neighbors. The discontent among them is often the natural home-
sickness of men and women who do not yet feel at home in their
new surroundings. Some of it is due to an exploitation of their
helplessness and ignorance. Such discontent every red-blooded

FUNDAMENTAL AMERICANISM 281

man respects. It is different from the destructive spirit of revolu-
tionary firebrands. It should be met by a constructive movement
of Americanization, which will make them understand and respect
the ideals of America and make them feel at home. The State
needs and welcomes to its citizenship the best that the Old World
has to give us.

Appreciating as I do the fundamental wholesorneness of the
citizen of foreign birth, I am mindful of the danger of spreading
the infection of revolutionary propaganda among them. We
must immunize them against the infection, by approaching the
problem in a spirit of sanity, a thorough and sympathetic under-
standing and a fearless and courageous meeting of their needs.
This is the fundamental basis of any Americanization program.

In this connection we must recognize the necessity of a sound
program of social, industrial 'and governmental betterment, which
will remove those causes of discontent which true Americanism
requires should be eradicated.

The spirit of these words did not animate the Republican
Legislature. At the opening of the session a movement was
s'et on foot and soon consummated to oust five Socialist
Assemblymen elected from New York City. Thus were
created five vacancies in the assembly, denying the consti-
tuencies concerned representation achieved through a lawful
'election. The expelled Assemblymen were tried on charges
that they were hostile to our form of government and advo-
cated principles subversive of our institutions and designed
to overthrow them by force.

Ousting the Socialist Assemblymen first and trying them
afterwards aroused a storm of opposition from many quar-
ters. The Bar Association representing the distinguished
members of the New York Bar appointed a committee and
submitted a brief protesting against such action as vlolative
of the first principles of fair procedure under our law and
conceptions of justice and representative government. Gov-
ernor Smith, though he appreciated the status of the Legisla-

282 ALFRED E. SMITH

ture as a co-ordinate branch of the government, was never-
theless impelled to issue the following statement on the ac-
tion of the Assembly in depriving of their seats five mem-
bers of the Socialist party.

Although I am unalterably opposed to the fundamental prin-
ciples of the Socialist party, it is inconceivable that a minority
party duly constituted and legally organized, should be deprived
of its right to expression so long as it has honestly, by lawful
methods of education and propaganda, succeeded in securing rep-
resentation, unless the chosen representatives are unfit as indi-
viduals.

It is true that the Assembly has arbitrary power to determine
the qualifications of its membership; but where arbitrary power
exists it should be exercised with care and discretion because
from it there is no appeal.

If the majority party at present in control of the Assembly
possesses information that leads them to believe that these men
are hostile to our form of Government and would overthrow it
by processes subversive of law and order, these charges in due
form should have been presented to the Legislature and these
men tried by orderly processes. Meanwhile, presumably innocent,
until proven guilty, they should have been allowed to retain their
seats.

Our faith in American democracy is confirmed not only by
its results, but by its methods and organs of free expression.
They are the safeguards against revolution. To discard the
methods of representative government leads to the misdeeds of
the very extremists we denounce and serves to increase the
number of the enemies of orderly free government.

In the face of protests from such lawyers as Ex-Governor
Hughes, civic organizations and organs of liberal opinion,
the trial went on for months. The report of the committee
was condemnatory of the five Assemblymen. One outcome of
the trial was the appointment of a joint legislative committee
under the chairmanship of Senator Lusk, to investigate revo-
lutionary radicalism. The committee worked feverishly

FUNDAMENTAL AMERICANISM 283

(sometimes with the aid of detectives) to unearth evidence
of conspiracies and of direct and indirect propaganda of a
violent and revolutionary character. A mass of testimony
and voluminous volumes were published containing in part
documents of historic value to the student of radical move-
ments but also conclusions which were born of hysteria and
apprehension.

The committee made some constructive recommendations
of value in the direction of true Americanization. Unfor-
tunately its members showed a distorted perspective by the
emphasis laid on detecting disloyal elements. With the zeal
of medieval heresy hunters, the committee recommended
legislation to aid in detecting the conspirators and in testing
the loyalty of teachers as well as regulating the registration
of schools and school courses to prevent the young from
being corrupted by reds and radicals.

Three bills intended to carry out these purposes were
passed by the Legislature. The Governor vetoed them.
His accompanying memoranda clarified the atmosphere.
They stemmed a dangerous tendency which under the guise
of patriotism gave power to secret police and to administra-
tive boards characteristic of Czarist Russia and alien to
Anglo-Saxon conceptions of justice under law and the rights
of individuals under American institutions.

In his veto of the bill dealing with State prosecution for
criminal anarchy and providing special facilities for its detec-
tion the Governor said:

The traditional abhorrence of a free people of all kinds of
spies and secret police is valid and justified and calls for the dis-
approval of this measure.

The bill is, therefore, disapproved

He also vetoed a bill requiring a loyalty test for teachers.
Opposition to any presently -established institution, no matter

284 ALFRED E. SMITH

how intelligent, conscientious or disinterested this opposition
might be, would be sufficient to disqualify the teacher. Every
teacher would be at the mercy of his colleagues, his pupils and
their parents, and any word or act of the teacher might be held
by the Commissioner to indicate an attitude hostile to some of
"the institutions of the United States" or of the State.

The bill unjustly discriminates against teachers as a class. It
deprives teachers of their right to freedom of thought, it limits
the teaching staff of the public schools to those only who lack
the courage or the mind to exercise their legal right to just
criticism of existing institutions. The bill confers upon the
Commissioner of Education a power of interference with freedom
of opinion which strikes at the foundations of Democratic edu-
cation.

The bill is, therefore, disapproved.

In his veto of the bill licensing schools and supervising
school courses to prevent the spread of un-American
doctrine, he used these forceful words :

The clash of conflicting opinions, from which progress arises
more than from any other source, would be abolished by law,
tolerance and intellectual freedom destroyed and an intellectual
autocracy imposed upon the people. The destruction of the
German Empire, through the blind inability of its people to
understand the spirit of free institutions, is a striking example
of the ruin that may ensue from forcing into a narrow, govern-
mental mold the processes of education. The proponents of these
bills urge that they are essential to the protection of the com-
munity against radical opinion. I might rest upon the saying
of Benjamin Franklin that 'They that can give up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither lib-
erty nor safety." But I go further the safety of this govern-
ment and its institutions rests upon the reasoned and devoted
loyalty of its people. It does not need for its defense a system
of intellectual tyranny which, in the endeavor to choke error
by force, must of necessity crush truth as well. The profound

FUNDAMENTAL AMERICANISM 285

sanity of the American people has been demonstrated in many
a crisis, and I, for one, do not believe that governmental dic-
tation of what may and may not be taught is necessary to
achieve a continuance of the patriotism of our citizenship, and
its loyal support of the government and its institutions.
The bill is, therefore, disapproved.

After destroying attempts to pass statutes in violation of
time-honored principles of free government, the Governor
proceeded to repair the damage done to our system of repre-
sentative government by issuing a proclamation on Septem-
ber 16, 1920, calling for special elections in the five As-
sembly districts that would otherwise be unrepresented at
the extraordinary session of the Legislature which he called
at that time for housing relief for New York City. "I am
unable," he said, "to bring myself to the undemocratic way
of thinking that five large Assembly districts, containing a
population of approximately 250,000 people in the counties,
wherein the unrepresented Assembly districts He, and vitally
affected by the housing conditions, should be without repre-
sentation in[ the Assembly."

Smith struck one more blow at the war spirit when upon
his re-election in 1922, he pardoned Jim Larkin, convicted
under the Criminal Anarchy statute of the State during the
war. Larkin's revolutionary radicalism was abhorrent to
him. Toward his opinions, which tended to weaken the
power of our government in its war against her enemy, he
shared the verdict of the courts and juries. But the war was
over, for three years, and he recognized that Larkin was a
political prisoner. In a statement setting forth his reasons
for the pardon of Jim Larkin, the Governor signalized a
return to spiritual normalcy which recognized the difference
between common crimes and political war crimes in time of
peace which should not be tolerated under American institu-
tions. Later, for the same reasons, he pardoned the remain-
ing political prisoners held by the State.

CHAPTER XLIV
THE HEARST CONTROVERSY

Geniality is one of Smith's attractive traits. It is catching.
It accounts in part for the love he inspires among his fellows.
When he directs his wit or his satire against an opponent it
is not poisoned by any stinging bitterness. He tries to
understand another's point of view. When another differs
honestly Smith respects him, especially if he be a fair fighter.
The love and the admiration he won from his political foes
is a matter of public record. His friendship for Ed. Mer-
ritt, the late Senator Brackett and for other leading Re-
publicans, was deep and abiding..

Smith is slow to anger. He has a pois'e and a self-control
of which his humor is a positively artistic expression. Anger
he recognizes as undignified and humanly wasteful. Smith
is seldom angry in a personal sense. Only a long attrition
of unjust attacks reflecting upon his motives and unrelated
to the merits of his policies would arouse his indignation.
Even then he would ignore it unless he considered it impor-
tant for the welfare of the State or for the vindication of
principle.

Without entering here into* a discussion of Mr. Hearst's
motives, it should be noted that his papers opened up a fire
of attack against Smith. These attacks were vitriolic even
for Hearst. Every resource and every talent a millionaire
newspaper publisher can buy were used against Smith. He

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THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 287

was pilloried in editorials. He was caricatured in cartoons.
He was insincere; he was a boss-ridden politician; he was
pictured as a friend of the Milk Trust Barons, who shook
hands with their servant and greeted him with the insidious
slogan : "You know me, Al 1"

One of the ostensible reasons for this attack was the Gov-
ernor's alleged neglect of the poor who were then complain-
ing about the high price of milk. The price referred to was
that charged by the large distributing companies.

The Governor's efforts to bring about the reduction in the
price of milk were well known. That he was powerless to
regulate the price of milk under existing law was also com-
mon knowledge* That the statutes bound him hand and foot
and kept him from controlling the only department which
could give him any information or co-operation in meeting
the problem was a fact to which he constantly drew atten-
tion. The Department of Farms and Markets of the State
was controlled by a Republican Legislature. Its personnel
was not under the Governor's jurisdiction. Despite the Gov-
ernor's efforts to obtain relief by the appointment of Fair
Price Milk Committees , the flaring headlines in the Hearst
papers continued. For months he was silent His friends
pressed him to reply. Their efforts were futile,

Then something 1 snapped. It broke when Hearst accused
Smith, in papers Which circulated among his people in the
tenements, of killing their babies by his subservience to the
Milk Trust.

To charge him with the death of the children he loved and
of bringing sorrow to the people from whom he sprang was
more than he could bear. In addition to the unusual cares
of his office in the troublous post-war period, he was at that
time suffering intensely from the strain occasioned by the
critical illness of his mother, whom he loved as only a widow's
son can love, and only as a son whose thought of her was

288 ALFRED E. SMITH

ever his first concern. The Hearst attacks literally struck
home, for in her delirium his mother was heard to say : "My
son did not kill the babies."

Then he spoke. His ringing words reverberated through-
out the country. He challenged Mr. Hearst to meet him
face to face and make good his charges,

He invited the freest exposure of his every act both private
and public. He challenged Hearst to debate the issue of milk
and evefy other issue between them in an open meeting.

On October 29, 1919, a mass-meeting under the auspices
of a representative citizens' committee was held in Carnegie
Hall. The Governor attended. There he expected to debate
with Mr. Hearst, who in a scurrilous communication refused
to meet him,

Carnegie Hall was packed to the doors. The city was
tense with excitement. Every wise politician knew that this
meeting meant an irreparable break with Hearst, who had
combined with Tammany Hall to elect the local administra-
tion. It meant that Al Smith had burnt his bridges behind
him and that for the rest of his political career he determined
to fight the influence of one of the richest of men wielded
through the ownership of a chain of newspapers extending
from New York to California.

Smith is too realistic a politician to underestimate the evil
which the abuse of such power can do. He also realized that
when money is pitted against private honor and public in-
tegrity, the right would in the long run prevail.

No meeting within the recollection of old New Yorkers
was charged with so much dramatic dynamite,

Al Smith was always popular. Now he became a symbol
of moral qualities that transcend mere partisan approval, and
in every subsequent fight with Hearst the people of New
York State showed where they stood in unprecedented
majorities.

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 289

"I am going to ask," he began as he faced that audience in
Carnegie Hall, "for your absolute silence and attention."
He got them, for his words were arresting :

I feel that I am here tonight upon a mission as important not
only to myself, but to this city, to this State and to this country,
as I could possibly perform. Of course, I am alone. (A voice:
"He hasn't got the nerve to face you, Al") I don't know
whether the chairman or the committee expected that I would
be alone, but I knew that I would, and I felt that I would,
because I know the man to whom I issued the challenge, and
I know that he has not got a drop of good, clean, pure red
blood in his whole body. And I know the color of his liver,
and it is whiter, if that could be, than the driven snow.

The chairman did not read his letter of declination, and I do
not intend to read it all because I have too much better material.

But I just want to pay my respects to certain passages in it.
Running true to form, characteristic of the man and of the
publications that he owns, his letter of refusal to the chairman
of this committee is not a truthful one. At this state of the
proceedings the only reason that he can put upon paper, over
his own signature, why he believes I have betrayed my public
trust, is that we have not got municipal ownership.

Why, the man is entirely lacking in any understanding of
the situation. He doesn't spend any time in New York, to
know what is going on here; he is in Palm Beach all winter,
and in California all summer. He probably never read my
message to the Legislature. He never read the special message
that I sent in. He has never read a line of the speeches that
I have made since my entry into* public office, on this particular
question. If he did, he couldn't possibly write that letter.

He said to the chairman, "You need keep no tickets lor any
friend of mine." I want to say to the chairman that if he kept
tickets for friends of Hearst, he could keep them in his ear.

And with a great show of brightness that hit upon his mind
on the moment, he advised the committee that they could hire
Carnegie Hall on a long-term lease. Now, my answer to that
is this : If he wants to criticize me or any other public official

290 ALFRED E. SMITH

in this country, honestly, fairly and justly, nobody will raise
a finger against him; but if, on the other hand, he wants to
vilify them, slander them and lie about them, it is probably well
for the citizenship of this country and this city that they take
a permanent lease upon this hall not so much to provide a
f 01 urn for the defense of our public men, but to promote the
general public welfare ; and he knows what I mean by that. So
much for his answer.

In his morning edition of the American he has a picture of me
(holding up copy of American") with a laboring man caitooned
on one side, and a mother and her children on the other. The
heading of it is, "Answer these people, Governor Smith." I
want to say to this audience that I was anxious to bring him
on this platform so that he could answer to these people. They
need no answer from me, and any of them that are in doubt
about it, before I am finished, I will make it my business to see
that they need no answer from me. They need it from him.
They need it from the man that is exploiting them. They need
it from the man that is sowing in their minds and in their hearts
the seeds of disorder and discontent, to suit his own selfish
purposes.

Now, this afternoon I said to myself, "When I get on the stage
to-inght I will try and imagine I am a lawyer, and I will try and
imagine that I have a case to make out before the jury; and I
will have in mind that every jury, in a case of circumstantial
evidence, is keen to know the motive. That establishes over
fifty per cent of the case if you can show the motive/' IP order
to show the motive of this attack upon me I propose to take"
this audience by the hand and walk them through my administra-
tion since the first of January up to to-night, and I will put in
your minds as quickly as it can be done the motive for this
attack upon me.

On the first of January, when I went into office, I appointed
as my legal adviser, Judge Joseph A. Kellogg, of Glens Falls,
In all of the State of New York a cleaner and abler man could
not be found for that position, and when I went to him and
asked him to accept it, he was reluctant about it, I asked him
to do it for me, to help me, and he finally consented. At the

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 291

time of his appointment not a word was said by either the
American or the Journal. On the other hand, the newspapers
that circulate throughout central New York and know him well
gave me the highest commendation for the selection that I was
able to make for counsel.

On the ninth of January there was an acute situation in the
city here because of a strike between the farmers on the one
hand and the distributors of milk on the other. I was appealed
to. Under the law of the State I had no power to command
any man to do anything that I thought he ought to do, but I
undertook to settle the strike. I sent for the representatives of
the farmers on the one side, the representatives of the distrib-
utors on the other, and I asked some citizens to sit in and talk
with them to the end that we might end the strike. In that
I was successful, for the milk began to flow into New York,
and the committee so arranged it that there was to be no increase
in the price to the consumer. That is what happened on the
ninth of January, and that is the committee that is so grossly
and SO 1 gravely misrepresented in the Hearst -newspapers as
being a committe made up of the representatives of the trust

How else could you settle a strike of that kind? How did
the Federal government attempt to settle the harbor strike or
the longshoremen's strike? Did they appoint doctors and lawyers
on the committee, or college professors ? Why, not at all. They
appointed the representatives of the strikers. And that is
exactly what I did, and that fact has been distorted and turned
around until it is a mass of lies, not understandable to anybody,
only to the man that concocts them, for he has the hidden motive
and the hidden purpose in the back of his head. Everything
went along all right until the twenty-fifth of March, when we
had the parade of the Twenty-seventh Division. Before that
parade, Mr. Hearst, through another party, not directly, but
through another party, made a request of me that I denied.
I denied it because I did not think, as Governor of this State,
in honor I could do it. Through another party, Mr. Hearst
asked me for an appointment for a friend of his. I made up my
mind that the appointee should be a woman, to a State com-

292 ALFRED E. SMITH

mission, and I selected a woman from the western part of the
State. And that disappointed him. Ten days after that watch
the circumstantial case, and follow me along with it now, while
I put it all together and show you the motive fen days after
that, the first editorial appears in the New York American. It
does not chastise me. It is a kindly editorial. It is one of
those editorials of warning. It says, "The test of the Governor
is now at hand. Will he fail?" It quotes a statement that I
made upon the adjournment of the Legislature, criticizing them
for failing to pass the Welfare bill that I recommended in my
first annual message. And then it follows on by saying, "Those
are nice words, Governor, but the people don't go by words;
they go by deeds. Why did you appoint Judge Kellogg a Public
Service Commissioner ?" He was all right on the first of January,
but after Mr. Hearst suffered his disappointment because he felt
that he could not call upon me to do that which I did not think
was right, he found fault with Kellogg and used that familiar
expression of his, "A tool of the corporations," or something
to that effect.

At the bottom of it his editorial writer wrote this : "The people
hate a trimmer and a traitor, a backer and a filler, a temporizer
and a compromiser. No Democrat has ever yet succeeded in
that way."

Now, I hold that the man that wrote that had Hearst himself
in his mind, because he fills that bill to a T. It cannot be made
to apply to me because I have succeeded.

Now that, you know, was like saying, "Look out now, you
have not been all right up to date; you know what we have got
here; be careful of yourself." The warning was issued on the
twenty-fifth of April, and it looked to me like the warning was
paving the way for something else that was going to happen;
because around that time it was whispered around that a judge
of the Supreme Court, sitting in the Appellate Division, was
about to resign, and the little warning was intended to let the
Governor know that he must not slip up on that one. So accord-
ingly, on the thirtieth of April, and before the resignation is
sent to the Governor, I receive this letter :

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 293

MY DEAR GOVERNOR: I understand that Supreme Court
Justice- Clarence J. Shearn has resigned his office, to take
effect May the first. As one of the friends and admirers
of Register James A. Donegan, may I not take the liberty
of suggesting to you his name for consideration when this
matter is before you for decision? James A. Donegan is
the chairman of the Independence League Party, and the
party associate of Justice Shearn, whom he succeeded as
chairman of the League. He has been a resident of New
York for many years and I believe you have known him
personally for a long period. His qualifications are admir-
able; a well-known lawyer, of splendid character, sound
judgment, personally popular among all classes, by virtue
of his party affiliations, the logical successor to Justice
Shearn.

That is the explanation of the candidate. The last part of
the letter says, "In addition to this his appointment would bring
to our party a strong and positive ally, who through his news-
papers has a large and independent following in this city."

Now, that is signed by William F. Schneider, county clerk.
In an interview in the New York World, the county clerk says
that he did not speak to Mr. Hearst about it, that he did not
speak to anybody about it, that he was animated by a feeling of
generosity for his friend.

Now, we have been brought up more or less in the atmosphere
of practical politics; I have. It has been a great asset to me;
it has helped me wonderfully. Mr. Donegan is the register
of this county, elected for a four-year term, nominated at the
request, I am given to understand, of the Independence League
Party. Mr. Schneider did not want to take him out of that
position and leave that appointment for me to make, unless
somebody in authority in that party said so.

Now, Mr. Schneider denies that his request came from Mr,
Hearst. So far, so good. I have no quarrel with Mr. Schneider,
but he is an elected constitutional officer in this county and he
holds an important public office. Don't let him make that state-
ment again, because if he does I will tell him the name of the

294 ALFRED E. SMITH

man that met him coming out of church last August in Belle
Harbor and to whom he told that Mr. Hearst wanted him to
come and see me about it. And he took a chance and wrote
that letter; and with a great deal of feeling for me for fear
something awful was going to happen to me, he expressed so
much sorrow that "AF did not use a little more judgment;
even if I did not give Donegan that place, I might have given
him the next one. Now, let us see. We are up as far as the
thirtieth of April on the Schneider letter.

On the fifth of May Judge Shearn resigned. On the seventh
day of May I appointed Robert L. Luce. Before I was elected,
to audiences in this county, in Kings county and all over this
State, I made the solemn promise that if I was elected I would
be the Governor of this State, and I selected Robert L. Luce.
The next day the attack opened. Watch the chain of circum-
stances being gradually linked together. The day after the
appointment of Luce, the attack opened upon Luce and upon
n^yself. Whisperings were about the Capitol in Albany that
"Hearst has a man on the Governor's trail; there is somebody
up here to watch everything that happens/* Well, let's see how
well that fellow watched it. On the tenth of May, two days
later, there appears an attack against the Governor in the paper
for appointing a man named Fluhrer a county judge in Orleans
county. If I sat up all night and devoted the best thought that
I could bring to my command, and looked all over the county
of Orleans, it would be impossible for me to find a man better
equipped, better trained, and who met with more popular general
satisfaction in the appointment than the man that I appointed.
But they were on his trail, ai)d that appointment was found
fault with.

It took him six days to find something else, and he actually
found that I came down here to the Metropolitan Club, a club
of wealthy men, and I went in and made a speech to them, I
came there at the invitation of the Reconstruction Commission
to see if it was possible to talk some money out of those wealthy
fellows to build some houses in this city. That was. what I
came to the Metropolitan Club for. But the attack had to be
continued, and the paper said, "It was asserted that the Governor

174 SOUTH STREET, THE HOUSE IN WHICH ALFRED E. SMITH
WAS BORN

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 295

came down to the Metropolitan Club to avoid a special session
of the Legislature 'so that the State or the city would not put
up the money to lend the builders."

Now, that is supposed to be fed out to intelligent people.
The presumption is that the man with brains, or the woman
with brains, is going to read that; and there isn't a schoolboy
or schoolgirl in New York that doesn't know that the public
money of this State or this city, under our Constitution, can-
not be loaned to 1 builders or to anybody else. It was well
known that neither the city nor the State itself could build the
buildings, that the Constitution limited the expenditure of pub-
lic money to State or municipal purposes only. But they were
hunting very hard for something.

Then on that same day, there was a great discovery made.
The Governor removed Judge Gary from the head of the
Prison Commission, a man of singular ability, t man of busi-
ness training, a man who gave his best thought to the State
and the Governor removed him because he wanted to have his
newly ' appointed friend spend all the money. The article jvas
hardly written when word came down to the office, "Get that
out of the paper as quick as you can. Gary went before a com-
mittee of the Legislature and asked to have his commission
abolished." Wait till I see if I made any special note on that
(referring to paper). No.

Now, everything was failing. The Governor t was still run-
ning the State his own way, and doing what he thought was
the right thing, and every attempted attack was lost to the pub-
lic. It made no hit. So there was a little meeting, and the
question was discussed as to what next to go at the Governor
on. So they finally made their mind up that they would attack
the Governor of the State because he refused to fijx the price
of milk "in, New York at a lower figure than the people were
charging for it. The attack went on practically through the
summer. There was a little cessation of it immediately before
the designations were made for the county ticket, but the day
after the designations were made it began with renewed force
and renewed vigor, and "Smith jvas responsible for the starva-

296 ALFRED E. SMITH

tion of the children in New York, because he refused to reduce
the price of milk" This story will be rightly and properly told
before I get finished, and when it is told it will constitute in
itself the gravest abuse of the power of the press that was ever
wielded by a newspaper or by an individual in the history of
this country.

Early in my remarks I said something about misleading the
poor. I cannot think of a more contemptible man my power
of imagination fails me to bring into my mind's eye a mare
despicable man than the man that exploits the poor. Any man
that leads you to believe that your lot in life is not all right,
any man that conjures up for you a fancied grievance against
your government or against the man at the head of it, to help
himself, is breeding the seeds of anarchy and dissatisfaction
more disastrous to the welfare of the community that it is used in
than any other teaching that I can think of, because, at least,
the jvildest anarchist, the most extreme Socialist, the wildest
radical that you can think of may at least be sincere in his own
heart. He may think that it is right when he preaches it But
the man that preaches to the poor of this or of any other com-
munity discontent and dissatisfaction to help himself and to
make good his side of the argument and to destroy, as he said
himself he would, the Governor of the State, is a man as low
and as mean, as I can picture him. Throughout this whole
campaign it L was attempted to fix in the minds of the people
that there existed some place in the statute law of this State
the power on the part of the Governor to fix the price^of milk,
and in his desperation after the nomination on the county
ticket, that was put into his paper in so many words, and he
knows that it is not so. His lawyers know that it is not so,
and I defy himand he has the best legal advic^ in this city,
because he never utters a word until it is well scrutinized by an
array of lawyers to keep him away from libel suits 1 defy
him or his lawyers to challenge that cold, straightforward
statement of mine, that no power exists in my hands or in the
hands of any other agency of this government, to fix the price
at which anybody can sell anything in this State, whether it

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 297

is milk or shoes or clothing or houses or anything else. Run-
ning all through this, by insinuation and, at times, in his
desperation, by the direct declaration, the public have been
given to believe that the Governor had some power of removal
over the officials o the Department of Agriculture and the
Department of Farms and Markets. He knows that J have not.
Every one of his lawyers knows that I have not. Every man
that writes on his newspapers knows that the Governor of the
State has no power to remove any of the officials of the De-
partment of Agriculture. He knows that they are all appointed
by a Council of Farms and Markets, and he knows that the
Council is elected by the Legislature, and in 1917 the agricul-
tural, farming and market interests of this State, to the minutest
detail, were removed away from the control of the Governor,
in order that they maybe a regency, as are the educational
affairs of the State. But all through his articles he has given
the insinuation, that men in that department, unfit for office,
could be removed by me, when he knew it to be not the 'fact
I will make a confession to you. I do not want to be too hard
on him. It isn't in my heart to hurt anybody.

I -didn't yvant him to come on this platform for any other
reason except to show him that he is a liar.

Now, he flares out a headline that Smith appointed a repre-
sentative of the milk trust to office. That is a He. 1 never
appointed the man whose name he mentioned in the paper in
my life, and every appointment that is made by the Governor,
even* to a notary public, has to be recorded in a certain book
that is public property in the Executive Chamber in Albany,
and he can go up and look at that book. In a cold-blooded,
deliberate way, he puts it on the front page of his paper that
the Governor of the State appointed the attorney of the milk
trust to a high important office, when no such thing happened.
Neither was the man appointed by anybody appointed by me.
What are the facts ? That is Hearst's story, and here are the
facts :

Immediately after the first of January the Superintendent
of Prisons asked a committee of men and women to make a

298 ALFRED E. SMITH

survey of the prisons. He suggested to me that it would be a
good thing, and I said, "Go ahead, if it will help the State and
help the prison system,, I am for it; you get a good committee."
He appointed Adolph Lewisohn, of New York, a K wonian named
Helen Hartley Jenkins, and the Episcopal Bishop of New York,
who died a short time ago, and two other men .whose names I
do not know. I was informed afterwards that the lawyer
spoken of was a friend of Mr, Lewisohn, the chairman of the
committee appointed by Rattigan, and that Lewisohn asked him
to sit in the preparation of some bills that are destined to
better the conditions under which men have to live in the
prisons of this State. Now, that is the fact.

He flared out in his headline something that I had to pay
attention to, that the New York Central was in league with
the milk trust to curb the men that did not join the League;
and he gave the details of a station in Dutchess county ,where
the New York Central Railroad refused to 1 accept the milk.
Iiqmediately upon seeing that story I became concerned, be-
cause public service corporations like the New York Central
are under strict regulation by the State, and discrimination
against any shipper of any kind of a product is a violation of
the Public Service Law; and I immediately sent for the dis-
trict attorney of this county. The district attorney subpoenaed
the men from up in Dutchess county, and after a thorough
examination of the case I got a letter from the district attorney
of which I will read but a few lines :

"The explanation made by Mr, Grinnell is a clear and satis-
factory one, from which it would appear that the New York
Central Railroad t was not, nor was any of its representatives, a
member of any conspiracy to prevent Mr. McArthur from
shipping milk to this city."

The fact of the matter was that no milk came from this sta-
tion, in Duchess county to this city in thirteen years. Yet tihis
man, in his newspaper, assailed the character of the leading
citizens of this community, because they are interested in that
great public service corporation, and leagued me up with them.
Not a jvord of truth, not a syllable of truth in it.

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 299

He speaks constantly through his papers of a letter that I
received from the Mayor, begging me to do something. Why,
the Mayor never sent me a letter about it. I never received
such a letter. The Mayor won't say he sent it to me.

There was a wonderfully great, flaring headline one day that
the district attorney of this county was being interfered with
by politicians, that public men in this county ;were standing in
the way of prosecution for criminal acts by the milk distributors.
Well, that is a rather serious situation. If there is any man, be
he public or be he private, in this county or in any other county,
who stands in the way of a criminal prosecution, he is an
enemy to the county, he is an enemy to the State, and an enemy
to the people. So I wanted to find out who he ;was, and I sent
word to the district attorney, and the next morning I saw in
all the rest of the newspapers a statement by the district
attorney that he never uttered a ;word of it, and I think he
remarked that he never saw a reporter from either the Ameri-
can' or the Journal for the whole week before that. Is that the
treatment to give to intelligent people make them think that
there are people in this city here, or in his county, standing in
the way of the orderly processes of justice? What kind of a
seed does that breed inside of your mind? What kind of a
thought does that put into your heart? What kind of an idea
does that give you of the great underlying structure of democ-
racy, the purity of the courts, of the grand jury and of the
judiciary generally? What difference does it make how much
misrepresentation there is if there is a Governor that has got
to be destroyed because he is not amenable to orders ?

Another flare headline, "Why don't the Governor bring the
Milk Trust into Court and make them show up their books?"
Why, the answer to that is just this. We have in this State,
as the distinguished dead Mayor of the city one time said, a
government of laws, not men. I am not a czar, I am not a
despot; I am just a plain ordinary man, picked out by a majority
of the people in this State to administer the law as it is in the
statute books. I have not got the power to bring anybody into
court I cannot even arrest you; a policeman can, but I can-

300 ALFRED E. SMITH

not. Absolutely ridiculous, but a play to the poor, and a play
to the man that does not understand the orderly legal pro-
cedure of the State. The man that does that, making you
think that he is your friend, is the greatest enemy that you
can find.

Of course you all remember the harrowing details of all the
babies that ;were dying in New York because the Governof
did not reduce the price of milk. The fact is, and it is some-
thing for which we can be thankful to Almighty God, that
the infant mortality in this State and in this city in the last
six months has been^ lower than at any other time in the whole
history of the State. That is the fact.

I think the most ridiculous headline I saw ,was, "The Gover-
nor Interferes with the Prosecution of the Trust" This is the
fact: I sent do^wn to the Criminal Courts building for Judge
Swann and his assistant in the month of August, immediately
after I impanelled the special grand jury to hear the criminal
anarchy cases. I sent for Swann and I said, "Have you got
any evidence against these distributors?" He said, "Yes." I
said, "Go and bring it in before that special grand jury, or any
other grand jury that you have got down there." He said, "I
don't know whether the call is broad enough to comprehend
milk. You called this grand jury into being for a certain spe-
cific purpose." "Well," I said, "wait until I tell you something,
Judge. If the call is not broad enough, I will broaden it this
afternoon ; and I want to say this to you, I don't know, whether
I have that power or not, if I have I will do it, and if I haven't
I know that I have got the power to impanel another one, I
jvill give you another jury." Swann went down and presented
the evidence against the distributors of milk in this county. I
wrote to him to find out what was the result, and I just take a
small extract from his letter to save time:

"I have presented all the evidence that I have been able to
secure, but without direct evidence or a confession of guilt, I
do not think the grand jury will indict"

Now, there again just think of what that means, to have
planted in the mind of a man or a woman that the Governor of

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 301

this State yvould interfere through the district attorney o any
county in the prosecution of anybody that committed a criminal
act. Nobody could say it, no reasonable, normal, sane, sensible
person could advance it, and no decent newspaper would ever
print it

You read, of course, how I saved some food adulterers from
going to jail. That has been flared day after day, a copy of a
letter from a former member of the legislature sent to me
when I was Speaker of the Assembly you remember reading
it. Here are the facts : While I was Speaker of the Assembly,
a former member sent me a letter and in the letter said that h'e
or another member had received notice of a violation, the vio-
lation had not been committed by a woman, but by the man
that sold the stuff to her. ;I never saw the letter. Why, a man
that is Speaker of the Assembly of this State, that ;w,ould have
time to read the letters that come to him it is a physical im-
possibility. The letter was taken by one of my secretaries or
one of my clerks, and sent over to the Department of Agricul-
ture, and I never knew anything of it, and that is the last he
heard of it. The records show that the guilty party was con-
victed and paid the maximum fine. Now, that is the trutji
about it What -sensible person would attempt for a minute
to put the impression in the minds of the people of this State
that food adulterers, purveyors of impure food, were to be pro-
tected by anybody? But of course you have to have the Gov-
ernor assassinated, and it had to be done.

Of all the misrepresentation, of all the newspaper misrepre-
sentation of anything that I ever heard of, was brought to my
attention in this very recent tirade against me, that I vetoed a
bill in the interests of the big packing concerns, Cudahy, Wilson
and Swift. The man that was testifying on the stand testified
that the bill about which he was talking was vetoed in 1918, the
year before I was Governor; and the New York Eventing
Journal cut and slashed at that man's testimony in such a way
that it made that story read that I vetoed that bill. No sudh
bill was ever presented to me, and no such bill passed the
Legislature last year, and for the very good reason that, be-

302 ALFRED E. SMITH

tween the time that it was vetoed by my predecessor in office,
the Attorney-General gave the Health Department an opinion
to the effect that they had the right and the jurisdiction under
the broad police power of the State to go into any storage ware-
house, and they decided that they didn't need it.

Now what I want to ask is: Is a newspaper, is the force
behind a newspaper that will do< that, worthy to survive in a
city that boasts throughout the United States that it is a believer
in the great American spirit of fair play? (Cries of "No,
No.")

There is one thing that I would like to have clear in the
minds of the audience, because it is clear in my miad, and
that is, that I invite fair, just and honest criticism of my ad-
ministration, in its every detail. I will go a step further and
say that I .will be thankful, thankful to, and not resentful
against, any individual or any newspaper in this State that
will show me what is wrong .with my administration,
because it means so much to me that it be right. When I
went to Albany I .went there with the fixed determina-
tion in my mind that never again would anybody be able tc raise
their head up in this State and say that the man from lower
New York that belonged to Tammany Hall could not run the
State. And the strangest thing about it all that I want to call
your attention to before it escapes my mind is the fact that nearly,
I might say, every other newspaper in this State has spoken in
commendation of my administration except the paper that
belonged to the man that .wanted to tell me what I ought to do.

But there is nothing remarkable about it, in the last analysis,
nothing very remarkable about the assault upon me. Follow
back the history of this man's newspapers since he came to
this part of the country, and you will have to 1 read out of his
newspapers this remarkable fact: That in this great democ-
racy, in this land of the free and in this home of the brave,
there has never been a man elected to office yet that has not
been tainted in some way. Is that right or is it .wrong? (Cries :
"Right") That is not a severe statement to make, because that
is the truth. If the Hearst newspapers were the text books for

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 303

the children of our schools, they would have to spell out of its
every line that no man can be trusted in this country after he
is put into public office; that no man thinks enough about it;
no man has enough of regard for it; no man has enough of
real Christian charity to do the thing right; no man that ever
held great public office had enough of respect and regard for
his mother and his wife and his children and his friend to be
right in office. About that there can be no question, because no
piiblic man in this State, from Groyer Cleveland right down to
to-day has ever escaped this fellow. We all know that. The
children on the street know it

When the President of the United States returned from his
speaking trip through the West, broken in health, after a long,
hard siege standing at the White House, trying to keep this
country headed in the right direction, giving the best that there
was in him to America and what America stood for, expressing
to this world in the greatest language that any man ever brought
to his command the high ideals that inspired America when
he returned to the White House and lay upon his back sick in
bed, this part of the country had the satisfaction of reading in
the New York Evening Journal that he betrayed the best inter-
ests of America and turned her over to Europe for the presents
that his wife got while they were abroad. Is there any doubt
about that? What manner of man is it, and what manner of
newspaper institution is it, in this country to-day that would
plant that seed in the mind of anybody? Only to have it
develop afterwards that the presents that were spelled into
bribes for his betrayal of the country were about $250 worth
of small trinkets that were given to him and her by the people
that they met in the course of their travels through Europe.

I do not come here in my capacity alone as a citizen of yotar
country. I come here to-night as the Governor of your State.
I come here to tell you that there is a condition of unrest
throughout this whole country and in this State. I was called
out of bed at an early hour this morning because of striking and
rioting and murder that was being committed in one of the
up-State cities. We passed through a hard period. We passed

304 ALFRED E. SMITH

through the unnatural period of wan Every boy and every
girl knows that Almighty God never put people together in
nations to have them destroy each other. It is an unnatural
consequence and an unnatural condition, and from it must
naturally grow unnatural children. And that spirit of unrest
is throughout this land to-day, but I am one of the men that
have supreme confidence in the good sense, in the hard common
sense and in the good judgment of the American people to be
able to weather any kind of a storm. Labor unrest will cur'e
itself. We will attend to all of our internal problems. No
appeal to American patriotism and American devotion to this
country was ever lost on any American's ears. But I come
here to-night to say that the utterances of these newspapers
make it very difficult for the Governor to do it. That is the
problem. I cannot be expected to have the influence I ought
to. have in this State at this time. No more can the President
of the United States expect to have the influence that he should
have in the country at this time if a newspaper here in the
populous city of New York is permitted to drag them down to
serve the purposes of the owner of the paper.

After my speech at the Women's Democratic League, when
I returned to Albany, and before I left New York I had received
from every part of this country upwards of 5,000 letters com-
mending me for the stand that I had taken. I have been, unable
to answer them. I will have to rely upon the statements being
made in the press that it is impossible to answer all the letters
that I received. Five thousand of them commending me; and
I received one letter commending Hearst (Voice: "That's the
odds") and let me read it to you:

"You want to complain about W. R. Hearst I know that he
is an anarchist, but he has one good thing, he exposes ycm
grafters, all right. You don't need to complain ; you know that
you have sold the public and their babies to the milk trust; you
know you got your share of the $5,000,000 they made in nine
months. What the hell do you care about the public? You're
just the same as that Judas Wilson; he sold the whole jworld to
England and tyranny, and you sold the public to the milk trust

THE HEARST CONTROVERSY 305

But you got your reward for it. The other fellow is dying
already, and you'll get yours."

No name signed to it, but it is bona fide.

A VOICE What would you expect?

GOVERNOR SMITH Well, I would not expect the name to
be there. But there is the thing. Now, I would not have paid
much attention to that letter, were it not for the fact that, as
I read it over the second time, I find that it contains almost
verbatim a number of headlines from the Hearst papers. Now,
that is where that man got his idea, and that is where he got
his inspiration, and that is his idea of this country and his
treatment for the President or any other public official.

Now, the editor said something in his letter of declination
about crooked politicians. He has that letter very carefully
worded, inspected by a well enforced corps of lawyers; but
the veiled inference in it is that I am a crooked politician. I
will give him another chance. Sixteen years I have been in
elected public life in this State. I defy him to mention a
crooked act that I ever performed, in public or in private life.

Nobody that ever jvent to the Governor's office went there
yvith a graver sense of the responsibility of that office than I
did. What could there possibly be about me that I should be
assailed in this reckless manner by this man? I have more
reason probably than any man I will meet to-night to have a
strong love and a strong devotion for this country, for this
State and for this city. Look at what I have received at its
hands: I left school and went to work before I jwas fifteen
years of age. I worked hard, night and day; I worked honestly
and conscientiously at every job that I was ever put at, until I
went to the Governor's chair in Albany. What can it be? It
has got to be jealousy, it has got to be envy, it has got to be
hatred or it has to be something that nobody understands, that
makes me come down here, into the city of New York, before
this audience, and urge them to organize in this city to stay
the danger that comes from these papers, to the end that the
health, the welfare and the comfort of this people, of the people
of this State, may be promoted, and we may get rid of this
pestilence that walks in the darkness.

CHAPTER XLV
THE CLIMAX

The career and the personality of Smith had long since
captured the imagination o his own State. By the year 1920
the significance of that career had sunk likewise into' the con-
sciousness of the people of the entire country. It was neces-
sary only for it to be pictured by a man of warm heart and
gifted tongue.

The New York delegates to the Democratic National Con-
vention of 1920 determined to pay a compliment to their
favorite son. That was why they placed him in nomination
for the presidency. They had many another reason to do so.
The conjuncture was ideal as material for drama and
eloquence. New York had the man, Al Smith. She had the
orator, Bourke Cockran. He loved Al Smith with the
warmth of his Celtic nature. He was intimately associated
with the Democracy of New York during most of Al Smith's
career.

Cockran's baritone voice with its delicious brogue rolled
through the convention hall like an; organ tone.

"He has never losti a friend and never ceased to make new
ones," Cockran said. "All of them, from his playmates on
the sidewalks of the East Side to the statesmen he has moved
among as Governor, call him *A1 Smith. 7

"I venture to say he is the only man who could be called
by such a diminutive without in any way debasing the dignity

(306)

THE CLIMAX 307

of so high an office. Al Smith is no way different from the
rest of us, and' that is why we love him"

The significance of the career in justification of America
as a land of business opportunity was not lost to Cockran.
'Here was a mani whose rise from the humblest origin to one
of the most exalted places in the nation, was "a living refuta-
tion of the Socialist's argument, that the poor man, the under
dog, has no chance in our regime." Such a man gave the lie
to the forces of anarchy noisily articulate at the time.

With the instinct of the orator, Cockran felt the pulse of
the delegates. These men and women, however different- as
to types representative of the cross sections of the entire
country, shared one common conviction. Under American
institutions men are given a chance to show and to develop
what is in them, and no rewards are closed if they are earned
by their merit.

The argument for Smith was sinking deep into the hearts
of the delegates. Just as Cockran was finishing his perora-
tion, and pointing his finger to the chromo of Woodrow
Wilson on the wall behind the speakers' platform, the band
struck up The Sidewalks of New York.

East Side, West Side,

All about the town,

Boys and girls together. . .

This homely melody expressive of the short and simple
annals of the poor, was enough to strike the match. Before
three lines of it were played by the band, the demonstration
began. In five minutes the standards of Illinois and Penn-
sylvania were moving down the aisles in front of their yelling
delegates. The New York delegation still refrained from
giving vent to its feelings but when delegates from the other
states rushed over to take up the New York standards, the
New York delegation joined. Standard after standard was

308 ALFRED E. SMITH

lifted with their delegates marching through the aisles, sing-
ing old songs, the songs which the simpler folk of the city had
sung thirty years ago. Sweet Rosie O'Grady, < After the Ball
is Over, the Bowery, lilty simple rhythms to which the chil-
dren danced with the music of the hurdy-gurdy on the side-
walks of New York.

The demonstration lasted over twenty-five minutes. The
seconding speech was made by Franklin Roosevelt, Smith's
antithesis, a man of family, wealth and social position, a rep-
resentative of 1 the leisure class with a public conscience. It
was a fitting contrast for a man who succeeded in public life
in spite of his riches to express with directness 'and simple
force his admiration and respect for the man who rose to the
top in spite of his poverty.

As Harold Phelps Stokes, the well-known correspondent,
vividly said in reporting the scene to the Evening Post :

"In the main, it was a rare tribute to Al Smith himself and
to the kind of an American career that he stands for carrying
with it a doubly rare and gratifying 1 sense of atonement be-
tween classes supposed to be cleaving so wide apart in these
latter days."

Bourke Cockran cherished one main ambition. He
hoped to nominate Smith as a real contender in 1924, but in
his book of life he could not finish the page. He died in
harness at the age of sixty-eight, in the Sixty-seventh Con-
gress in January, 1923.

CHAPTER XLVI
ADDRESS TO THE STATE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION OF 1924

After the 1924 session of the Legislature adjourned on
April 10th, hundreds of bills were lying on the Governor's
table. These he must consider and act upon during the thirty
days provided by the constitution. The State Convention
of his party was held in the City of Albany on April 15,
1924, to select delegates at large and .their alternates to the
National Democratic Convention to be held in New York
City beginning June 24.

The keynote address was delivered by the veteran Demo-
crat from Albany, D-Cady Herrick. Interested as they were
in his severe arraignment of the Republican national admin-
istration, and his enunciation of Democratic policy, this por-
tion of his speech engrossed their chief attention.

The names of various able, honest, courageous men will be
presented to that convention for nomination to the high office
of president Let the delegates there present know tbat we,
too, of this State have a man, not a self-seeker, who may be
drafted for that higher honor, A man of the people, pho, by
his own efforts, and long continued, honest, splendid service,
has won the confidence and esteem of the people of his own
State, who have bestowed upon him its highest hpnors and
dignities; twelve years in .the legislative branch of the State,
member of a constitutional convention, and twice Governor of
the State of New York. Not a lawyer by profession, but who,
by his long experience and native vigor of intellect, has acquired
a profound knowledge of the construction and interpretation of

(309)

310 ALFRED E. SMITH

statutes and constitutions. A man ,who is a student and master
of public affairs, who* has the courage of his convictions. A
man as clean as a hound's tooth. During a long public, aggres-
sive, fighting career, well calculated to make enemies and pro-
voke hostile criticism, the breath of suspicion upon either his
personal or public integrity has never blown. A man who, if
nominated, can be elected and render to the people of his coun-
try the same honest, intelligent, laborious, painstaking, courage-
ous service that he has rendered to the people of his own State.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, ;who does this
description fit? Name him.

The enthusiasm of the delegates was real. There was no
repetition of the previous one-hour demonstrations to which
Democratic conventions were accustomed when Al Smith was
nominated. There was no incidental music of the Sidewalks
of New York. But there was genuine feeling and a deep
echo of approval in the hearts of the delegates. Smith was
the tie that bound the Democracy as no figure in the New
York State since Samuel Tilden. There was no division
between up-state and down-state Democrats on the Gov-
ernor, no cleavage between independents and organization
Democrats. The delegates were unanimous in offering
Smith not merely as New York's favorite son to the Con-
vention of 1924 but as, the candidate for the country who if
nominated could win.

The Governor decided early in 1918 that as long as he was
in Albany, no other interest but that of the State of New
York would distract his attention. In the past he humor-
ously referred to some Governors he had known who after
spending a year in Albany had a spy glass- on the Dome at
Washington.

Even two months before the national convention, Smith
kept his resolve. He would countenance no organized move-
ment to further his presidential aspirations. When he ap-
peared before his Democratic comrades, his address dealt

ADDRESS TO THE CONVENTION 311

chiefly with the problems of the State. Towards the close
Smith struck a note so human in its appeal that the corre-
spondents who described the scene, declared that many of
the men and women in the convention were seen wiping away
tears, welling up from moved hearts. His words were these :

I want to take this opportunity at the first Democratic gather-
ing- I have had a chance to speak at in a long while to thank
very sincerely and from the bottom of my heart the Democratic
members of both houses of the Legislature, the Democratic State
officers elected in 1922 and the heads of the great department of
the State government. They have so conducted their offices that
when your delegates elected here today or selected in the Con-
gressional districts at the primary, go into the national conven-
tion, they will be able to look every other Democrat in the United
States squarely in the eye.

There is a record there that you will have abundant reason
to be proud of, spelling it out, from beginning to end, it con-
stitutes a record of unselfish devotion to the best interests of this
State and of our people. You will have imposed upon you the
duty of representing this State in the make-up of the National
platform. Whatever else you do, insist on plain talk. The people
of this country are worn out with this Court of Appeals lan-
guage. So, what you want to say, say in understandable terms,
say it so that the man on the street, the plain, ordinary man,
can know what you promise to do; because if you intend to
carry out the promise you don't have to be the least bit afraid
of how explicit you make it. Make it definite. Make it concrete.
And make it to the point ; and get away from qualifications. That
is a Democratic platform, the only kind that ought to come out
from a Democratic convention.

I want to step out of my character as Governor and have a
personal word with you. I heard the resolution that you passed.
In fact, I read it, before it came up here.

It would be a difficult task for any man to stand before an
audience of this kind and be able to adequately express the
appreciation he would have to feel for the great compliment,

312 ALFRED E. SMITH

the great honor and the great distinction that comes to him to
be spoken of as the choice of his party in the greatest State in
the Union for the highest office in all the world.

If I were to tell you that I haven't heard anything on this
particular subject for the last year, you wouldn't believe it r
because it wouldn't be true. I have heard a great deal about it;
but in the frankness that ought to exist among friends and com-
rades, together, let me say this to you: I have done absolutely
nothing about it, either inside or outside of the State, and I do
not intend to do anything about it. The man wfio would not
have an ambition for that office would have a dead heart. But
I stand exactly in the position that I stood in on the floor of
the Constitutional Convention in 1915, when I said that the
mat? who used one office and neglected it in order to climb to
a higher one was not deserving of the one he had.

I am going to do nothing about it, because there is nothing
I can do. In the first place, I haven't got the means to do it.
In the second place, I haven't got the time to do it. For the
next thirty days I will be -just as busy as any man could possibly
be in the consideration of the nine hundred odd bills left for
my attention by the Legislature. Then, within a reasonably
short time, after five solid months, without a vacation, I will
have to turn my attention to the administrative details of some
of the departments of government.

This work I propose to do, right up to the time the convention
starts. If I fell down on this job, I would never forgive myself
and I would not ask forgiveness from any one else. If the
required number of delegates in the National Convention takes
your view of it, I will be honored beyond the power of expression
TO lead the forces of my party in the next campaign.

In conclusion, I want to leave just one thought with you.
If my nomination is brought about, and it results in a triumph
for the party, you can say to every delegate that you xnteet
at the convention in New York City, that I promised you in
the Capital City of this State before God Almighty Himself that
neither they nor you will ever have any cause to regret any
confidence they or you see fit to repose in me.

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