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very, very quickly educable. In the field of public health, for instance, Dr. Biggs could educate him about epidemiology in no time at all. Smith knew more about the care of the mentally ill than most people in the United States did. Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim, the head of the state hospital system under Smith, said just that. He said, “Governor Smith never saw the inside of a medical class room. He never saw a clinic. He never saw a state hospital until he became Governor and had to visit them as a matter of course. Yet he knows more about the care of the mentally ill than almost anybody in the United States except myself and half a dozen other heads of big mental hospitals.”

It was true. He had that inquisitive mind. I've already discussed how inquisitive he was with regard to factory conditions in the Factory Investigating Commission. Roosevelt got information from people, but he really got it more from books than Smith ever got. Smith got nothing from books. Smith read reports. He read annual reports all the way through. He read reports of committees. He read bills. He read the Constitution. Elihu Root was so astonished in the Constitutional Convention that this young Tammany Hall representative, Smith, could stand up in the Constitutional Convention and quote the exact wording