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done for the next term. Is this okay?” He was for everything. He was for all of it, including a little more rigorous child labor regulation than we had had. It was a continuation really.
The 1918-'20 period, immediately after the war, and the next two terms of Smith's, was the period in which social responsibility of government, at least in New York State, had begun to be a strong element of thinking. I won't deny the fact that some of us entered into some propaganda to make it so. We presented it to the people, and the people said, “Fine.”
I think there was a direct line from the progressivism of Theodore Roosevelt, through Mayor Mitchel, to Governor Smith, to Governor Roosevelt, to President Roosevelt to the national scene. That is an historic episode. It's all one episode. It grew as times grew. It's always been clear in my mind. Good as Woodrow Wilson was I never have put him in that line. Perhaps I should have. After all he appointed Newton Baker Secretary of War and Newton Baker was President of the Consumers' League. Newton Baker said to us, “Set up a factory inspection service to inspect the conditions in the places where government war contracts are given for munitions.” That was a considerable advance and was done with Woodrow Wilson's knowledge and assent. After all, Woodrow Wilson was concerned with the theory and practise
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