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will introduce into the federal level if he becomes President.”
Before this the Democratic party had meant some thing else. It had meant free trade. Primarily, that's all that I can remember that it had meant. I know very little about pre-Smith politics. It was during the Smith regime, not as Governor but before that in Albany, that I decided I was a Democrat. It was after this social ferment had begun to operate. I decided I would vote the Democratic ticket when women got the vote, because when the Democrats were in power in Albany I seemed to notice that all these social measures got attention, and that they didn't get them when the Republicans were there. At that time there was no cleavage in social policy between Democrats and Republicans. Certainly outside the State of New York I don't think there was any manifestation of the Democratic party being devoted to social progress or to social ideals. Although, as one looks back, one sees that in Wilson's period there were certain very definite steps taken towards a social and humanitarian pattern which would be a part of the responsibility of government.
I do think that we made a great educational advance so far as Democrats were concerned, and so far as independent voters were concerned, in the groundwork that we laid in proposing Smith for President and in campaigning for him
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