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Before Smith was appointed Labor Commissioner of the State of Massachusetts, and it was regarded as a very fine appointment, he had held an even more conservative job. The editorials in the Boston Transcript and the Boston Herald and the Springfield Republican of the time congradulated Governor Ely on so wise and sensible a choice. I got to know him quite well while he was Labor Commissioner of Massachusetts, because we used to confer about mutual problems as the Labor Commissioners of those adjoining States did. We certainly conferred about unemployment when it began to be a problem to all of us.

Before he was Labor Commissioner (and I had known him when he was this) he was the executive secretary of the New England Council. The New England Council is a kind of super chamber of commerce with good will and social purposes, and a pretty good economic understanding of the problems of New England, the idea back of its formation being that New England had once been the great industrial and commercial leader of the United States, that by a variety of circumstances the leadership had passed out of their hands, but that by taking thought something could be done to bring back at least a part of New England's