ABSTRACT
Smith’s longevity made him a New York celebrity. He continued his Board of Charities work and his push to plant trees on city streets. He argued that those with mental health and disability issues needed treatment more than custodial care, but the prevailing mood was for prevention via sterilization and, if that failed, segregation from society. John Harvey Kellogg asked him to be the president of his first national Race Betterment Conference in 1914. Smith opposed the spread of eugenics and spoke for treatment of mental issues, but the delegates saw him more as an exemplar of healthy aging than the voice of experience. He succeeded with his city tree planting effort in 1915, concluding fifty years of legislative activism.
