SINN FEIN: see IRELAND: Political History.
SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835-1912), English author (see 25.168). died at Cambridge Oct. 6 1912.
SLATIN, SIR RUDOLF CARL VON (1857- ), Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan (see 25.212). For his capable and gallant services in the Sudan Slatin Pasha had been created K.C.M.G. and had received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament in 1899. In 1906 he was created a baron of the Austrian Empire and was made an Austrian privy councillor in 1904. The same year he married Baroness Alice von Ramberg of Vienna (d. 1921). In 1912 he received the G.C.V.O. from H.M. King George. On the outbreak of the World War, Slatin, who was on leave in Vienna, was prevented, by the Austrian mobilization, from returning to his appointment in the Sudan, and in this difficult position he voluntarily took up work as head of the Austrian Red Cross, and in charge of prisoners-of-war, and would accept no remuneration for his services. In this capacity he did much to amel- iorate the conditions of imprisonment, and was largely respon- sible for the humane treatment of the Allied soldiers in Austrian hands. The German Government (through Bethmann Hollweg) offered him a high post which he refused. Subsequent to the signing of the Armistice, he was selected as a member of the Austrian delegation to discuss the terms of peace in Paris.
SMILLIE, ROBERT (1859- ), British labour politician, was born in Belfast in 1859 of Scottish parents. He was sent to a primary school but left at the age of 14 years to work in a ship- yard at Govan. Two years later he went into the mining indus- try of Lanarkshire and worked underground for 16 years. From 1878 onwards he was an active trade unionist, although in the earlier years of this period he was earning only i8s. 6d. a week. In 1890 he was elected paid organizer for the Larkhall district and owing to his activity the Lanarkshire Miners' Union soon reached a membership of 30,000. He took a prominent part in the formation of the Scottish Coal Trade Conciliation Board and its satisfactory results were largely attributable to his efforts. His abilities as a leader caused him to rise steadily from the chairmanship of the Scottish Trade Union Congress to the first presidency of the parliamentary committee of the Scottish Trade Union Congress and in 1894 he became permanent president of the Scottish Miners' Federation. In 1912 he was elected to the presidency of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain and the building up of this body has been the great work of his life. Politically his success has not been so great as on the industrial field and although he stood as a candidate for Parliament seven times he was never elected. His greatest poll was 3,847 in a three-cornered fight at Mid-Lanark in 1910. In 1885 he was elected a member of the district school board for Larkhall, a posi- tion which he filled for 20 years. His work on the Coal Indus- try Commission from March till June 1919 brought him into greater prominence, but he became very ill in Nov. 1919. In March 1920, asliis health was no better, he tendered his resigna- tion from the presidency of the Miners' Federation, but the Federation refused to accept it and gave him leave of absence instead. In March 1921 ill-health compelled him to resign from the Federation and retire from public life.
SMITH, ALFRED EMANUEL (1873- ), American politician, was born in New York City, Dec. 30 1873. The son of humble parents, his father being a truck driver, he was educated in the St. James parochial school and for several years was employed in the Fulton Fish Market. He was very popular with his associates and at the age of 29 was offered the Democratic nomination for the N.Y. State Assembly by the Tammany leader of the district in which he lived. He was elected for 1903 and by reelection served for 12 years. In 1911 he became Democratic leader in the Assembly and was appointed vice-chairman of the Factory Investigating Committee which made a searching inquiry into industrial conditions in the state, resulting in remedial legislation. In 1913 he was speaker of the Assembly. In 1915 he was chosen a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, taking an active part in its proceedings. He opposed the constitution as finally revised, one reason being that it contained a provision designed to prevent New York City from having a majority of legislators. He " stumped " the state against its adoption and it was over-whelmingly rejected. The same year he was elected sheriff of New York county, then a lucrative post because of the system of fees (later abolished), and in 1917 president of the Board of Aldermen of New York City. In 1918 he was elected gover- nor of New York, defeating Charles S. Whitman. As a member of the Assembly he had been a strong supporter of woman suffrage, and in June 1919, as governor, called a special session which ratified the woman suffrage amendment to the Federal Constitution. In 1920 he was again the Democratic nominee for governor, but was beaten in the overwhelming Republican landslide of that year; he lost, however, by only 73,000 votes, whereas the Democratic candidate for president was at the same time defeated by a million votes in New York state a remark- able testimony to his own personal popularity.
SMITH, ALFRED HOLLAND (1863- ), American railway official, was born in Cleveland, O., April 26 1863. He began work on the New York Central railway system as a messenger-boy in 1879. After serving as a foreman of construction and in various capacities in the engineering department, he was in 1890 ap- pointed superintendent of the Kalamazoo division of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway. He was successively divi- sion superintendent, assistant general superintendent and general superintendent of the Lake Shore road. In 1902 he became general superintendent of the New York Central railroad; in 1906 vice-president of the New York Central system; and in 1914 president. When the American railways were taken over by the U.S. Government Dec. 27 r9i7, he was appointed assistant direc- tor-general and it was he who worked out the form of central and regional administration under which the railways of the country were managed during the 26 months of Government operation. His aim, in which he succeeded, was to keep the management of the roads with their 2,000,000 employees, nearly all voters, in the hands of practical railway-men and, above all, out of poli- tics. He divided the country into two regions and later into seven, each region being in charge of a railway officer of experience and reputation, he himself taking charge of the most impor- tant region, the Eastern. These regional directors had complete authority and only broad matters of policy and inter-region- al questions were handled by the central (political) adminis- tration at Washington. In this way the railways were conducted throughout the war without great blunders or disorganization. On the completion of this important national service he was rcelected president of the New York Central Lines in June 1919. It was largely due to him that the New York Central Lines were greatly strengthened in operating efficiency and financial credit.
SMITH, FRANCIS HOPKINSON (1838-1915), American author, artist and engineer (see 25.260), died in New York City April 7 1915. His later writings included Kennedy Square (1911); The Arm-Chair at the Inn (1912); Charcoals of New and Old New York (1912); In Thackeray's London (1913) and In Dickens' London (1914).
SMITH, SIR GEORGE ADAM (1856- ), British divine (see 25.261), was knighted in 1916, and from 1916 to 1917 was moderator of the general assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland. His later works include The Early Poetry of Israel (1912); Atlas of the Historical Geography of the Holy Land (with J. G. Bartholomew, 1914) and Syria and the Holy Land (1918).
SMITH, THEOBALD (1850- ), American pathologist, was born at Albany, N.Y., July 31 1859. He was educated at Cornell (Ph.B. 1881) and at the Albany Medical College (M.D. 1883). In 1884 he was appointed director of the pathological laboratory of the Bureau of Animal Industry, in Washington, where for 11 years he investigated infectious animal diseases. At the same time he was professor of bacteriology at Columbian, later known as George Washington, University. From 1895 to 1915 he was director of the pathological laboratory of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, and after 1896 was professor of comparative pathology at Harvard. In 1915 he was appointed director of the department of animal pathology of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York. He
