Addie Viola Smith | |
|---|---|
 Smith in 1948 | |
| Consul and secretary to theConsulate General of the United States, Shanghai | |
| In office 1939–c. 1942 | |
| Trade commissioner inShanghai,Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,United States Department of Commerce | |
| In office January 1, 1928 – 1939 | |
| Assistant trade commissioner in Shanghai | |
| In office November 1, 1922 – December 31, 1927 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1893-11-14)November 14, 1893 Stockton, California, U.S. |
| Died | December 13, 1975(1975-12-13) (aged 82) Mosman, New South Wales, Australia |
| Domestic partner | Eleanor Hinder |
| Education | Washington College of Law (LL.B., 1920) |
| Occupation | Attorney |
| Profession | Foreign Service officer |
| Known for | First femaleForeign Service officer in theUnited States Foreign Service to work under theUnited States Department of Commerce, first female assistant trade commissioner, trade commissioner in Shanghai |
Addie Viola Smith (November 14, 1893 – December 13, 1975), also known asShi Fanglan (Chinese:施芳蘭;pinyin:Shī Fānglán),[1] was an American attorney who served as the United Statestrade commissioner toShanghai from 1928 to 1939. She was the first femaleForeign Service officer in theUnited States Foreign Service to work under theUnited States Department of Commerce, the first woman to serve as an assistant trade commissioner, and the first woman to serve as trade commissioner.
Smith was born and raised inStockton, California. In 1917, she moved to Washington, D.C. While working for theUnited States Department of Labor, she attended theWashington College of Law part-time, earning herbachelor of laws in 1920. In October that year she joined the Foreign Service and was assigned to Beijing as a clerk in the trade commissioner's office. Smith was promoted to assistant trade commissioner in Shanghai in 1922, and appointed trade commissioner of Shanghai in 1928, a post she held until 1939. For the remainder of her career, she held several roles in the United States government, international organizations, and theUnited Nations.
Throughout her life, Smith was also a member of several feminist organizations; scholars have described her international feminist activism as being rooted inimperialist andcolonialist attitudes. Smith met her life partner,Eleanor Hinder, in Shanghai in 1926. They lived together until Hinder's death in 1963. Smith died on December 13, 1975, aged 82, inMosman, New South Wales, and was cremated. She and Hinder were memorialized by their friends with two stone seats at theE.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens inCaringbah.
Addie Viola Smith was born inStockton, California, on November 14, 1893, to Rufus Roy Smith, a publisher, and Addie Gabriela Smith (née Brown). From 1910 to 1917, Smith worked for two wholesale companies. She also learned stenography and earned a degree in business administration fromHeald's Business College in San Francisco.[2] In 1917, she passed county, state, and federalcivil service exams.[3] She moved to Washington, D.C., in April 1917, and was hired into theUnited States Department of Labor byJulia Lathrop, the director of theUnited States Children's Bureau, to work underGrace Abbott in implementing recently passedchild labor legislation.[4] Smith also served as a confidential clerk to an assistant secretary of labor, assistant chief of the Women's Division of theUnited States Employment Service, and chief of the Information Division of theUnited States Training and Dilution Service. In 1919, she worked on the firstNational Industrial Conference and edited the proceedings of the firstInternational Labor Office Conference.[5]
During her service with the Labor Department, Smith attended theWashington College of Law as a part-time student and obtained abachelor of laws degree in 1920.[6] She was also mentored by a network of women in government and politics, whom she drew upon throughout her career.[7]
Smith was appointed to theUnited States Foreign Service as aForeign Service officer in October 1920 and assigned to theBureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce under theUnited States Department of Commerce. She was the first woman to serve as a Foreign Service officer under the Bureau.[8] Smith initially worked as a clerk in the trade commissioner's office in Beijing.[9] As a clerk, Smith was responsible for surveying industry, compiling data, and identifying investment opportunities.[10]
Early in 1922, Smith requested permission to sit for a civil service examination so that she could obtain a promotion to assistant trade commissioner.[11] Despite support from her immediate supervisor and American businesses operating in China, the assistant director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, O. P. Hopkins, denied her application. Hopkins wrote to Smith: "The Bureau has not yet made any definite decision as to what its policy will be toward employing women as assistant trade commissioners and trade commissioners."[12] Smith wrote back, stating that "the opening of higher positions to women is not nearly so 'grave and serious' a matter, as is the caliber of the representatives, be they men or women, which the Bureau sends to its foreign posts", and that she had a right to sit for the exam.[11] The former chief of the Woman's Division of the United States Employment Service,Hilda Muhlhauser Richards, also intervened on Smith's behalf—threatening to "take the issue to New York women's organizations"—prompting Hopkins to reverse his decision.[12] Smith became the first woman appointed to the post of assistanttrade commissioner on November 1, 1922.[13]
While serving as assistant trade commissioner, Smith again sought promotion to full trade commissioner. After an initial rejection, she sought help from Clara Burdette, president of theCalifornia Federation of Women's Clubs, who appealed toHerbert Hoover, the then-Secretary of Commerce and a personal friend. As it happened, Smith's appointment had already been confirmed by Julean Arnold, her immediate superior, and she took up the role on January 1, 1928.[14] Smith was the first female trade commissioner in the Foreign Service.[15] She also served as the registrar of the Chinese Trade Act of 1922. In that role, Smith was responsible for ensuring corporate compliance with registration requirements, sometimes litigating against firms herself in theUnited States Court for China—becoming the third woman to be admitted to practice before the court in 1934.[16]
As trade commissioner, Smith was responsible for reporting on Chinese industry, infrastructure, and trade opportunities to the Department of Commerce; advising American business interests; serving as a liaison between American and Chinese businesses; implementing U.S. trade policy; and promoting the expansion of American trade in China.[17] During her tenure, she was respected by her colleagues and by Americans doing business in China. Barbara Miller, in 1936, wrote for theLos Angeles Times Sunday Magazine: "Business men visiting China generally agree, 'If you want accurate information on foreign trade—and want it today—go to Viola Smith.'"[18]
Smith was an avid motorist, driving thousands of miles in China throughout her career.[19] She was considered an expert on roads in China, and she was regularly consulted by the Chinese government and American companies on road proposals and related business opportunities.[20] As trade commissioner, she prioritized building roads as a means of increasing the import of American automobiles to China.[17]
In 1935, Smith began lobbying to bringshortwave radio broadcasting to China, believing that there was demand among American expatriates in Asia and estimating the Shanghai market at approximately 12,000 listeners.[21] She believed that this market would purchase American-madereceivers; that both American expatriates and Chinese listeners would purchase American goods advertised on radio programs; and that American radio would improveChina–United States relations.[22] In 1937, she persuadedGeneral Electric to openW6XBE, which rebroadcastNBC's domestic radio programs to China from theSan Francisco Bay Area.[23] The station launched on February 19, 1939.[24] Based on feedback from other Americans in China, Smith worked to improve its programming, suggesting that the station "give succinct resumes of important American happenings and events, to be given by prominent persons identified withAmerican governmental, commercial, financial, and cultural life", such as "broadcasts ofCarnegie Hall concerts, symphony orchestras, military bands, and similar items".[25]
Smith resigned as trade commissioner in 1939, when she was appointed consul and secretary to theUnited States Consulate in Shanghai.[26] In that role, she worked to evacuate Americans during the1941 Japanese invasion of theShanghai International Settlement.[27] From 1942 to 1946, Smith lived and worked in Washington, D.C. She served as an economic specialist for theUnited States Department of State from 1942 to 1943, and worked with the China America Council of Commerce and Industry on post-war trade from 1944 to 1946. She returned to China in 1946 to open the council's Shanghai headquarters[28]—a move that theAssociated Press described as "[a]n indication that China is beginning to right itself after eight years' war with Japan"[29]—and then worked for private companies and the United States China Relief Mission.[26]
In 1949, Smith left China and moved to Bangkok, where she worked for theUnited States Economic Cooperation Administration and theUnited Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. From 1952 to 1964, she was the representative of theInternational Federation of Women Lawyers to theUnited Nations in New York; in her later years, she conducted much of her work from Sydney.[30]
During her time in Shanghai, Smith joined and helped to organize international feminist groups. She was a member of several organizations, including theAmerican Women's Club of Shanghai and theJoint Committee of Shanghai Women's Organizations.[31] She was nominated to run for theShanghai Municipal Council in 1930 by women's groups, but withdrew after receiving a cable from the Department of Commerce that stated it would be "undesirable" for Smith to serve on the council.[32] Smith and other Western expatriates viewed their role as engaging in dialogue with Chinese women and "sincerely endeavor[ing] to reflect the best of American ideals and traditions".[33]
According to the historians Alexandra Epstein and Sarah Paddle, Smith and her contemporaries also adoptedcolonialist orimperialist mindsets, seeking to instill American values in China through intellectual exchange and philanthropy.[34] Their views and actions sometimes caused tension with Chinese women activists. For example, in August 1928, Smith attended the inauguralPan-Pacific Women's Conference, a meeting of internationalist feminists inHonolulu,Territory of Hawaii, along with two Chinese women, her partner Eleanor Hinder, and another Western expatriate woman in China.[35] At the conference, Smith—without consulting the Chinese members of her delegation—suggested that China host the next conference in 1930,[36] causing what Epstein has called an "international incident".[37]Me-Iung Ting, a Chinese physician and feminist activist, responded: "If the next conference is going to be held in China the invitation should be from the Chinese women".[38]
Smith met her life partner,Eleanor Hinder, in March 1926. Hinder, an Australian woman, was then working on a fellowship grant with theYoung Women's Christian Association.[39] Soon thereafter, Hinder and Smith fell in love, and Hinder moved into Smith's apartment.[40] They lived together in Shanghai until 1941—with some periods spent apart as a result of work and war[41]—where they were "devoted to each other, shar[ing] a house[ ] and creat[ing] a garden". During the 1950s, Smith and Hinder spent much of their time living in New York, traveling often for Smith's work with the United Nations.[42] After Hinder was deniedUnited States citizenship, Smith and Hinder established a residence in Sydney, Australia, in 1957.[26] Smith was a member of theRoyal Australian Historical Society, theLeague of Women Voters, Sydney, and theAustralian Local Government Women's Association, serving as its vice president from 1968 to 1970.[43] Hinder died in 1963; Smith remained close with her family and chronicled their genealogy.[42] As executrix of Hinder's estate, she compiled and annotated Hinder's papers for contribution to theMitchell Library.[44] In 1975, she publishedWomen in Australian Parliament and Local Government, which at the time was believed to be the only comprehensive record of women who had served in the Australian government.[45]
Smith died on December 13, 1975, aged 82, inMosman, New South Wales, and was cremated. Smith and Hinder were memorialized in 1977 by their friends and women's groups with the placement of two stone seats at theE.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens inCaringbah. One of the seats was put near an entrance to the gardens. The other was placed next to acamellia, planted by Smith, named "China Doll".[46]
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