In 1937, Smith emerged as vice president during formation of the National Maritime Union, which itself reflected a rise in union activism among seaman in the wake of the 1933 Scottsboro Boys Case and the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike (led by Harry Bridges's  International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union or ILWU and the West Coast Marine Cooks and Stewards or MCS), following the demise of the International Seamen's Union (ISU) and the decline of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies") in the 1920s. Ironically, Smith's name came to the fore because he was tried internally by an NMU committee for failing to support the 1934 strike but later cleared the union.