Early in 1897 the press speculated on the possibility of the Venezuelan boundary dispute growing into a war, but Smith dismissed the idea and refused to give the possibility credence by writing about it. During his winter visit to the United States he wrote to Walter Dymond Gregory, his associate in the continental union movement, of his efforts to secure some American backing for the Weekly Sun. Smith became the chief stockholder, and the reel contains letters from other men associated with the paper, including its original sponsor, the Patrons of Industry. Some letters discuss the Canadian copyright law, and Mrs. Anna Parker Pruyn wrote at some length about the effects of woman suffrage in the states that had adopted it. Smith and the Continental Union Association were under frequent attack by the Canadian press, and the protest of a few dissenters was so bitter that he declined the honorary degree that the Senate of the University of Toronto had unanimously voted to award him in June. This incident and a clash with the prohibitionists were mentioned in the summer's correspondence. The Bryan-McKinley contest, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Cuban situation were among American subjects discussed. In October Smith represented Oxford at Princeton's sesquicentennial celebration and was awarded a Ph.D. Charles F. Benjamin sent reports from Washington for the Weekly Sun, and Representative Robert Roberts Hitt wrote Smith about the Dingley Tariff Bill and its implications affecting Canadian commerce. Among correspondents inviting Smith to write articles were Lord Acton and Charles Dudley Warner. Publication of Smith's Guesses at the Riddle of Existence inspired a number of letters from readers in early 1897.