He moved with his parents to Grand Rapids in 1872, where he attended school, sold popcorn, and was a newsboy and messenger boy.

He was general counsel of the Chicago and West Michigan Railway and the Detroit, Lansing and Northern Railroad.

Smith was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on January 15, 1907, for the term beginning March 4, 1907.

He was subsequently elected on February 6, 1907, to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1907, caused by the death of Russell A. Alger.

After the luxury liner RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, with more than 1,500 lives lost, Smith chaired Senate hearings that began at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City the day after the survivors landed.

Smith's subcommittee issued a report on May 28 that led to significant reforms in international maritime safety.

[2] In "The Titanic Chronicles", a 1999 television documentary about the senate hearings, he was voiced by David Garrison.

[1] He was owner and publisher of the Grand Rapids Herald in 1906 and chairman of the board of directors of the Goodrich Company, which owned the Graham and Morton Steamship Line, the largest operator of steamboats from Chicago to various Lake Michigan ports.

This couple had a son, William Alden, III, who died on December 16, 1968, in San Diego, California at the age of 52.