Or, for that matter, can you say that Ozzie was even a better defensive shortstop than, say, Marty Marion or Rabbit Maranville or Dickey Pearce, who is generally credited with having invented the position?
I think that's difficult (and you might be the oldest living Freeper if you saw both Smith and Speaker play, in which case you have my congratulations :) That's why HOF players should be compared with those players in their generation.
As for Maranvilleand Marion vs. Smith, I think that the fielding statistics bears Smith out, most glaringly in fielding percentage, assists and double plays. Same thing goes for Reese, Rizzuto, Wagner, Aparicio, Boudreau, or Appling, just to name a few. Even Mark Belanger can't measure up. Yes, gloves and playing fields are much better today, but the assist and double play numbers demonstrate convincingly Smith's ability to get people out, while his .978 fielding average shows that when he got his hands on the ball, he made the play. And the fact that he got his hands on the ball more than anyone, shows his superior range.
In spite of this, and when also comparing Smith to Speaker, I acknowledge that it is difficult to compare when going beyond the mere numbers, but can you really imagine any of these named shortstops being as athletic and making the plays Smith did? I don't recall ever reading about any of the others doing so. DiMaggio and Mays, whom many people did get to see, where always compared very favorably to Speaker. Thus, since I think we can agree that Smith was a better fielder than DiMaggio or Mays, we can say he is than Speaker as well (although I always like to hear the anecdote that Speaker was so fast that he would always play a shallow centerfield, daring the batters to try to hit it over his head).
Hey, we should be able to agree that this more fun than arguing politics, ain't it? Go Twins!