The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-24

Speaking yesterday before. mem- bers of the Waterbury League oi Women Voters at their noon lunch con meeting J. F, Francis Smith chairman of the state central demo- cratic committee, explained the or ganization of political organiza- ton or party machines, outlining the various types of committees.
 The members present manifested keen interest in the description of the SetupS. MT. Smith took occa- sion to urge active participation in the work of their respective politi- cal parties. MT. Smiths address was as follows:
 In the political organizations or party machines, as they are some times called, the authority springs entirely from the local units. AS practical matter, this authority must be exercised by the official heads of the party organizations, < but it is very important to renem- Der that the activities of the par ty heads can be carried on only so long as these activities are gen. orally satisfactory to the groups who comprise the town, ward, and voting district organizations. For that reason, I think that a des- cription of political organizations should start at the bottom. In every town we have our Town committees and in the larger towns or cities this is broken down into Ward and District committes. The Town Committee is, of course, the official governing body of the party organization in each town.
 Town Committee
 As a practical matter, it is neither convenient nor advisable to hold meetings of the town committee to act upon all ques- tions of party interest that arise during most of the year; there fore the officers of the town com- mittee, principally the Town Chairman, exercise most of the authority and carry out most of the work of maintaining an active party organization.
 Above the town committee in this state stands the State Gen. tral Committee. Other states are organized on d somewhat differ ent basis, having county organ nations as well, on which a great deal more emphasis is placed than is placed upon sun unofficial county organizations as exist in this state. This is largely because o fthe fact that County is a more important political unit in other states than it is in Connecticut.
 Central Committee
 The State Central Committee is chosen on teh basis of senatorial districts, one man and one woman being chosen from each district. This body is the official governing body of the state party organiza- ton and acts in a body on such matters as are legally required of Earty organizations. For instance, iS calls the conventions and passes upon the eligibility of dele- gates to sit in those conventions. The officers of the state central committee carry on the work of the party in the interim between meetings of the state central com- mittee.
 Above the state central com- mittee stands the national com- mittee, which is> composed of a national committeeman and a national committeewoman chosen from each state. The national committee in turn chooses its officers, of which, of course, the most important is the national chairman. Again it is recognized that the national chairman oper- ates as the head of the party dur ing his period of office. The meetings of the national commit tee are necessarily infrequent. Therefore it should be apparent that the officers in the party or- ganization operate as sort of skeleton organization during the