Date: August 12, 1930
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
It is too much the fashion to abuse party committees and party chairmen. Our government is administered by means of the party system. No other method has been devised that gives the people so large a control over their own affairs. Even those who disregard party when in office usually welcome party support when seeking election.
Party organization is necessary to the orderly processes of self government. It is truly representative. The only alternative is a personal and private organization that leads to boss rule.
Any efficient organization requires an executive head. We need a party chairman for the same reason that we need a President or Governor. Generally they have been men of substance, ability and character. When they have been deficient or delinquent they have been retired. They do much hard and disagreeable work, with a large amount of personal sacrifice and with no reward but a sense of duty done. Of course they must be partisan.
Instead of representing these necessary and self-sacrificing public officers as the sum of all villainies, the members and the press of both political parties ought to treat them with respect and consideration. We cannot promote good government by constantly assaulting the chief instruments of our political system.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of John Sullivan III who prepared this document for digital publication.