DEPARTMENT AND COMMITTEE FILES,, 1920-1951.

Summary:Documentation of the work of the departments and committees of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey. The distinction between departments and committees is not clear. Some bodies are referred to as departments or committees interchangeably. Some change their designation over the course of time. Most of the departments and committees documented here are concerned with particular public policy areas, although a few are based on function, such as the Finance Committee and Editorial Committee.

Types of documents include correspondence, minutes of committee meetings, agendas, questionnaires, typescript speeches, information sheets, resolutions, ballots, programs, conference proceedings, transcripts, study guides, budgets, publications, and newspaper clippings.

Of particular interest are the files of the Americanization Committee (1922), which includes questionnaires about the foreign-born residents of New Jersey towns and cities; the files of the Economic Welfare Department, which campaigned for pure food and drugs, quality labeling, and better housing; the files of the Social Hygiene Committee which supported compulsory testing for syphilis and sterilization of "persons afflicted with insanity, feeble-mindedness or epilepsy"; and the Women in Industry Committee, which supported child labor laws, the eight-hour day and unemployment relief.