(4) Nicaragua Canal Commission, three members.
(5) Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900, three members.
(6) Reciprocity Commission, a special Commissioner, a Secretary, an Assistant Secretary and a Messenger.
(7) Consular Board of Examiners, under Executive Order of Sept. 20, 1895, three members.
(8) Joint High Commission, six members besides a Secretary and a Messenger.
(9) International Tribunal of Egypt, three members.
(10) Dispatch Agents, three; at New York, San Francisco and London, England, respectively.
Such, then, is the State Department to-day. Is it likely to assume a greater importance in the future? That may well be, for though it may lose still other functions besides those it has already parted with, there will always remain the one characteristic class of business known as foreign relations, and this seems likely to increase in volume and interest. It is possible that it may yet become the department through which the influence of the Executive shall reach the dependencies, when the necessity for military occupation shall have gone by.
Now, before throwing the subject open for discussion, I wish to refer you for further information to the publications with which the State Department has kindly furnished me and from which I have gathered most of the data that I have given you. Among the most interesting and instructive of its publications are the “Historical Papers”, previously mentioned, its works on “international law, diplomacy, and the laws of foreign nations”, the “Consular Regulations”, “Consular Reports” and various editions of “State Papers”, “Messages and Documents” and the “Report of the Committee on the Conduct of Business in the Executive Departments”. The subject is now open for question or discussion.