The American diplomatic service has passed through some remarkable phases in the last twenty-five years. A few years ago it was quite frankly used as a means for rewarding political services to the party in power. No good could possibly come out of such a system. There were some exceptions to the general rule that American ambassadors and ministers were either indifferent to or else ignorant of the needs of the United States in international politics, but they were few and far between. More recently men have been selected for the most important places by reason of their wealth and social standing. Some of those selected made excellent representatives, but owing to the shortness of their terms of office they had no more than familiarized themselves with their surroundings than they were either recalled or found it expedient to return to their native land.
President Wilson has apparently established a new plan, or rather revived an old one. He is selecting his foreign representatives from the class known in Europe as the “intellectuals.” This policy is adopted at a highly critical time in the history of the foreign trading of the United States, and at a time when virtually all the great international questions and controversies are those of respective economic advantage, one nation over another. It comes also at a time when the great commercial and industrial rivals of the United States are pursuing a different policy, one which is perhaps worth considering. England and Germany to a notable degree, and France, Russia, and some others of the great Powers to a sufficient degree to be noticeable, are training men for all diplomatic positions, and promotions are made even to the highest places almost entirely upon the merits and suitability of the candidates. The young man who enters the foreign office service of England or Germany in a subordinate position has within his power, if he develop accordingly, to become in time an ambassador to some important country. He is thoroughly tried out, step by step, as consul and minister before the highest rank is given to him. He is moved about from one part of the world to another until he becomes in truth a cosmopolitan not only in thought and habit, but in language and knowledge. The most serious part of the education of these men is, first, the economics of their own country, and, secondly, the economics of the country to which they are to be accredited. This education is practical and not theoretical. This is true to so great an extent that, when a technical matter of trade enters into a controversy between the two state departments, the minister or ambassador is often found fully qualified to fight the battle himself in aid of the material interests of the country he represents. There are no more practical men anywhere than a majority of these who now represent the progressive industrial countries of Europe as foreign ministers or ambassadors. This particular feature of their equipment for the office is not unnecessarily paraded, however, for their social and political qualifications are more in the public eye. It is in the private talks at the State Department at Washington, in London, Berlin, Paris, St. Petersburg, or elsewhere, that their real fighting strength is disclosed. It is not a question of private fortune with them, for their governments remove any anxiety on that score by an adequate and even abundant allowance of funds not only for salaries, but for housing and maintenance. The British ambassador to Washington receives more in salary and expense allowance than does the President of the United States in proportion to the necessary expenditures of his office.
To the American manufacturer, deeply engaged with his cost of production and the filling of orders, it may appear that too much stress is laid upon the function of foreign diplomacy in the success of American business abroad; but it will not be necessary to give emphasis to its importance with those Americans who have already pioneered their business into remote parts of the world. They know, through bitter experience, how inefficiency in an American embassy or legation can hinder and even destroy the greater possibilities for American success.
At present, and for years past, the fortunes of American foreign trading depend, so far as diplomacy is concerned, upon the character, ability, common sense, and adroitness of the individual government representative abroad rather than upon the Government or the system as a whole. Within the year 1912 we had the two extremes: in one country an able, intelligent, and practical man, working persistently for weeks to bring about a commercial entente cordiale between the United States and the country in which he was stationed; and in another country American interests were forced to appeal to English or other foreign representatives to help them through a time of stress, because the American representative considered things commercial as outside of the province of his labors. Both of these men are out of office now not because one was useful and the other useless, but because of the system, or lack of system, which required their places for others.
An English minister who was stationed in an important country a few years ago failed when there to secure certain large contracts for English builders. This same minister is still in the service, but is now kicking his heels in an unimportant place, where what he does or does not is of little consequence. A certain German ambassador was recently denied the place of his choice because he had done so well where he was that his services were still needed at that point; but when the crisis has passed, he will get his reward all the more surely.
The day will come in America when it will be realized that a nation can well afford to cheapen for export by every means in its power, and that such cheapness does not necessarily mean discrimination against the home consumer. There are few signs of the dawn of this day at the moment, and it will come only when the ultimate and general overproduction of manufactures forces the attention of the whole nation upon the need of still greater markets elsewhere. There is one comfort for the people of the United States, possessed in no such degree by any other nation at the present time or for several generations to come, and that is, the abounding possibilities of the North American continent in its natural resources, and the amazing vitality and resourcefulness of its inhabitants.
LAÏLA, FROM MESOPOTAMIA
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LARGER IMAGE
NEW-MADE AMERICANS