New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-03-19
Business Methods In the Department g
State.

A06 0uuU0I VI OuICl0A COmmUQg0Oe
lions received at the State Department
and which require an official answer,
varies from fifty to one hundred day,
and perhaps seventy-five ID about tie
average. The mail il opened In the
Index Bureau. and the first thing done
10 the making out of an index of Ill tho
communications. The letters are then
distributed to the different Secretaries
and to the Consular and Diplomatic
Bureaus. Only the most important
ones reach the eye of the Secretary Of
State. All that the Chief Clerk 10 sure
Mr.. Evarts will not desire tosce he dis
tributes to the heads of bureaus for
their attention. Those which he may
or may not need to see 90 to the Az
sistant Secretaries, who can use their
judgment about consulting Mr.. Evarts.
But, when the answers are prepared,
all of them must be seen by Mr.. Evarts
or by Mr.. Seward, the work of signing
the mail being one Of the final matters
OF each day. The correspondence 10
removed from one Office OF the Depart.
ment to another, in closed wooden
boxes, SO that the messengers do not
actually handle any of the paper which
they carry, and there is no opportunity
tor anything to get "lost. strsyed or
After Mr.. Evarts and Mr.. Seward
have signed the letters of the day, they
are sealed up by trusted messenger,
under the eye Of the Chief Clerk, and
put in mail bags, which are sent to tho
city Postoffice. The Department has
the option of making up closed mails
for foreign parts, in which case tho
sealed mail bag Is transmitted to New
York and sent abroad without being
opened. Beside its regular officisl
correspondence. the Department has an
immense amount OF other correspond
ence. Letters are constantly coming
in from all over the world in every
civilized language, and from foreigners
of many nationalities, who happen 20
be in the United States, asking for In
formation, documents, etc. The Chief
Clerk states that many letters come
from Greece and from Sweden, aud the
requests that are mado are ~ manifold
Is the ingenuity of man can devise.
These letters, whenever any useful pur.
pose can be subserved, receive On
answer. It is here that the services Il
the translator are often In request. He
70 Q man of large requirements. but tho
Department 10 not poor in linguistic
ability. and communications In the
language Of every civilized Nation C
the world can be turned into English at
short notice. Among the clerks 10 one
who speaks Japanese duently, sad
another 10 master Of conversational
Russian. French, German and Spanish
scholars are Of course plenty.
The Department finds the use Of The
telegraph daily necessity, and has ~
own special operator, who 10 . rcgu-
larly paid clerk. The Department b
connected with the Offices OF both tale
graph companies here. and tho Depart
ment can get . special wire to 0sV
York or elsewhere at any time b.
simply asking for 1t. When important
negotiations are going on, messages
are sent in cipher. and cable messages
of some kind are passing to and from
the Department nearly every Day. One
Of the busiest men IN tho Departmeas
10 the Pardon and Commission CleEk,
who makes ont al tho papers In Coz
nection with Presidential appointmsnts
and pardonS.
When tho President decides 10 ap-
point . person to Office, he makes .
notification of the fact to the Secretary
Of State, and the nomination 10 made
out and sent to the Senate. When the
nomination is confirmed, the parcA-
nlenk commission anmekhinn Lee fhan