The San Francisco call., 1897-04-11
AMERICAN DIPLOMATS.

diplomatic service. Its EN- bassadors and
Ministers hold their office only for the
term OF the administration at Washing
ten, to which they are indebted for their
appointment, namely, four years, and then
step aside TO make way for others, who are
as new TO the duties and to the response
bilities OF their mission as were their pre-
decessors at the time of their nomination.
just at the present moment the resigna-
t1ons OF all those who have held office
abroad under President Cleveland are be-
ing placed on file at the State Department,
while President Mckinley is busily en-
gagged in the task OF selecting their sue
cessors and, as usual, the question-which
has become regular feature of each
change of administration-has been re-
vived as to whether it would not be more
advantageous for the United States to
organize diplomatic service similar to
that of foreign nations and to appoint
men trained in the profession to the
offices OF ambassadors and of Ministers
instead OF adhering to the present practice
of nominating persons devoid of diplo-
matte experience.
Some fifteen years spent in the foreign
service OF a European power, during the
course OF which l have enjoyed consid-
erable amount of intercourse with the
Diplomatic representatives of the United
States in various portions of the globe,
may serve as an excuse for offering in
print personal opinion to the effect that
the interests of this country abroad. far
from being in any way niuriously affect
ed by the absence OF trained men at the
head of the American missions, are. on
the contrary, benefited thereby. And
these views. l may add, are shared by
most of the foreign officials, statesmen,
politicians and court dignitaries with
whom l have had occasion TO discuss the
matter. it being held that this great COM
monwealth is far more appropriately and
efficiently represented in the Old World
by men of sufficient eminence at home to
lead to their selection from among the
numerous candidates for the post by the
President and Senate of their native land,
rather than by trained diplomat, who
would owe the office to seniority and pro-
motion, the major part of his life having
necessarily been spent out of America.
The distance between the latter and
Europe is SO great that even the most
patriotic citizen of the United States gets
out of touch with American ideas after
having lived for few years abroad. He
becomes susceptible to local influences,
and losing the broad American manner
OF looking at things, gradually grows to
view them with an eve that may be de-
scribeG as European. This Is apparent in
the correspondents of almost every Ameri-
can journal who goes abroad to represent
his paper, and it IS only by frequent trips
home that even the most brilliant of them
can manage to suppress the tendency to
be unduiy influenced by the character of
their surroundings and by the atmosphere
in which they live. 1t this is the case
with newspaper men, who are supposed
to consort to a great extent with the
world OF letters in the country in which
they may be residing-that world popu-
larry known as the Bohemian, and in
which there is less conventionality and
more intellectual independence and bril-
liancy than in any other-it naturally fol-
lows that an American diplomat, who is
daily and hourly brought in contact with
those foreign bureaucrats and officials to
whom etiquette and conventionality are
gospel, and the concealment of thought
as well as of sentiment creed, will in
tinitely sooner lose his American breadth
OF view, vim and freshness of mind than
the American newspaper correspondent.
Now the loss of these essentially Ameri-
can characteristics by diplomatic repre-
sentative OF the United States Is dis.
tinct disadvantage to his country and to
his Government, since it tends to impair
his popularity and his prestige. The
thoroughly American citizen of the
United States is vastly preferred in the
Ola World to the Europeanzed son or
daughter of Uncle Sam-evidence of this
popularity being afforded by the fact that
Western maidens have proved far greater
social successes, not only in England, but
also on the Continent, than their sisters
from New York, Boston and Philadel-
phia, who are considered as being too
anglicized and presenting too little differ
ence with the domestic feminine product
to render them exceptionally interesting.
1t is just the absence of conventionality,
the indifference to the frequently prepos-
ferrous and nearly always depressing laws
of etiquette, the perfect independence of
speech and of bearing that constitute in
the eyes Of the Old World the principal
charm of the American, be the latter man
or woman-a charm characterized by an
individuality and originality which are
90 ASiicSL'n6 GO thSy oA0 iuflRSEdIiuS u
the jaded and blase palate of the Euro
pean; but let these qualities once sue
cumb to foreign influences and atmos-
phere and disappear from view, and
straigbtway the American man or woman
ceases to be interesting COM
monplace and loses popularity, prestige
and influence.
Moreover, it is great mistake to imag-
inc that in order to achieve diplomatic
victories for ones country 1t is necessary
to have had previous diplomatic training.
Indeed. England, France, Germany, Rus
sia and Italy, who have all five of them
splendidly organized diplomatic services,
frequently go outside the ranks of the lat
ter in order to find suitable men for the
posts of envoy. France, for instance, has
for the past fifty years regarded st. Peters
burg as, automatically speaking, the
most important capital in Europe, as
court where it was of more vital i'm
portance to be efficiently represented than
at any other. Yet for more than three
decades. indeed, until the appointment of
Monsieur de Laboulaye, predecessor of
the present envov, Count Montebello, the
French ambassadors accredited to the
Gear were invariably men devoid of any
previous diplomatic experience or train
ing, among the best known having been
the late Duo de Morny and the Generals
Fleury, LIE Flo, Appert and Chanzy. Rus
sia, on the other hand, has been repre-
senfed at Berlin hv GeneraI C0unt pouI