The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-20
Our UndinIomatic Service.

Now that the country is fairly awake
to the fact that America must have
a definite foreign policy. it may be
well to call attention to the state
of our diplomatic service. So long
as the people in general were in
state of apathy regarding all things
that did not touch their immediate
personal interest, it was of very little
use to point out the defects of tn
branch of the Government. So long
as we pursued policy of turtle-like
seclusion, our only defense being to
draw in head and claws with all speed
at the approach of any danger, it was
impossible to interest the public in
anything so far outside the country as
our representatives abroad. But the
Spanish war has given pub
lie opinion a thorough shaking up.
While the country is awake and at
tentiva it may as well examine its ideas
on the subject of diplomacy and find
out whether they are any less anti
quated than its notions on coast de-
Tense and the navy were not so very
| long ago.
Our diplomatic service, as all Ameri-
cans find when they go abroad. has
been for years a matter of amusement
to the nations of the earth. 1t has fire.
quently happened that in a difficulty
between Americans in foreign city
and the natives of the land. in which
| the Americans were getting decidedly
| and wrongfully the worst of it, the
| English diplomat has stepped in with
/ his superior experience and knowledge
| Of the country, and got the Ameri-
! can out of the scrape. In at least one
| having no experience and no knowledge
! of the language, has been in the habit
| Of trotting over to the English consuls
| office when he had any doubtful ques-
| tons to settle, and awaiting himself.
without money and without price, OF
| the Briton's excellent library and
| judgment. The undignified position in
which the United States is placed by
| such performances as this needs no
| rhetoric to add to its impressivensss
| II is bad enough when plainly stated
There is need of a radical reform in
this service. and the sooner it is made
| the better. In the first place, it should
be clearly understood that no improve
ment is possible so long as diplomatic
! positions are considered appropriate
| consolation prizes in the great game of
| politics. If we must be represented at
| Madrid, or Berlin, or Toxic, by some
man whose sole claim to the position
is that he was disappointed in the race
| for a senatorship, or a governor
ship, or was useful to his political boss
in the last campaign we may as well
| resign ourselves to incompetent service
and humiliating plumbers on the part
of our representatives When a Presi-
| dent of the United States sends an In
| diana farmer TO a country like France
| to fill a consular position in which
| knowledge of wines and silks is re-
| quired. when he has expert knowl-
ege of nothing but potatoes and
stringbeans and does not know a
| word of French, it is no wonder that
| the world smiles. And when. in addi-
| tlOIy lht . oiioncI " ICiliOIi-
| strances is that if the farmer lacked
| manners, Paris was a very coed place
to learn them, it becomes no laughing
matter. The diplomatic service is not
| a kindergarten, or a boarding school
1t is emphatically profession in
| which the best man wins; and he wins
not only consideration and money for
himself, but large advantages of hoE or
| and wealth and power for his country.