The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-08
Foreign Ministers and Their Paw.

The question of providing suitable
residences for our principal diplomatic
representatives in foreign countries has
again been presented to congress with
d strong affirmative Endorsement from
the department of state. The highest
salary paid by this government in its
foreign service is that paid to ambassa-
dors, $l7,500 a year. Out of this sum
the ambassador has to pay rent for an
appropriate embassy and meet all the
costs of the generous entertaining re-
Quired of him in the course of his offic-
ial duties. Rent alone in most Euro
pean capitals eXhausts the American
minister's salary, requiring him to
draw upon private funds to uphold So
cially the prestige of his position. The
result is that none but a rich man can
afford to accept an appointment as am
| bassador or minister to a leading court
| Instance after instance could be named
| of men of the first rank mentally, So
| cially and politically who have been
| compelled to decline proffered appoint
ments Of this kind, or having accepted,
| have afterward been driven to resign
them, because Of their inability from
| private resources to cover the excess
| of unavoidable expense over salary re-
| ceived.
Mr.. Bayard has recently informed
the public of his embarrassments in
this direction, and it is no secret that
the same considerations forced the res
gnation by Charles Emory Smith of
the Russian mission under President
Harrison thereby taking from the gov
ernments employ perhaps the best
qualified man for such service in the
country today. When Whitelaw Reid
was minister to France he paid more
than his salary for rent alone and is
credited by rumor with having drawn
upon his personal estate at the rate of
$4,000 a year additional rather than
permit the representative of his gov.
ernment to be eclpsed in any way
Luckily for him and for his country.
men, Mr. Reid had a private fortune
to draw upon, but it is evidently mis-.
chievous to permit condition to con.
tinue in this branch of the public ser.
necessity erects a class of rich office
holders and draws a dead line in from
of honorable poverty Such condi
tion is unAmerican and therefore in
tolerable.
1t is not necessary to make compari
sons between our own ambassadoria
pay rolls and the pay rolls of othe
countries, yet the circumstance is in
teresting that the foreign representa-
tives of Great Britain, Germany, Franc
and Russia receive from two to fiy
, times the allowances given to the for
eign representatives of the Unite,
States. We pay our ambassador t
England $17 800 and make him find hi
own food and shelter. England pay
her ambassador to the United State
$4,000 a year. gives him rent free tn
use of fine embassy i'm the heart o
, the aristocratic residence portion O
, | Washington and adds a special allow
ance of $4,000 per annum to enabl
him to meet the social demands of hi
office. This comparison is not extreme
1t is fairly typical. Nothing therefor
can be more natural than that Britis
! ambassadors and ministers, with thei
} minds relieved of the problem of max
ing their cash accounts balance shoul
] be able in most instances to gain tn