The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-11


achieving success in that position-he
is a man Of great wealth. 1t is scarcely
necessary to state that men of limited
means, however well they may be
equipped otherwise, are not proper per
sons to assign to our highest diplomatic
posts. The ambassadors of the United
States TO Great Britain, France and
Germany are paid salaries of ST, 500 a
year, a sum probably insufficient to de-
fray their expenditure for entertaining
alone. Representatives of the great pow
ers of Europe accredited to foreign coun-
tries are treated much more literally.
The British EN- bassador at Paris is paid
$40, 600 per annum, til ose at Berlin and
Vienna receive $40, 600 each, at st. Pc
tersburg $39, 900, and Sir Julian Paunce-
fote, British ambassador at Washing
ton, receives a salary of S32, 600.
Mum bers who have held the highest
diplomatic Offices in the gift of the Brit
ish government were poor men. The
Marquis of Dufferin, who has run over
the whole scale of the diplomatic gamut,
could never afford to have held the ap-
pointments he did were he as made
quately paid as our chief representatives
abroad are. By this niggardly policy
men of talent and diplomatic training
of limited means are debarred- from
these positions, and the country loses
much valuable service in consequence.
Never in the history of the United
States was there a greater need for an
efficient diplomatic service than at pres
ent. We are now, as it were, at the
parting of the ways and have practical
ly cut loose in a certain sense from our
former political moorings. The means
which were sufficient to meet all the
exigencies Of our government abroad
before will probably fail to answer all
our requirements in future. We have
assumed new responsibilities, materially
extended the sphere of our influence
and enlarged our domain. All this in
wolves fresh duties and emergencies in
our national life never encountered be-
fore and will require new expedients to
deal with them; hence the need of thor
oughly trained diplomas IS to attend
to our interests in foreign parts.
In Great Britain when a young man
secures a diplomatic appointment, usu-
ally as undersecretary or attache Of a
legation, or in a minor consular Office,
he remains in the service during his ao-
tive life, and if he proves capable rises
step by step until he perhaps attains
the highest position in the diplomatic
service. With US it is very different,
and almost invariably consuls represent
ing the commercial interests of our
country and those higher agents attend
ing to our political affairs abroad only
serve for a few years and are then su-
perseded. Efficient service in this de-
partment of our government can only
be secured by the employment of prop
erly trained men, who adopt diplomacy
as their life's work. The extension of
civil service rules to the fullest extent
to our consular and diplomatic services
would be a move in the right direction.
OF course the telegraph and rapidity
of communication have deprived diplo-
matte agents Of the initiative they for
merly possessed. They are now more
than ever before the proxies of the gov
ernments they represent, but if they
have less power than they formerly pos
sessed they need a more extensive and
varied knowledge in order to instruct
their governments of the countries to
which they are accredited. They also
require a special knowledge of the laws
of nations and especially of those which
embody the principles of international
ethics.
Since nations first existed there must
have been a theory of diplomatics, but
it is only in modern times that diplo-
macy came into being as an art. After
the peace of Westphalia the custom of
permanent missions became general, and
then men chosen for these positions
were taken either from the higher no
bility or from the persons frequenting
court. At first they merely represented
the will of the sovereign of their coun-
tries, but when the absolute rule Of
those declined and constitutional gov
ernments were established their func-
lions became what they are now.
Formerly Discrimination, secrecy and
intrigue largely characterized the art of
diplomacy now frankness and publicity
are appIauded. One of the ablest of the
old time dipIomatists, Talleyrand, re-
marked that language was bestowed
upon man so that he might be better
able to conceal his thoughts. Perhaps