The Washington times., 1905-12-16

STRONG INTERESTS
BACK OF MEASURE
Lodges Consular Service
Bill Meets With Favor.
MERIT SYSTEM POPULAR
Friends of Administration Will Urge
Passage of Bill During
Present Session.

\ vigorous effort is to be made by the
friends Of the administration TO secure
passage this session OF Senator Lodges
bin fer reorganizati 4 of the consular
service. The measure represents a crys-
utilization into statute OF the results Of
long experience and much study OF the
present system and its weaknesses. It is
one of the proposals 20 which Secretary
of State Root is especially devoted, and
II has powerful backing among those
business interests which In recent years
have been brought to realize how inef-
icient an aid. our consular service is in
efforts TO extend American trade abroad
Extension of the merit system into the
consular. service Is the basis OF the pro-
posed reform Instead of. having. con
zular agents appointed and retained in
o;Hce because of political influence. the
measure proposes that the consular ser
vice shall be graded according TO eff
ficiency and experience. aud paid sal
aries according to the grades; all fees
will be abolished. and with them the op-
sadly injured the efficiency of the ser
vice in the past.
Will Prescribe Test.
Admission to the lowest grade of the
service will ne by competitive examin-
y
mercial interests Of the United States
and one modern language other than
English Being thus admitted on merit
TO the lowest grade Of service. the con-
suTs work viii be carefully kept track
OF and. recorded. through a system OF
examination by consular inspectors.
This Will assure that the State Depart
ment will be informed as to goings on
at all consulates. which is not the case
now. There have been humiliating
scandals in not few cases because the
State Department has no means OF keep
Ing closely in touch with the work OF
consuls The consular inspectors will
have the rank of consuls general. and
may be placed i'm charge of cOnSulates
which they find are being misconducted
pending selection of q permanent con-
sui; just as now national bank exam
iner is placed IN charge of an inStitu-
tiOn he finds going wrong.
Under this system cunSuls would be
appointed To particular class, rather
than 10 q particular post, and assigned
to posts where their special Quaiifica-
tions would be most useful The ser
vice is now fun of square pegs in round
holes; il is proposed TO assist the de-
partment in discovering readily which
pegs are square. and To tnable il prompt
" To insert them IN rectangular holes
Good work Will be rewarded by promo
| tions from lower To higher posts, and
the present evil OF making the con-
sular service means OF pensioning
broken-down politicians will be stopped
Must Be Americans.
one OF the most important features Of
The measure * The provision that clerks
AT cOnsuiates must be Americans At
present most Of them a. natives OF the
countries in which they serve. Holding
their positions permanently and becom-
ing thoroughly familiar with the duties.
these clerks constitute most impOr-
tant feature I'm the system Not being
Americans. they necessarily have not
the same interest in promoting American
commercial and other interests that
Americans would have. and much OF the
possible efficiency OF the service is thus
lost
VIII Abolish Fees.