The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-21
Consular Reform Well Started.

The Senate consular bill as 1t passed
the House Monday perhaps was no half
q loaf in the opinion Of Mr.. LODGE or
Secretary Roof? but, in view of Con-
gressional indifference to reform of the
service, no bread at all was to be ex-
peoted. In his message the President
recommended that the consular force
should be classified land appointments
should be made to the several classes,
with authority to the Executive to assign
the members Of each class to duty at
such posts as the interests Of the service
require, instead of the appointments
being made, as at present, to specified
posts" He asked for an adequate in
spection service, the abolition of the fee
system, increase Of salaries to make up
for lost fees, and a American clerical
service in every consulate.
Both the President and Secretary
Roof advocated admission to the service
through the lower grades and promotion
for merit. 1t was so provided in the
original bill. But the Senate committee
made short work of an arrangement
that would have taken the consular
business out of politics, and the House
was nothing loath. The service has
been classified; fees will no longer be
perquisites; salaries have been raised in
some cases to compensate consular
officers for giving up their fees; the
unsatisfactory grade of commercial agent
has been abolished; it is required that
all consular officers receiving 81 900 or
more a year shall be American citizens;
and a system Of inspection has been
provided for. AS Representative Rob-
ERT ADAMS, father of consular reform in
the House, says: 1.-THE bill represents
an evolution In the service and is a dis
tinct step forward"
Under the reorganization, if the Senate
concurs, there will be additional consuls-
general and c%onsuls, and the cost of the
service will be greater by $4,000. But
the new Offices will increase the efficiency
Of a service which needs extension with
the steady growth of our foreign COM
merce. Representative MAINS criti-
cism that the bill contains only one good
feature, the provision for inspection, is
hardly fair, nor is his structure that it is
merely a bill to increase salaries. Dearly
as Congressman love the consular offices
as berths for meritorious and useful
constituents, the time had come for i'm
proving the service by expanding it as
well as by paying better salaries, Of
course, the competency of consuls has
to be assumed: that is the fly in the
ointment. We know they may be sad
misits, and the habits of some of them
are not always exemplary. Until the
service can be regarded as a profession,
efficiency and the man will sometimes
be a happy-go-lucky combination. At
the present time the service is moder-
ately good or worse than mediocre as
the head of the State Department is
vigilant or Indifferent, There has been
a marked bracing up since Mr.. Root
took the helm. In the world there are
no better consuls than the American
we have British and German testimony
to that and to the thoroughness of our
consular reports; and there are no worse
consuls than some Americans, of whom
our exporters never cease to complain.
The new system of inspection should
eliminate the black sheep, if five inspec-
tors at S. 900 a year with expenses of
travel do their duty.