The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-30
|C0LLECE MEN WANTED FOR CONSULAR SERVICE
Yale Adding New Courses to :. Curriculum to Meet Re-
 quirements.
POSITIONS ARE PERMANENT
Ineficiency Now the Only Ac- cepted Cause for Re
 moval.

That Yale university intends to re- tain it's position in the front rank of American universities is shown by the addition of new courses to it's currl- eulum to meet the new needs con- stantly arising in the outside world. Tn the graduate department in connection with the graduate school of Columbia, there is now a course in direct prepa- ration for the consular service of the United States government. The ser vice is not ovarcrowded and the col lege trained man is in demand
 After seventy-fve years of attempt ed reform, appointment to and ad- vaneement in the service is at last on basis of proficiency rather than the long-established doctrine: "To the vic- tors belong the spells" originating with Andrew Jackson.
 The reform of 1856, on which is based our present system, was the beginning of series of similar attempts culmi- mating in the bill of April 16 1906. If the thanks of the nation are due to one man more than another, that man is Elihu Root, present secretary of the department of state. To him in large measure is due the fact that now no political pull but personal ability spells advance in the increasingly important consular service.
 Appointment to post is, however, still in the hands of the president sub feet to the approval of the senate. Se- leGtions must be made from a list of applicants, designated by the president for examination, who have satisfac- tcrily passed the tests submitted by the state department. In making the appointment, attention is given to equal representation of the states, but the political affiliations are, theoreti- cally, not considered.
 The examination consists of two parts-the one an oral test of the ap- plieants 'business ability alertness, general contemporary information and natural fitness for the service, includ- ing moral, mental and physical qualifi- cations, character, address and good command of language" Counting equally with the above is written test demanding knowledge of one for | eign language, the resources and com nerce of the United States, especially as referring to extension of our for eign trade; political economy and the clements of international, commercial and maritime law; American history; political and commercial geography, arithmetic (as used in commercial sta- 1 tistles), and the modern history of Eu- i rope, Latin America and the far east.
 Tn countries wherein the United | States exercises e&tra-territorial juris- diction, i. e., the right in non-Chris- tian countries of bringing before our consul for judgment all cases in which an American is involved, the examina- ton is supplemented by questions on common law, the rules of evidence, and | the trial of civil and criminal cases
 No longer can man be removed for inefficiency and no more will im- portant posts be held down by friend of a friend of congressman whose only claim to the office was that he needed the money. A re- form that need not be re-reformed has placed itself on our statutes, the ex- pected opposition being drowned by the flood of over-ineistent office seek | CTS whose constant buzzing wore on the nerves of our representatives in Washington.
 The duty of a consul to-day is prac- 1 tically that of a national drummer,
 whose merchandise, while abstract, is nevertheless a valuable commodity What he has lost in dignity, we have gained in efficiency. Almost entirely his task is now to search out new openings for American trade.
 While the service has been warmly approved by those manufacturers and exporters already engaged in foreign trade, it has also been severely criti- cised as over-zealous in it's endeavors by those American manufacturers now too busily occupied in caring for their home trade to consider the important matter of exportation.
 Yet the service has proved itself well worth the cost, and now with It's in- creasing efficiency and the closer ae- quaintance of the nations through wireless telegraphy, the turbine and world conferences, the services will be an important factor in maintaining the prosperity of the greatest commercial nation on the globe.