The National tribune., 1907-07-18
A DIPLOMATIC ROW.

| Cipal Embassy, that Is to say, London.
These ructions would be tiresome if
there were anything more serious to
think about. and when they come at 4
busy season people pay little attention
| to them. Our whole embassadorial sys-
| tenn is a farce and incumbcred with
moldy and musty traditions inherited
from the time when ambassadors were
persons of real Importance. Before the
day of telegraphS and fast steamships
and in the time when a King was an
autocrat, ambassadors We're persons of
immense consequence. They represent
ID the actual person of the King in
foreign countries; had access directly
TO the monarch and discussed with him
face to face matters which made for
war or peace. All this is now changed
by representative Government and by
swift means of communication. An
Embassador is merely clerk or mes
has absolutely no functions eX-
have an hour left to his own discretion.
cept to correctly communicate to the
court to which he is accredited his in
structions from his State Department.
With our many Transatlantic cables
in constant and certain operation one
of our ambassadors in Europe does not
have an hour left to his own discretion.
What the Prime Ministers of England
France, Germany, Italy, Austria or Rus
sia may tell him as to the intentions or
wishes Of their Governments is known
in Washington within half an hour
The instructions of our Secretary of
State can be received before the hour
is ended. The ambassador is merely
an antiquated form for presenting our
Governments wishes and views to the
Government of some other country. 1t
could be done quite as we'll by direct
messages between the Prime Minister
and our Secretary of State The En-
baSSadorS are not useful even for gath
ering accurate political information,
since when the State Department de-
sires this it employs special agents who
are more or less expert upon the mat
tcrS they are set to investigate.
We maintain expensive Embassies to
all the foreign countries, paying our
ambassadors 1900 year. with high
salaries for their Secretaries, but these
are relatively economical to what the
foreign countries spend upon their en-
bassies to us. The British ambassador
to the United States gets $4,000 a year,
with a high-salaried encourage. Ap-
pointments as ambassadors and Minis
ters to European countries are, how
ever the most eagerly sought-fer plums
in the gift of the Administration. tho it
is known that everyone appointed must
spend several times the amount of his
salary in order to keep up what
he thinks is the dignity of the place.
The reason for this is the social pres
tige. The Embassador to England, for
example, is the social autocrat of all his
fellow countrymen and country women
who visit Great Britain. He ranks
there during his term of office among
the highest nobility, which is precious
privilege in that land of rank and priv
ilege. The ambassadors to France and
Germany are scarcely less important.
with those to Austria and Russia lag
ging far in the rear. The ambassador
to Turkey seems to have really some
thing to do, because Turkey is still in
the midnight of the dark ages; he has
to have personal relations with the Sui
tan, and has few social demands upon
him.
Embassador Whitelaw Reid, at the
Court of st. James, has made the very
most of his position. Having married
D. O. Mills's great fortune, and his wife
being filed with the highest social am
billions, he has spent money without
stint in entertainment and has placed
the American Embassy on the old me-
dieval status of social equality with the
King of Great Britain. This has given
him and his wife all the social prestige
that the most ambitious heart could de-
sire. Every rich American visiting
England and desiring to enter the most
exclusive circles has to kowtOw to the
Reids, who hold the golden key which
secures entrance to the charmed circle
Immediately around the throne. All
the Anglicized social climbers have had
to make their devoirs first to the Reids.
Their entertainments at the Dorchester
House have exceeded even those of roy
atty in their sumptuous magnifcence.
! But there comes a fly in the ointment.
The Consul-General at London is the
| most important of our commercial rep
resentatives abroad. The position is
now held by Mr.. Robert Wynne an old,
well-known and highly esteemed news
paper man, whom President Mckinley
appointed Postmaster-Gcn This
gives him abroad the prestige of an ex-
Cabinet officer, thing which counts
| for much socially. 1t is claimed that
the Embassy has disregarded Consul
| GenraI Wynne in its festivities and not
granted him the precedence to which
he was entitled. it is claimed that
| ConSuls- General have precedence over
even the First Secretary of the EmbaS-
sy. except when the latter is acting as
not in evidence at any of the functions
| given by the American Embassy and
other diplomatic representatives re-
marked that the embassy of the mosi
democratic Nation in the world was
most aristocratic in it's treatment of its
i CDusuIs, drawing the line most sharply
against those who represented merely
the business" element of the country
ICousuI-ticneral Wynne is a plain, sen.
SibIe m:ltter-of-fact man, without 50.
ciaI ambitions and caring as little foi
u-ftb tho Earle apS