The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-11

TflenQS In tnlS country, dI1Q III one un- derstanding of the term social life no appointment could be more fortunate. The feeling, however, exists and has made itself heard that the appointment is perhapus not wholly fortunate when we consider what is expected of for eign ambassadors in Washington as leaders in what may be called formal society-that halfway ground between official functions and private intimacy, which goes so far at our capital city.
 It is quite possible to talk unwisely about this matter either by diminish ing or exaggerating it's importance. There is something between official in tercourse tercourse and private intima- ey which forms a necessary part of an ambassadors duty in every capital, and must not be neglected or misman- aged. We have had English envoys who exhibited their nation in the most favorable light and did much to bring the countries together by their digni- fled and genial hospitality. We have had others who did just the reverse. It is, of course, ridiculous to regret that Mr. Bryce has no title, especially as such a complaint is likely to come from those who would be puzzled to distinguish clearly between a peer, a baronet and knight, and would have made a sad havoc of such distin- guished diplomatic names as Lord Odo Russell and Lord Augustus Loftus. But there is this much sense in the notion that the possessor of a title may generally be assumed to be well acquainted with the traditions of diplo- matic society. MT Bryce's thousand friends in the United States all have a lively hope that he will fulfil his social obligations as perfectly as he will the rest-but obligations they are, and filled they must be.
 For this work the ambassador from Great Britain, in common with those from the other great European powers, has one striking advantage at the out set. His court gives him the use of a spacious and convenient house, in the
 best part of Washington. The con trast between his position and that of the ambassadors we send to Europe Is painful and anything but creditable to the United States. They have to find 1 houses where best they can. Mir Rob- ert Lincoln told me himself he looked at seventy-two houses before he found one fairly suitable. It is well for MT. Whitelaw Reid that he can hire two stately and historic mansions in Don- don and in the country. But what chance has any American ambassador, l yhn ocd pai1ts for- tune or anything like 1t, B provide | lodging and other accommodations even modestly suited to the importance 1 of his work and his country? Our highest diplomatic salaries, to include everything, are $175OO. Let anybody
 think what prices are in all the ciyil- 1 ized countries of the world at present, and say if 1t is not almost an insult to | ask all but distinctly wealthy Ameri- cans to leave their homes for four years on any such basis
 There have always been those who. have opposed any increase in our di- plomatic salaries, under the idea that I it would be "undemocratic," and, of course, coftrive to haul in Mr. Jeffer- son. More than fifty years ago, when l it was said that the American minis ter's carriage was the shabbiest at the queens drawing-room Mr. Dickinson of New York said in congress that he 1 was 'gIad. of itp But these gentlemen are wholly mistaken. If they will read Macaulay's essay on Frederick the Great they will see that most despotic of rulers set the example of shabbiness in his ambassadors appointments be- l yond even an absurd parsimony.
 And be it observed that an American envoy has drain on his slender purse which the ambassadors of European sovereigns do not have on their we'll 1 filled ones Every year London and Paris are visited by numbers of re- spectable Americans who think their ambassador ought to show them some hospitality. They do not want Aplen- dor; but they do feel strangers in a strange land, and remember how read l fly doors open with us, and places at | the family table are offered. No doubt these expectations are excessive; no doubt multimillionaire could hardly welcome to his house all his country men who fancy he ought to. But if we reduce the list to the most reasonable
 bounds; if we include in it none but those whom an ambassador would de- l light to entertain if he could, he simply cannot do 1t, unless he has a private ] fortune besides his salary. When we
 think of the enormous salaries paid by private companies sometimes, 1t is strongly suspected, for nominal work,
 it is an outrage that the greatest and
 wealthiest corporation of all should pay dozen of its servants, who are specially detailed to uphold It's credit, so meanly.
 There is another thought suggested by MT. Bryce's appointment. Ameri- | can ambassadors and ministers have, ever since independence was declared,
 been selected for political or what may
 be called personal reasons, but never by system of training and promotion,
 such as obtains in European countries.
 We have no regular diplomatic service,
 as we have military and naval, It has l often been agtated that some such | system ought to be introduced; it is understood that the present secretary
 of state is an advocate of it. It is
 quite needless to say that it is opposed
 in congress, as every member whose
 seat is doubtful, looks forward to hav-
 ing a defeat in his party's service
 crowned by foreign mission.
 But the system is not always fol-
 lowed in the European countries where
 it prevails. When Sir Julian Paunce-
 forte was sent to the United States he
 was not, strictly speaking, in the diplo-