New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-01-16

You en- pureha.e merchandisc edyoTtisGd n IHE
4 Secretary of State Without Sen
sitiveness and Without Shame.

SitiVCncSS and without ONdinS'
No one acquainted with Mr.. Bryans true char
actcr could have expected him 70 vince at the
publication Of the shameful Wick letter. Since
he became Secretary Of state he has betrayed
strange lack of sensitivcness to his surroundings.
It was a non-appreciation Of the deicacies OF
conduct and traditions of dignity respected 10y
other Secretaries of State which led him into ms
rrotesoue exploits on the Chautauqua Circuit
His announcement that he felt obliged to supple
ment his 81 200 salary with the gate receipts OF
transforming lectures was only the outcroppng
Of a deep streak of coarseness in his makeup.
That coarseness has cropped out again and
ogain in his attitude toward appointments to the
diplomatic corps. He has tried TO treat all the
Offices he could lay his hands on as party patron
ace. He is the only Secretary Of State IN our
time who ever set out openly to loot the foreign
service When Mr.. Gresham was Secretary IN Mr.
CIeve'ard's second term he allowed Josiah Quincy
to loot the consular Offices. But never before IN
any excess Of partisan covetousness has the mead
Of the department dreamed of sending to diplo-
matte agent executing in foreign country
trust for that country a shameless demand for
natrouare odds and ends such as Mr.. Bryan
served on Mr. Walker W. Wick in San Domingo.
"Now that YOU have arrived and are acquaint-
ing yourself with the situation, can you let me
know what positions you have at your disposal
with which 20 reward deserving Democrats wrote
the brazen spokesman who is now filling the place
held bv Root. Hay, Olney Blaine, Bayard, Fish
and Seward. Secretaries Of State in the old days
NAV have incidentally looked out for party friends
I'M making appointments. But they gave nine
.ortbs 10 Observation-Disclosures of their time and
thought to the weighty affairs Of diplomacy. 1t
is Mr.. Brvan's objectionable offence that in these
DAYS of far higher standards of fitness and merit
in public appointments he has given nine-tenths to
rjnetv-nine-hundredth of his time and thought
when not lacturing for private profit to using
the foreign service as an agency to diminish IN
cmpl6vment among former Democratic campaign
workers
Mr. Bryan is not abashed by the publication Of
the Wick letter. On the contrary, he glories IN
his craftsmanship. And why shouldn't he? He
simply applied in San Domingo (although the
status of the financial commission there is some
what exceptionally the same policy which filled
most of the South American and Central Amerl-
can missions with Bryan proteg6s entirely inno-
cent Of diplomatic experience. In order to pay
political debts hanging over from the campaign OF
1908 he turned out Of office American Ministers
who had risen from the secretarial grades and
had established their capacity as diplomats. 1t
was the same policy which forced the retirement
of Ambassador William W. Rockhill, an expert
who had spent most of his active life in diplomatic
work. Making a place at Petrograd for Plndell
of Peoria ON the terms enlarged on in the cee-
brated letters attributed TO Senator "Jim Ham
Lewis differed in no essential from the attempted
loading down Of the Dominican commission with
deserving Democrats" of small fry calibre.
Mr.. Bryan's incumbency in the State Depart
ment has been a failure and a scandal because he
has never realized the dignity and importance OF
his office. lie has made American diplomacy a
Chautauoua Circuit joke, But the fault is not
exclusively his Mr.. Wilson has been obliged to
tolerate him TO a certain extent Yet that toll
erance has been too often favored with sympathy
Mr.. Bryan's crude craftsmanship has been per
mitted to 90 unrebuked, and even the Wick letter
which the Secretary now glories in, can hardly
nut greater strain on the Presidents capacity
for covering over his subordinate's vagaries thar
have dozen previous incidents equally illumina
tive of Mr. Bryan's unftness for his post. The
Pinden letters were repudiated, yet they showed
lust as clearly as does the Wick document tina
American diplomacy will be without honor either
here or abroad so long as its conduct remains II
Mr.. Bryan's hands Mr.. Wilson, however, canno
escape responsibility for the continuance Of The
Bryan regime.