Milford chronicle., 1920-11-05
UNCLE TED'S
BEDTIME STORIES
UNCLE TED ON THE
FOREIGN SERVICE

the foundations of the house for tn
winter when Ruth and Jack interrupt
ed him. the latter asking: Uncle Ted
what does Mr.. Harding means whel
he says our foreign service is ou
first line of defense? l didn't know
we had a foreign army"
He didn't refer to a foreign army
Jack" said Uncle Ted, leaning on hi'
rake. with the exception of few
thousand soldiers being kept in Ger
many by Mr.. Wilson we have no for
eign army, and we don't expect t
have one if we can keep out of the
Wilson world club. What Mr.. Harding
meant was the members of our diplo-
matte corps, men sent abroad to rep
resent our country in its relations
with foreign powers. If you will run
and get your Biographies and let me
finish this job l will give you a little
talk on the foreign service" Ten
minutes later the three students OF
politics were seated in the parlor
and Uncle Ted, clearing his throat
began:
Centuries ago it was the practice
of kings to send their personal repre-
sentatives to other kings to talk
about alliances, agreements on the
treatment of citizens of the one coun-
try while visiting the other, and
trade relations which might strength
en- the friendships and prosper the
subjects of their countries. At first
these representative were just royal
messengers, but later their duties be-
came more permanent. A man who
was a good bargainer, or who had
great success at a particular court,
was retained there indefinitely. In
those days, as he represented his
kings person, he could go in and see
the king of the country to which he
was sent at any time.
I'm the course of time a division
took place in the character of these
representatives, those who spoke for
their kings in matter political being
known as ambassadors, envoys, etc
These officials had much to do with
the development of the international
law of today. Those whose duties
were chiefly concerned with CONNER
cial matters were known as consuls.
Probably the consul is much the old
er of the two, for we find men per-
forming consular duties as far back
as 900 years before Christ, sent out
by the little Greek Island of Rhodes
which you see northeast of Crete in
the Aegean Sea. Those officers per-
formed great service in helping to
develop the Rhodian Laws, one of
the chief bases of the sea law of to-
day. From the 11th to the 14th Cen
turies there grew up a number of city
states. In Italy you will see Ven
ice, Genoa, Pisa, Verona, and many
others, which organized themselves
for mutual defense, offense, and
commercial strength, into the Lom-
bard League. Along the Baltic Sea
were Hamburg, Danzig, and 80 other
cities, which organized the Hanseatic
League; on the Rhine were Mainz,
Cologne, Strasburg, and 60 others
which became the League of the
Rhine. The Lombard League was
mainly political; the other two chief
ly commercial; and there were other
leagues in various parts of Europe.
These leagues maintained diplomatic
and commercial representatives in |
many parts of the then known world, |
who kept them informed of what was |
going on. 1t was one of the chief du- 1
ties of both classes of officials to keep |
we'll informed on political matters. /
because of their know
ledge and the confidence reposed in 1
them, they were able to bring about
which prevented war,
or, failing in that, they were able to
warn their chiefs to get ready for
trouble and prevent them from being
taken by surprise They were a very
assets to the people they rep
for they were the listening
posts in political and commercial
matters.
There grew out of these relation
ships a very sly and crafty system of
dealing known as 'di-
Dlomacy' which induced a great
French philosopher, Voltaire, to say
hat language was meant to conceal
)ur thoughts But diplomats fire.
luently performed such good service
n preventing fights that it could
ruly be said, Peace hath her victor
es no less renowned than war Now,
when America became a nation, we !
ent out ENJOYS and cOnsuls of our {
,wn. Even while we were struggling /
or freedom we sent to France a man s
Who established such fine reputation
or absolute honesty and square-deal- I
ng that he defeated some of the great l
st diplomats of Europe and made l
he American type of diplomacy some a
hing to be copied by others. That
nan was BENJAMIN Franklin who did {
aore than any other man who ever b
ived in setting the example for clean
iplomacy. Incidentally, he secured a
he help of the French in our strug- a
lie for independence. d
But as the struggles between our n
olitical parties became more intense,
ur consular and diplomatic service '
ecame the victim of the spoils sys-
em, which means that the offices
ere given to men who had perform
some political service for the par ei
? in power, and who were thus fl
ewarded. They were of little ac- n
punt as foreign representatives, but, Il
5 was said in the days of Andrew Il
ackson, a Democratic President, to h
le victor belongs the spoils.' This ia
ot so bad that in 100 the6 Republi- T;
IN party determined to put stop to hi
and our consular system was re- m
-ganized and put on a merit basis. CT
man was appointed after he had ri
lown he could do the work well, and al
: was kept in as long as he did it
ELL When Mr.. Wilson's party came sc
it proceeded to undo much that in
ID been done by the Republicans. hs
he Democrats had been out for a dI
ng time, and thousands of them IN
anted jobs. Our diplomatic posts, of
ministers, and the like, ct
ere practically sold to the largest lie
ntributors to the Democratic cam in
ign fund, and one ambassador made in
nerfecf fool of himself hv having his