The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-10
Frederick Haskin's Letter
NEED OF TRAINED DIPLOMATS

ms system ID being INTRODUCED
gradually In the. United Statas
President Harding. has announced /.
that he favors the retention of cam
able diplomats in the service and no
has promoted men who were sery.
ing under the last Democratic ad.
ministration.
Only in one notable case did
President Wilson adopt this system
Of retaining a trained diplomat. DR.
Maurice Francis Egan was appoint
ed as minister to Denmark several
years ago by Republican presi.
dent. When a new president is in.
augurated, it is customary for all
ministers and ambassadors to send
in their formal designations.
DR.. Egan was recognized as an
able diplomat and he was well sat.
isfied with his work at the court OF
Copenhagen. He was not pleased
at the prospect of being displaced,
So when he sent his formal note
of resignation to President Wilson,
he appended to it a personal note
relating an anecdote. . He said that
after the Civil war there was
maiden lady who lived in Rich
mond in greatly impoverished cir
cumstances. She was filled with
the old pride of the First Families
of Virginia" but the war had swept
away her estate. Reduced to pen
ury she was compelled to make
doughnuts and peddle them about
the Richmond streets through
which a few years before she had
ridden in her coach. Conflicting
emotions filled her breast. Her
poverty made>her eager to make
sales; her pride made her shrink
from being street peddler.
So she went about crying in a
rather weak voice: "Doughnuts,
Doughnuts," and after every cry. in
a still weaker voice, Il hope no one
sees me-"
Anecd0te Wins Retention.
DR.. Egan told President Wilson
that he was in the same case. Gus
tom forced him to send in his res
ignation, but. he sincerely hoped
that somehow it would be over
looked. Whether it was because
the president was so pleased with
the capdor Of the minister and the
charm of his anecdote or whether
he thought the aptitude of the story
proved DR.. Egan too good diplo-
mat to lose, he did not displace him.
Under the Harding administra-
ton there have been signs of the
building up of a. more permanent
diplomatic establishment. Brand
Whitlock. whose appointment by
President Wilson was partisan at
the time, was retained by President
Harding as ambassador to Belgium
Hugh S. Gibson who was in the
diplomatic service in the previous
Democratic administration, has
been sent as minister to Poland. H.
Percival Dodge, a state depart
ment official who has been in the
service for years, was promoted
and sent as minister to the King
dom of the Serbs, Croats and Slo-
venes. There have been several
other cases of a similar nature.
International law is science as
intricate and exacting as diplo-
macy itself Most of this work is
done in Washington at the state de-
partment. Major Fred X. Nielsen,
who was appointed solicitor. the
chief legal officer of the depart
ment, by President Wilson, has
been retained in that position by
President Harding.
Whatever the policy may be or
has been, there is one official of
the state department who has given
it a stable and institutional one.
wholly aside from party changes
and strife. That is Alvey A. Adee,
second assistant secretary of state.
Mr.. Adee entered the diplomatic
service in 1S70-more than half
century ago. Although so years Of
age he is at his desk in the state
department every day. 1t would be
as inconceivable for a new presi-
dent or secretary of state TO ask
for Mr.. Adee's resignation on ac-
count of politics or accept it if it
were rendered. as it would for a
Republican president to refuse TO
live in the White house because his
Democratic predecessor had done
so.