.
www.ae

tRNERSITYºu'llºw
*
**
º
º
$
* *
* , *,
98.3%
º “ ºf
ºr s
tº)
\
, *
ſ:



*2 •,
FEB 20 191,
ADDRESS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOR LA-
TIONS ON SENATE BILL No. 1576, FOR THE PERMANENT
IMPROVEMENT OF THE AMERICAN CONSULAR SERVICE,
BY AUSTIN A. BURNHAM, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE
NATIONAL BUSINESS LEAGUE OF AMERICA, AT WASH-
INGTON, D.C., MARCH 9, 1908.
MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE ON
FoREIGN RELATIONs: In representing the National Busi-
ness League of America, an organization of practical busi-
ness men, in the interest of Senate bill No. 1576, for the
further reorganization of the consular service, my principal
endeavor will be to emphasize the provisions for the per-
manent improvement of the Service, which business men all
over the country have, for nearly a decade, been asking
the Congress to make a part of the national statutes. These
provisions were a part of the original Lodge bill, No. 1345,
the remnants of which were enacted, without debate in
either House, April 5, 1906. That bill, before mutilation,
was, in the opinion of business men generally, adequate to
strengthen the consular service in most if not all of its
points of weakness, and make it sufficiently serviceable to
the increasing demands of our exporting and importing
interests.
In brief, the Lodge bill as enacted April 5, 1906, provides
for the grading of the service; substitution of salaries for
fees; temporary transfer of certain consular officials by
the President; appointment of five inspectors of consulates;
abolishes the grade of commercial agent; forbids consular
officers and agents to engage in private business or private
law practice; requires consular officials to perform notarial
acts for fees specified by law; abolishes personal fees (ex-
cepting as to consular agents); empowers the President to
fix rates for certifying invoices, and partially Americanizes
the service.
The vital breath of the Lodge bill, however, was almost
stifled before enactment. The provisions for the merit
System of examination, appointment and promotion; ap-
pointments to be made to the lowest grade of the service;
promotions for demonstrated efficiency to vacancies in the
higher grades; creation of an examining board, and an age
limit for entrance to the service were stricken from the bill.
--> . . ~~ ra":
O \ .
‘MICHIgº'
Aº



2 - ADDRESS OF AUSTIN A. BTJRNHAM.
All these discarded provisions, however, were covered
by the Executive order of June 27, 1906. That order also
provided additionally for the rating of examination papers;
made vice and deputy consuls, clerks, and consular agents
eligible for promotion to consulships; also that as between
candidates of equal merit there shall be proportional repre-
sentation of all the States and Territories in the consular
service without reference to political affiliations.
This bill, No. 1576, now under consideration, practically
covers the discarded provisions of the original Lodge bill
and the additional provisions which make up the Executive
order. There are two minor amendments, however, sug-
gested by the bill.
First. The personnel of the examining board has been
changed so as to include the Chief of the Bureau of Manu-
factures of the Department of Commerce and Labor. As
the consular service is distinctly a business department of
the Government, it was thought but fair that the vast in-
dustrial interests of the country, which are largely exporting
interests also, should be specially represented on the board.
Thus the chiefs of the Consular Bureau, the Bureau of
Manufactures, and the Civil Service Commission would,
according to the bill, constitute the board.
Second. The Executive order (section 8) provides that
no one shall be examined who has not been specially desig-
nated by the President for appointment to the consular
service, subject to examination. That provision has been
omitted from the bill, as it was considered that the examin-
ing board would be perfectly competent to determine as to
the eligibility of applicants for examination, and that the
provision would impose a needless burden of detail on the
President.
Lest the intent of the bill as to the power of the examin-
ing board in relation to promotions be not clearly under-
stood, I desire to suggest that the following amendment be
made before the bill is reported: In section 5, after the
words “upon such examination” and before the words “no
person who, '' insert as follows: “All proposed promotions
in the consular service shall first be approved by the ex-
amining board, which shall be advised, by the Chief of the
Consular Bureau, of the service records of the candidates
for promotion.”
Under the Executive order Secretary Root is doing much
to reorganize the service on a basis which will insure its
uniform efficiency; but without a national statute to cover
ADDRESS OF AUSTIN A. BluRNHAM. 3
the work he is accomplishing, nothing will be permanent.
* An unfriendly administration, or one that might follow the
dangerous precept that to the victor belong the spoils,
would destroy every vestige of the Fixecutive order and
with it the system which the Secretary is developing and
making operative.
In the past regulations by the State Department and
Executive orders for the improvement of the consular
service have lacked permanence. Nearly fifty years ago
Secretary Seward tried to make the language clause oper-
ative. Afterwards, in 1866 and 1872, the State Depart-
ment made similar attempts, without results, and President
Cleveland's examination order in 1895 was more honored
in the breach than the observance. Hence the business
men of the country have the weightiest of reasons for the
immediate enactment of this bill, No. 1576, which contains
the vital provisions of the Executive order.
For nearly a decade every exporting and importing in-
terest and every industrial and commercial organization in
this country have, by letters, petitions, memorials, and
resolutions, repeatedly urged the Congress to favorable
legislative action along the lines I have indicated, but with-
out results. And, so far as business interests are advised,
this inertness on a matter of such grave import to American
trade is absolutely without valid reason.
It has been suggested that the merit system, if applied
by law to the consular service, would deprive the President
of a constitutional right. It is the opinion, however, of
some of the most eminent constitutional authorities in this
country that the objection has absolutely no excuse for
existence. I beg to quote one notable opinion: “Con-
gress simply was asked to establish, with the President's
concurrence, the same sort of rules for appointments in the
consular service that have long been established and main-
tained in regard to appointments in the Army and Navy.
Regulations of this kind are practically effective, and there
is no earthly reason why Congress and the President should
not agree upon them just as they have agreed upon them as
to the Army and Navy. The difference between regulations
so agreed upon incorporated in a statute and regulations
made by the President alone is largely a difference of per-
manence. If they are put in the statute, they will continue
indefinitely. If they are only established by an Executive
order, they are liable to be changed as Administrations
change.”
4 ADDRESS OF AUSTIN A. BURNHAM.
The Constitution provides that the President shall nomi-
nate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate
shall appoint. Under the proposed law which business
men are advocating the constitutional functions of the Pres-
ident would still be operative. He would nominate and,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint
as before. The vital advantage between the old system
and the new would be in results, in that none but competent
men would be admitted to the service, which would be in
strict accord with the spirit and purpose of the Constitution
and with the intent of its patriotic authors.
Under the old system we have had, and now have, some
eminently capable men in the consular service. We also
have been burdened with some very incompetent officials.
The service has simply been good in spots. It has been
said that our consular service is the best in the world.
That may or may not be the case. The opinion prevails
to some extent, however, that Germany has the most
efficient consular service of any nation on earth. Mainly
through that service she has been able to hold the lion's
share of the Latin-American trade for more than half a
century. France has an excellent consular system which
has the reputation of being the best also.
That, as a whole, our consular service to-day, although
improving, is far from being uniformly efficient and should
be reorganized on the merit system by law, is the opinion
of business men everywhere, who are using the service daily
and who are better qualified to properly estimate its com-
mercial value than any casual observer. Only from the
practical viewpoint of the exporter and importer can we
secure a true estimate of the American consular service.
The opinion prevails among business men that no for-
eigner should be employed in the American consular service.
He has sworn fealty to another nation and would be recreant
to his duty should he promote alien commercial interests.
As it is, our trade transactions and trade Secrets in many
foreign commercial centers are, and always have been, an
open book to citizens of competing nations. The folly of
this system of American representation by proxy was recog-
nized more than a hundred years ago by one of our greatest
Statesmen.
Thomas Jefferson, while he was American minister to
France (1785–1789), wrote to John Jay concerning foreigners
in the American consular service as follows: “Native
citizens, on several valuable accounts, are preferable to
ADDRESS OF AUSTIN A. BURNBIAM. 5
aliens, and to citizens alien-born. They possess our lan-
guage, know our laws, customs, and commerce; have,
generally, acquaintance in the United States; give better
satisfaction, and are more to be relied on in point of fidelity.”
James T. Du Bois, formerly consul-general at St. Gall,
one of the most efficient consular officials ever sent abroad
by this country, recently gave this timely advice: “Thor-
oughly Americanize the American consular service, and
keep it Americanized; for while we must have a foreign
service there is no good reason why we should have a sub-
service of foreigners. The day will come when no American
consular shield and no American flag will be placed above
foreign soil, unless a representative American citizen is
placed beneath these to take care of the business of the
American Government.” So provides the bill we are con-
sidering to-day.
Only young men, with brawn and brain to accomplish;
familiar with the natural, industrial and commercial re-
sources of the United States; political economy; elements
of international, commercial, and maritime law, and speak-
ing at least one modern language other than English, should
be permitted to enter the graded consular service.
The bill provides for an age limit for examination, with
a minimum of 21 years and a maximum of 40 years. This
eliminates the applicant who is too far advanced in years
to make an extended career in the service. A man in the
fifties or sixties will require several years of service under
the new conditions abroad before he fully meets the re-
quirements of his position. By the time he becomes
thoroughly efficient he is about ready to retire. Thus the
Government gets but a short-term service; whereas a young
man, under a perfect system of promotion from grade to
grade, can reasonably be relied upon for a long-term service,
climbing up the ladder of advancement until he fills the
highest consular position in the gift of the Government.
A potent factor for the improvement of our foreign
service will be the special courses now being made a part of
the curriculums of our great universities. Following the
example of Great Britain and France, the college of the
political sciences of the George Washington University is
now in course of organization by Dr. Richard D. Harlan.
This college will afford inestimable advantages to the young
men of this country seeking life careers in the consular or
diplomatic service. Here in the national capital the
various Departments of the Government, with their vast
6 ADDRESS OF AUSTIN A. BluRNHAM.
stores of information, will be freely open to the bright,
ambitious student whose future lies in foreign fields. Other
universities, too, are joining in the general plan for the
permanent betterment of the American consular service.
Under adequate consular laws, to guard well the point of
admission to the service and to insure merited promotion,
their efforts mean success; without those laws, lamentable
failure. -
The gist of the issue that confronts us then centers in
the proposition as to whether the merit system shall be
made permanent by law or simply a temporary spasm of
reform; whether the capable sons of American business men,
with the commercial instinct well developed, who have
been especially equipped by the commercial schools of our
great universities, shall, after a crucial test of examination,
enter the foreign service for successful life careers, or this
nation be represented abroad by appointees whose only
claim to recognition lies in party fealty; whether or not we
shall retrograde to the conditions which prevailed when
consular positions were peddled out for political favors as
hucksters exchange values in the market place. It must
be one thing or the other. There is no middle ground on
which a “half loaf’’ expedient can rest. e
Deeming our industrial and commercial advancement
abroad of paramount importance, the President has waived
his alleged constitutional rights, and by So doing subordi-
nated to the general welfare any prerogative he may have
by precedent heretofore exercised. Considering the vast
interests at stake, can the Congress do less than to promptly
ratify that action with adequate legislation and thus com-
plete a half-completed task?
With a national statute to sufficiently cover the Execu-
tive decree the great work of reorganization will be made
permanently effective; to the everlasting credit of the
Congress that favorably responds to the pressing demands
of industrial and commercial_interests.
944 o
Now 29 1950
FM
ſiliſii
74 OO