Since the civil government was established not an appointment has been made in the islands with any reference to considerations of political influence or to aught else save the fitness of the man and the needs of the service.

For the future we have the following promise, in the splendid sentences of the President's recent message:

It is important to have this system obtain at home, but it is even more important to have it applied rigidly in our insular possessions. Not an office should be filled in the Philippines or Porto Rico with any regard to the man's partisan affiliations or services, with any regard to the political, social, or personal influence which he may have at his command; in short, heed should be paid to absolutely nothing save the man's own character and capacity and the needs of the service.

The administration of these islands should be as wholly free from the suspicion of partisan politics as the administration of the army and navy. All that we ask from the public servant in the Philippines or Porto Rico is that he reflect honor on his country by the way in which he makes that country's rule a benefit to the people who have come under it. This is all that we should ask, and we cannot afford to be content with less.

If this promise be fulfilled, we shall advance with increasing honor along the way our national destiny has marked for us, bringing new opportunity and greater prosperity to those whom we are to influence. If it fail, we shall have been recreant to an implicit trust, and we shall have brought discredit on ourselves as a nation in our own sight and before humanity. J. H. HOLLANDER.

AMBASSADORS OF TRADE.

THERE is one point in which our consular service resembles the Most Noble Order of the Garter as once characterized by an English nobleman; that is to say, "there is no d- nonsense about merit" connected with the selection of its members. But this is not, perhaps, its greatest defect. Its worst fault lies in the fact that the tenure of office is so insecure that men of ability seek other employment for their talents; for they are not inclined to enter a service which promises no career, and from which they would be almost inevitably dismissed after a few brief years of ill-requited labor. It is true that there is no dearth of applicants for consulates, and that there are some good men among them; but what a small quantity of merit there is to all this intolerable deal of incompetence! Indeed, it is remarkable that we get so many good men and such an efficient service out of this unpromising material. The Department of State has, unfortunately, little to do with the selection. That is managed to a great extent by politicians, whose interest in the welfare of the service is small in comparison with their desire to provide offices for their friends and followers. So with every change of administration the Department of State reluctantly gives up the men whom it has trained, and begins again its Sisyphus-like task with another lot of somewhat miscellaneous material.

The whole system is an annoyance to the President, to the Department of State, to the commercial interests of the country, to travellers abroad, in fact to everyone except the aforesaid politicians who distribute the consulates, and who, in the words of the prophet, "rejoice as men rejoice when they divide the spoil." Yet such is the force of inertia that no one has been able to change the system. Again and again attempts have been made to secure consular reform, but without effect. All the weight of reason is on the side of reform; but the politicians oppose the dead weight of a silent resistance, and this stone of stumbling still remains across the path of our commercial development. For years thoughtful men, statesmen as well as merchants, have written and spoken in advocacy of the adoption of a rational system; but I have

never seen a single counter-argument of any importance from the opponents of the reform.

At the present moment a very serious effort is being made to overcome this vis inertia. In the last session of Congress, Mr. Lodge presented to the Senate a bill for consular reorganization, and during the present session Mr. Adams, of Pennsylvania, has introduced into the House another measure for consular reform. The question has also been taken up seriously by the commercial interests of the country. A National Committee on Consular Reorganization has been formed; and this committee, of which Mr. H. A. Garfield is chairman, represents the interests of nearly all the chambers of commerce and similar commercial bodies throughout the country. This committee held a meeting in Washington about the middle of December last and recommended substantially the measures included in the Lodge Bill. The Lodge Bill thus approved by the National Committee on Consular Reorganization has been again introduced in the Senate, and Mr. Burton has introduced a precisely similar measure in the House.

The Adams Bill is a somewhat vague and immature measure which leaves nearly all the reorganization to be worked out by a Commission consisting of the President, two senators, three members of the House of Representatives, and an official of the Department of State; but the bill which has been drawn up under the supervision of the National Committee on Consular Reorganization is a much more complete and well-developed system of reform. It establishes four grades of consulgeneral and six grades of consul. Applicants for the service are to be examined by a board which is to consist of the Civil Service Commissioners, an official of the Department of State, and a consul-general or consul, designated by the President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the service, the board is to furnish the President with a list of five persons who have passed the examination with highest credit. From this list the President is to make his selection.

It is to be observed that the composition of the board, as indicated above, will insure a fair and sufficiently searching examination, while the fact that the President may choose from five candidates will allow for a proper discrimination which cannot be made simply by a civil service examination; for in selecting consular officials there are other things to be considered besides the candidate's knowledge of certain facts or his ability to answer certain questions of an academic or even of a practical nature. There is a story which Mr. Labouchere told one night in the House of Commons about a brilliant member of the diplomatic corps

who in his youth presented himself in a light-hearted way for examination for the service, and, after failing to answer the various questions propounded to him, was much surprised to find that he had not only been passed, but placed at the head of the list. Upon meeting one of his examiners he inquired how such a thing had happened, seeing that he was utterly ignorant of the subjects on which he had been examined. "That's just it, my dear fellow," said the great man. "We saw you knew nothing, but your manner was so free from restraint under what to some people would have been peculiarly embarrassing circumstances that we said to each other, That's the very man to make a diplomatist.' Whether the tale be true or not, it at least points a moral. Both in the diplomatic and in the consular service a man's personal characteristics are no less important than his knowledge of facts. The candidate's personality has to be taken into consideration. A consul is, in a certain sense, the representative of his country. To the people among whom he is stationed and to the local authorities he is the impersonation of his Government. He should be a man of dignity, of self-possession, of good address and bearing, of tact and discretion, who should command the respect and confidence of foreign merchants and officials, and who should be honored even by his travelling countrymen. These qualifications cannot be determined by a civil service examination, but they are matters which should receive careful consideration. Hence, the President must be allowed some discretion in making a selection from among those whose names are presented to him by the board of examiners.

When Prince Gortchakoff was at the head of the Russian Foreign Office, the candidates for the diplomatic service, after passing the examination, were always granted an audience with His Excellency, who then made a final decision by observing the manner in which they entered the room, the way in which they addressed him, and their general deportment during the interview. A consul may know all about invoices and ships, and also about seals and sealing-wax; but if he be rude and undignified, if he lack savoir faire and savoir vivre, he could serve his country to better advantage in that obscure region known as "the classic shades of private life."

The proposed measure, while leaving the character of the examination to be determined mainly by the board of examiners, nevertheless specifies that it shall include French, German, Spanish, and "questions designed to ascertain each applicant's knowledge of the commercial resources of the United States, especially with reference to the possibilities of increasing and extending the trade of the United States with

foreign countries." There is also a provision for an examination in law for those consuls who are to be assigned to countries where extra-territorial jurisdiction is exercised. It is, of course, very difficult to lay down in a congressional bill a definite and proper course of examination. A great deal has to be left to the discretion of the examining board, and therefore the character of the examination will depend upon the character of the board. The best way to establish a thorough system of examination for the consular service is to establish a board consisting of men of ability and integrity who are not subject to the changes and chances of political life. This would be accomplished by the appointment of the board contemplated in the Lodge Bill. The three Civil Service Commissioners would insure stability and uniformity to the examination; and the officials of the State Department and the consular service, looking at the matter from a more professional point of view, would take care that the questions covered those things of which a knowledge is specially necessary to a consul.

Examination is not a new thing in our consular service. In 1866 the Department of State issued an order that all applicants for consulates should be examined. At any rate, there is a tradition that the Department was guilty of such an order; but I believe it is not now to be found, either in the archives or in any other place. However, we know that a board of examiners met in pursuance of such an order and that two candidates out of nine were rejected, one for lack of knowledge of foreign languages, the other for general incompetence. I believe this was the only examination held under the order of 1866. The question, as well as the questioning, was allowed to slumber until 1872, when an executive order was issued on the subject. This was superseded by another executive order on March 14, 1873, and under this latter order several examinations were held. They were not very difficult, but the system was found effective, the service was improved, and the Department was relieved of much embarrassment. However, in the second year of its age the experiment died an untimely death from the same disease which caused the demise of the Civil Service Commission, since happily revived. The matter was taken up again in 1895, when the President issued an order by which all consuls whose salaries were not more than $2,500 or less than $1,000 were required to pass an examination before receiving their commissions; and under this order examinations have been held and some candidates have been found wanting.

The measure now advocated by the National Committee on Consular Reorganization contemplates an examination of all consuls-general and