show the membership that this branch of the service is practically self-supporting, even with the increase.

Mr. CARR. I will insert a statement in my testimony which shows that the income of the State Department foreign service last year totaled $7,981,566.61.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you give the items?

Mr. CARR. Consular fees, $6,805,579.30; fees for passports issued by the Department of State and abroad to Americans, $1,144,862.63; miscellaneous fees, certifications in the State Department, and various small miscellaneous items, $31,124.68.

Mr. COLE. Those are the items that make up the total?

Mr. CARR. Yes, a total of $7,981,566.61.

The CHAIRMAN. What about the fees for visé of passports?
Mr. CARR. Those amount to a little over $4,000,000.

Mr. BROWNE. In which item is that?

Mr. CARR. In the consular fees.

The CHAIRMAN. The fees for the visé of passports are included in your consular fees, and item number two is for passport fees?

Mr. CARR. Issued to our people abroad.

The CHAIRMAN. What is miscellaneous?

Mr. BROWNE. If the visé fees were cut down, which I understand

is contemplated, that would reduce the revenues.

Mr. CARR. Somewhat; not as much as you might think.

Mr. BROWNE. Two or three million dollars?

The CHAIRMAN. No. According to the last estimate, I think it was about $850,000.

Mr. COLE. Then the foreign service is an income producer of about $5,000,000 surplus?

The CHAIRMAN. Not surplus. It costs about $10,000,000. raised the passport and visé fees about four years ago.

We

Mr. COOPER. In that connection, can you give us the approximate figures as to the total salary lists, diplomatic and consular?

Mr. CARR. I have already given that. I would like now to give you a general statement. In the year 1923, the total cost of all that was done through the State Department in the foreign service, including our obligations to foreign governments, amounted to $14,199,432.72. Out of that, $5,000,000 was our payment to Colombia under treaty; $250,000 was our payment to Panama under treaty, and $573,921.31 were various sundry obligations under treaty and otherwise, making a total of $5,783,931.21, leaving for operation of the State Department, for Diplomatic and Consular Service, a total of only $8,435,501.51. Deducting from this operating expenses the amount of receipts, which I have just given you, namely, $7,981,566.61, there is left the actual cost of the entire foreign service and Department of State in Washington, $455,934.90. There is no other Government service that can touch that record.

The CHAIRMAN. We must bear in mind that there is a falling off of the visé fees.

Mr. LINTHICUM. We ought not to take into account the $5,000,000 paid to Colombia or the $250,000 paid to Panama.

Mr. CARR. They are no part of the operating expenses of the State Department, and I have tried to omit that from consideration.

Mr. LINTHICUM. If they had been eliminated, we would have an

excess.

Mr. CARR. Eliminating them, leaving them out of the account, you have $8,435,501.51 of expenditures against receipts of $7,981,000, so that the actual cost above the cash receipts of the Diplomatic and Consular Service and Department of State in Washington was $453,934.90. I will insert this table in the record.

(The table referred to is as follows:)

Mr. LINTHICUM. I think these figures are very important. Mr. CARR. I think it is an excellent showing for the department. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. I have one final question, and that is, whether you regard legislation of this kind as important legislation for the future of our foreign service?

Mr. CARR. I can best answer that in this way: In my judgment there have been two really fundamental measures in the entire history of this country for the improvement of the foreign service. The first was in 1856, when a bill was passed, the purpose of the original bill being nearly what this is, but changed in the deliberations in Congress and finally enacted as the law of 1856, which gave form to the diplomatic and consular organization. There have been other bills since. It was not until 1906 that there was another bill which pretended to improve the service, and that bill related wholly to the consular service and was a very excellent measure, and without which this bill could probably not be considered now. But the second measure in all the history of this country in relation to the foreign service, and by far the most important and most far-reaching, is this measure which you have before you. There has not been anything like it since the Government began to exist. In my judgment, if you enact it, you have a bill which will furnish the basic structure of the organization for your foreign service for 50 years, a bill on which you can build any kind of a foreign service you please, a bill on which you can provide for ministers and am

bassadors, secretaries, and consuls in the light of what you believe to be responsive to the opinion of the country. I do not think I can stress too much the importance of this bill being enacted into law.

Mr. COOPER. Following it up, the changes that are made can not be done solely upon the initiative of the State Department or the Executive. Congress will have to be consulted each time.

Mr. CARR. Yes; I mean that. I mean to say that here is a basic measure on which Congress can build.

Mr. COOPER. I simply wanted that interpretation to be made clear.

Mr. CARR. Congress can add year by year such improvements or alterations as it wishes, and can use this measure as a basis for 50 years to come.

Mr. COOPER. This will be the basis for subsequent improvements. Mr. CARR. The basis for future improvements.

The CHAIRMAN. In making this estimate as to the increased cost of this service, have you classified the men in the Diplomatic and Consular Service according to the bill?

Mr. CARR. According to the bill tentatively, for the purposes of estimate only.

The CHAIRMAN. For purposes of the bill?

Mr. CARR. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. There might be something said about that on the floor. You do not fix the number in the bill, in class 1, class 2, or any of the classes?

Mr. CARR. I understand Mr. Connally has an amendment to fix the maximum in each class.

Mr. MOORES. That is unfortunate because an emergency may arise in which it is necessary to change that.

Mr. CARR. There will be a sufficient margin to take care of those emergencies. I have always, as you know, before this committee, objected quite strongly to fixing the number of men in each class, because I think it interferes with effective administration, but provided a reasonably sufficient margin is left in each class I have no objection.

Mr. O'CONNELL. I think we have gone sufficiently into this subject, and I move that the hearings be closed.

(The motion was adopted, and thereupon, at 12.05 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned, to meet again at the call of the chairman.)

At the request of the committee, I have obtained from the War, Navy, and Commerce Departments data regarding the salaries, allowances, etc., of the military, naval, and commercial attachés attached to missions of this Government abroad. The following is a brief digest of this information:

The above are chosen as representative examples. The salaries in each case depend on rank of the officer filling the position. The average annual pay of all military attachés is $4,900. The average expense allowance per annum for all military attachés' offices is $300.

Salaries in each case depend on the rank of officers filling the positions. Expense allowances must be fully accounted for.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Washington, D. C., December 23, 1922.

Hon. JOHN J. ROGERS,

Committee on Foreign Affairs,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. ROGERS: With regard to your bill (H. R. 12543) for the reorganization and improvement of the Diplomatic and Consular Services, I desire to express to you the attitude of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Our tenth annual meeting, held in May of this year, made the following declaration on the part of the 1,300 and more chambers of commerce and trade associations which constitute this chamber:

"The business men of our country are most appreciative of the valuable services rendered to them day by day both in the diplomatic and consular branches of the Department of State. For these services adequate support should at all times be given."

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Our organization is, therefore, solidly committed in favor of adequate support for the Consular and Diplomatic Services. Adequate support" means recognition of the present defects in organization, in compensation, and in personnel. We feel that the increased importance of our international relationships, particularly in view of the unsettled conditions abroad, makes it necessary for the United States Government to follow foreign affairs more closely in all sections of the world. While our membership, as broadly representative of business, takes especial interest in the development of the expert commercial service under the Department of Commerce, we are, nevertheless, appreciative of the fact that our consular and diplomatic officers under the Department of State are a great force through which our public and private interests abroad generally, including our commercial interests, are protected

and furthered. We have noted the improvement of the foreign services of other Governments, and we have felt that our own Consular and Diplomatic Services should not be allowed to remain largely on a pre-war basis, no longer adequate to meet the pressing needs of representation of the United States. With the chamber committed by resolution in annual meeting in favor of such a program of adequate support for the Consular and Diplomatic Services, we have taken a special interest in H. R. 12543. That bill has been examined by our staff and by our board of directors, and our board decided that the chamber should support the main principles in that bill as tangibly carrying out the chamber's announced policy.

We have, accordingly, not hesitated to call this measure to the attention of the chambers of commerce and trade associations in our membership and to invite their approval. For your information I may say that we have had indication, not only from organizations here at home, but likewise from American chambers of commerce established in foreign countries, that the improvement of the Consular and Diplomatic Services promised by congressional action along the lines now proposed will mean much for American business.

We believe that the things that need doing at this time include the following: 1. Reclassification of the Consular Service on a better organization basis. 2. Reclassification of the service of diplomatic secretaries on a basis of salaries comparable to those paid in the consular branch.

3. Breaking down the water-tight compartments of the Consular and Diplomatic Services, enabling the Secretary of State to use good men in either branch of the foreign service as events may make advisable, and opening up broader careers to the men in the service.

4. Opening up the career of diplomatic secretary to men other than those of independent means.

5. Enactment of retirement legislation for the career men both in the Diplomatic and Consular Services, thus providing for the retirement of men, grown old in the service, retaining good men, and attracting men who can not afford to enter the services under the present system.

6. Giving recognition in basic law to needed post expense allowances, including necessary representation allowances for officers in the foreign service of the United States in direct connection with their official duties.

If you and your colleagues will put through legislation bringing about improvement on these lines, I believe it will be of direct and undoubted benefit to American business; will give us a more competent foreign service all round; and will place our foreign service on a basis more in harmony with the democratic ideals of the United States than at present.

Very truly yours,

JULIUS H. BARNES, President.

REORGANIZING OUR FOREIGN SERVICE.

[A paper read by John Jacob Rogers, member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House, of Representatives, at the Institute of Politics, Williamstown, Mass., August 21, 1923.]

The foreign service of a nation is its first line of defense. Before armies or navies are requisitioned, before the decision where there shall be peace or war is arrived at, diplomacy has been diligently seeking a way out of the controversy. Skilled and efficient diplomacy has many times in history averted 'war. Bungling or misdirected efforts by novices in diplomacy have many times precipitated the conflict.

It is truly said that an army or navy can rise no higher than its personnel. No matter how efficient the engines of war or the battle cruisers, it is the men 'behind" who determine the issue. But diplomacy, as it defends its country, has no engines of war or battleships. Diplomacy is man power-or, more accurately, the brain power of man power-and nothing else. It would seem to follow, then, that a sagacious nation, considering the supreme importance of the quest, would strain every nerve, and go to almost any length, to secure the services of those among its population who were most capable and most skilled in the arts and practices of diplomacy. The additional cost which would result is the merest trifle when compared with the certain return to the nation. Why, the total annual cost of our foreign service is only about one-fourth the cost of a dreadnought; and the cost of certain changes, to be discussed later in this paper, amount to less than that of a single gun on that dreadnought.