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this service in such a way that we get the right men, train them, and hold them. Those three things are absolutely essential. Remember you can not separate business and diplomacy. They go hand in hand. Economic problems are at the bottom of all wars.

Mr. MOORE. Do you recall what your post or representation allowance totaled while you were in the State Department?

Mr. POLK. During the war, of course, it was very high; $700,000 in 1918. Mr. MOORE. Have you that figure, how much it would take to take care of this thing in the way of representation allowances?

Mr. POLK. Not in time of peace.

Mr. MOORE. Would you care to conjecture what it would cost under present conditions?

Mr. POLK. I really do not know. My guess would be of no value. I do feel from the commercial and political standpoint that we can not adequately meet the situation until we have a service properly educated and properly paid, so we can hold them after we educate them. No man in private business would educate men just to let them go out in some other line of work.

Mr. ROGERS. I want to repeat for the members of the committee who were not present what I have said informally, that a very large number of organizations and of individuals have indicated a desire to be recorded in favor of this measure, the organizations and individuals in question being both people who would interest the committee and, I think, would inform the committee. I do not want to multiply these hearings, and unless it is the pleasure of the committee otherwise, it occurred to me that perhaps we had about all the information that we needed to go ahead. I should very much like to have the committee's viewpoint on that, however,

Mr. MOORE. I do not think we need information on that subject. I do think that the House needs information on this subject, and there are some members who read the hearings. We have quite full hearings, nearly 100 pages, plus what there has been to-day.

Mr. COCKRAN. I think, Mr. Chairman, we might conclude the hearings now, as we have been informed as far as information from the outside can benefit us. I move that the hearings be closed.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection the hearings will be closed.

(Thereupon, at 11.30 o'clock a. m., the committee adjourned to meet again at the call of the chairman.)

THE DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR SERVICE

OF THE UNITED STATES

The Activities and Needs for Reorganization
and Improvement of the Nation's
Foreign Service

By Representative W. F. LINEBERGER, of California
Former Member House Foreign Affairs Committee

"The Foreign Service of Our Government Needs to
be Reorganized and Improved."

-President Calvin Coolidge

84129-24-15

215

THE DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES.

VIEWS OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE CONCERNING THE FOREIGN SERVICE.

In every part of the earth the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States are watching every turn of events in their relation to the general policies of his Government. They report every source of international irritation; they note the signals of economic and political unrest, of internataional rivalries, prejudices, subversive tendencies, and discriminatory policies. They aid the Government not merely in settling disputes but in removing or limiting the causes of possible controversy. * * *

Every American should feel ashamed that any country in the world should have a better diplomatic organization than the United States. This is not a matter simply of national pride; it is a mater of naional securiy.

The truth is that our foreign service is undermanned and underpaid. * * * You can not have an efficient foreign service without having trained men and can not keep men without an adequate system for their selection and maintenance; and you can not keep men who have been properly selected and trained and are invaluable to their country unless you offer reasonable opportunities for promotion.

CHARLES EVANS HUGHES.

FOREWORD.

In this volume is contained a comprehensive analysis of the organization and administration of the Diplomatic and Consular Service of the United States under the limitations imposed upon the Department of State by existing law. The conclusion is reached that there is need for complete reorganization, unification, and coordination of these services if this Government is to maintain its proper position and dignity abroad among the great nations of the earth. At the end of the World War the United States suddenly accumulated many new and great international interests; its Diplomatic and Consular Service assumed a new importance. American business interests found new avenues of commerce and trade opened up to them in all parts of the world. To the Department of State logically were their inquiries for assistance directed, with the result that new and involved duties became a part of the hitherto already arduous work of the officers of the Diplomatic and Consular Service.

Compensation and prospects insufficient to secure and hold men of ability other than those of independent means have hampered the development of the foreign service. Our ambassadors, ministers, secretaries, and consuls have been and are to-day, handicapped in their work by the meager salaries allowed them in comparison with those paid the representatives of other countries. Trained and adequate staffs of recognized ability are indispensable to the Government, and the officers of the foreign service should by all means be assured that conspicuous ability and fidelity will be appropriately recognized and rewarded by their Government. The future of the foreign service is in the hands of Congress.

I. ORGANIZATION OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

Since the World War the United States Government has assumed a new position among the family of nations of the world. Its intercourse with foreign countries is to-day unavoidably more active and constant than ever before. The suddenly accumulated new interests and responsibilities imposed naturally greater pressure upon the Department of State, particularly as this department is charged directly with the maintenance of peace and the extension of friendship with foreign countries.

217

Many new international interests were at once established, new possibilities for participation in foreign affairs were visioned by American business men, new openings for trade and commerce made manifest. Business organizations turned to the Department of State with varied demands for information with regard to new avenues for foreign trade development, as well as for aid in the extension of that international commerce which became immediately a new field for American business. This demand called logically for greater activity, greater initiative, greater effort, on the part of the State Department.

American business men infrequently come into direct contact with the officials or the representatives of the Department of State and few possibly have realized how the forces of this department are ever at work to promote the financial, industrial, economic, and commercial interests of the country as well as its political position among the nations of the world. A certain apathy, therefore, seemingly has existed regarding the form of organization of the department; of its personnel; of the remuneration given men charged with most important missions. The officers of the Department of State are, indeed, the outposts of the Nation-its first line of offense and defense-but they are inspired and controlled in all their acts only by the methods of peace. A brief outline of the history of the department, its functions, and the important duties of its officers, from the secretary down, will enable a better understanding of that department of the Government which, through its Diplomatic and Consular Services, is charged directly by law with the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States.

During the early history of our Government the Secretary of State was entitled, much after the manner of most European governments, the "Secretary of Foreign Affairs." This was in the year 1781, the birth of what was called the Department of Foreign Affairs. It occupied as its offices two rooms, one for the secretary and one for his deputy and clerks. The office rent for the first year was itemized as $200.

In the present year of 1923, the Department of State is housed in the im posing building companioning the White House, where 604 members of the home office under the Assistant secretaries labor as the hands and eyes and counsellors of the Secretary of State, upon whose shoulders the burden of its great responsibility ultimately rests. And in the field of foreign service, acting as representatives to gather information and to carry out policies in all foreign countries, the personnel is listed as 3,447. Though for many years now it has borne the familiar title of the Department of State, it is peculiarly the Department of Foregin Affairs, as it was entitled by those who first conceived it.

Immediately after the Spanish War, when the labors of the State Department became more intensive and more extensive, the home work was distributed according to certain so-called politico-geographical divisions. For instanc, there was primarily established as then of greatest moment as an example and standard for subsequent divisions, the far eastern division. Here were grouped together experts who, through experience in the Diplomatic Service or the Consular Service were familiar with the living conditions, the political, and trade conditions of Japan and China, the great people that made up the Far East. All correspondence that dealt in any way with these countries was directed to this group of Far East experts. The value of such an organization led immediately to the establishment of other divisions along these politico-geographical lines, and to-day the organization of the department includes six such divisions as follows: Division of Far Eeastern Affairs, Division of Latin-American Affairs, Division of Western European Affairs, Division of Near Eastern Affairs, Division of Mexican Affairs, and Division of Eastern European Affairs. Such organizations with experts in every corner of the world have made the home service branch of the State Department immeasurably more effective in its dealings with world problems, as these divisions are charged with the general supervision of our relations, diplomatic and consular, political and economic, with the countries falling within their respective fields.

The commissioned officers of the Department of State are of course the Secretary of State, the Undersecretary, three Assistant Secretaries, and the Solicitor; and, too there are trained men at the heads of various important bureaus and divisions that have to do with the general conduct of the department's multifarious duties.

The Secretary of State is charged, under the direction of the President, with the duties appertaining to correspondence with the public ministers and

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