Mr. MOORE. You mean north of the Potomac? Mr. O'CONNELL. There are very efficient men in the service. Right after the war you had in the department a man named Hernando de Soto who spoke six or seven languages and whose work was so efficient that I got a round-robin presented to Mr. Carr signed by 48 members of Congress. He is at Leipsic now. Mr. BROWNE. Our friend Mr. Gibson comes from California. Mr. WRIGHT. Mr. Rogers suggested that the entrance requirements of the Consular Service be read. It is only a short paragraph. The CHAIRMAN. I am inclined to think we should be quite liberal in hearing testimony in this matter. It is valuable for all of us, especially for the new members of the committee, and I have no desire to put any restriction on it even if they do go a little afield. Mr. WRIGHT. These are the regulations concerning the examination for the Consular Service. The CHAIRMAN. Suppose you insert them in the record. (The regulations referred to are as follows:) The examinations will consist of an oral and a written one, the two counting equally. The object of the oral examination will be to determine the candidate's business ability, alertness, general contemporary information, and natural fitness for the service, including moral, mental, and physical qualifications, character, address, and general education and good command of English. In this part of the examination the applications previously filed will be given due weight by the board of examiners, especially as evidence of the applicant's business experience and ability. The written examination will include those subjects mentioned in the Executive order, to wit. at least one modern language other than English-French, German, or Spanish (as amended by the board of examiners February 18, 1911)-the natural, industrial, and commercial resources and the commerce of the United States, especially with reference to possibilities of increasing and extending the foreign trade of the United States; political economy, and the elements of international, commercial, and maritime law. It will likewise include American history, government, and institutions; political and commercial geography; arithmetic (as used in commercial statistics, tariff calculations, exchange, accounts, etc.); the modern history, since 1850, of Europe, Latin America, and the Far East, with particular attention to political, commercial, and economic tendencies. In the written examination, composition, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and writing will be given attention. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Is the Civil Service Commission involved in any way in this examination conducted by the Department of State? Mr. WRIGHT. There is a representative of the Civil Service Commission on the examining boards for the Diplomatic and Consular Services. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. That is done more or less unofficially rather than by a statute. Mr. CARR. It is done by order of the President. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. This whole fabric rests on Executive order? Mr. CARR. Yes. Mr. BROWNE. Mr. Wright, do you think there is any good reason why the applicants that desire to take this examination should first go through the perfunctory method of having a nomination by the President? In all other lines of civil service anyone may apply, anyone who can comply with the general requirements specified by the Civil Service Commission, but in regard to diplomatic appointments or the civil-service examinations of consuls they first have to be nominated by the President, before they can even write on the examination, and that is a mere perfunctory matter. Mr. WRIGHT. May I explain that nomination by the President does not occur at first? The candidate for the service has to be designated for examination. In other words, he has to establish with the Department of State sufficient bona fides as to his reputation and antecedents and we look very closely into it by various ways after the designation to take the examination. He then takes the examination. Mr. COLE. Who makes the designation? Mr. WRIGHT. The Department of State in the name of the President pursuant to Executive order. Mr. COLE. No one can come here and take the examination until he is so designated. Mr. WRIGHT. No, sir. He takes the examination, and if successful, he is recommended by the Secretary of State to the President for nomination to the Senate for admission to the lowest grade of either service. Nomination comes up after examination and not before. Mr. BROWNE. In conducting a civil-service examination the applicant has to qualify and go through all the process of filling out a blank for the Civil Service Commission. Do you not think that safeguards it sufficiently without going through this process which is that really a Member of Congress or a United States Senator sends in the name of the applicant who fills out certain forms to the Secretary of State and to the President, and it is simply a perfunctory matter to certify that man. Mr. WRIGHT. May I say that we do not look at it from the political side at all. We look at it from the fulfillment of the desire expressed in the Executive order that there shall be as nearly as possible equivalence of geographical quota of representation in the service. Of course, we consider the recommendations of Members of Congress more valuable than the recommendations of other individ uals, and, further, may I say, with great respect, that it is far from perfunctory, because in the majority of these instances we have some of our more confidential means of examination to follow up each individual and find out what his or her antecedents are. In one or two instances we have found we could not designate an individual for examination because of what an investigation disclosed. Mr. LINTHICUM. Is there not a more basic reason than that, that being that the Diplomatic and Consular Service is absolutely under the Constitution, under the President, and even this civil-service examination is by Executive order? Mr. WRIGHT. That is correct. Mr. LINTHICUM. And which he could rescind at any time. Mr. WRIGHT. Correct. The CHAIRMAN. The civil-service examination is only a sort of advisory commission to the President. Mr. MOORE. A mere delegation of the President's primary authority under Constitution. Mr. WRIGHT. Correct. Mr. CONNALLY. You could not limit it in any way by statute. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Before Mr. Lineberger speaks I would ask consent of the committee to print certain official documents bearing upon this bill from Secretary Lansing, Secretary Hughes, President Harding, and President Coolidge. The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection, that may be done. STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER F. LINEBERGER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. Mr. LINEBERGER. Mr. Chairman and my former colleagues of the committee, I assure you that while I am no longer a member of this committee, my interest in this bill which was first introduced while I was still a member of this committee is by no means lessened by virtue of my separation from the committee. I am heartily in favor of this bill and have been from the very beginning. I do not think there is anything more important before the American Congress today than the reform of our Diplomatic and Consular Service. I believe that the Rogers bill more thoroughly meets the situation than any other bill now before the Congress, and I have no doubt that it will be reported out. My trip through Europe two years ago in which I visited various legations and embassies over there confirms more than ever the views which I had formerly held on the matter. I have recently compiled a small brochure or document which perhaps does not carry within it any information which is not already in the possession of the committee, but I should like very much for the record to be permitted to submit that document to the committee with the request that it be printed as a part of my testimony and a part of the hearing, and with that request and those brief remarks on the subject I have no desire to take any further time of the committee. Mr. CONNALLY. Is that the same article that was in the Congressional Record a few days ago? Mr. LINEBERGER. It was. The CHAIRMAN. If there is no objection the article by Mr. Lineberger will be made a part of the hearings. (The document referred to appears at conclusion of hearings.) (Thereupon, at 11.45 o'clock a. m. the committee adjourned to meet again at 10 o'clock a. m. Wednesday, January 16, 1924.) FOREIGN SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., January 16, 1924. The committee this day met, Hon. John Jacob Rogers presiding. STATEMENT OF HON. J. BUTLER WRIGHT, THIRD ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE-Resumed. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Mr. Wright, will you resume the stand? When the committee adjourned yesterday you said you had two or three more points you would like to bring out. Will you proceed in your own way with what you have in mind? Mr. WRIGHT. Mr. Chairman, there were three or four points upon. which I touched yesterday, and regarding which I should like not necessarily to correct but to amend the record. I might do so now or later. Mr. ROGERS of Massachusetts. Do it now, if you please. Mr. WRIGHT. The question was asked yesterday as to our procedure relative to transportation of the wives, families, and effects of married clerks, and I endeavored to differentiate in that testimony between the custom and the provisions of law concerning married officers in the Diplomatic and Consular Services and married members of the clerical staff of those services. I may have conveyed the impression that the provisions of law did not provide for the transportation of wives and families of these clerks. If I did so, I was incorrect in intimating that it is an inhibition of law, but I was correct in stating that it is not the custom of the department to do I have a memorandum here which, with your permission, I can place in the record, which is as follows: There is no inhibition of law against the appointment of married clerks or the transportation of married clerks and the members of their families, including their household and personal effects. It has, however, been the practice of the department not to appoint married clerks for the reasons stated in the following quotation, which is taken from page 11 of the pamphlet entitled "American Diplomatic Service": "Preference is given to honorably discharged soldiers and sailors who possess the requisite qualifications. In the case of men such appointments are restricted to single men, without dependents, as it is seldom found practicable to pay compensation in an amount sufficiently large to justify the appointment of married men nor is the appropriation sufficient to pay the transportation of wives and families." In exceptional cases we have appointed married clerks. One was on account of special ability, which proved the exception rather than the rule, and another was a case in which a man appointed as a clerk was married while at his post of duty. So the question of the transportation of the family of that clerk to the post did not arise, 63 |