Probation: Period of Trial or Instruction in the

Department of State

The caliber of the men accepted in the foreign service would be considerably raised if they were required to undergo a preliminary course of training before they were permitted to present themselves for the final oral examination. The French employ such a system, and some of our great exporting corporations, like the Standard Oil, have a similar procedure for the selection of their foreign representatives. The Standard Oil Company pays a fair salary to the candidates during the period of instruction, but does not give them a definite position with the company until they have satisfactorily passed all the tests.

The Government ought likewise to make a small appropriation to pay the expenses of the candidates while pursuing the course of instruction. It would be money well spent if the Government succeeded thereby in the elimination of any candidates really unsuited to serve as representatives. Unless those who may be rejected are compensated for the time they have have spent working at the State Department they will consider that they have a claim for appointment and will appeal to Congressmen and cause so much friction as to endanger the practical value of this important reform.

The efficiency of the foreign service depends upon the exclusion of those who do not have the personal qualifications to make successful diplomatic or consular representatives. The written examination can never disclose this, and we must depend upon the oral examinations and the probationary period to show what men are

not suited for the foreign service career. The Committee cannot place too much emphasis on the need of maintaining this selection of the candidates on the basis of their personal qualifications, but as between all those who have these qualifications those who can pass the best examinations should be chosen, and there is no adequate reason why the residence or financial standing of the applicant should interfere with a choice based on merit only.

A Training School for the Foreign Service

There is a perennial interest in the establishment of a Government training school for the foreign service. Some other governments have such schools where the candidates are given the benefit of a careful preparation in international law, diplomacy, diplomatic history, language, etc., but there are serious objections to the plan especially in the United States. The recruiting of the foreign service would be much better if the examinations were kept open to all who give evidence of adequate capacity and general education.

On the other hand, there is every advantage in the unofficial establishment of special courses of training for the foreign service in our principal universities. Serious efforts have been made to establish such institutions, notably at Columbia, Yale, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in the George Washington University, and the Georgetown University. The elaborate plan of courses worked out in some of these universities has been of benefit in giving better preparation to the few men who have availed themselves of the opportunity, but it has been impossible to build up any

adequate training school because at the present time the examinations are not really competitive, and because of the poor salary and promotion conditions in the diplomatic service.

The French Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques furnishes an admirable course in preparation for the foreign service. Although the candidates who take the government examinations receive no credit for their attendance at the school, nevertheless it is only exceptionally that a man enters the service without the preparation which it affords. More recently another school, established in Paris, trains men for these examinations, and the rivalry between the two is stimulating. In the diplomatic section of the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, which offers a training for diplomats and consuls, will be found young men from all parts of the world who have come to prepare themselves for the foreign service of their own country.' The Ecole Libre, presided over by a remarkable group of teachers, has carried French influence to all parts of the world. It would be of great advantage to this country if similar institutions could be established at the capital or in some of our principal cities.

SALARIES IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE

No reform in the foreign service is more necessary than an adequate increase in salaries in all branches. The evil effect of the present niggardly salaries has been especially felt in the diplomatic service. After years of

1Some of our own diplomatic secretaries and consuls who have taken this course of training, are: Hon. Hugh Gibson, recently appointed Minister to Poland; Hon. Arthur Orr, Hon. William Dawson, and others.

faithful work the highest grade secretaries receive the ridiculous salary of $3,000 per year.

In the principal capitals of Europe such a sum does not suffice a single man to maintain himself in a manner befitting a representative of this country. Under these circumstances, only men with independent means can continue in the diplomatic service. A similar situation prevails in regard to the posts of minister and ambassador. A nation that prides itself on being democratic should remedy this condition. President Taft said, before the National Board of Trade, January 26, 1910:

We boast ourselves a democratic country. We say that there is no place within the gift of the people to which we may not select the most humble inhabitant, providing he be fit to discharge its duty, and yet we have an arrangement which makes it absolutely impossible for anyone but a millionaire to occupy the highest diplomatic post.

Now I ask you whether that is consistency; whether it is not the purest kind of demagogy. By demagogy I mean the advancement of an argument which seems to be in favor of democracy but which, when it actually works out, is in favor of plutocracy. Our service, in the highest grades, is the worst paid of any among the great States. The facts stand out in the following table, which compares the salaries of American Ambassadors with those of France and Great Britain:

Particularly unfortunate is the situation of a diplomat in our service, devoted to his work and useful in office, who wishes to marry any but an heiress. Unless he have

*For the purpose of making a rough approximation, the moderate allowance of $10,000 has been made as the value to the ambassador of a government-owned embassy, although it probably would reach double that figure if the ambassador were housed in a manner corresponding to his rank and the social requirements of his office. At the present time a war allowance is made to American ambassadors to meet the unusual conditions, but as this has not as yet been made permanent it is not included in this table.