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Show Proposed Reorganization of the Diplomatic and Consular Services By .SECRETARY OP STATE HUGHES, Letter on Rogrers Bill dm The diplomatic service is greatly underpaid. It is well known that a man without private means, whatever his ability, cannot accept the more important im-portant posts of ambassador or minister. Of more immediate importance, however, is the fact that the salaries of secretaries in the diplomatic service are so low, the choice of candidates is restricted largely to young men of wealthy families who are able and willing, to a considerable extent, to pay their own way. It follows that there must be an increase in the salaries of diplomatic secretaries to broaden the field for selection. That would eliminate the necessity for the use of private incomes and permit the relative merits of candidates to be adjudged on the basis of ability alone. Furthermore, if young men of the greatest ability and intellectual ambition are to be attracted to the service there must be the prospect of conspicuous ability and fidelity will be rewarded by promotion. The consular service, on the other hand, while better paid, suffers from great limitations as a public career. There is no prospect of promotion promo-tion beyond the consular service. It is with difficulty that many of the best men are retained because of the tempting offers constantly made to them by the business world. There would be two distinct advantages to be realized from an amalgamation amal-gamation of the two services on an interchangeable basis : First, those highly desirable benefits of economy and efficiency which would accrue through a system of combined administration. Second, a more effective co-ordination of the political and the economic branches of the service. On the other hand, the present scale of consular salaries already is recognized as inadequate. To reach the problems more effectively I have deemed it of first importance im-portance that a new and adequate salary scale should be adopted. After a very careful examination into the actual requirements of these positions, it is thought that the scale of salaries proposed in the revised bill, which ranges by regular increments from $3,000 to $9,000, would suffice for the purpose which we have in mind. |
