effected during the term of probation as a prerequisite for final appointment. The policies were made nonassignable. In this country it might be well also to have them deposited with the Government. Another precedent is found in the German compulsory old-age insurance, adopted in 1881, for the lower grades of the civil service.

The salaries paid by the Government in the lower grades of the service are generally higher than those paid by private employers, so that it is not believed that the requirement of insurance would entail any unreasonable hardship on employees.

So far as those who enter the service hereafter are concerned, it is believed that such a plan would furnish an excellent solution of the problems of superannuation and disability.

It would therefore seem wise if Congress were to provide that the further admission of persons into the classified service should be based upon the condition that the persons so admitted shall provide against their own superannuation or other disability by adequate annuity insurance, the premiums to be deducted from their salaries, and that superannuation and disability annuities for those now in the service should also be provided for, to be secured, so far as practicable, by similar deductions from salaries. To accomplish these purposes it would seem a wise provision that a committee of experts should be selected, either by detail from the public service or otherwise, to aid the President in preparing suitable rules for accomplishing the above results. The Commission would be glad to cooperate in any measures which may be devised for this purpose.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

The merit system of competitive examinations has proved so successful that it has been extended from time to time by the different Presidents to cover most of the positions to which it can now be appropriately applied. The system has also been adopted in several States and cities, where it has been found to conduce to efficiency and economy. In their last annual report the Commissioners of the District of Columbia said:

The increased experience of the Commissioners adds weight to their frequent recommendations in favor of the application of a civil-service system to all employees of the District government. The pressure for employment and patronage grows stronger with the progress of time and the increase in the number of employees necessary to discharge the municipal duties, and presents embarrassments from which the authorities and the interests they represent can only be protected by rigid provisions of law on the subject. These must be furnished by Congress, since the Attorneys-General have held that the President can not extend the civil-service rules to the District.

The Commission urges the adoption of a law making provision for the same system of examinations for the local government of the District of Columbia which has proved so successful in other cities.

THE CONSULAR SERVICE.

Our consular service has attained to-day an importance far beyond that which it had in any previous period of our history. So long as our exports were confined to a few agricultural products, and we sold our manufactured goods mostly at home, the foreign consul was a man of comparatively little importance. But we have entered upon a new phase of our national career. We have become the foremost productive nation in the world. All other countries, even those of Europe, are full of undeveloped possibilities, and enormous industrial changes are going on, furnishing opportunities for the indefinite extension of our commerce. This is the time for America to seize these opportunities and to use its special genius for organization and invention in extending its industrial preeminence. A great deal has been done already with very imperfect governmental machinery and more highly developed individual initiative. Americans have been seeking the countries of Europe as well as more undeveloped regions, not merely to sell their finished products, but also to measure the possibilities for new investments in American enterprises. But the question remains how far and how long we are to excel the energy and enterprise of other nations. We have many advantages, but we must know how to improve them. In spite of the high price of labor in America, its efficiency is so great that the labor cost of nearly all our products is far less than elsewhere. But others will soon be imitating us and adopting our methods. Moreover, there is the possibility, not only of efforts on the part of single governments to shut out our products, but also of a tariff union against us. To maintain and increase our industrial preeminence we ought to have by far the best consular service in the world. We should have the quickest and most reliable information as to our opportunities, as well as business representatives who are able to improve them. This can only be done by a consular service which is uniformly instructed and alert.

Under our present system of patronage appointments there is little security that the men appointed are qualified for their duties. In some places, notably in important positions in Great Britain, Germany, and other European countries, we have been fortunate enough to secure men not only of the highest natural capacity, but admirably equipped, and their consular reports have been a credit to the service and of immense value to our commerce. But in other positions, especially the smaller ones, the political removals and appointments which had been repeated every four years up to the time of the present administration, have made the term of the consul's service so short that, with the meager pay allowed, first-class men can not be secured. Very few of our consuls, either in South America or in the Orient, are acquainted with the language in which they are required to trans

act much of their business. In non-Christian countries, where consuls are charged with civil and criminal jurisdiction, and may not only try civil causes between Americans and foreigners but may sentence our citizens to fine, imprisonment, and even death, American consuls are not lawyers. Yet it is in many of the more remote and smaller places that the best opportunities exist for extending American commerce and furnishing facilities for American investments.

Appointments to these places are often made for political reasons, and often on account of the needs rather than the qualifications of the men selected, but as the Committee on Foreign Relations states in its report of 1896, "To consider the offices merely as sources from which these partisan officeholders may derive four years of maintenance is as absurd as it would be to construct a navy to defend the country and to intrust its command to landsmen without experience for whom we might desire to provide a living and comfortable quarters."

It is evident that a consular service thus selected is necessarily imperfect. Whatever excellence there is in it depends, not upon any deliberate scheme or purpose to get a good service, but upon the general adaptability of American character, upon our ability to do pretty well the things for which we are not trained at all.

Efforts have been made at different times to prescribe examinations in order to keep out the incompetent. In 1866 Secretary Seward provided for such examinations, and one was actually held, but no more. In 1872 other examinations were provided. These, too, soon fell into disuse. Again, in 1895, provision was made for examinations embracing general education, business training and experience, and requiring a knowledge of languages of the country to which the consul was to be sent, of the exequatur, of the powers and duties of consuls, of treaties, of consular regulations, and of other subjects. An examination board was organized, and while at first the rules were strictly observed, and nearly 50 per cent of the men nominated were excluded, yet afterwards the examinations became merely perfunctory, and scarcely any of the men selected were rejected. The tendency of mere pass examinations is to become more and more a matter of form, and there is no security that such examinations will long be effective where there is strong political or personal pressure behind the candidates.

The duties of consuls are many and various. They must inspect the manifests of vessels to see that they conform to the tariff law; they verify invoices of goods exported to the United States, and to prevent frauds they ought to know the values of the different kinds of merchandise. In the performance of this duty an intelligent, skillful, alert, and conscientious man is of immense advantage to the Government. In 1889 many hundred thousand dollars in duties were saved to the Government by the efficient action of our consul at St.

Gall. The enforcement of our tariff, both for revenue and protective purposes, depends very largely upon the skill, fidelity, and energy of these officers. Consuls investigate shipwrecks and save property from wrecked vessels; they are given police jurisdiction over commercial vessels and over disputes between seamen and captains; they have power to arrest deserters and.send back shipwrecked sailors; they take charge of the effects of those who die, and administer estates, and in many non-Christian countries, as we have already seen, they are charged with civil and criminal jurisdiction. In war their duties are delicate and exacting, and they must protect the interests of the United States and its citizens against arbitrary acts. In addition to their administrative duties in the places to which they are accredited, they make reports on fifty or more different classes of subjects required by the State Department covering the agricultural, commercial, and industrial interests of the country to which they are sent. These reports include questions regarding the tariff, currency, finance, public laws, taxation, and many others.

To be an efficient consul a man must have a wide range of knowledge, an inquiring mind, an eagerness for information pertaining to his calling. The man who has procured this information here at home will be the man most likely to get it for us abroad. The best way of testing a man's ability to get information is to find out whether he has got it, that is, to examine him. From the repeated failure of past examinations it is evident that examinations for this purpose ought to be competitive and open to all, so that political and personal influence may be eliminated. If political influence can once be removed and the temptation to make "a clean sweep" at the beginning of a new Administration can be eliminated, it is evident that the consuls who do their duty will have some security of tenure and the opportunity to rise by promotion from the lower grades to the higher, as elsewhere in the competitive classified service. Good men can be secured even for the smaller places when faithful service in those places becomes the appropriate portal for entrance to higher positions. The service will then be more uniformly filled by men of intelligence, while the further qualifications of integrity, fidelity, and energy will be enhanced by the prospect of promotion for good service. It is to the competitive system, which has so greatly improved the other parts of the service, that we must look for the permanent betterment of the consular branch.

The consular service has been almost totally overlooked in legislation. This neglect was natural enough when it was unimportant, but it is inexcusable to-day, when the character of that service is of such vital moment to our industrial prosperity.

We therefore urge upon the President the supreme importance of earnestly recommending to Congress the enactment of a law furnish

ing facilities for determining the comparative qualifications of applicants for the consular service by means of open, competitive, nonpartisan examinations.

We have the honor to be your obedient servants,

JOHN R. PROCTER,

W. D. FOULKE,

JAMES RUDOLPH GARFIELD,

Commissioners.

The PRESIDENT.

9729-02

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