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to higher grade, the facilities opened for the transfer of consular offices from one place to another, and from consular to State-department service and vice versa—and so on—and that if either of them, even as it stands, were enacted into law and faithfully executed with a single eye to the public interest, the character and efficiency of our consular service would be greatly advanced.
But, I regret to say, we have to admit the fact that so far the efforts made to secure a reform of the consular service in the way indicated by these bills have not met with enough of favor in either house of Congress to warrant any sanguine hope of success. The strongest argument brought forth against the bills is that they are unconstitutional, inasmuch as they would limit the power of the President, given him by the Constitution, to “nominate, and by and with the consent of the Senate, appoint ambassadors, and other public ministers, and consuls,” etc. I will not argue the question whether a law making the appointment of a certain class of officers dependent upon certain qualifications or requirements, would be in reality a violation of the constitutional provision; but I think I am not going too far when I say that even if in some way the constitutional objections were overcome, the opposition in Congress to either of those bills or to any other measure providing for subjecting consular appointments to competitive examinations would continue in full vigor, for the simple reason that this sort of reform would curtail the patronage which is claimed by Senators and Representatives as one of the most valuable and cherished perquisites of their offices. It may not be complimentary to our law-makers, but I assert that no fair-minded person can study the debates and the action of the two houses of Congress on matters touching appointments to office, without arriving at the conclusion that the patronage consideration, however it may be disguised, is an exceedingly potent one in the average Congressional mind, and that the idea of filching the juicy consular plums from his control strongly offends the ordinary Congressman's feelings as something especially wicked and un-American.
I see reason to fear, therefore, that the prospect of obtaining such legislation as the Civil Service Commission so eloquently ask for, and as the President in his message declares desirable, is by no means bright. It is reported, in the press,
