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spoils politics, this League hailed the measure with hearty applause. But we could not conceal our apprehension that inasmuch as the system of examinations proposed did not contain the feature of open competition, and that it permitted the selection by the Department, or by those exercising influence upon the Department, of the candidates to be put through a mere pass examination, it would eventually meet the fate of similar experiments that had been made before; that is to say, that the examination would degenerate into a mere formality, and as before, almost all Consular appointments would again be ruled by political favor. To this apprehension I gave expression in my annual address of 1896, when I predicted that eventually “the waves of influence will wash down the feeble breakwater of the pass examination once more.”
I must confess, however, that when I said this I did not expect that my prediction would be verified so soon. The character as well as the rapidity of the changes in the Consular service, which were made during the first months of President McKinley's administration—the number of such changes even exceeding the number made during the corresponding period of the Cleveland administration—startled many people also among those who were not as warmly interested in the cause of civil service reform as the members of this League are. Many things happened which excited suspicion as to the seriousness of the examinations to which, under the Olney order, candidates for consulships were to be subjected, and officers of the League thought it their duty to make, from time to time, enquiries of the State Department as to the scope of the examinations, and the relative number of the successful and unsuccessful candidates.
Such inquiries until lately were met with the answer that the information so called for could not be furnished, for the reason that such things were treated by the State Department as strictly confidential. But the veil of mystery has been lifted since the new Secretary of State entered upon the discharge of his duties.
I have had before me two examination papers for consulships of more than ordinary importance—one in France and one in England. The questions therein proposed to the candidates conform in appearance to most of the subjects enumerated in the Olney order. But they are so put that any person
