894 



SCIENCE. 



[N.S. Vol. XVII. No. 440. 



law; interpretation of the constitution of 

 the United States ; interpretation of treaties 

 respecting the territories subject to mili- 

 tary occupation, etc. 



Some of these many questions could not 

 be disposed of by adherence to rules al- 

 ready established by judicial decisions. It 

 was, therefore, necessary to extend the in- 

 vestigation into the field of history and see 

 if the same or similar questions had arisen 

 in the several instances of previous acquisi- 

 tion of foreign territory by the United 

 States, and to learn how the question had 

 been dealt with by the legislative and ad- 

 ministrative branches of the government of 

 the United States. 



The Consular Service and Foreign Trade: 

 Hon. Frederic Emory, chief of the Bu- 

 reau of Foreign Commerce, Department 

 of State. 



A paper on the above subject was con- 

 tributed by Frederic Emory, chief of the 

 Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department 

 of State. That bureau has charge of the 

 publication of consular reports on com- 

 mercial and industrial subjects, from all 

 parts of the world, and in recent years has 

 greatly improved the efficiency and promp- 

 titude of this service. 



Mr. Emory begins by quoting a recent 

 address of Sir Edmund Monson, the Brit- 

 ish Ambassador to France, to the effect 

 that the expansion of modern commerce 

 and the many international questions it 

 has created have had a strongly modify- 

 ing influence upon diplomatic profession, 

 which, instead of political intrigue, as in 

 olden times, devotes itself now almost ex- 

 clusively to business considerations. 



If this be true of diplomacy, says Mr. 

 Emory, it is even more generally applicable 

 to the consular service. Diplomats are 

 stationed only at the capitals of nations, 

 but consular officers are found at all the 



important trade and industrial centers, and 

 are thus brought into closer touch with the 

 daily activities and currents of trade. For 

 this reason they are usually in a better 

 position to report the practical details so 

 often wanted by a home industry or a mer- 

 cantile house engaged in foreign trade. In 

 the old days the consuls of European 

 powers were usually selected with refer- 

 ence to their social qualities and general 

 culture, and without much consideration of 

 their possible usefulness to trade. In these 

 days of sharp competition among the great 

 producing nations, the business capacity 

 and zeal of the consul in collecting infor- 

 mation are found to be not only essential, 

 but often a determining factor in the 

 growth of commerce. 



Mr. Emory's contention is that the 

 United States consular service has been 

 found to be superior to those of the other 

 powers as a trade agency, for the very rea- 

 son that the persons selected as consular 

 officers being average Americans, as a rule, 

 have had more of business aptitude than 

 any other quality and have seldom been 

 deterred by social considerations from giv- 

 ing their attention to 'trade.' Frequent 

 complaint has been made of late in Great 

 Britain that the English consular service 

 has become very largely a caste or polite 

 profession, instead of being what is now 

 more urgently required — an active, wide- 

 awake corps for the collection of commer- 

 cial intelligence. It is precisely in this 

 branch of work that the United States con- 

 sular officers have shown themselves to be 

 particularly alert and efficient. Mr. Emory 

 argues from this state of facts that it would 

 be unfortunate, in the reorganization of 

 our consular service, to revert to the social 

 or intellectual exclusiveness found by Eu- 

 ropeans to be no longer justified by exist- 

 ing conditions, and that the logic of our 

 experience incontestably proves the im- 



