1892 - 1932 THfe AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL DEPARTMENT OF STATE WASHINGTON, D. C. JUNE 1, 1932. DEAR MR. CARR: It is a great pleasure—both officially and personally—for me to have this opportunity of extending the most sincere congratulations to you upon this, the fortieth anniversary of your entry into the service of the Department of State. Such steadfast service, such loyal endeavor, and such patient and efficient performance as yours are rarely met with either within or outside of the Government. We must all recognize that our present well-organized Department and our splendid Foreign Service as it stands today are to a considerable extent due to your untiring efforts, and constitute a monument to your devoted labor. I To the congratulations which I extend upon behalf of the Department ML>*Y ', VMr and the Foreign Service, I wish to add my own appreciation of your helpful consideration to me, your loyalty and your assistance in the solution of many difficult problems which have confronted us since my appointment as Secretary of State. ml I extend my best wishes for your future health and welfare and voice the hope that the Department and the Foreign Service for many years to come may continue to benefit from your experience and wisdom. Wm Sincerely yours, HENRY L. STIMSON. The Honorable WILBUR J. CARR, Assistant Secretary of State. mmsNs Vol. IX JUNE, 1932 No. 6 INSURANCE SERVICE ANNUITIES AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDED FEBRUARY 29, 1932 STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS Receipts Disbursements Balance brought forward .... $4,635.66 Premiums paid Equitable Life Assur- Premiums .... 25,137.41 ance Society $18,188.85 Dividend year ended February 28. 1931. 7,348.45 Clerical assistance 610.00 Interest 246.11 Stationery 89.25 Funds received for transmission. .. 58.75 Premiums refunded 81.31 Refunds: Auditing 70.00 Protested checks 27.50 Funds transmitted 58.75 Exchange foreign checks 5.90 Telegrams 28.01 Checks protested 16.25 Exchange foreign checks 5.65 Premium bond of secretary-treasurer.. 4.04 Balance carried forward 18,307.67 $37,459.78 $37,459.78 STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Assets Liabilities Cash on hand .... $18,307.67 Reserve fund $11,170.58 Premiums due but not received.... 1,842.25 Held for premiums due 3/1/32 6,284.22 Current fund 2,695.12 $20,149.92 $20,149.92 Members March 1, 1931 303 Deceased 4 Additions during year 36 Withdrawn 7 339 11 Total members March 1, 1932 328 Net increase for the year 25 Total amount of insurance in force March 1. 1932... $1,709,000 Insurance claims: March 1, 1931-February 29, 1932... .. $15,000 E. Haldeman Dennison $7,000 G. Russell Taggart $4,000 George B. Starbuck $2,000 H. Eric Trammell $2,000 JAMES B. STEWART WALTER H. SCHOELLKOPF JOSEPH E. JACOBS President Vice President Secretary-Treasurer J. ALAN MAPHIS, Insurance Adviser HARRY A. HAVENS, Assistant to Secretary-Treasurer THE FOREIGN S JOURNAL PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION VOL. IX, No. 6 WASHINGTON, D. C. JUNE, 1932 Wilbur John Carr ON j UNE 1 Wilbur John Carr will have step, from that day down to this, has been due completed 40 years of service in the mainly to the initiative and quiet persistence of Department of State. Forty years! An¬ Wilbur John Carr. Plis public services, however, other man might have lost his early enthusiasm, have not been limited to the development of the his productive power, his capacity for communi¬ Foreign Service, his record in that connection cating his enthusiasm to others; but in Mr. Carr’s being only one item in a long list of matters of case I maintain that the 40 years have merely public concern, many of them of major impor¬ rolled over him, leaving him as I see him in tance. During this long period of 40 years Con¬ memory still, standing by the desk of Secretary gress has learned that it can rely absolutely upon Root, who was quick to judge and appreciate those his representations, that when he appears before in whom he might repose confidence. a committee of the House or Senate his facts are It is also just under 40 years since President not guesswork facts, that he is not asking for Cleveland astonished deserving Democrats and more than is needed with the expectation of get¬ dismayed hopeful Republicans (who, incidentally, ting somewhat less, that his opinions are based thought no better of him for doing it) by his upon knowledge and conviction. Consequently, Executive Order of September 20, 1895, direct¬ when the Department of State requires the assist¬ ing that from and after that date aspirants for ance of Congress it is usually Mr. Carr who consulships where the salary was not less than obtains it. 1 suspect, however, that of all the $1,000 a year and not more than $2,500 a year, things in which he has had a hand, and they are should be examined before appointment. On legion, he derives as much satisfaction from the these modest terms civil service reform entered successful reorganization of our Foreign Service the Foreign Service. Young gentlemen in that (and perhaps more) as from any other. service today, whose salaries begin at $2,500, with After Mr. Cleveland issued the Executive Order allowances for rent, heat, and light in addition, of 1895, little change took place in Foreign Serv¬ with payment of the cost of the transportation ice procedure until 1906. Applicants for Consular of themselves, their families and effects to and posts were subjected to a nominal examination, it from their posts, and who may contemplate retire¬ is true, but this was mainly for the purpose of ment from office with an income for life of 60 discouraging and excluding candidates who were percent of their average annual salaries during manifestly unfit. I well recall my own first visit the last 10 years of service—these things to the Department of State whither I had gone undreamed of 40 years ago—might profitably for examination (little supposing that I should ponder over the salaries mentioned by President spend all my active future years in public office), Cleveland, and wonder that men of distinction, and hearing then of an unsuccessful candidate for ability, and patriotism, as many of the old-time a consulship named Beutelspecker whose calam¬ Consuls were, could be attracted by such emolu¬ itous papers had gone to Secretary Day, with the ments. At all events, we owe the first reform following poetical endorsement from the examin¬ measure to President Cleveland, and every further ing official: 209 Oh Beutel, Beutel speck benefits of a developed Foreign Service, could How little did you reck not realize the imperfections of the long existing That ere you reached the Land of Bliss You’d get it in the neck. policy of appointment to office as a reward for political service. A false step, incapacity to work Those were days when Consuls received ex¬ with succeeding Secretaries of State imbued with tremely small salaries, the highest of which was the old Jacksonian theory of Government, in¬ $5,000, and also, for their personal use, all notarial ability to get along with Congress, failure to have fees which, in the case of a few places like Paris a clear conception of the goal which he was seek¬ and London, came to large amounts. There were ing—any of these things might easily have about a dozen “Consular pupils,” afterwards wrecked ambitious plans. called “Consular clerks” and still later “Consular It was Wilbur John Carr who won over Con¬ assistants,” who could not be removed from office gress to his way of thinking about these matters. without a hearing before Congress, whose sal¬ Happily, during this protracted period, he was aries were ,$1,000 and $1,200 per year. As to able to communicate some of his enthusiasm to the the diplomatic appointments, including the small¬ new style American Consul, even the old ones who est secretaryships, they continued, without excep¬ remained on until they gradually disappeared tion, to be the rewards of politicians, not only up caught a good deal of it, so that by 1924, the to 1906, when the Consular Reorganization Act year when the general reorganization Act was was passed, but for a long period after that; and passed, it was a fact that the Consular Service, even to this day heads of Missions and Embassies at all events, stood well with members of both are chiefly deserving politicians and generous con¬ House and Senate, it stood well with the business tributors to campaign funds. Mr. Carr has not community, and in one way and another had so been able to change that—although some day that many friends that the comprehensive measure of defect, too, will disappear. that year, which included the Diplomatic and The great upward movement in our Foreign Consular offices and merged them into one har¬ Service began in 1906, when all consular posts monious system, was able to command a majority were classified, Consuls being granted fairly rea¬ and thus become law. sonable salaries, and personal compensation by But with the Act of 1924, just as 18 years way of notarial fees happily abolished entirely. previously with the Act of 1906, there were man}' They were even permitted to draw 5 cents a mile who failed to understand its full significance, who when transferred from one post to another for held in check its complete application, and once themselves, and to pay out of their own pockets more it was Mr.