Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1896 — Our Consular Service. [ARTICLE]

Our Consular Service.

“The consular service Is the practical and business side of our foreign intercourse,” writes ex-l*resident Harrison in the Ladies’ Home Journal. “There are more than twelve hundred persons in the consular service of the United States. These are located in

the Important commercial cities and towns of the world, and are described generally as Consuls General, Consuls, commercial agents, interpreters, marshals and clerks. The duties of a Consul are various and multifarious. He is the protector and guardian of American commerce; provides for destitute American sailors and sends'them home; he takes charge of the effects of American citizens dying in his jurisdiction, having no legal representative; he receives the declaration or protests of our citizens in any matter affecting their rights; he keeps a record of the arrival and departure of American ships and of their cargoes, and looks after vessels wrecked; he reports any new inventions or improvements in manufacturing processes that he may observe, and all useful information relating to manufactures, population, scientific discoveries, or progress In the useful arts, and all events or facts that may affect the trade of the United States, and authenticates invoices and statements of the market value of merchandise to be shipped to the United States. Every Consulate is a commercial outpost; and if the service could be given permanence of tenure, and a corps of men of competent equipment, it would become a powerful agency in extending our commerce.” ’