Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1901 — EXPENSES OF AN AMBASSADOR. [ARTICLE]

EXPENSES OF AN AMBASSADOR.

sixty Thousand a Year Required at the Enropean Capitals. Unlike other governments, ours makes no extra allowance for the living expenses of its representative. Thus It is that many times an important foreign mission has been declined—for financial reasons—by the able statesman to whom it was proffered. If one accepts such a post he naturally feels In duty bound to live up to the standard set by his predecessors, and this usually means that he must have a large private fortune to draw upon. There have been a few instances where such positions have been held by men unable to maintain great establishments, but who have unwisely attempted it by incurring obligations which they could not meet, thus bringing themselves and their government to humiliation. Diplomatic agents are without the pale of the common law of the countries where they are stationed, and if bills are left unpaid creditors have absolutely no recourse. There is a large financial advantage to a diplomat if he is a bachelor, for it is then understood that he has no special obligations in a social way. If he be personally popular he will be overwhelmed with invitations, but need never use any in return excqpt to such small parties of friends as he may care to entertain in his chambers or at a restaurant. The most of the diplomatic corps, however, are married men, for their governments know that upon the social administration by the mistress of the household depends in no small part the success of the official side of the residency.

A diplomatic residence in any of the larger European capitals may easily mean an annual expenditure of from forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars. Only rich men are therefore eligible for these posts, and thus a false standard of wealth is being raised as a test for diplomatic preferment. It is likely that before long our government will lease and furnish perftianent houses for its ambassadors and ministers in the principal foreign countries, and this will go a long way toward correcting a grave fault in the present system. Our ambassador to St. Petersburg had to do house hunting for six months, and was almost in despnir of finding a suitable residence. As it is, he pays more in rates than even the ambassador in Loudon, and it is said the fental is more than a thousand dollars a month.—Woman’s Home Companion.