The Department of State was an archaic and inadequate machine lacking most of the attributes of the foreign office of any great modern power.  With an appropriation made upon my recommendation by the Congress on August 5, 1909, the Department of State was completely reorganized.  There were created Divisions of Latin American Affairs and of Far Eastern, Near Eastern, and Western European Affairs.  To these divisions were called from the foreign service diplomatic and consular officers possessing experience and knowledge gained by actual service in different parts of the world and thus familiar with political and commercial conditions in the regions concerned.  The work was highly specialized.  The result is that where previously this Government from time to time would emphasize in its foreign relations one or another policy, now American interests in every quarter of the globe are being cultivated with equal assiduity.  This principle of politico-geographical division possesses also the good feature of making possible rotation between the officers of the departmental, the diplomatic, and the consular branches of the foreign service, and thus keeps the whole diplomatic and consular establishments tinder the Department of State in close touch and equally inspired with the aims and policy of the Government.  Through the newly created Division of Information the foreign service is kept fully informed of what transpires from day to day in the international relations of the country, and contemporary foreign comment affecting American interests is promptly brought to the attention of the department.  The law offices of the department were greatly strengthened.  There were added foreign trade advisers to cooperate with the diplomatic and consular bureaus and the politico-geographical divisions in the innumerable matters where commercial diplomacy or consular work calls for such special knowledge.  The same officers, together with the rest of the new organization, are able at all times to give to American citizens accurate information as to conditions in foreign countries with which they have business and likewise to cooperate more effectively with the Congress and also with the other executive departments.

MERIT SYSTEM IN CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC CORPS

Expert knowledge and professional training must evidently be the essence of this reorganization.  Without a trained foreign service there would not be men available for the work in the reorganized Department of State.  President Cleveland had taken the first step toward introducing the merit system in the foreign service.  That had been followed by the application of the merit principle, with excellent results, to the entire consular branch.  Almost nothing, however, had been done in this direction with regard to the Diplomatic Service.  In this age of commercial diplomacy it was evidently of the first importance to train an adequate personnel in that branch of the service.  Therefore, on November 26, 1909, by an Executive order I placed the Diplomatic Service up to the grade of secretary of embassy, inclusive, upon exactly the same strict nonpartisan basis of the merit system, rigid examination for appointment and promotion only for efficiency, as had been maintained without exception in the Consular Service.