The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 t is a pleasurable adventure to imagine ourselves living in the past and to test the extent of our knowledge against that of our predecessors in the Foreign Service. For example, how would you fare on the Diplomatic Service or Consular Serv- ice examinations that candidates took in 1922? You can try your hand at some sample questions (see sidebars, p. 34), excerpted from the May 1, 1922, Register of the Department of State. That book is a fascinating glimpse into a long-gone world. Warren G. Harding was president and the Secretary of State was Charles Evans Hughes. Later that year, BenitoMussolini would march on Rome and become prime minister and dic- tator. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon had just discov- ered the royal tomb of King Tutankhamen. Earlier that year, theWashington Conference on Disarmament had concluded, and former President William Howard Taft had inaugurated the Lincoln Memorial. In 1922, pay ranged from $17,500 for an ambassador at a Class I mission to about $2,500 for a third secretary. In the parallel Consular Service, salaries ranged from $12,000 for a consul general at a large prestigious post to $2,500 for a career junior vice consul. (By way of comparison, the average salary of teachers was $1,150 per annum.) The Long Path to Reform The U.S. Diplomatic Service had only recently been brought under merit rules comparable to those established in the Civil Service by the Pendleton Act of 1883. Up to that point, it had been staffed strictly on the basis of patronage, not merit. And while candidates for the Consular Service were required to pass an examination, the president selected those allowed to take the exam. Moreover, under President WilliamMcKinley the exami- nation had been watered down to the point that only one of 112 candidates invited to take it failed. Shortly after becom- ing Secretary of State in 1905, Elihu Root stated: “It has ev- idently come to be regarded as cruel and inhuman treatment not to pass a man [author’s italics]. In view of the character of the examination, a rejection would practically be an impu- tation of idiocy.” In November 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt cre- ated a program of competitive entry exams, for both the diplomatic and the consular services, by executive order. The following year, Congress set up a grade system and pay scales for the Consular Service and established a consular inspection service composed of roving consuls general. President William Howard Taft advanced these reforms FS H ERITAGE T HE U.S. D IPLOMATIC AND C ONSULAR S ERVICES IN 1922 S EE HOW YOU WOULD HAVE FARED ON THE ENTRANCE EXAMS FOR THE S TATE D EPARTMENT NEARLY A CENTURY AGO . B Y L UCIANO M ANGIAFICO I Luciano Mangiafico, a Foreign Service officer from 1970 to 1991, served in Milan, Palermo, Bucharest, Manila and Bridgetown, among many other assignments. Since his re- tirement from the Service, he has continued to work as an in- spector for the State Department. The author of two books, Contemporary American Immigrants (Praeger, 1988) and Italy’s Most Wanted (Potomac Books, 2007), he has written on foreign policy, business, and the arts for various publica- tions.