The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

now handled by consular, economic and commercial officers. Neither the language of the execu- tive orders bringing the diplomatic and consular services under the merit system, nor the staffing of various posts, ever acknowledges the exis- tence of administrative officers. Pre- sumably, such duties were also per- formed by consular officers and by other clerical staff. Lastly, it appears that the diplo- matic (i.e., political) officer corps was rather small in comparison with that of the Consular Service. This may have been because of the many duties as- signed to consular officers, or because the State Department staffed many more consular posts than it does now. For example, in 1900 the department had 42 missions abroad with fewer than 100 diplomatic officers each, but staffed 291 consulates and consulates general and 395 consular agencies. Consider Italy. In 1922, the U.S. had posts in Rome, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Leghorn, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Trieste, Turin and Venice. Today— in addition to the em- bassy in Rome—we operate consulates only in Milan, Florence and Naples. Quite a change! ■ J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 35 Wilbur J. Carr’s efforts paved the way for passage in 1924 of the Rogers Act. For this reason, Carr has often been called “the father of the Foreign Service.”