The Foreign Service Journal, March 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2015 47 obliged to comply, at least in part. Cunard paid the $5 fee for the certificate but refused to pay the doctor’s fee, and filed a protest with the British consul. That protest eventually found its way to Washington, but the department never ruled on whether LaGuardia’s actions were proper or he had exceeded his authority. Some time later, Cunard Lines also agreed to pay the doc- tor’s fees, including the arrears, to induce LaGuardia to issue the required consular certificates. For its part, the United States eventually adopted the system Fiorello had initiated, of medi- cal examination of immigrants prior to embarkation, world- wide—though not for several more decades. Onward and Upward LaGuardia’s stand on the processing of immigrants also got him into trouble with local officials. Once, while Archduchess Maria Josepha (the sister-in-law of Archduke Franz Ferdi- nand, who was assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914) was visiting Fiume, the city’s governor arranged for her to view an immi- grant embarkation procedure staged entirely for her benefit. To protest the sham, LaGuardia refused to participate or even meet her for tea aboard ship. The British consul, who did take tea with the archduchess and the governor, warned him that the authorities would not take such an affront lightly. There is no record that Austria-Hungary lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against the young whippersnapper, but his behavior must have troubled many back in Washington. One official reportedly labeled LaGuardia “the worst head- ache in the history of the [State] Department.” That comment suggests the real reason for the brevity of LaGuardia’s diplomatic career: he simply did not fit into the pre-Rogers Act Foreign Service. He had only a high school education, a fact not conducive to promotion in an institution dominated by Ivy League graduates. Nor did his Italian-Jewish background, his short and pudgy physique, and rumpled attire match the WASPish, tall and impeccably dressed tradi- tional figure of a U.S. diplomat. In addition, LaGuardia’s restless intelligence; his brash, argumentative and stubborn character; his disregard for rules he considered silly; his compassion for the uprooted and the dispossessed; and his inclination to contrariness and wave- making did not win him many friends among his colleagues. Whatever the reason, Fiorello LaGuardia resigned from the Service in 1906. Back in New York, he was soon on his way to a bright future in the political arena—and the history books. n