The Foreign Service Journal, May 2014

30 MAY 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL erless to stop it. On May 1, the House of Representatives passed the bill for a second time. Two weeks later, Sen. Lodge called the bill up. With the addition of four amendments, it passed the full Senate with little floor debate and no real opposition. The amendments were not minor. They provided that officers could accept any position in the government without giving up their right to reinstatement in the Service; that officers on special duty or duty as inspectors should receive per diem instead of subsistence pay; that officers retiring before reaching 65 should receive 75 percent rather than 50 percent of their contributions to the retirement and disability fund; and that Carr’s position as director of the Consular Service be abolished and a new assistant secretary job created. The House quickly concurred with the bill as amended. President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law on May 24, 1924. The Act’s Main Provisions The legislation addressed several long- standing goals of Carr and his allies: • First, it established a new entity, “The Foreign Service of the United States.” Its members were called “Foreign Service offi- cers,” were promotable on merit and subject to assignment in either the consular or diplo- matic branch of the Service. • The Rogers Act created a class structure for FSOs (Class 9 through Class 1) with speci- fied pay scales. Officers were to be appointed as diplomatic secretaries, consular officers or both. Entrants would not be commissioned to a specific post; rather they would be placed within an officer class. All applicants had to pass an examination and spend five years in probationary status in an “unclassified” (but salaried) group before entering Class 9. • For the first time, representational allowances were to be provided to diplomatic and consular missions. Home leave travel and subsistence expenses would be paid to FSOs who served overseas for at least three years. Officers acting as chargés d’affaires or assuming temporary charge of a consulate would receive additional compensation. The Rogers Act also ordered the creation of a list of unhealthful posts; a year at any of them would count as 1½ years for purposes of calculating length of service. • FSOs could be assigned to the Department of State for a period of three years. If the “public interests” demanded further service, a tour could be extended by up to another year. • The Rogers Act created a Foreign Service retirement and disability system. FSOs age 65 or older with at least 15 years of service were now eligible for full retirement. Officers who became disabled (provided it was not because of “vicious habits, intem- perance or willful misconduct”) were entitled to similar benefits. Retirement annuities, however, were subject to reduction by whatever income an annuitant earned from other sources. Easier Said than Done After the act’s passage, messages of appreciation poured in to those most responsible for the outcome: Rep. Rogers and Wilbur Carr. The latter received extensive expressions of congratulation, On Dec. 20, 1944, Joseph Clark Grew became under secretary of State for the second time. Above, Secretary of State Edward Stettinius presents the new under secretary and five of the new assistant secretaries at the oath of office ceremony. Left to right: William L. Clayton, Dean Acheson, Joseph C. Grew, Edward R. Stettinius, Archibald MacLeish, Nelson A. Rockefeller and James C. Dunn. Grew served a total of 37 years in the Department of State. Born in Boston in 1880, he began his career as a clerk and rose quickly. In the early 1920s he served as minister, first to Denmark and then Switzerland. During the debate over the Rogers Act, Grew feared that merger of the Diplomatic and Consular Services would compromise his service’s standards. Three months before passage of the Rogers Act in May 1924, Grew was appointed undersecretary of State. He next became ambassador to Turkey in 1927, during a period of turmoil over the act’s implementation. He was serving as ambassador in Tokyo at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941. J. Sherrel Lakey/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division