There is quite a widespread demand that everything shall be taken out of politics, and a presumption is indulged, that, if this were done, all of the evils which now inhere in representative government would be cured. Undoubtedly men have been rewarded for political service with appointments to foreign fields, and some of these appointees have been wanting both in business experience and education as well as in aptitude. On the other hand, it is most unfortunate if only those who are disqualified for positions of responsibility are interested in politics. If every public position at home and abroad were to be filled with those who either take no interest in public affairs, or by those who are incapable of exerting any political influence, do you think the service would be materially improved? The further criticism is indulged that administrations make foreign appointments from among their party friends, and utterly ignore adherents of the opposite political faith. Has it ever occurred to you that when a man is unable to find as good and able men among those who believe in political doctrines which he advocates as are available among his opponents, he ought in justice to himself to renounce allegiance to the party he believes in, and join the ranks of those with whom he disagrees? Undoubtedly, the United States has sent some chumps abroad, but anyone who has lived long in Washington must have recognized that other countries also occasionally have chumps in their diplomatic service. After some years’ observation, I asked John Hay, then Secretary of State, whose experience at home and observation abroad better qualified him to speak than any other man in America, how our diplomatic and consular service compared with that of other countries. Promptly and without hesitation, he said: “It is universally recognized everywhere that American foreign service is the best in the world.” One might as well expect to develop a successful trial lawyer by confining him to a law school all his life, or a successful business man by keeping him indefinitely in a business college, as to expect to produce an efficient representative of American interests abroad by requiring him to spend the most virile period of his life in studying how to represent these interests and all the while keeping him out of touch with the interests which he is to represent. A lawyer should understand his client’s business, if possible, better than his client. If he is to represent mining interests, he should know metallurgy, all processes of mining, reduction of ores and mining practices, as well as mining laws. Before a man can successfully, advantageously and wisely represent American interests abroad, he must understand American interests at home. He must have a practical knowledge of what Americans require in foreign countries, and the natural effect at home of the things he is trying to do abroad.