but certainly their affliction does not make them beggars, and they manage to get along quite as well as their fourfooted brothers.

Of all the birds of the marsh the most interesting to me is the clapper rail, which in Blake's Marsh is remarkably abundant. Indeed, were it not for natural enemies, I think the marsh would be overpopulated with these noisy, secret, elusive, resourceful birds. But their foes are many. Undoubtedly the marsh raccoons and wildcats capture many, especially the young birds. Not infrequently a giant tide will sweep to destruction thousands of nests. The common crow delights in nothing so much as in destroying the eggs of this bird. The very home that it makes for its eggs and young is obliged to be built in a precarious situation, for the whole region is subject to tidal influences. However, the instinct of the bird (I should like to say reasoning power but for fear of controversy) teaches it to build one of the most remarkable of nests. While the tiny marsh sparrow or Worthington's wren builds a bulky nest high up in the marsh, binding it together with blades of the marsh, much as the blackbird does, the clapper rail does better. He sometimes (not always, for occasionally his nest is placed above the reach of ordinary tides) constructs a nest that, either by good chance or by positive design, slides up and down the marsh stems as the tides rise and fall. The nest is constructed largely of the light dry stems of dead marsh, and the softer parts of the lining are withered marsh blades. I have often seen these nests at low tide flat on the mud, and the same nests when the tide was up floating on the quiet water, gently anchored by marsh stems turned about the growing marsh. I am not prepared to say that the birds know exactly what they are doing; but the fact of these sliding nests remains. Undoubtedly mishaps to the eggs often occur; indeed,

I have seen nests with the eggs tipped out and the nests themselves lodged halfway down the stems of the marsh. But the rising and falling of the tide are so steady and so gradual that the nests are usually handled gently and effectively.

I mentioned the marsh wren as a bird building a very large nest, high up in the reeds and woven of marsh blades. Cheerful and innocent as is this tiny dweller in the wasteland, I believe his particular enemy is more ruthless than almost any that the other birds have to meet; at least there is something gruesome about his attack. This is a small marsh mouse which climbs the reed stems on which the nest is suspended, enters the circular hole at the side leading to the interior, catches the inmate if he can and destroys it, devours the eggs, and then appropriates the home for himself and his family! I know of no more complete example of Bolshevism in nature. It is such a thing as this that makes me know that the wide and placid marsh, shimmering in the warm sunlight, misty in the vague rain, or blanched in the pale moonlight, is the scene of many a tragedy where the survival of the fittest and the cleverest and the quickest and the strongest is continually being determined. And though I love wild scenes and the quiet loneliness of a place like this, behind the beauty of its perpetually autumnal landscape I seem to see the face of nature, anciently wise, inexorable, not quite familiar, not quite smiling.

There is a vendetta of the pinelands adjacent to Blake's Marsh that terminates at the borders of the marsh. This is the picturesque feud of deer and hound. The marsh has been, time out of mind, a sanctuary for hunted deer. Sometimes they come all the way from Wambaw Swamp, eleven miles away, to take refuge here in this strange solitude. Ever since boyhood I have known that a deer that succeeded in reaching the marsh ahead of the hounds had made

good his escape. And both the pursuers and the pursued recognize this as a fact. Many a time I have seen deer in flight entering the marsh; and hardly had they reached the fringes of their wide sanctuary before they would break the speed of their race. Many a time also I have know fine packs of hounds to break off their chase abruptly at the mysterious borders of the wasteland. Old hounds especially when they come within sight of the lone expanse of reeds abandon their game, however eager the pursuit had until that time been. It is a case of instinct; for in the marsh a dog has no chance against a deer. To begin with, a deer can go where a dog cannot follow; and again, where the deer has the advantage of footing he will turn to bay, and a buck at bay in a situation favorable to him is no mean antagonist for a pack of hounds. I shall tell of two incidents that I observed in Blake's Marsh that will illustrate the truth of what I mean.

One January day at noon I was walking along the southern end of the marsh, just where the lands of the Santee Club terminate. As I was on neutral ground' I had a hound with me. From a den hummock of cedar and myrtle we start

two great bucks, giants of their kind; and I may say that it is rather an odd fact that two old male deer are often at this time of the year found associated. They rocked off lithely, and I supposeć that they would run the margin of a wide slue-a place so boggy and ap parently bottomless that I could not see how even a duck could keep its footing there. To my surprise, the two great animals chose to cross this morass. Perhaps they knew that by so doing they could baffle the dog that was now clamoring on their track. The slue was a hundred yards wide and several hundred long. In long, lithe bounds the deer entered it; and, instead of floundering and sinking, as any other animals might have done, they never lost their stride, never faltered. I could readily see that their effort was a heroic one, for their flanks heaved, their big haunch muscles were vividly expanded and corded, and their antlered heads tossed somewhat wildly; but their flight through that dreadful morass was swift, orderly, and graceful. The hound attempted to follow the deer. He got only about fifteen yards into the slue when his footing failed him. He was trying to run and to swim at the same time. Failing in both, he turned back toward me. By the time he had reached me, muddrenched and crestfallen, the two bucks had gained the farther side of the bog and were safely entering a sanctuary of reeds as dense as some of the papyrus brakes along the Nile.

Late one afternoon, while on an open causeway leading into Blake's Marsh, I heard two hounds coming in my direction. I moved up against a great pine overlooking the marsh. In a few moments my expectations were realized-a fine buck came bounding out of the mainland woods. He was in full flight, yet

no sooner did he cross the mystic margin of the marsh than he broke his stride. His wild run became an easy bounding, and this in turn a walk. He passed within thirty yards of me without seeing me. The hounds meanwhile were eagerly approaching. From their voices I knew them to be young dogs. Soon they came in sight, and of their speed and earnestness there could be no question. They were not more than three-quarters grown. They passed me wildly, the sand flying under their feet. The buck was now only a little distance ahead and in plain sight. In a moment the big deer turned in an indolent, scornful manner, and a strange encounter ensued.

This deer, unwounded and certainly capable of hours more of flight, turned to bay. Indeed, he went further than that; his attitude was offensive rather than defensive, and his abrupt change of tactics took the dogs completely by surprise. Lowering his crested head, rolling his eyes, and managing to bulge his neck until he looked formidable indeed, he faced his pursuers. They, amazed and baffled, evidently thought that their real prey had escaped them, and that they had encountered an enemy which they were not capable of managing. At any rate, their advance halted immediately; their baying was perfunctory. Soon it grew fitful. And within five minutes they had turned tail and were making good time on the back track through the pinelands. Probably they had never before run a deer into the marsh; and certainly if they do so again they will behave as all knowing hounds of that region do; they will abandon the chase at the brink of the deer's ancient sanctuary.

Between the pine woods and the marsh there is a long, myrtle-grown watercourse; when it becomes dry, its chan

nel is seen to be black mud, caked by the winter's sunshine into huge slabs, broken into wonderful geometrical designs. One December day, while loitering along this dry bed of the sluggish stream, I saw the trail of an alligator. The bearlike clawed tracks and the wide swath he had mashed through the marshy mud identified him before I found him half a mile farther on. He was a very respectable bull in sizeeleven feet, perhaps. But his length surprised me far less than the fact that he should be abroad in midwinter. During all my years in the Santee delta I had never before seen an alligator in winter (except once, in a freshet, when one was washed out of his hibernating quarters). This particular reptile was most sluggish and uninteresting. His only sign of recognition was a prodigiously solemn blink, and I was not at all sure that he meant that for me. My attempts to make him think that a pine pole was an enemy which he ought to seize in his mighty jaws were wholly unavailing. After a quarter of an hour of his company I left him, convinced that hibernation affects the mind, and that the most stolid and phlegmatic creature in the world is one whose mischance it has been to come forth into the light and the air while still the heavy summons of long sleep "lies like lead upon him."

A strange and interesting place it is, this great melancholy marsh. Upon it man has hardly made a trace. Here nature operates freely, graciously, terribly. It has a fascination for me, this lonely region; but when I leave it my feeling is not wholly one of regret. For always I am conscious of the many dread vendettas and cruel wars waged there, and that probably will be waged there as long as wild life exists upon the earth.

T

OR

F the men who have been appointed Ministers from the ranks of the diplomatic service-men like Hugh Gibson, William Phillips, Joseph Grew, and Peter Jay-are removed by the new Administration, it is the end of the dip

lomatic service."

These words were spoken by a man prominent in the conduct of the State Department.

I asked him why this was. "Because it means that the Repubans will go back to the policy of Mr. ryan," he said. "It means that effi

cient work in the service will be rewarded by dismissal. It means that the men at present in the service can see no possible future ahead of them. If there is to be no promotion from the ranks of the service to the posts of ministers or ambassadors, or if men so promoted are emovable to satisfy political expediency, the service cannot last. Good men will not join it."

taries in our embassies and legations abroad were a part of the legitimate spoils of the winning party.

Under the able direction of Mr. Elihu Root, the diplomatic service was put on a basis where advancement was determined by merit and experience. The first steps were taken to make it a "career" in the sense that it is in France and Great Britain. In other words, admission was based on examinations and promotion was provided for up to the rank of first secretary with a view to efficiency and ability.

During the Administration of Mr. Taft promotion within the service was further

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Then came Mr. Bryan.

He believed in "deserving Democrats." While he could do only little damage to the diplomatic secretaries, as they were on a Civil Service status, he struck at their morale by his methods of selecting the chiefs of missions.

Even after Mr. Bryan left the Department of State discontent in the service continued. Mr. Wilson, it is true, appointed Hugh Gibson, Peter Jay, John Garrett, Joseph Grew, and William Phillips to be Ministers-all.men who had spent years in foreign service and had risen from the ranks. Yet other factors, such as inadequate pay, lack of a definite, consistent foreign policy, etc., continued to trouble many who had joined the service, and there were a number of resignations of members who had shown exceptional promise.

To-day the diplomatic service is inadequately paid; it offers no training that can be of practical value in after life. If on top of that the Republicans, whom many people had thought were sounder on foreign affairs than the Democrats, remove the only men who have risen to Ministers from the ranks, it will be plainly evident that the diplomatic service, along with its other drawbacks, offers no future for the men going into it. Insufficient pay, abortive train

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they the vaunted professionals of the European chancelleries; or were they the Brand Whitlocks, the Henry Morgenthaus, the Myron Herricks, the Walter Pages, the James Gerards, straight out of American civil life, with no other training than courageous American manhood and ideals?

As a matter of simple observation, the professional diplomat is more interested in his "career" than in taking vigorous action for the maintenance of American rights. He fears to do anything drastic lest it count against him on his record and in the attainment of the promotion upon which he ever has his eye.

Commentators upon this subject are fond of citing Great Britain's professional diplomats, ignoring the fact that the British Government is making radical changes for the democratization of her service; and that in hours of special need she calls civilians into the diplomatic organizations for great and difficult tasks.

The most conspicuously successful Ambassador Great Britain ever had in America was James Bryce, scorned as an "outsider" by the jealous professional diplomats. Sir Auckland Geddes, the present Ambassador at Washington, is a non-professional diplomat, because there

were no "career men," as the phrase runs, big enough for the task.

American ambassadors and ministers directly represent the President. They should therefore be men of his mind.

This is no apology for many unfit appointments that have brought no credit to our country, some of whom, by the way, are now clamoring to be retained in office as "career men."

Coming straight out of the life of the Nation, and expecting to return thither after a few years of service, the American diplomat knows that he must "make good" in a short term, and that by the exercise of courageous and efficient Americanism he is to have his reward only in the sense of service done and in the favor of his country. Considerations of "career" need never swerve him.

The case of secretaries is different; they are the continuing representatives, skilled in the technique of office. A certain proportion of higher posts should be open to them and their salaries should always be large enough to remove the stigma of "rich social climbers" from diplomatic secretaries.

But in the main, for the sake of keep ing our foreign outposts in touch with the life of America at home, the ambassadors and ministers should be appointed afresh by each incoming President.

T

HE long-suffering tolerance of public opinion towards incompetence in the foreign service and meager support for it is a feature which has struck European observers. It is the more remarkable because at no time when we have seriously thought of the matter ourselves has there been any division of opinion as to what should be done. The expressions from men of experience in our diplomatic life which were published in The Outlook of February 161 reveal exactly that.

With about fourteen billion dollars owed us, publicly and privately, and every line of business, relief work, and journalistic enterprise in the four corners of the globe, the problem of decent representation abroad is more immediate.

In view of these facts and with the direct intimation from Mr. Harding that negotiation through diplomatic channels is to be the way back into association with the nations of the world, the foreign service becomes of ever greater

concern.

It is not always the case of an incompetent ambassador, as Robert Underwood Johnson, a man of wide experience in private international affairs and an internationally minded citizen of a fine type, shows in The Outlook of February 16 in giving his version of what I

1 Mr. Ten Eyck refers to comments made by officials on his article. "Uncle Sam's Tin (in The Outlook for December 22, 1920), ng the housing and maintenance of our dors.-The Editors.

termed a "predicament" in characterization of the duties he performed at San Remo. Dr. Johnson gives evidence in the statement of the instructions he received and how he carried them out which shows that Washington reduced his function to that of an amanuensis among plenipotentiaries - a function which caused Lloyd George to remark (on hearing of it the day before Dr. Johnson arrived) to my friend and former associate of the New York "Tribune," Mr. Ralph Courtney: "I have never been informed officially of the expected arrival at San Remo of the American Ambassador to Rome as a spectator. What we would like, however, is an American representative who would not only take notes, but give us the American view-point. . . . It is a great pity that America is not here." Episodes such as these concern, perhaps, the inherent weakness of a divided control between the President and Senate in foreign affairs which has deadlocked other Presidents than Mr. Wilson in negotiating a foreign policy,

I remember well an hour I spent with Elihu Root and Henry White at Claridge's in London last July. Mr. Root had just returned from The Hague after drafting the plan for the permanent Court of Justice for the League of Nations. He sat back in his chair and told us what a hard problem it was, not to persuade people of differing nationalities of the soundness of principles, but to

convey to them principles with which they agreed through the barriers that differences of race, language, and attitude toward the state, as well as national jealousies, present. Both Mr. Root and Mr. White, talking to me from their veteran experiences in practice and knowledge of world diplomacy, said in substance: "That is the problem of diplomacy."

If an Elihu Root finds it difficult to meet the conflicting tongues and conceptions, how are men less skilled getting on?

A man's politics ought to have just as little to do with his becoming an ambassador as it does with his appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.

I use this analogy because the credit and dignity of the Supreme Court stand high; its value is inestimable as the living voice of the Constitution—that is, the will of the people expressed in the fundamental law they have enactedand the Court, sitting high above the assaults of factions or parties, is the interpreter and enforcer of that law. primary measure of a judge's competency for the bench is political disinterestedness. An ambassador is asked to concern himself with the expressions of the formulated will of the nation exactly as a judge is. Their functions vary in method rather than character.

The

The problem of getting new men requires increase of all salaries, and then promotion, as fast as may be compatible for the good of the service, to the highest positions.

We can at least approximate the British system in a very short time, a system which has made the British Foreign Office the best in the world, while still flexible enough to send a Bryce or a Grey to this country. We ought always to be able to conscript our highest ability for exceptional service to send to the Court of St. James's a man like Elihu Root, who enjoys a position in England not unlike that of Viscount Bryce in America; or to France a man like John Finley (who in many respects is a remarkable counterpart of Ambassador Jusserand, the great scholar, litterateur, and diplomat, who so ably represents French interests at Washington).

The French have found it valuable to prepare men for their foreign service in special schools, the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, and more recently another rival school has been established. Some of our own diplomatic secretaries and consuls have taken the French course of training to their advantage. I recall Hugh Gibson, Minister to Poland, Arthur Orr, and William Dawson.

From my own experience in the study of politics in the University of Paris at the Sorbonne, I know the high rank of French scholarship and the practical value of training in such special schools of higher political studies. Two of my professors, Lapradelle and Barthelemy, praised highly the early diplomatic activities of our first statesmen and displayed a more intimate acquaintance with our diplomatic system and history

than is in evidence in our own great universities.

Much should be done immediately in correlating all the foreign activities of our Government in the State Department. The total lack of such correlation now is a patent fact. Often as a correspondent in London, through lack of time to consult four different bureaus on a given proposition, I have gone to the British Foreign Office for information about the United States. I am not proud to admit it.

Last year, when the Shipping Board seized the Imperator, which had been allocated to Great Britain, and held the ship for weeks without the slightest right except retaliation and with an entire disregard of the unfriendly connotation involved, it did more to hurt AngloAmerican friendship than all the tact, resourcefulness, and diplomacy of Davis could regain in weeks thereafter.

Precisely as the President unifies domestic policies in acting himself where the work of his Secretaries of Labor, Interior, Commerce, Treasury, and Attorney-General may be involved, the ambassador should be the supreme representative abroad in matters of our multiform relationships with foreign Powers. Diplomatic interests, consular interests, shipping interests, Treasury Department interests, should focus in him. We have failed to learn our lesson from the war if we ignore the consequences of this lack of co-ordinated relationship in dealing with foreign governments. Colonel House paid no attention whatever to the State Department in his work of preparation for the Peace Conference. He collected a set of experts and set them to work. They collected much valuable information, but when Wilson was closeted with the Council of Four he found it impracticable to use the watertight compartments surrounding him, lacking as they did unity of purpose and common association; whereas Lloyd George, lacking as much perhaps as Wilson of a knowledge of details and programmes, always had a body of faithful

British experts who could give him arguments and data in support of a wellthought-out plan formulated by the underofficers of the British Foreign Office.

The Under-Secretary of State might well be a permanent official who would correlate and unify the various departments, boards, and commissions concerned in the supervision and control of foreign affairs. According to the National Civil Service League, some fifteen authorities practically independent in action issue orders and regulations affecting our international relations. Some attempt, I believe, has been made through what is termed a Foreign Trade Council to co-ordinate overlapping activities. But the Appropriation Bill shows contributions to a large number of international bureaus, associations, and commissions. These are under the supervision of various departments of government.

We should buy or build embassies as quickly as possible.

Even Mr. Bryan favors the building of embassies. Before the Foreign Affairs Committee, on December 17, 1913, he said that on his first trip to Europe, ten years prior, he became a firm believer in the principle of purchasing embassies. Mr. Bryan, as Secretary of State, favored the gradual purchasing. He reasoned that it was undemocratic for the United States to close diplomatic careers to poor men or to permit men of wealth to lavish their living and so represent a "spurious" America. This certainly is valuable testimony from a man who waived the merit rule in favor of "deserving Democrats."

Mr. Harding needs an improved diplomatic service, a much improved service if negotiation is to play the master rôle in his Administration. He has some hard diplomatic problems. Mr. Hughes as Secretary of State, with Mr. Root in London acting in much more than an ambassadorial capacity, would be an ideal arrangement. If there is one who sees the world predicament, it is Elihu Root. He may not wish to continue long in the

JEAN JULES JUSSERAND

service, but he can at least suggest the right course for America to follow.

The National Civil Service Reform League published a report in 1919 on the foreign service of the United States which is a real mine of material in support of the betterment of the service through the disclosures of present incompetencies and shortcomings. Mr. Harding ought to be well fortified with the facts of this report when he is besieged with requests for jobs for "deserving" Republicans.

I would of course in such matters carefully guard the prerogative of the President and Senate to guide and control our foreign relations. A concrete illustration of what might happen were the conditions unflexible may be seen in the situation right now. It would be difficult for Mr. Harding to use Mr. Wilson's ambassadors. There are always bound to be periods of diplomatic deadlock and partisan warfare, such as is ending now, when as concerns foreign affairs the influence and power of the Government of the United States is long paralyzed. But American diplomacy in the last analysis is the expression of the will of the people as interpreted by and expressed through the Chief Executive.

As a people, however, we are little interested in world affairs. The President's tenure of office is short. He is generally a novice at the diplomatic game. It is a question whether foreign relations can be maintained excepting by a consistent continuing policy and a permanent body of trained officials as a corrective for the intermittent service of the supreme head of the diplomatic system-the President.

Diplomacy is a supremely human thing, dependent upon human qualities and good international manners. Education and training in the conventions and amenities of international intercourse are essential for the entire foreign service. Integrity and ability to present the ideals and policies of the Nation are essential to great ministers and great diplomats.