Expanding American Commerce Through an Efficient Diplomatic Service

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 19, 1880.

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 8

Expanding American Commerce Through an Efficient Diplomatic Service

—The sudden and rapid increase of our commercial relations with every foreign country, has attracted the attention of the national government to the necessity of increasing in the same proportion the efficiency of our diplomatic service. The policy adopted by Secretary Evarts with this end in view is beginning to bear its fruits. From all parts of the world reports are sent to the State Department by our Consuls and Ministers, full of valuable information concerning the needs of the countries to which they are respectively accredited, and the prospects of American commerce in those countries. . . . Our representative in Colombia believes that intelligent action on our part would soon gain for us the entire control of her foreign commerce, amounting in imports to ten million dollars. It is gratifying to see that under an intelligent administration, our foreign service, which has been until recently for the most part a costly ornament, is fast becoming what it should be, a powerful instrument of prosperity.—America,