16
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
for us to be of any service in the work of preparation, or to assist contributors in forwarding their goods. It only remained to hurry to Vienna, without the possibility of arriving there before every article should have been in its place. When we did arrive there, we found, it is true, nothing in place, and the Massachusetts expositors, in common with all of those from America, utterly paralyzed by the troubles in the United States commission. I have already sufficiently referred to these, and to the extreme care with which my colleagues and myself abstained from all participation in them. Meanwhile, even had our commission then been in a thoroughly effective condition, it would have been wholly out of the question for it to separate the Massachusetts from the other expositors. A state commission had, of course, no recognized position with the Austrian authorities, and could communicate with them only through the representative of the United States. There can hardly be said to have been any such representative until after the arrival of Mr. Schultz, when everything that could be done for the expositors of any state was done for all. Circumstances would afterwards occasionally arise to induce some Massachusetts exhibitor to apply to us for advice or assistance ; such occurrences were, however, rare, and the matters presented trivial. In fact, judging by my own experience at Vienna, I should say that in this respect any state commission was wholly superfluous ; no field of usefulness is open to it. It can, if properly organized, do a great deal of work of the utmost value in the earlier stages of preparation,—while the display of goods is being gotten together and forwarded,—but after the expositor is on the ground, he must necessarily look to the national representatives, and those of a state are, so far as he is concerned, of about as much value as would be those of his county or town. The most they can do is to be at hand in case they are wanted to supply a vacancy, such as arose in Vienna, among those really in charge. They then, however, cease to be state and become national commissioners.
As it was practically out of their power to render any material aid to the Massachusetts contributors, it only remained for the commissioners to give their undivided attention to the work of investigation imposed upon them ; to