30
EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
America were even less creditable to the country than were the wares. It would convey a wholly erroneous impression to say that among the many Americans present during the Exposition, and occupying more or less official relations with it, there were not some competent to fill the positions in which they found themselves placed. It was, however, a melancholy fact that this was the exception and not the rule. The various organizations, as a whole, were the furthest possible from what they should have been. This criticism applied to all, from the commission of the United States down through those of the several states, and to our representatives on thfe juries. I have already sufficiently referred to the strenuous and very partially successful efforts made to discover the material which would enable us to carry out the plan of special reports which we had conceived. As a rule, our researches brought to light only a noticeable absence both of education and of a thorough practical knowledge of specialties. It surely should be a fair matter for presumption, that individuals selected to represent America upon international juries, which are to pass upon the relative excellence or the best results of the industries of all civilized countries, would know something. In far too many instances, those Americans who were appointed to this honorable function at Vienna seemed to fail as regards this elementary prerequisite. It was thus no unusual circumstance to find an individual holding the position of a judge, whose ignorance of the subject-matter under discussion was only surpassed by his ignorance of the language in which the discussion was necessarily conducted. Certain men there were upon the juries amply competent to fill any position,— men of education, at home in the languages and thoroughly versed in their specialties. These, however, constituted brilliant exceptions to the general rule of incompetence. As a whole, the American official representation was a curious and instructive commentary in the eyes of all other countries of both hemispheres upon our national system of appointment to office. Previous qualification for the performance of duties had apparently not been regarded as requisite. There accordingly had flocked to Vienna a motley accumulation of nondescripts, the highest general ambition among whom appeared to be a mention in reportorial paragraphs,—newspaper