Before leaving New York a handsome booklet had been prepared and printed. The brochure contained the names of the commissioners, their public records, halftone portraits and a carefully prepared statement of the objects of the expedition. Twenty-five hundred copies were printed and were to be delivered on board the Lafayette by the printer. After sailing, it was discovered by a thorough search that the much needed booklets were not on board. These documents were for distribution after our arrival in France and were sorely missed.
Subsequently the booklet was produced in Paris, but in somewhat different form, and it was near the end of the journey before the duplicate copies were ready for distribution. The loss of the American made edition was a serious handicap.
A word or two about the personnel of the Commission. Mr. Nichols, the chairman, is a man about sixty with a grave, clerical appearance, formerly a professor or teacher and at one time superintendent of the Chicago Telephone Company. A man of various business experiences, at present connected with the Allis Chalmers Company in its New York office. He is excessively cautious and delivered a daily lecture on neutrality, fearing evidently that some of the members might break away from his idea of being strictly neutral and thus thwart or defeat the objects of the Commission. Mr. Nichols is thoroughly honest and conscientious; he had the success of the venture very much at heart and labored from his viewpoint to that end, priding himself in his broken French.
Mr. John R. MacArthur was a member of the Philippine Commission, is a fine French scholar, a ready conversationalist in both English and French, and has a keen sense of humor. He was a constant help to the non-French speaking members of the Commission.
Dr. Mailloux is an electrical engineer of established reputation and large experience. He had been in previous commissions to all parts of the world; a thorough French scholar, he had lived many years in France and had done much work for the French Government. His knowledge of the French people was invaluable to some of his fellow commissioners but was not utilized to its full extent.
Mr. Edward A. Warren, of Boston, represented the textile industry and is well posted in that line. He was the modest man of the commission, rarely asserting himself and deferring too much to the views of his companions. He is possessed of rare good common sense, but, as stated, kept himself too much in the background, thereby lessening his influence in the work of the commission.
Mr. James A. Sague, at one time vice-president of The American Locomotive Company; is a technically educated man, genial and companionable, and was a useful personage on the commission.
Mr. A. B. Farquhar, is a real veteran of the Civil War, nearly eighty years of age but possessing remarkable physical vigor. He was the friend of Lincoln, heard the Gettysburg address delivered, saved his town (York, Pennsylvania) from destruction by the Confederates, and had much to do with the reconstruction period after the War. He labored under the difficulty of defective eyesight, this somewhat impairing his usefulness on the Commission.
Mr. N. B. Hoggson, a gentleman of infinite jest, genial and persuasive; a great mixer and constant worker, proved a very useful member of the commission in diving after facts and making notes thereof.
Mr. Geo. B. Ford, a well known architect of the firm of Geo. B. Post & Company, New York, was a rather quiet undemonstrative member, but a worker and investigator in his particular line. His observations and recommendations should have great weight in the work reconstructing and rebuilding the destroyed portions of France.