The new controversy revived the ancient cry of “profiteer” against manufacturers, already reduced to hungry remnants of a once highly productive group. These now got together in their aeronautical chamber of commerce and sent a delegation to call on the Secretaries of War and Navy to urge that the two departments join in requesting the President to appoint a presidential advisory commission to look into the whole question. At the invitation of the President himself, they later went to the White House to support this recommendation. The President, who had always shown a Yankee sense of orderliness and a willingness to accept responsibility for the conduct of his administration, had been disturbed by the unseemly brawl. He now made no attempt to deny Mitchell the privilege of stating his case to the public, but since the charges reflected upon his own administration, he accepted the industry’s proposal as a good way to sift them out. He approved the idea of a sort of New England town meeting on aviation. His first step was to summon his wise and good friend, Dwight Morrow, and his second was to invite him to head up the inquiry. He then selected a group of men whose standing would warrant public support but was careful not to include anyone who had an ax to grind. The Commission included men from civil life who possessed knowledge of aviation, men from Congress who had had experience in the field, and men from the Army and Navy whose judgment would command public respect and confidence as did that of all other members. Two of the members, Howard Coffin and William F. Durant, were engineers. From the armed forces were drawn Maj. Gen. James G. Harbord and Adm. Frank J. Fletcher, both retired after distinguished public careers. From Congress came three men, Senator Hiram Bingham, of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, himself a military aviator; James S. Parker, of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce; and Congressman Carl Vinson, of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, a Democrat and a man destined to play a statesman’s role in the nation’s security. With Circuit Judge Arthur C. Dennison, Dwight Morrow, the chairman, completed a compact panel well constituted for the task in hand. The Morrow Board held numerous public sessions and heard over a hundred witnesses present a wide assortment of views and opinions. Against the background of the Mitchell charges, the hearings received public attention and were widely discussed in editorial columns. Comment by the press was strongly favorable to the Mitchell cause and to all outward appearances, the general seemed on the way to victory. Behind the scenes, the Morrow Board studied the many records of previous inquiries, and by sifting them carefully was able to bring its own investigation to a close in about ninety days.