Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1911-02-24
postoffice Department Men Have
Completed the Difficult
investigation.
LOWER RATES MAY BE RESULT
eernhardt at National Press Club
Congress- Kills Plan to Erect Re-
formatory Near Mount Yer
non-Longworth Wins
His Long Fight.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

been making an investigation as to the
actual cost to the railroads of carrying
the United States mail The work is
done. 1t has been the hardest job
which ever has been undertaken by
government officials bent on getting
mere figures. The attempt has been
TO find out what 1t costs to carry the
mails over every line of railroad in
the United States, main lines and
branch lines, with a view to finding
out if the carrier companies are charg-
ing Uncle Sam too much money for
the work which they do.
No one knows to just what use the
information will be put, but If it has
been found that the railroads are max
ing more than due profit, they prob
ably will be made to reduce their
charges and the saving which Will
come to the government will be put
to service betterment uses, possibly in
the way of reducing the cost of first
class postage or possibly in increas-
ing the efficiency and number of rural
routes.
For some time the postoffice officials
have been considering the advisable
ity of sending the magazines of the
United States by freight instead OF on
the fast mail trains as at present The
explanation is that magazines will still
go as mail matter and viii be deliv-
cred by the postof1ice department, just
as they are now, and that therefore no
protest can stand. If such mails are
hu fnhf nf
them will be much less than it is now,
and it is possible that the plan will
be put into effect If the protest is not
strong enough to make the officials
change their minds.
6srnnards at Press Club.
At the National Press club in Wash
lngton, Mr.. J. NJ. JusseTand, the am
bassador of France to the United
States. and Nine. Sara Bernhard the
great French actress and perhaps the
greatest artist in the world, were the
guests of the members a day or two
ago.
Nine. Bernhard speaks English fair
ly well and understands it perfectly,
but she never will speak it, or any
other language except that of her ma
tive land, if she possibly can help it.
1t has been said that she has the most
wonderful voice with which nature is
capable of endowing one, and, it is
understood that this now aged woman
has maintained all her life that to at
tempt conversation in any except her
native tongue would injure the carry
ing and the resonant qualities of her
voice and destroy some of its power
Be this as 1t may, the madame spoke
In French and among other things said
that she would return to America in
1915, would visit the Panama canal
and witness its opening. The actress
went to Panama with the French en-
gineer, de Lesseps, years ago, when
the French people started to dig a
Panama canal on their own account,
an attempt which ended in failure
Geographers Eat New Vegetables.
When the National Geographic soci-
ETY. held its recent dinner, a new veg.
etabie called TIE dasheen was served
In place of the ordinary potato. The
dasheen was brought into America
from some far off place by the officials
OF the bureau of plant industry, with
view to finding out if the American
taste took kindly to it, and if it would
grow we'll In American soil
The dasheen, which in flavor is some
thing like the potato and in appearance
after being cooked very much like 1t.
is a prolific producer, so prolific that
II Is supposed that when it once gets
foothold it will produce enormous
crops and that as a sequence it can
be sold very cheaply.
The officials of the plant industry bu-
reau have found out that it takes some
ume to cultivate a taste for new eat
aoies They have brought in one
or Two things which people at first
would have none of, and yet after a
ume a liking for the strange edible
was developed.
No Reformatory at BeIVoir.
Congress has refused to sanction
the order Of the commissioners of
the District Of Columbia to estab-
Iish reformatory upon the old
virginia estate of Beivoir. which is
close to Mount Vernon. Sentiment
prevailed in the matter and no penal
institution viii be erected near the
tomb of the Father of His Country.
In Fairfax county, Virginia, where
Washington rests, the land is rich with
memories of the kind which patriotic
Americans hold in reverence. Gunston
hall, a colonial dwelling erected in
the year 1850 by George Mason of his
torlc fame, still stands. In an &C
sount Of the construction OF the dwell
fng 161 years ago, it said:
The brick mansion. with cut stone
quoins. ganbTel roof and four great
chimneys, represents no special type
OF architecture, but evidently was built