St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1912-06-29
Washington Correspondence

Of so many members of the Sen
ate and the House from Washing
ton. no attempt has been made
to reach an agreement on the
River and Harbor bill this week.
Tt is not probable now that the
measure will be perfected in time
for the Presidents signature be-
fore the close of the fiscal year.
Fortunately however this will not
result in any particular en-
barrassmen t to the Corpt OF En-
gineers in charge of the various
works throughout the country.
Those projects which have already
been authorized will proceed just
as though the appropriations
authorized were made available,
and while it will be impossible to
begin the new works provided
for in the bill now pending, the
practical certainty that the mea-
sure will soon become a law
assures the continuance of the
general policy Oh. improvement of
the waterways beyond any ques-
ton.
Great interest is manifested
throughout the whole United
States in the development of the
phosphate deposits in the South
ern States. 1t is asserted that
many millions of dollars worth of
fertilizers have already been ex-
tracted from the phosphate rocks
of Florida, the Carolinas and
Tennessee and that prospecting
is proceeding in number of other
states with excellentprospects Of
success. In the meantime the
agricultural department has been
advised that a chemist of New
York has perfected a method Of
doubling the available solution
phosphoric acid of every ton Of
the rock now in sight and which
may hereafter be undiscovered.
The department expects as a re-
suit of the experiments made
with this new process that the
plant food of the phosphate rock
deposits will be doubled in value
and that the agricultural interests
of the country will be benefited
thereby, because of the conse-
quent reduction in price of all
fertilizers of which the compon-
ent part of chief value is ex-
tracted from these southern de-
posits.
There will be a youngster
among the pages at the Democra-
tic convention in Baltimore who
gives promise of becoming a dis
tinguished politician when he at
tains a few more years. He is
Harry Schaefer a kid of little
more than thirteen, the son of an
official of the Navy Department.
Employees of the federal civil SER
vice with large fanatics do not
have very large bank accounts as
a rule and Harry's father is not
an exception to the rule. The
boy conceived the idea of earning
his own way. He remembered
that Representive Hobson of Ala
bama was engaged in trying to
block the entrance to the harbor
of Santiago about the time that
he, Harry, was born. He inter-
viewed Mr.. Hobson, and calling
attention to the fact that his faith
er was connected with the Navy
Department, asked the ex-captain
to secure him a place as a page
on the floor of the House of Re-
presentitives. Captain Hobson
was taken with the enterprise of
the youngster and complied with
his request. Harry concluded
that he would like tosee a nation
al convention from the inside.
He borrowed a typewriter and
wrote out a half a dozen letters
Of recommendation for himself.
These he took to Speaker Clark,
leader Underwood and other
prominent Democrats and asked
their signatures. They all com
glied with the request. Then he
wrote an application to Mr.. Urey
Woodson, Secretary of the Ma
tional Committee, and enclosed
the letters. Mr.. Woodson in a
letter to Speaker Clark promised
the appointment and added that
such a youngster is too good a
politician to be kept down.
THAT how It happens that among
the pages at the convention in
Baltimore is Harry Schaefer,
some day destined to be known
as more than a page.
The rather warm proceedings
il Chicago during the past few
days have brought out all sorts
of "reminiscences of previous not
contests. A gentleman
w ~ = 90 MM I& ia = - - nn% II