The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-16

| The application of the word ''crime" to
this offence is not quite technically correct.
In the statutes providing for its punish
ment ii is defined as ''misdemeanor, a
legal term which is applied to crimes and
offences which fall short of felony and to
which the law does not give particular
name, such as murder, burglary, perjury,
DC. But misdemeanors are subject TO in
dictment, trial and punishment, like other
crimes. BY the Revised Statutes of New
York the violation of telegraphic message
is declared misdemeanor and is punishable
by fine and imprisonment. In order to show
the light in which this offence is regarded
by the law we insert the following quota
tons from the Revised Statutes:-"Any
person who shall wilfully, by connivance
with any clerk, operator or messenger, or
other employee of any telegraph company,
or otherwise. wilfully and wrongfully OBJ
tain, or attempt to obtain, any knowledge of
any telegraphic message or despatch, COM
munication or communications, while the
same shall be in course of transmission,
without first having the assent or author
ity of some person having the right to
give such assent and authority, shall
be deemed guilty of misdemeanor, and
shall, upon conviction, be punished by
o fine Of not more than one thousand dollars
or imprisonment for not more than three
months, or both such fine and imprison-
ment." In another chapter of the Revised
Statutes the opening of any sealed letter
whether sent by mail or otherwise) or any
telegraphic message or despatch is made
punishable as misdemeanor, and it is
added that "Any person who shall aid, abet
or encourage the opening or reading Of
any such letter or. telegraphic despatch or
message shall be deemed guilty of mis-
demeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be
punished as herein above provided" The
next section goes on to declare that ''Who-
ever shall maliciously publish the
whole or any part of such letter without
the authority Of the writer thereof or Of the
person to whom the same shall be addressed,
knowing the same to have been SO opened,
shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty
of misdemeanor and punished as pre-
scribed in the last section"
We have made these citations not so much
for the purpose Of expounding the law on
the subject as to bring Legislative testimony
to bear on the moral character Of the offence.
The statutes quoted are SO loosely drawn
as to afford loopholes for escaping the penal
ties, but their aim and purport convey
a full condemnation OF the dishon-
orable violations of secrecy against
which they are directed. Tampering with
kilograms is put on the same footing as
tampering with private letters, and is not
only abhorrent to every gentlemanly in
stinct but is a criminal violation OF legal
rights
The principle of the law does not merely
apply to telegraphic messages while in the
course of transmission. There is one i'm
portant distinction between telegram and
a letter. The contents OF sealed letter
not tampered with in the course of trans
mission can be known only to the writer
and the receiver; but the contents Cor, at
least, the wording) of a telegram necessarily
become known to intermediate persons.
The operator at each end of the line, unlike
the postmaster at each end of mail route,
must read every message, and copy of the
original is kept on file at the telegraph
office. A law which should merely protect
leave the operators, clerks or officers of the
telegraph company free to inspect the
originals and divulge' the contents after
they had been delivered, would be a con-
temptible farce. With regard to letters no
protection is needed after delivery, because
no subsequent betrayal of confidence is pos
sible where the contents are known only to the
writer and the receiver. But the contents of
kilograms are necessarily known to the
operators and remain accessible to such
officers of the telegraph company as have
access to the filed originals. If honor does
not close their lips the law should, and by
penalties just as rigorous as those which
course Of transmission. 1t is as fragrant an
outrage for the officers of a telegraphic CON-
pany to violate the secrecy OF despatch as
it would be for q postmaster to break the
seal of letter, and if the law does not
reach this offence in all its stages the law
ought to be amended.
A city journal which has particular and
defensive interest in this question contends
that judicial cognizance can be taken of
letters and kilograms after their delivery,
and that any person having knowledge Of
their contents can be compelled to testify.
This is an artful mode of diverting atten-
ton from the real question. Were the
cipher kilograms brought out by a judicial
process? Were the originals taken out of
the confidential custody of the telegraph
company by legal mandate and given to
the public through the agency of ju-
dicial investigation? Everybody knows
that this is not the history of their
publication. Everybody knows that they
were procured by surreptitious means,