The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1895-05-17

berne, switzerland, OF which all the
governments of Europe, and all the
important nations of the rest Of the
civilized world, with the sole exception
of the United States. are members.
"Berne," as the bureau is generally
referred to, is the central information
bureau Of the telegraph service Of the
whole world. Any interruption to
cable or land line. the opening OF
new line, or Encouragement and
shortening of an old one; all delays to
telegraphic communication. anywhere
and from any cause, such as storms or
earthquakes, or censorship on tele-
grams because of war or civil disturb
ances in Cuba or Armenia, or any
where else; anything or everything chat
improves or disturbs the telegraph SER
vice In any part of the world, Is at once
reported from the affected locality dl-
rectly to Berne, and the information is
promptly sent out from there to the
headquarters Of every government and
telegraph company, and so on to every
telegraph Office of Importance in the
world. While the United States is not
represented at Berne, or in the interna-
tional conventions, this country shares
in the information, and is to great
extent under the domination OF Berne.
With a few exceptions all the cable
lines in this hemisphere are owned
by British companies, and in telegraph
t. - C,,ho
Berne's territory is entered.
Berne Is really the center Of every
thing Geographic, and "CQ" in the
nomenclature Of telegraphy, IS the cir
conference Of everything. Every city
in the world has it's code. recognized
by Berne and known everywhere. Thus
LIN" means London, my" New York,
"BM" Bombay, "SZ" Suez, Get" Cal
cutta, INV" Monte Video, and so on.
A message from Berne simply ad-
dressed 10" would quickly find its
way to Iquique, away over in Chilli.
GO" means "all stations" and tele-
gram sent from Berne telling, perhaps.
of an interruption Of communication
with Australia by reason of an earth
quake IN Java, addressed simply eco"
would be passed from one government
and telegraph company to another, and
from center to center, until inside Of
twenty-four hours it would reach every
Office Of Importance IN the world.
The bureau was first established as
a result of an international telegraph
convention held at st. Petersburg in
1875, to settle all matters Of rules and
regulations for the interchange Of
kilograms among the various countries:
to collect and apportion the charges
on international kilograms, according
to the proportion Of work done by each
country, and generally to do the work
,f the telegraph companies and systems
that the clearinghouse does for the
banks. Every five years convention
is held, at which all the governments
are represented, and the rules to gov
ern Berne are considered and revised
and enacted.
There has always been difficulty be-
tween the telegraph service and its Gus
toners over the use of cipher words.
OF course, where the cost of telegraph
ing runs to several dollars a word,
every effort is made to be brief. Most
elaborate and really wonderful codes
have been constructed, some at q cost
Of thousands Of dollars, by the aid Of
which one word is made to express q
whole sentence, or paragraph, of COM
mercial information. To such a science
has this matter Of codes been reduced
that the bulk Of kilograms passing be-
tween this country or England and dis
tant places like China and Australia
rarely consist Of more than two or three
words. Many hundreds contain only
one word, besides the name and ad-
dress. And one word often sums up a
whole days business. To insure ac-
curacy and speed the convention de-
cided many years ago that only legiti-
mate words. belonging to one of eight
languages, should be allowed in codes,
and no word should contain more than
ten letters. Arbitrary combinations of |
letters. such as xqp, or WY, are only
accepted on basis Of three letters to |
, word. While cable operators are not |
expected to know eight languages, yet |
there is something about legitimate
words Of a modern language that makes
t easily recognized. It sounds all right |
IN the Morse instrument and looks all |
light on the cable slip. A mutila.ed
word is as readily distinguished and
stopped. The sender Of foreign tele-
gram IT eight words may use a word
Zach from English. German, French,
italian. Spanish, Portuguese. Dutch
md Latin. but they must be good words
Ind not over ten letters long. The
'ecetving clerk In a c<kIe office will al
most infallibly spot an Legitimate
Vord. and. a he II held responsible at
he rate Of several dollars . word for