The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1896-11-05
TELEGRAPHING in CHINA
The Difficulties are Great and Not
Easily Overcome.
a CIPHER COPE is VERY NECESSARY
There IL Much Trouble In Securing
Competent Train Dispatchers--
Foreigners Not Desired and Educ
Gated Ceiestisis Will Nos wsrk.

According to the "Statesman's Year
Book" says the San Francisco Chroni-
Gle, all the principal cities OF China are
now connected with one another and
with Peking, the capital, by telegraph.
Recent visitors to China say, however,
that in telegraphing there is a laborious
and expensive process, and that the lines
are charge upon the state treasury In
stead Of source OF revenue.
The dispatches are, Of course. sent in
Chinese, for not one in many thousands
OF the natives knows any language ex.
cept bis own. But the Chinese have no
alphabet. Their literary characters,
partly Geographic, partly phonetic, num-
Der many thousands. 1t is simply i'm
possible to invent telegraphic signals
that would cover the written language.
Here was an obstacle in the way Of using
the telegraph at all.
The difficulty was obviated by invent
ing telegraphic signal for each OF the
cardinal numbers, aud so numbers or
figures might be telegrsphed to any ex-
tent. Then a code dictionary was pre-
pared, In which each number from one
| up to several thousand stood for par
ticular Chinese letter or telegraph. II is,
in fact, cipher system. The sender Of
the message need not bother himself
about It's meaning. He may telegraph
all day without the slightest idea Of the
information he is sending, for he trans
mits only numerals.
1t IL very different with his friend, the
receiver. He has the code dictionary at
his elbow, and after each message 10 re-
ceived he must translate it, writing each
literary character in place OF the mineral
that stands for it. Only about an eighth
OF the words in the written language APP
pear in the code. but there are enough Of
them for all practical purposes.
But the Chinese system has its great
disadvantages. Men OF ordinary cduca-
ton have not sufficient acquaintance with
the written language to be competent re-
ceivers, and the literati are not seeking
employment ia telegraph Offices. SO the
government recruits its employees with
much difficulty. There are almost no
Chinese who have business relations all
over the country, as is the case with
many thousands OF our business men.
The public is not invited to buy stock in
the Chinese telegraph lines, and il it
were. nobody at present would buy with
view to dividends. The receipts do not
equal the expenses, aud the government
makes up the deficit.
There is another great disadvantage
of the Chinese telegraph system. All
over the world the movement OF railroad
trains is regulated by telegraph. The
orders received by the e.s'ion scent are
fled in plain view of the employees, and
il need be- the switchman may take tenn
porary charge and carry out the nstruo-
tons from the central office. Railroads
have been introduced into China to a
| very small extent, and there is talk Of
greatly extending the service. But how
about running the trains?
A writer in lie Mou yement Colonial"
of Paris, says that il railroads are intro
dueed to any extent in China, the per-
sonnet must be exclusively European
and American, or recruited from the lit
erary class. He says the Chinese govern
ment will not take foreigners into it's
| service, and that the educated men OF
China, who alone among the people have
sufficient knowledge OF the written lam
guage to be ntrusted with the actual rum
ming OF trains, would refuse most en-
phatically to be either train hands or
station agents.
This is one of the many stumbling
blocks in the way of China's progress,
but it is quite effective in its way.