Semi-weekly independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-19
CODES FOR CABLE USE
ClPHERS MUST BE UNIFORM
HEREAFTER.
After Jan. 1, 1898, Business Houses
Engaged in Foreign Trade Must
Conform to the Usage of the Inter
national Telegraph bureau at Berne.
New TELEGRAPH Rule.


On the 1st of January. 1873, the bust
ness houses in America that are engaged
in foreign trade and employ the cable will
be compelled to adopt Il single uniform
code instead of those at present in use.
As is well known, banks. commission
houses. mercantile establishments and
manufacturers now use groups OF arol-
:rary words in sending their kilograms
abroad. Each of these words conveys
the meaning of whole sentence. and
not only economies cost, but preserves
the secrecy of dispatches, which cannot
be understood 10y the operators or other
persons into whose hands they may fail
without the use of Il code To translate
them.
An international Geographic bureau at
Berne is supported by the various govern
ments who own telegraph and cable lines,
and is maintained for the purpose of max
ing uniform rates and rules for interna-
tional business. Representatives OF such
governments hold conventions every hve
years for the purpose of reviewing the
work of the bureau and taking such ac-
ton az is necessary and eNpedlent Tor
their mutual advantage. At the last IN
ternational conference, which was held
in Paris in 1891, il WAS decided to require
all patrons of the cable and telegraph sys-
tens in the countries belonging 10 the
union to use an authorized uniform code.
which it is proposed to make universal. A
commission was appointed to prepare a
vocabulary in seven languages English,
French. German, Dutch, Italian, Portu-
guese and Latin-and their work will be
submitted for approval at the next confer
ence. which is to be held at Buda Pest III
the coming June. Copies of the proposed
vocabulary have been forwarded to the
United States for inspection. 1t Is Il
large volume and contains ZJO,OW words
selected from the languages named ana
arranged in alphabetical order. W hIle
the American cable companies have not
accepted the new code, they Will be com
PEELED to do so, for the reason that Tor
eign companies will not accept messages
in any other cipher after Jan. 1, IS9S
The patrons of the cable are not requir-
ed TO accept the arbitrary meaning OF the
words given in the official vocabulary, but
are allowed to apply them TO any SEN
fences or figures or combinations they
please. That is, each patron of the cable
system may arrange his own private code
as at present, but muse use the symbols
furnished 10y the international union.
Therefore the same message may be sent
to dozen different firms and have dill
ferent meaning to every one of them
This will make it necessary for the Gov
eminent of the United States 10 arrange
new official ciphers. Those in use ut pres
ent by the State and Navy Departments
are old and cumbersome, and 1t is be-
lieved that several foreign governments
have TRANSACTIONS of the State Depart
ment United States ministers in Madrid
have been amazed at times TO discover
that the officials of the foreign Office there
were familiar with the contents of cipher
dispatches received from Washington,
and when Mr.. Trescott's peace commits
sion went to Chill in 1881, they found that
the minister of foreign affairs had trans
latiOns of their instructions from Wash
ington almost as soon as themselves. 1t
has been freely charged that Il former
minister of the United States at Santiago
gave or sold n copy of our code To the
CHILEAN Government. Several times the
Secretary of State has proposed to frame
n new one, but it has never been accom-
plished. Among European governments
new codes are adopted on the LIST of Jan
uary every year, and the old ones destroy