Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-03-19
CODES FOR CABLE USE
CIPHERS MUST BE UNIFORM
HEREAFTER.
After Jan. 1, 1905, Business Houses
Engaged In Foreign Trade Must
Conform to the Usage of the Inter
national TeIexra ph bureau at Berne.
New Telegraph Rule.

On the LIST of January, 1893, the bust
ness houses i'm America that are engaged
in foreign trade and employ the cable VIII
be compelled to adopt u 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 arpi-
trary words in sending their telegrams
abroad Each of these words conveys
the meaning of n whole sentence. ana
not only economics cost, but preserves
the secrecy of dispatches, which cannon
be understood by the operators or other
persons into whose hands they may faii
without the use of code To translate
them.
An international telegraphic bureau al
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 five
years for the purpose of reviewing the
work of the bureau and taking such ac-
ton as is necessary and expedient for
their mutual advantage. At the last III,
ternational conference. which was held
in Paris in 1891, it was decided to require
all patrons of the cable and telegraph sys-
tens in the countries belonging to the
union to use an authorized uniform CODE
which it is proposed to make universal a
commission was appointed To prepare Il
vocabulary i'm seven languages-English,
French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portu-
guese and Latin-and their work will be
submitted for approval ut the next confer
cnce, 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 2o0,OoO words
selected from the languages named ana
arranged in alphabetical order. While
the American cable companies have not
accepted the new code. they will be COM
pelled to do so, for the reason that for
eign companies will not accept messages
in any other cipher after Jan. j, 1898.
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
tences 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 by the international union.
Therefore the same message may be sent
TO n dozen different firms and have diff
ferent meaning to every one of them.
This will make it necessary for the Gov
ernment of the United States to arrange
new official ciphers. Those in use ut pres
ent by the State and Navy Departments
are old and cumbersome, and it is be-
lieved that several foreign governments
have translati tons 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 1882, they found that
the minister of foreign affairs had trans
lations of their instructions from Wash
ington almost as soon as themselves. IL
has been freely charged that former
minister of the United States at Santiago
gave or sold a copy of our code to the
Chilan Government. Several times the
Secretary of State has proposed to frame
a new one, but it has never been accom-
plished. Among European governments
new codes are adopted on the 1st of Jan
uary every year, and the old ones destroy
ed.