The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-04-22
UNCLE SANS CIPHER CODES.
Secret Writing Used by Nearly all the
Departmental

Secret kilograms That Emanate from the
White House-The, Ciphers Used by the
| Treasury, War and Navy Departments
and by the Weather Bureau.
| Correspondence of the Boston Trans
| cript.)
Washington, April 9-Nothing could be
more absurd than the statement recently
published to the OBJECT that the Spapiartis
have found the key to the cipher used by
the State Department and are reading
the telerams which pass between Wash
ington and Havana. The secret code
MOST inscrutable cryptograms ever de-
vlsed, the key word changing automati-
oally from time to time. The translation
of message framed in it, without key,
| Is. practically an impossibility. Of
course, a key might he stolen, copy of
it being in tho possession Of every consul
general and minister of the United States
| insforeign countries, but 1t could hardly
| be utilized with success by an outsider,
| owing to the shifting Of the keyword by
pre.arrangement between the parties COR
responding.
| In fact, the State Departments cipher
is SO complicated as to interfere seriously
with its usefulness. When a telegram is
| received, it Is apt to be a twenty-four
hour job TO make it out. The code en-
ploys groups Of figures to represent
words and phrases, and system Of this
sort always affords opportunity for mis-
takes in transmission. At the same
time, It is better in this respect than a
system that uses cryptographic words, in
asmuch as the latter are very likely to go
wrong over the wires. Suppose, for ex-
ample. that "Domioile' stands for the
President of the United States. A for
eign telegraph operator, unacquainted
with the English, may get the word
crooked and make lot of trout bic. Gov
ernments have often been frightened out
of their wits by mistakes in ciphers.
Figures, you see. are the same in all
the languages of civilized nations The
cipher now employed by the State De-
partment has besn in use for about
twenty years. However, the Govern
Inent has always utilized cryptograms in
it's correspondence since Revolutionary
times. In. those. days nearly every public
man had his own private cipher, such q
precaution being made necessary by the
prevalence of the practice of Interoep ting
or tampering with letters. The President
of the United States uses the State De-
partment's code when he sends secret
despatch, but this rarely happens, and a
cipher Telegram has not gone out from
the White House in the last half dozen
years. OF course, the Department of
State is the Presidents office, as it WERE
and through it he corresponds with diplo
matte and consular officials.
So many mistakes occur in the trans
mission of crypt3grapnic messages that
the cipher is used only when necessary
for secrecy or economy. 1t cuts down
the cost of kilograms very greatly, thus
making an important saving in cases
where as in the difficulty with Chile,
continued correspondence has to be kept
up at an expense of So or mora a word.
Nowadays not nearly SO much attention
as formerly ia paid to the keeping of d.
plomatio; secrets, the sdealings OF the
nations with one another being much
more open and frank. Diplomacy used
to be mere game of tricks, and the
ablest ambassador was he who could lie
most skilfully. The riding of letters
was considered legitimate part of the
business, the art being brought to such
perfection that dispatches were opened
without apparent injury to their sealsa
One of the most famous experts in this
line was Walsingham, secretary of state
to Queen Elizabeth.
Nearly every one of the executive de-
partments uses a cipher more or less.
in it's correspondence. The Treasury in
1883 adopted abode that is still in use.
though it has undergone many improve
ments since then, one purpose of it to
save telegraph tolls, the wires being
worked very freely between the Treasury
and the various sub-treasuries and miuts
in different cities. But frequntly it
would be very undesirable that the pub-
lie should have knowledge of the CON
tents Of the dispatches. It might not
be we'll to warn train robbers that big
shipment of gold was to be made at a
certainstime and by stated train from
Carson to San Francisco. Furthermore,
information gathered by the Department
might be utilized for stock jnbbing pur-
poses. Many of the dispatches have
reference to financial conditions and pros
poets.
The most notable feature of the Treas
ury cipher is it's extreme simplicity. This
simplicity, the officials of the department
say, is its best safeguard: there is moth
ing for an outside translator to start
with. 1t consists of lot OF words with
arbitrary meanings; also of peculiar as
ISOLATION and sequences of words with
meanings attached. The words are names
Of people. animals, plants gems. etc.
Dispatches in this cryptogram can be
read off hand by those who understand
IL