The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-02

only to officers commanding vessels and
naval stations and every possessor of
| the precious document is duly impressed
with the necessity for preserving it safe
from loss or danger. When an Ad-
n1iral is in command all communica-
tions from the department are sent to
| MIN and are deciphered by the Ad-
miral's aid. No other officer in the fleet
is authorized, under such circumstances
to use the code On board ship the
book is kept in heavy leaden case
which is water tight, and, when not in
use. is under lock and key Should the
vessel be captured one of the first
| things to be done is to toss IS over
board. where it will at once sink and
prevent the enemy from securing pos
session of even a possible means for
learning the way we communicate by
telegraph with our naval officers.
| During the late war with Spain the
cipher clerks were kept busy, for dls-
patches were constantly being received
and sent. All the directions of the de-
pa1 tment to Admiral Sampson went in
cipher and all his reports but one came
| in the same language. The news OF the
victory of the fleet at Santiago, how
| ever came clicking over the wires IN
everyday English. Admiral Sampson
was so anxious to hurry TO Washing
ton the announcement of the defeat OF
Cervera that he did not wait to put
his informa ton into cipher, but sent 1T
along in readable form. All his other
communications regarding events of the
blockade, however, were forwarded IN
cipher. The cable and telegraph bills
are considerably reduced by means of
this code, the department having
adopted arbitrary words to represent
sentences that occur frequently in naval
orders.
1t is likely that the War Departments
system in cipher is the poorest used in
the Government. 1t is said that three
or four ciphers are used for different
occasions, and owing to the fact that
standard one was not employed great
confusion resulted during the war in en-
deavoring to translate certain impor-
tant dispatches. The Adjutant General
is the custodian of the keys to the code,
and the same care that is observed in
the navy in keeping track of each docu-
ment is maintained in the army Also
A book is kept at each army post and
OF course will hereafter go with each
commanding officer in a foreign detail.
So much dissatisfaction was found
with the system during the war that
a few weeks ago General Greedy was
ordered to prepare new code. General
Greedy is one of the best experts in the
United States on all cipher and code
languages and has formulated many
special system. The department de-
Cided to abandon all attempts at secrecy
in it's communications over the cable
and will hereafter strive to simply econ
omize in such messages. The system
that General Greedy prepared contains
large number Of set phrases that are
constantly used in the orders of the
department and which will do much
toward lessening the cable expenses of
the army.
For instance, this order: 1.-The Sec
rotary of War directs the honorable dis
charge of -, with travel pay" is cut
down to merely "Hatchet John Jones"
The dispatch of the word sSagrasen"
is interpreted by the receiver as THE
Secretary of War desires the officer of
the Inspector Generals Department to
investigate" A number of arbitrary
words have been adopted to represent
the titles of various officers, as for in
stance, secwar (Secretary of War;,
geIwar General commanding the
army, agwar (Adjutant GeneraD In
ADDITION to its cipher code, the depart
ment sometimes employs a special type
writer code and the use Of this at