The Colorado statesman., 1913-09-06

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three departments, which include all
the forces that would come in con-
tact with an enemy in war time, have
used secret codes peculiar to each.
The state department has employed
several codes, the war department sew
eral others, although chiefly one, the
Breeley code. and the navy depart
ment others. They have points in
common. but they are nevertheless
distinct codes. The key to one would
not afford a translation of a message
written in another code.
The new interdepartmental code is
designed not only for use in war but
in such emergencies as would require
quick secret communication between
representatives of the various divi-
sions.
Code keys have a habit of getting
lost. 1t is to the interest of foreign
powers to know the secret language
a possible antagonist may speak Any
multiplication of codes increases the
opportunities for valuable information
of this character to get lost or stolen.
For instance, the code now chiefly
used by the state department is about
four years old and was adopted chiefly
because the old code had become the
common property of several nations
across the water When George Won
Lengerke Meyer, formerly ambassador
to Russia, and more recently secretary
of the navy. was in st. Petersburg, a
diplomat visited him one day to offer
to him little book. The book had
mysteriously found it's way to Bucha-
rest and had fallen, as such books have
a habit of falling, into the hands of
foreign office. When Mr.. Meyer saw
the book he at once recognized the
state department code key.
Some time later a letter came to the
American embassy in Berlin stating
that the writer possessed a similar
key. He offered to soil it, suggesting
that possibly the United States for
eign office would not care to have it's
secrets the common property of all
Europe. The embassy asked the writ
er to submit specimen page of the
book to prove his assertion. The spec
linen was mailed to the embassy and
compared. There was no question of
it's genuineness
But instead of spending good Amer
lean gold to retrieve the volume, the
then ambassador informed the state
department that its code was no
longer secret The man who owned
the key may have sold copies to every
foreign office in Europe. To buy one
copy would be no guaranty that the
secret was retrieved.
So it was discarded and the new
one adopted. The code now used is
made up of arbitrary combinations of
five letters each. Each of these arbi-
trary words, which are pronounceable
because of the alienation of conso-
nants and vowels, denotes another
word or phrase. There is just one way
of discovering what the code word
means and that is to look in the key,
the code dictionary.
Every department of the govern
ment and even several of the bureaus
in various departments have their own
secret language. Codes are used for
two purposes, secrecy and economy.
The code is regulated primarily by
the requirements of telegraph compa-
MES By international agreement tel
egraph companies send for the same
rate as is charged for a single word
any pronounceable combination, in any
one of eight languages, of five letters
by telegraph or ten letters by cable.
If the combination is unpronounceable
a charge is made for the transmission
of each letter.