Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-09-10
USE OF SECRET cIPHERs
Justified by Reduced Expense and
Public Policy.

Considerations Of expenses and
sound public policy, both in peace
and war, compel all governments to
communicate with their diplomatic
and civil officers in ciphers n by
telegraphic codes.
Cipher experts call communica-
lions in which each word is used In
its ordinary sense plain language
messages, Ineligible at sight, Of
course, to any reader Of the language
employed.
Code messages are those in which
each word, phrase or sentence Of the
plain language meant to be under
stood between the sender and receiver
is represented in the message by an
arbitrarily selected word or. group Of
letters taken from a telegraph diction-
airy, a cop of which Is in possession
Of all concerned, and to which re-
ference is made to ascertain the real
meaning Of the communication.
A cipher is any means Of giving
language a hidden or secret meaning,
| understandable, at least in theory,
only to the initiated, and either a
plain language or a code message may
be enciphered, in which case the lat
ter is said to be a cipher CODE"
. Telegraphic codes are employed
primarily for economy, cable tolls
being reduced by causing one word,
which Is transmitted and paid for,
to represent several plain language
words, which on receipt Of a message
the receiver looks up in his Geographic
| dictionary or code book. Such codes
are common in the commercial world.
All large industrial concerns have
them, and several publishers find
their sale profitable. They range In
size and completeness from small
booklets to huge volumes Of hundreds
of pages, comprising enough phrases
for the cooling Of messages on any
ordinary commercial subject.
Government codes differ from these
principally in containing thousands
of words and phrases peculiar to the
public business, the technical langu-
age of far more diplomacy and war.
They are far more adaptable too, to
enciphering for secrecy.
In handling its communications our
| government, in it's several branches
and departments, uses all the leading
commercial codes. These 1t supple
ments by private codes held confiden-
tial in the service, and prepared by
it's own officers and experts. The state
department employs a code bearing
its name, copies Of which are in the
office Of the secretary Of state, and
in the hands of our diplomatic and
consular agents everywhere.
|. The war department telegraph
code, revised and distributed from the
office of the chief signal officer of the
army, is kept under lock and key In
the department, in the office Of every
post commander, in the headquarters
| Of every army force in h field, and
is issued individually to every officer
Of the United States signal corps. The
navy likewise has a o d Of its own,
and each Of the three departments
mentioned uses, when necessary, the
codes Of the other two.
One Of the most used and jealousy
guarded government codes, that Of the
| bureau of isular affairs, has
been printed. It's compiler, an expert
| codist in the office Of the chief Of that
bureau, personally typed it on thin
| sheets, making four copies which
then were bound. One was sent "
special sessenger to the governor gen.
eral Of the Philippine Islands, another
to the governor Of Porto Rico, a third
was retained in the bureau, and the
fourth is in the hands Of a trusted
government officer who for confident
ial reasons cannot be named. No other
copies exist, and the four made are
guarded with the utmost vigilance.
| cation between the government and
our colonial possessions, and Is the
only government code in whose GER
tain secrecy absolute confidence Is
placed. Only the most vitality import
ant messages coded in 1t are further
protected by enciphering, and its use
obviates the delay inevitable in
enciphering and deciphering impor-
tant messages coded in the more
widely distributed departmental
codes. 1t is the one really secret code
Of the United States.
To be sure, there is a polite fiction
that the department codes are secret.
The utmost precautions have been
taken to this end. Each was printed
under guard by the public printer.
Each copy and page is numbered.
and the holders receipt for their
copies, take oath to preserve them
secretly and report regularly as
their continued possession. Unlawful
possession Of a copy is a penal Of
tense against the United States. The
Navy Code Book Is weighed with
lead and navy regulations charge an
officer with the duty Of casting 1t
overheard in case Of capture. The
holders of the state and war derart-
ment codes are bound to keep lem
in their personal possession, day and
night, and to burn them leaf by leaf,
or to bury them, If circumstances so
require. Yet copies have disappeared.
Several copies Of the war depart
ment code, now soon to be abandoned
as absolute, have been stolen from
time to time at different posts.
Several disappeared in the San Fran
cisco fire, and whether they still exist
is, Of course, uncertain. When Secre-
tary of Embassy O'Shaughnessy and
his party left Mexico City for Vera
Cruz, in 1914, Capt. William A. Burn
side, United State army, our military
attache, fearing theft Of his baggage,
carried his copy of the war depart
ment code in his hands. His trunks
were broken into and searched sur
reptitiously. and while on the train
the attache, in the presence of Ameri-
can witnesses, burned his code, leaf
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