The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1917-09-21
Especial to The Times)
Especial to The Times.)

! WASHINGTON, Sept. 81. -
With the disclosure of the Swe-
dish secret diplomatic notes fol-
lowing on the heels OF the uncov-
ering of iZmmerman's secret in
struc.ions in the famous Mexican
note" Uncle Sam is fast develop
ing a reputation as the Sherlock
Holmes of the Diplomatic World"
Derided by foreign diplomats for
lack of skill in diplomatic in
trigue, the American State De-
partment has nevertheless been
the source thru which the most
treacherous German foreign office
intrigues have been uncovered.
How the United States came
into possession of these secret
messages on which the fate of ma
tions turns, and how it was able
to translate the intricate cipher
messages of Germany and Sweden.
are questions that have puzzled
many people. There is, and prob
ably will continue to be, a great
mystery story connected with the
means used by State Department
agents to secure the diplomatic
correspondence Of foreign coun-
tries, altho the shrewdest guess
ers in Washington say the Swedish
notes must have come thru a pro-
ally employe of the Swedish lega-
ton at Buenos Aires.
But ther is no mystery
about the methods used I'm de-
ciphering secret messages.
You can put this down in
| your nOtebOok-there is no
message, of the length OF the
Swedish cablegrams, written
In cipher that Uncle Sans
cryptOgraphic experts cannot
speedily unravcl.
/ II II was five-word mes
sage I'm new cipher, or even
longer message written In
code, for reasons that ! will
explain later the experts
might be baked. But ac-
cording to the cipher spe-
cialists, there Is no cipher
massage of more than %
words that cannot ultimately
be read--and practically all
diplomatic correspondence of
any consequence is sure to be
at least that long.
Secret messages are written
either in cipher or code. In
cipher signs, numbers or other let.
ters are substituted for the letters
of the original message. In code
words or signs are substituted for
words, phrases or even entire SEN
fences of the original message.
The reason long cipher mes
sages can invariably be read is
that in substituting for the letters
of the original message SYSTEM
must be used IL the message is tC
be decipherable by the recipient
In message of 25 words or more
some trace of that system is
bound toto show up, while in short
messages of say five words it is not
likely that the characters will be
repeated frequently enough to re-
veal the system. Short message
can be deciphered only in the light
of longer messages of the same
cipher, or by skilful and repeated
guessing.
In code messages. on the other
hand, there is ordinarily no sys-
TEN. The words or signs are ar
bitrarily chosen with the very idea
of avoiding system. Code mes.
sages, unless very long or very
simple, cannot therefore be read
without the code book. This linz
its code correspondence to cases
in which both parties have code
books at hand.
Furthermore the entire arrange
ment becomes valueless as soon as
a copy of the code falls into the
son stealing doe-boods is the
great international pastime. Codes
are so frequently stolen that dip
lomats generally distrust them.
The system used in cipher mes
sages shows up In the frequency
with which certain letters and
combinations of letters occur, II
the simpler cipher systems are
used. 1t is equally surely re-
vealed by the occurrence of GER
tain characteristic variations from
that normal frequency, If complex
methods of obscuring the message
are used.
The art of enciphering and
deciphering messages has
made very little advance
since the days when Edgar
Allen Poe wrote the Gold
Bug" and showed the fire.
quency with which certain
letters of the English Ian
guage required was an al
most certain index to de-
ciphering messages. Indeed,
all the fundamental prin-
ciples of cipher writing were
known i'm Shakespeare's time.
Lord Bacon could decipher
any message of the modern
diplomats.
4 UncleS ma has two sets O,
ii. l.