Salt Lake Telegram | 1931-07-22 | Page 4 | All Had to 'Make it Snappy' during Debt Negotiations

All Had to Make ake It Snappy D Debt DiL N Negotiations By HERBERT PLU PLUMMER Il IER WASHINGTON July 22 22 Not since the days of ot the World war war at there such feverish activity in iii Uncle Sams Sam's grim old state war n n nd d navy building across the street treet from the White House Hous as during th the recent debt negotiations But perhaps it was In the division of communications and 11 i records s presided presided presided pre pre- sided over by that David DavJd Salmon that activity was th the great great- est Here were handled all aU of or the messages roes mes sages to and from Washington to the American embassies es Ji tn Paris Berlin London and Rome concernIng concernIng concerning concern- concern Ing the moratorium action was required at all times as times as well as the utmost secrecy No matter how the message might be It was Vas Imperative that it be delivered to the proper authority in the possible time WORDS WORDS PLUS PLUS ACTION This work of at g dispatching and anti receiving messages during the period from June 20 t to tr July 5 Inclusive inclusive inclusive sive required the services of ot 5 people people peo peo- pIe each an expert in n his line A hour 24 service was maintained and the workers thought nothing of working 16 to 17 hours each day Three to four times Ume the normal amount of ot work was done done actually actually the work vork was pr per cent of normal nor- nor TVS malMY mal ol My force was like a pack of huntIng hunting hunt hunt- ing dogs after a a. fox is the way Salmon described them There Thee was wa no thought of ot st stopping as long as as there was work to do doS do'S II Messages drafted by the White WhiteHouse WhiteHouse House and state stare department were rushed to Salmon There re they Uey were encoded and dispatched dl by private telegraph wire to the cl commercial mercial cable office in New York thence by cable to the cable office olce abroad and then by t telegraph to the American Amen Ameri can emba embassy y addres address Similarly were gee emanating eman from foreign capitals transmitted to the state department in W Wash Wash- h- h ington MESSAGES DIDN'T LOITER I Speed records were probably broken In the transmission of these messages message Even on the long rind ond Involved communications there thereas was as a 1 15 to 18 minute service ser to Paris One short tn message age from the French cr capital was in hi the hands of the state department department department depart depart- ment seven minutes flom tom the rhe time It was vas dispatched l and within two minutes was delivered to the proper authority Speed was the all important thing As quickly as a tele operator here hero finished a page pasco a code man grabbed abbed it and began translating Then It was turned over to a re revIser reviser re- re and from there to a stencil stencH cutter Frequently when the telegraph operator finished nis la last laut page mimeograph machines were grinding grinding grind grind- ing lug out the first page of the manu manu- script