The submarine telegraphs of the world number 1,815. Their aggregate length is nearly 221,292,441 miles; their total cost is estimated at $300,-000,000 and the number of messages annually transmitted over them at more than 6,000,000. All the grand divisions of the earth are now connected by their wires, and from country to country and island to island the thoughts and words of mankind are instantaneously transmitted. Darkest Africa now converses daily with enlightened Europe or America, and the great events of the morning are known in the evening throughout the inhabited world. In August, 1902, authority was granted to the Commercial Pacific Cable Company of the United States to construct a cable line from the Pacific coast of the United States to the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, and the Philippine Islands, and the Asiatic coast, with a branch line to Japan. The first message was sent over it July 4, 1903.

The British Pacific cable was completed on October 31st and was opened for traffic on December 8th, 1902. The cable is "all British," and runs from Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada, to Fanning Island, Fiji, and Norfolk Island in the Pacific, and thence by means of two cables to New Zealand and Queensland respectively. Its total length is about 7,800 miles.

The developments in the construction, laying and operating of submarine cables and in their availability for general public use have quite kept pace with their extension throughout the civilized world. From a mere guttapercha coated wire the submarine conductor of electricity has developed in a half century into a great cable having a central copper core surrounded by numerous layers of non-conducting material and protected by a steel wire wound spirally about it, and in turn further protected by waterproof and insect-proof wrappings. From a steamer-towed ocean barge the facilities for laying have developed to a fleet of nearly fifty steam vessels, with every facility for laying, picking-up, splicing, and repairing the cable lines. From a speed rate of three words per minute, which was made on the first trans-Atlantic cables, the speed of transmission has been accelerated to fifty words per minute, and even more than that, with the automatic transmitters now coming into use with cable lines, while by the duplexing of the cables their carrying capacity is doubled. From a cost to the sender of $100 per message, which was originally charged on the first trans-Atlantic cables, the rate from New York to London and the great cities on the continent of Europe has fallen to 25 cents per word. From several hours required for the transmission of a message and receipt of a response, the time has been so reduced that messages from the Executive Mansion to the battlefield at Santiago were sent and a response received within twelve minutes, while a message sent from the House of Representatives in Washington to the House of Parliament in London in the chess match of 1898 was transmitted and the reply received in thirteen and one-half seconds.

The effect of this ready and inexpensive method of transmitting thoughts and words from continent to continent throughout the civilized world is apparent in the rapid development of international commerce since it began. The first successful cable line between the United States and Europe was put into operation in 1866. In that year our commerce with Europe amounted to $652,232,289; in 1876, to $728,959,053: in 1886, to $898,911,-504; in 1896, to $1,091,682,874, and in 1898, to $1,279,739,936, while our commerce with the whole world, which in 1866 amounted to $783,671,588, had by 1902 reached the enormous sum of $2,285,000,000.

During the last seven years Germany has laid 7,375 miles of ocean cables, at a cost of about $6,-000,000. In 1898 a cable, 73 miles long, was laid between Sassnitz and Trelleborg, and German Southwest Africa was connected with the existing cable system by a line 154 miles long; and in 1900 the first German-American cable was laid between Em-den and New York, by the Azores, a distance of 4,813 miles. About the same time the first German cables along the Chinese coast were laid; one of these was from Tsin-tau (Kiao-chau) to Chifu, 285 miles long, and the second connected the former place with Shanghai and is 438 miles. In 1901 a fifth cable connecting Germany and England was laid, as well as a telephone cable from Fehmarn to La-land. A second German cable to New York by the Azores has been commenced and will be completed before the end of 1904, while a line to Vigo, 1,300 miles in length, has been made. Germany is contemplating an extension of her cables by constructing lines between Alenado and Guam, in the Caroline Islands, and the Pelew Islands and Shanghai.

* From the Summary of Commerce and Finance for July, 1902, The figures are now somewhat larger.

An International Telegraph Conference opened in London, May 26th, 1903, all the States adhering to the International Telegraph Convention being represented. The Conference revised the rules as to the use of code and cipher language in international telegraphy. The decision of the last Conference, that code telegraphy should, after a certain date, be limited to the words contained in the official vocabulary prepared by the International Telegraph Bureau, has been rescinded. In future, any combination of letters not exceeding ten in number will be passed as a code word, provided that it is pronounceable according to the usage of any of the languages to which code words have hitherto been limited - namely, English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portu-