EXTENSIONS of REMARKS December 20, 1982 EXTENSIONS of REMARKS an ADDRESS by WALTER B

33078 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS December 20, 1982 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS AN ADDRESS BY WALTER B. nique does not change in a predictable borders. But whether the method employed WRISTON manner. is burning books in the village square or Technologies have ranged from the signal stopping the flow of data across borders by fires that carried the news of the fall of taxes or other administrative procedures, HON. TIMOTHY E. WIRTH Troy, to the beat of African drums that car the result is the same: The nervous system OF COLORADO ried the news to sub-Sahara Africa of the of civilization is slowed down and made IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Battle of Tobruk in World War II. The halt more costly. ing efforts of mankind to design and main Sunday, December 19, 1982 If we honestly assess the forces at work tain some standard way to communicate today, none of us can be sanguine that the • Mr. WIRTH. Mr. Speaker,. interna data has been far slower than the genera future of the information revolution will tional communications are of enor tion of the data itself. Probably one of the automatically work toward efficiency and mous importance to all of us. As our first breakthroughs was at sea where the progress. fate of vessels and their passengers often The impulse to regulate is as old as gov economy grows more and more inter depended upon swift, accurate signals. The dependent, and as the speed of tele ernment itself, and in the area of communi international code of signals was compiled cations it has usually succeeded. Nor has communications and information by the British government in 1857, and business always resisted. transfer continues to accelerate, access about half-a-century later in 1901 was Samuel Morse and his partners waged an to reliable and affordable internation amended to its present form by an interna intensive campaign to sell their telegraph al telecommunications becomes more tional agreement. Even today, however, the patents to the U.S. government. They were important. dots and dashes of the morse code are not standard worldwide. The international encouraged by the American Postmaster The Subcommittee on Telecommuni morse code differs from the American on General, who observed that "It becomes . .. cations, Consumer Protection, and Fi eleven letters and almost all numerals. a question of great importance, how far the nance has held extensive hearings on Against that background, our progress in government will allow individuals to divide the applications of telecommunica S.W.I.F.T. does not seem too unsatisfactory. with it the business of transmitting intelli tions and information products and We might remind ourselves that in some gence. The use of an instrument so parts of the world, the gauge of railway powerful for good or evil cannot with safety services, both domestically and inter to the people be left in the hands of private nationally. Recently, Mr. Walter B. tracks still changes when one comes to a po individuals uncontrolled by law." Wriston, the chairman of Citibank/Ci litical border. Some say that this was a de liberate effort to halt invading armies, but Fortunately, neither the patentees not ticorp, addressed many of these same perhaps in some cases the reason for a fail the postmaster general could arouse enough issues in a very cogent and well-rea ure to agree to something so simple as the interest in Congress to obtain an appropria soned address. width of a railroad track came after the fact tion for the purchase of telegraph rights Restrictions on the flow of data and should be called a rationalization. We so Morse and his friends had to go the pri across national boundaries can have have one gauge of track across the Ameri vate enterprise route. enormous economic consequences, as can continent today because the railway ty The initial British telegraph industry was coons of the past felt the practical necessity also based on private initiative. In fact, the Mr. Wriston points out in his speech. I Cooke-Wheatstone telegraph patent appli hope my colleagues will take the time to move goods across this nation. Today, no doubt, their acts of standardization would cation was filed in December 1837, four to read through his remarks, as they violate antitrust laws and we would have in months before the Morse application was familiarize themselves with the stead a government commission holding filed in the U.S. But in 1868 a bill was changes that are taking place in our hearings to determine the "proper" gauge passed in England authorizing the govern economy. of railroad track. ment to take over the telegraphs and make Mr. Speaker, I ask that Mr. Wris S.W.I.F.T. was born of a similar practical them part of the Post Office. Similar stories ton's speech be printed at this point in necessity, but in an age of far more strin could be told for most other countries. the RECORD. gent regulations. The quantum leap in technology which Text of speech attached: As the flow of information became more has brought about our present information and more important to all of us in the finan revolution did not happen by accident. The AN ADDRESS BY WALTER B. WRISTON, cial business, it became clear we needed increasing integration of the world's finan CHAIRMAN, CITIBANK/ CITICORP some kind of a standard format for financial cial system demanded more accurate infor Much has been written and said about the transfers. While our progress has been slow, mation at a faster pace then ever before, Information Society and its effect upon all today S.W.I.F.T. has moved a long way and thus members of the financial commu of us. Like many catch phrases, the Infor toward its goals. nity became the best customers of the com mation Society is both descriptive and de Today, as in the past, technology contin munications engineers. ceptive. It is descriptive because it accurate ues to move faster than the political proc This process has fed upon itself. Satellites ly captures the concept of the vast flow of esses. As small earth stations sprout from gave us the ability to communicate informa data which now innundates us all. It is de the roofs of suburban homes and fiber tion around the world at the speed of light ceptive because to some extent all civiliza optics becomes a reality, it is easy to get lost by bouncing data off transponders miles in tion has been built upon the foundation of in the scientific details and to lose sight of space even as the events are taking place. information passed on from one person to the fundamentals. But the rapid transmission of masses of another and from one generation to the Sound banking business is and always has data has attracted increasing government next. been based on good information received in attention, just as the telegraph did 150 The technique employed in passing on in a timely fashion. The explosion of technolo years ago. The rights of individuals to priva formation remained basically unchanged for gy which made the rubricated ledger go the cy, the rights of the sovereign to protect na more than a thousand years until Johann way of the buggy whip did not change the tional security, the rights of the people to Gutenberg brought the marvel of movable need to record valid numbers in a clear, know, and the ability of markets to function type to the European scene in the 15th Cen usable way-and the need for liberty to are but a few of the issues which present tury. The great innovation which changed communicate those numbers to others. themselves. None of these issues is either the world was not at first a commercial suc There has always been a balance, sometimes trival or new, but all of them are attaining cess. The money Gutenberg borrowed was something which could be described as an higher visibility as technology advances not repaid and he lost both his press and his uneasy truce, between the government with unprecedented velocity. type; doubtless the bankers of the time were censor and people who need information to There are a few things that we do know castigated for making "risky" loans. run their own affairs. based upon past experience. One of these However the world's information is assem Today, following an old tradition, the gov certainties was described more than 40 years bled and reproduced, the effort to transmit ernment censor is reaching for new tools to ago by Jacob Viner, in his classic work on it on a timely basis from one place to an stop, slow down, or tax the flow of electrons the gold exchange standard. He wrote that other is older than history. And the tech- which carries information across political state intervention in private international e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. December 20, 1982 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 33079 markets leads "with a certain degree of in !audible purposes-such as protecting the The topology of networks in Europe today evitability to the injection of a political ele privacy of individuals and businesses. Some is dictated not by such issues as distance ment into all international transactions." have internal political motives, such as job and volume of traffic, but by international The presence of this political element neces protection or the desire to make full use of, Telex rates, national prohibition of private sarily implies a "marked increase in the po and derive revenues from, the publicly lines, and restrictions on the ability to tentiality of economic disputes to generate owned postal-telegraph services.

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