Charlevoix county herald., 1918-03-08
EXTRA FORCE REQUIRED IN MIN.
NEAPoLiS TO HANDLE MAIL =
TO swlNDLERs WHO
HAVE FLED
HUNDRED THOUSAND FOR POSTAGE
Mall Increasing Daily and 20 Per Cent
Of u Must Go to the Dead
Letter Office.

Ouitcu Otdtco udS COiuc iutO pOb-
session OF an abnormal gold supply,
was but provision by Fortune for .
"petticoat ring" enterprise that
threatens to involve q sum Of money
far in excess of the circulation supply
reported by the national treasury.
This stupendous project 10 based upon
q dime and two cents In postage for
each of a deluge of letters developed.
From 10000 to $4,000 letters q day
are being received at the Minneapolis
postoff1ce, each containing one dime.
and there Is no one to claim them.
For more than a week this food Of
cash has been pouring in. and those
who started II remained to harvest
but trifling part of the crop.
About six weeks ago concern styl-
ing itself the National Mail Order
Brokerage Exchange, put out chain.
letter proposition that the woman re-
ceiylng the letter could have a silk
petticoat FOR 10 cents IL she would
send coplc. of the letter sent to her
to 10 friends and forward her own
dime, name and address to the com.
pany.
Naturally. it took a few days to get
the enterprise going, but 1t wasn't
long before the quantity OF mail ad.
dressed to the Exchange, at $40 Globe
building, impressed the Federal
authorities and they went to investi.
gate. The place was vacant.
While the disappearance of the per:
sons who launched the Exchange cut
OF the flow of dimes into their
pockets, 1t had no effect whatever up-
on the tide OF cash they had set to
flowing in this direction. At the same
time the burden of dealing with the
flow fell upon the Government, which
IS yet has found no plan to check It
and the expense attaching is steadily
rising.
Incidentally. heavy increase of the
working force in the postoffice has
already been made compulsory. Here
IL the way the Government Is being
financially affected:
About so per cent OF the letters
bear return directions on the outside
of the envelope and the return carries
direct extra expense for mail trans
pcrtation. The balance. with no re-
turn directions, must be forwarded to
the dead letter Office and thence to
tho writer's. the outlay for this being
estimated at 10 cents per letter.
Handling this mail here is already
costing the Government $50 day for
extra clerk hire. and this doubtless
will have to be increased.
All over the United States today
tens of thousands perhaps hun
dreds of thousands-of women, un-
aware Of the character Of the enter
prise. are busily mailing dimes and
wiring letter. to 10 friends each. The
letters have begun to come from such
far distant places as Tuscon. Ariz.;
Tampa. Fla; Lexington, Va: from
Montana, Delaware, Washington and
Tennessee.
cts safe to say" declared d. q.
Sullivan, foreman Of the general de-
livery, that the letters come from
every state anu from Canada. The
amount Of mail we are getting simply
isn't possible. can see It. but 1t isn't
90 Take my word for that"
Only one thing could have given the
postoffice more work, and that would
have been the actual mailing out by
parcel post Of the hundreds Of thovs-
ands of silk petticoats the women let
ter writer's thought they were going
to get. This would have required, ac-
cordlng to competent estimate. mill
ions OF yards 1f SILK. China and Pat
erson. n. j. would have known un-
precedout prosperity.
The Ua1ssrs of the scheme must
have felt reasonably secure In the
knowledge that no woman was likely
to stir up trouble about a dime. II
was only the sudden mass of mall for
the concern In the Globe Building
that caused the inspectors to start an
Investigation.
Postal recipes all over the country
have been boosted by the scheme. On
the letters received In Minneapolis 10
date, postage Of about $4,000 was
Iaid. II the writer Of each Of them
wrote to 10 friends that meant an nd.
djtional 100000. II these In turn
write to 10 friends each. s1,000.000
more will go for stamps. Carried
through only three more multiplica-
tins, the sum amounts to considers-
bly, more than all the money in circu-
lation in the United States, and in the
Federal Treasury as well. That's
Just for postage alone. And where
would the dimes come from. with all
the money in-the country used ~
buying stampsf
UUhsu man ara mt reorettiua that