Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-07
The HQSkin Letter 81 . : =ssa
THE CHAIN LETTER EPIDEMIC.

not attempt to get money or to pro-
mote the interests of the originator.
AS soon as the chain letter enters the
business field it takes on a more Sc
rious aspect
The p~ostoffice department gets nu-
merous inquiries from people who
realize that the chain system has re-
markable possibilities as a business de-
vice. A firm wants to sell gloves or
stockings or stick pins, perhaps. 1t
plans to print books of. tickets. "A"
buys one ticket for 81 and sends the
ticket and So more to the firm. In
return he receives the stick pin adver-
tised and a book of three tickets.
One dollar is the price of the stick
pin. He RECEIVERS the So sent in extra
by selling the three tickets at 81 each.
The buyers then each send So and the
tickets and sell the tickets, and so the
project advances.
The firm cannot lose money. 1t gets
the price of one article and the money
of the next three customers before it
delivers a pin.
If the buyer cannot sell the three
tickets sent him he loses that money
and the firm profits by his loss.
The Postal Guide says that Endless
chain enterprises designed for the sale
or disposition of merchandise or other
things of value through the circulation
or distribution OF coupons tickets
certificates '~introductions.' and the
like are held to embrace the elements
of a lottery and also to be fraudulent"
Charity Chain Letters
The chain scheme has been applied
to charitable purposes. Organizations
of high standing write to the %postoffice
to know whether they may solicit funds
by sending out chain letters. Each
person would be asked to contribute.
perhaps. 10 cents and copy the letter
five times. In other cases the char
table organization exists only in the
mind of the writer. The charitable
chain letter asking for a few cents
seems an easy way to get rich quick.
In one instance a political party
wrote 70 know whether it could raise
campaign funds by a chain letter car
rying a request for > cents and the
mailing of four copies of the letter.
Some one in the postal service fig
ured out how this apparently t%rifling
sum of - cents would multiply If the
chain were carried %unbroken to the
t%wenty-fifth series. The number of
persons reached, he SAID, would be
1901. 199,S75. 100, 1874. Put into words
this runs into Quadrillions. or S00.GU
times the population of the world. The
amount collected would be $375,299,-
96S.941. 541.
There is still another kind of chain
letter which is used for advertising
purposes. 4 firm sends out letters
describing the article it handles. The
letter says that if the addressee will
write to the firm he will receive a
premium and 10 more letters which
he is to send to his friends in return
for the premium.
Where q chain letter is being used
to further some interest. the person
or organization back of it can be traced.
And il the facts warrant, action may
be taken against the party, either IN
the way of criminal prosecution with
its resultant fine and imprisonment if
he is convicted, or by the issuance of
a fraud order which would prevent the
delivery to the offending party OF any
of the remittances mailed to him.
1t is only the good luck letter. prey
ing on superstition that remains
anonymous and flourishes. To attack
it would be like attacking a ghost. 1t
hobs up anywhere and is more elusive
than Conan Doyle's ectoplasm. Only a
rrosaic disbelief in lucky chains or a
devil may-care defiance can break down
the system.