The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-08-03


Chain letters are attracting atten-
ton Just now. A good luck chain
letter which the recipient 10 sup
possd to copy nine times and mall
to nine other people has brought in
some indignant communications to
the post office department.
This particular letter, which 10
to "go three times around the
world" forming = good luck chain.
is typical. 1t says that great hap
piness will come to you In nine
days IL you mail nine copies within
"a hours. II you don't you will
surely be q victim Of bad luck, and
stress Ms particularly laid on the
misfortune which awaits anyone
who breaks the chain. In fact. the
promise of happiness is given In
about 10 words. All the rest Of the
paragraph to be copied is used to
put a supeFstitious fear into the re-
ceiver Of the letter, to force him
to continue the chain.
The restriction Of only two days
grace in which to forward the let
tiers is a psychological touch. II
no time limit, or a distant date.
were set the individual would be
apt to forget all about the affair.
Also, by fixing the number Of cop
les at nine there is a good chance
of advancing the chain surely and
rapidly. People would grow dis
gusted and revolt II too much work
were required.
! Copies of this letter, which seems
to be broadcasted all over the coun-
try, have reached some unsuper-
stitious persons, and they seized
pen or typewriter to demand why
the post office should allow such
matter to clog the mails. One writ
er was indignant that such things
should come to him disguised as
legitimate correspondence. Wheth-
er he thinks the post office depart
ment should open all of his mail OF
use an X-ray or ouija board In
order to extract the annoying chain
letters is not certain. It is certain
that the post office cannot distin-
guish good luck chain letter sent
first class from any other mail and
it does not try.
There is a section of the Penal
Code making it unlawful to send
through the mails matter having a
| threat expressed on the outside
When chain letters containing any
threat are mailed on postal cards
they are withdrawn by the post
master and not delivered. What
kind of luck the sender has COM
ing to him in that event it would be
interesting to know. The magic
chain is certainly damaged il moi
broken.
But when the good luck com.
munications are sent az first class
matter the post office delivers
them like any other mail. The or
iginator of the letter remains
anonymous SO that action is prac-
tically impossible. The only cure
for the lucky chain letter epidemic
rests with the public. II people
refuse to cooperate. the project
cannot spread.
Geometrical Progression.
A little figuring shows that il
nine series of persons should car
ry out the instructions Of the orig
inal writer of the current chain let
ter. the number of persons assur-
ed of good luck within a month
would be 435,S4S,050-four times
the population of this country
Anyone knows that even II that
many persons would write a chain
letter there isn't enough extraor.
binary good luck. or bad luck eth.
er, in existence that could be ap-
piled in a month to the population
of a continent
Yet a chain letter gets serious at
tention from large numbers Of peo
Piles as is shown by the protest:
which the postoffice department
has received about the latest one
The complaints have come from diff
ferent parts of the country ant
have spread over a considerable
time.
Why anyone should want to star
a chain letter is a problem in psy
chology. There is a. type of per
son who likes to feel that he is ex
erting power. By forcing or in
ducing large number of people Il
do his will he gets a thrill of pleas
ure. This type of person who doe!
not exercise power over others il
his daily life may be the originator
of a chain letter. This is, however