The Topeka state journal., 1922-08-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIc }. HASKN, Director.
Washington. ID. G.
THE CHAIN LETTER EPIDEMIC.

letters are attracting attention just
now. A good luck chain letter which
| the recipient is supposed to copy nine
times and mail to nine other people
/ has brought some indignant commun-
ications to the postoffice department.
This particular letter. which is to
"go three times around the world
forming a good luck chain. is TYPICAL
1t says that great happiness will come
to you in nine days if you mail nine
copies within twenty-four hours. II
you don't you will surely be victim
of bad luck, and stress is particularly
laid on the misfortune which awaits
anyone who breaks the chain. In fact,
the promise of happiness is given in
about ten words. All the rest OF the
paragraph to be copied is used to put
a superstitious fear into the receiver
of the letter to force him to continue
the chain.
The restriction of only two days
grace in which to forward the letters
is a psychological touch. If 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 copies at nine there is Il
good chance of advancing the chain
surely and rapidly. People would
grow disguSted and revolt If too much
work were required.
Copies of this letter, which seems
to be broadcasted all over the coun-
try, have reached some unsupersti-
tious persons, and they seized pen or
typewriter to demand why the post
office should allow such matter to
clog the mails. One writer was in
dignant that such things should come
to him disguised as legitimate corre-
spondence. Whether he thinks the
postoffice department should open all
of his mail or use an X-ray or a ouija
board in order to extract the annoy
ing chain letters is not certain. 1t IS
Onr n in no T0nGfnffiRn
tinguish a 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 thru the
mails matter having a threat ex-
pressed on the outside. When chain let
terS containing any threat are mailed
on postal cards they are withdrawn
by the postmaster and not delivered.
What kind of luck the sender has
coming to him in that event it would
be interesting to know. The magic
chain is certainly damaged if not
broken.
But when the good luck communica-
tions are sent as first class matter
the postoffice delivers them like any
other mail. The originator of the
letter remains anonymous so that ac-
ton is practically impossible. The
only cure for the lucky chain letter
epidemic rests with the public. If
people refuse to cooperate, the pro-
ject cannot spread.
GeometricaI Progression.
A little figuring shows that If nine
series of persons should carry out the
instructions of the original chain let
ter, the number of persons assured of
good luck within "a month would be
AIS, ,S4S, ,050-four times the population
of this country. Anyone knows that
write a chain letter there isn't enough
extraordinary good luck, or bad luck
either, in existence that could be ap-
piled in a month to the population of
continent.
Yet a chain letter gets serious at
tention from large numbers of people
as is shown by the protests which the
postoffice department has received
about the latest one. The complaints
have come from different parts of the
a considerable time.
Why anyone should want to start a
chain letter is a problem in psychol-
ogy. There is a type of person who
likes to feel that he is exerting power.
BY forcing or inducing a large num-
ber of people to do his will he gets
a thrill of pleasure. This type of per-
SON who does not exercise power over
others in his daily life may be the
originator of a chain letter. This is,
however, only a theory. Some chain
letters read like the product of joke
loving school boy.
The good luck epistle is only one
tyre of chain letter 1t is perhaps the
does not attempt to get money or to
promote the interests of the origina-
tor. AS soon as the chain letter en-
ters the business field it takes on
more serious aspect.
The postoffice department gets nu-
merous inquiries from people who
realize that the chain system has re-
markable possibilities as a business
device. A firm wants to sell gloves
or stockings or stick pins, perhaps. 1t
plans to print books of tickets. IA
buys one ticket for one dollar and
sends the ticket and three dollars
more to the firm. In return he re-
ceives the stick pin advertised and a
book of three tickets.
One dollar is the price of the pin.
He RECEIVERS the three dollars sent in
extra by selling the three tickets at
one dollar each. The buyers then
to the firm, get a pin and three 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 be-
fore 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 tnat: END
less chain enterprises designed for the
sale or disposition of mercha andise or
other things OF value thru the circu
lation or distribution of coupons
tickets Certificates introductions,'
and the like are held to embrace the
elements of a lottery ana also to be
Charity Chain Letters.
The chain scheme has been applied
to charitable purposes. Organizations
of high standing write to the postof-
flee to know whether they may solicit
funds by sending out chain letters.
Each person would be asked to con-
tribute, perhaps, 10 cents and copy
the letter five times. In other cases
the charitable organization exists only
in the mind of the writer. The char
liable chain letter asking for a few
cents seems an easy way to get rich |