The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-05-24

l
This latest and most fantastic of
all the fantastic share-the-wealth ideas
that have come to light in the last few
months has, like all such schemes, its
members who are more than willing to
| get the lions share. 1t is these that
the post office has gone after in
| earnest.
| They are the smart operators who
discovered that there was nothing
except the law-to keep them from
sending out just as many letters as
they pleased, all with their own
names at the top! They have gone
into their racket on a business basis.
renting Offices and hiring help. Three
of them were arrested In Denver
whose plans, If successful, would have
netted them $750,O00. Several more
were apprehended in San Antonio, De-
troit, Cleveland, st. Louis and Kansas
| City, Mo- Authorities are dragging
the net for others in other points of
the country.
In recent weeks chains have been
! started with larger amounts as unit,
from 25 cents to $40. The most COM
mon unit in this upper bracket it 81.
Most of the cheating occurred with
| the dollar letters.
Started in Denver.
Just who started the present chain
letter craze is not known, but its
origin seems to have been in Denver,
and even today Denver Is certainly the
chain letter capital of the nation. Hun
dreds of extra employees have been
added to handle the heavy increase in
the mail, which in city of about 30O,-
600 Inhabitants, Is running approx
mately 100000 pieces day. The nor
NAL load Is about 10000
In Detroit, which normally handles
about 100000 pieces of mail daily, the
amount jumped by another 100000.
Mail carriers labored under heavy
burdens in Los Angeles. Spokane,
Seattle, Indianapolis and Washington.
In Muskogee, Okla, the postmen were
| given a somewhat diverting aperitif
for their days labors when wag
started a letter instructing the re-
cipient to send a kiss to the person
whose name was at the top Of the list
and "surely he may find true love
among the 15,000-odd trading Kisses"
Large increases in the daily mails
were worrying the Cleveland post
office, where authorities are searching
for three promoters who are alleged
to have mailed 10000 of the letters
with their names at the top. Two
| big printing shops there are working
night and day to supply orders for
printed chain letter forms. In vir-
tually every city of any size set of
five chain letter forms can be pur-
| chased at any five-and-ten-cent store
| for a nickel. Post office officials point
| ed out that racketeers are more likely
to use printed or mimeographed forms.
st. Louis has been a veritable hot
bed of the "chain gangs" In sim
| gle day more than $4,000 chain let
tiers went through the mails there; IL
| all Of them went through the five steps
| without the chains being broken, this
single days mail would grow to more
than 5,O0O,OO0,O00 letters. That would
mean that the members would have to
dig up $500,O00,O00 to pay their chain
letter bills and another $100,000,OO0
| for postage. Mail collections there
were several hours late. William FL.
Noah, chief postal inspector at st.
Louis, said that at is like any other
species of mass hysteria which will
run its course as soon as the novelty
wears off With so many chains In
circulation soon the market will be
saturated and the thing will fall off of
its own weight"
Chain Letter Wild.
But nowhere in the country has
community gone quite so chain-letter
wild as in Springfield, Mo. The town
simply became one grand clearing
house for the schemes. And down in
the Ozarks they don't fool around with
trinkets so trivial as dimes, either.
Exchanges have been opened which
will handle nothing less than a dollar
and which claim to "leave nothing to
| chance"
In Missouri the people have to be
Shown" and they will pay their
money and Join the chains only when
there is a notary public's seal on the
letter. There were no less than ten
exchanges In the town, all doing a
land Office business. Stenographers.
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