Whole Country Now Infested By Chain Letters, Get Rich Quick

1935

POSTAL INSPECTORS AFTER "SEND-A-DIME" PEOPLE

Whole Country Is Now Infested by Letters — All Want to Get Rich Quick Without Work.

There isn't a scheme that comes up without its followers. The "Send-a-Dime" chain letter, which originated at Denver, Colo., is flooding the country at the present time and each day finds the number of letters received growing greater.

According to Albert Lea postoffice heads the letters have caused no large amount of extra work. Letters of this nature are coming in, however, but it has required no extra help to get them distributed to the homes in the city and county. But in many larger cities the letters are so numerous that extra help is being put on. According to dispatches this morning dime chain letter investigations are expected to culminate today with number of arrests by postoffice inspectors in several Iowa cities. Assistant Postmaster John A. Ryan, Des Moines, said Tuesday night. There are nine or ten inspectors in Iowa who have been tracing a number of chain letter originators and have obtained sufficient evidence to bring charges of fraud, Mr. Ryan said.

He indicated, however, that most of the investigations had centered in points outside of Des Moines and that the chain letter activities involving alleged fraud were headquartered in several others of the larger cities. Mr. Ryan declined, however, to name the cities where the fraud evidence had been found or the individuals for whom warrants had been issued. He added that chain letter mailings in Des Moines apparently were on the decline. Leading the drive which was expected to result in Iowa arrests yesterday, federal investigators arrested three business men Tuesday in Denver, Colo., the fountain-head of all variegated chain letter manias. The three men pleaded not guilty to a charge of using the mails to defraud in a $1 chain letter. They said they would fight the charge vigorously. The men are R. M. Barnholt, H. L. Harris and Edward W. Hughes.

Although expressing disapproval of the chain letter craze, members of some Ministerial associations said Tuesday night that no action had been taken for members to denounce the fad from the pulpit. At Burlington, Ia., the Des Moines County Ministerial association Tuesday adopted a resolution opposing "the rapidly spreading gambling mania." Members will preach sermons on the subject, stressing chain letter evils, Sunday.

An innovation of the chain letter fad occurred late Tuesday in Mason City with the arrival of telegrams requesting the recipient to wire five dollars to the first person of a list of five and then send similar telegrams to five "kindred spirits." At Mason City the first class mail volume was noticeably heavier Monday and Tuesday. A variety of the fad which was reported to have helped augment Mason City mail was a new kind of the "send-a-dollar" letter.

This letter was also reported as having been received at the Des Moines municipal airport by Wallace Fagan, United Air Lines employe. Under this scheme the letter is supposed "to prevent chiseling." It lists the names of 10 persons and directs the person receiving it to hand copies to two other persons. A dollar is to be collected on the delivery of each letter and the money sent to the first name on the list.

Every variety of chain letter of which the human mind can conceive was believed to be in the mails by Tuesday night.

One Des Moines stenographer received a letter which concluded: "Please do not break the chain. If you answer this, I can guarantee you a husband in 1946."

A chain letter which Miss Carolyn Landfear, 3809 Center street, received — and she said she had received dozens of them — elevated itself into the realm of poetry, attempting to convince her by unmetered verse that although she may have been fooled on many makes and charities, that this letter was the real thing and she should "join the parade."

Several stationers are selling chain letter forms and one newsboy in Des Moines was doing a thriving business hawking the blanks on a street corner.

—The Evening Tribune, Albert Lea, MN, May 8, 1935, page 3.

Note: "Post office" was spelled as one word and "employee" ended with one "e" back in this time period. It seems kind of weird and I don't know when it changed. Post office as one word? It's against nature!