Show Mathematical Impossibility TUE WE E HAVE an illegal chain letter scheme with us again this time u under der a patriotic guise of encouraging the sale of war stamps Under the scheme an individual receives a letter letter letter let let- ter from a friend with a cent 10 or cent 25 war stamp included The recipient is instructed to send one or two stamps to the person whose name appears at the top of the list you remember remember remember re re- re- re member the old system em and then send the letter on to five or 10 of his friends inclosing a cent 10 or cent 25 war stamp with each let let- ter You add your name to the bottom of the list Eventually according to the chain theory your name will reach the top of the list and I you w will i 11 theoretically receive a flood of stamps from those who by that time are carrying carrying carry carry- ing on the chain The catch is revealed in the letter itself which reads If you continue this chain there will be an astronomical amount of f war stamps sold And theres there's the point No chain letter scheme patriotic or not can possibly work over the long period because it becomes so astronomical that there wouldn't be enough people or enough money in the world to carry it on Suppose we take the cent 25 stamp chain letter sent each time to 10 new persons persons persons per per- sons with 50 cents sent the one on the top of the list as an example Starting Starting Starting Start ing with one person it would go to 10 persons each of whom would pay out 3 for war stamps to carry on the chain The next step would be persons paying out a total of then 1000 persons and and so on until at the tenth link in the chain it would in involve involve involve in in- volve believe it or not and figure it out for yourself if you dont don't believe it one billion persons paying out three billion dollars Inasmuch Inasmuch Inasmuch In In- as there are only a little over two billion billion billion bil bil- bil- bil lion persons in the world the chain would run out of new prospects right there there there-on on only the tenth link But you may say the same individuals individuals individuals indi indi- will play the game again and again All right lets let's suppose they will But if they do they'll very soon run out of money for in three more links the total money expended for forwar forwar forwar war stamps will amount to billion dollars and that's a lot more more money than there is in inthe inthe inthe the world As a a. matter of fact this war stamp chain letter scheme like all other chain letter schemes is illegal says U. U S. S District Attorney Dan Shields and you run the risk if you play the game of having your letters containing war stamps intercepted by the post office and confiscated Anyway even without the illegal aspects of the game its it's just a racket in which it is mathematically impossible for anyone except the clever originators to c cash sh in on it The great majority of those who wh play are just plain suckers And listen If you have any spare dollars with which to buy war stamps to play the game just buy them and keep them for yourself yourself yourself-or or if you just want to throw the money away throw it to Uncle Sam by buying the stamps and burning them You wont won't be losing your money any more surely that way and at least Uncle Sam and not some slicker will be getting the benefit of it |