Advocacy chain letter. Boycott protesting high prices.
Use substitutes for 15 days. Five or more copies. US, 1947.
Experts tell us that we are faced
with the prospects of paying:
$1 a pound for butter
$1 a pound for meat
$1 a dozen for eggs.
When will this wild inflation stop?
These prices are outrageous. The public is indignant but so far there
has been no united effort to hold these prices in check. This letter is the
means of uniting public opinion to help bring these commodities down where
they belong. Here is what to do:
Every family is to pledge to use substitutes only for the above items
during the period from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31.
Mark your calendar. Your action will help put the price gougers in
their places. If we all act together we can save many dollars on our food
budgets and do a good turn for national economy in preventing further inflation.
Make at least 5 extra copies of this letter and mail to friends. Reach as
many different parts of the country as possible and act at once as time is
short.
Here's your chance at last to do something! Let's go!
Sincerely,
The Crusaders.
Published: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah), p. 14, Sept. 26, 1947.
CHAIN LIGHTENING STRIKES
S. L. Women Think Letters May Be 'Stake' for Steak by Grace
Grether
"Chain Lightening from Chicago, via the post office, struck Salt Lake
Thursday when several well-known women received the first chain letters originating
in that city and designed to back the high cost of living right off the boards.
¶ Consequently, men and children stoke
up, for mama, the family budgeteer in every kitchen, is due to receive similar
mail! ¶ Says Mrs. Ben L. Rich. 'It's the most wonderful
idea at a critical time,' was the identical view of Mrs. Benjamin L. Rich,
74 Virginia St. and Mrs. Fred G. Taylor, 28 North State, who had found chain
letters in their mail. 'If anything will bring down the price of food this
will - and there's nothing to stop anyone who hasn't received one from copying
the letter and starting another chain,' said Mrs. Rich. ¶ Her own letter
was in the process of being copied in her husband's office for mailing, she
said. Mrs. Fred G. Taylor Approves. Mrs. Taylor, who approves
heartily of the movement, sent off her five letters at once. 'It's a stake
for a steak all right,' she conceded. ¶ My nephew,
W. F. Whitaker of Wilmette, a Chicago suburb, she says, together with his
wife originated this campaign and it has spread among his neighbors like
wildfire. ¶ By Oct. 15 the Chicago revivers of the old chain-letter
game expect to have enrolled most of the 39,000,000 families in the country
All of them are stymied with $1 butter and eggs and meat, Spreading
the News. A simultaneous grand hurrah of approval is spread-eagling
out from the Chicago source. ... This is the text of the chain letter:" [text]
Entered by DWV, Aug. 9, 2014.
ae1947-09-26p1_Price-Boycott_q5+
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