Stakes & Sweeps

One way to get around the U. S. laws against lotteries is to think up a high-sounding name for an organization, enroll "members" at so much per head, hold a "contest" in which they may win large cash prizes. Last week the Grand National Treasure Hunt, which sells $1 "applications for membership" in the Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, was just ending its third such contest when the Post Office Department clapped a fraud order on the scheme, barred the mails to its promoters.

If any outsider could claim credit for causing Catholic Postmaster General Farley suddenly to take notice of what had been mushrooming under his nose since last summer, it was Protestant Episcopal Bishop William T. Manning of Manhattan. One Sunday last month prim little Bishop Manning left his cathedral on Morningside Heights, drove downtown to deliver a sermon from the pulpit of socialite St. Bartholomew's on Park Avenue. Topic of his preachment was lotteries and he was against them.

One of St. Bartholomew's distinguished parishioners, Mrs. Oliver Harriman, was absent on the day of his sermon. When she heard about it, Mrs. Harriman declared to the Press: "I'm glad I wasn't at the service. I might have got up and answered him then & there. I have deep respect for Bishop Manning, but I would like to call his attention to the fact that the first Episcopal church, near Cheshire, Conn, was built by a lottery. Bishop Seabury, grandfather of Samuel Seabury, conducted it."

At the same time that the Post Office Department cracked down on the Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, it summoned two similar Manhattan organizations to Washington to show cause why they should not be also barred from the mails. One of them, the National Conference on Legalizing Lotteries, Inc., has for its president Mrs. Oliver Harriman.

Mrs. Harriman, a onetime Louisville belle named Grace Carley, married a broker cousin of the late Railroader Edward H. Harriman 45 years ago, has since been a prominent Manhattan socialite. A large, determined, forthright lady, Mrs. Harriman thinks it is a shame that millions of U. S. dollars are exported for the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes and other foreign lotteries when they might be kept at home. People who agree with her to the extent of paying $1 to join her Conference automatically become eligible to enter a "Selection Sweepstakes." Here they are called upon to display their skill and judgment by arranging in order of desirability a list of 16 ways the Government could spend the money it might raise by legalizing lotteries. For best arrangement: $20,000. Other prizes total $40,000.

Mrs. Harriman's organization was specifically cited by the Post Office Department only for conducting a lottery. The other two organizations were cited not only for conducting lotteries but for obtaining money under fraudulent pretenses. Golden Stakes, run by Golden Stakes Advertising Corp., does not pretend to any motive of social benefit. Golden Stakes tickets, at $1 each, entitle their holders to see a flying circus at Fitzmaurice Flying Field at Massapequa Park, L. I. Ticket-holders may also enter a contest which consists of picking titles for six cartoons from the names of 25 songs listed under each. First prize: $60,000. Other prizes amount to $90,000. The organization's vice president and counsel, at $100 per week, is Alfred Emanuel Smith Jr., 35.

"And you worked conscientiously as attorney for the company?" he was asked by investigators.

"Yes," said young Al Smith, "I even helped sort the mail sometimes."

The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, on which the Post Office took its first and firmest action, is headed by Major Thomas George Lanphier, U. S. A., retired. Of proceeds from the sale of numbered applications for membership in the Association. Grand National Treasure Hunt keeps 50% for expenses and 25% "for itself." Harder to win than Golden Stakes, Grand National Treasure Hunt involves eight cartoons, lists 30 song titles under each one. Winners, picked by a jury of "artists and song experts," get prizes totaling $100,000.

One count of the Department against the Treasure Hunt was that its numbered tickets were designed to look like Irish Sweepstakes tickets, thereby deceiving customers. Also, the Department solemnly averred, the Hunt was "nothing but a guessing contest." The winner of one contest, named Irene Varga, reported that "she had a dream, or went into a trance, and while in the trance concentrated and the names of the pictures came to her."

"Miss Varga," observed the Post Office Department's Solicitor Karl A. Crowley, "found about as sound a rule as could be adopted for the selection of the best and most appropriate titles."

The Treasure Hunt promoters, it was announced, are still free to use the outgoing mails to return contestants' money or to award prizes in their current contest. But any letter addressed to Grand National Treasure Hunt or the Association for Legalizing American Lotteries will henceforth be stamped FRAUDULENT, returned to its sender.

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