The Washington bee. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1884-1922, 1893-03-11
THE CONSCIENCE FUND.
ITS ORIGIN DUE TO MULES SUPPLIED
THE UNION ARMY.

A Considerable sum of Money Contritut.,,
to the Treasury Department by P,onr.
Who Regret a Wrong Done-The Sept.r.
Naturally Conceal Their Identity.
Every now and then an item appears
in the statements of the Treasury d..
partment at Washington showing f,s.
an addition has been made to the tom.
science Fund. In many instances tLs
struggle between the man and his COZ.
science has been going on for Years
but at last conscience is victorious 9rI
then there Is remittance to the Trel..
ury Department. He may be deacon
In the church. but the time comes when
his "amens stick in his throat. And
the only way to dislodge them is to dis.
gorge the money due Uncle Sam.
And what is the Conscience Fund .
OF the many results of the civil war
perhaps the most curious is the oricjn
and development of the fund. Before
1860 nothing had been heard of such =
thing. But when the clash of arms he
tween the North and the South began
the general government needed supplies
of every description, and these were
furnished as promptly as possible. OF
course, an unscrupulous person could
take advantage of the then existing
state of things and charge exosbitant
prices for his supplies or else furnish
an inferior article. In either case tie
result would be the same-he would Ip
the gamer and the government the
loser. For instance, among the earlier
remittances to the Treasury Depart
ment was sum of money from a man
whose conscience troubled him about
some mules he had supplied to lie
army. There were no particulars In
fact, the senders of conscience MONEY
never bother themselves about details
for reasons that are quite apparent
For while the Treasury Depart
ment permitted the conscience remit.
tances to go into the general receipt, OF
the government, but soon the number
of remittances of this kind increased
so fast that it was found desirable To-
open separate account for 'conseiencs
items. The receipts from this source
of income to the government amount
now to about 100000; so that the
man who fooled the government on 70
mule and who subsequently repent"d
really did good thing in showing to
other troubled souls in like prcdca-
ment how to relieve their conscieuces
in a practical way without their neigh
bors being any the wiser
An official of the United States
Treasury, who has held office for
twenty years, says: The remittances
usually comes from persons who have
imported goods into this country, and
have defrauded the government, l i'm
agine. As general proposition. there
are not many ways in which to defraud
the government; but the testimony Of
the revenue officers would seem to in
dictate that the lines for human weak
ness run In this direction very strongly.
Of course, we have no definite means
of knowing the actual facts, can only
surmise as to the real reason for the re-
mittance. The letters that reach Us
are carefully written so that the rea ler
on first blush might imagine the
writers to be the most illiterate and ig-
norant people imaginable. Words are
.misspelled, sentences
twisted, aud the communication would
ordinarily go into the waste basket,
were it not for the money incIosed.
This comes in all shapes, by draft. pos
Of lNr1f, II
No name is signed, and, with the excep-
tion of the emoney, we are no wiser than
We were before. But the money in.i-
Gates that conscience has been at work.