The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-05-30
THE CONSCIENCE FUND
HAS MANY INTERESTING TRADITIONS
BUT NO DISTINCT HISTORY.

10 ttt NJ tnt IOtHt VI II ttQutret
\. n Tlresome Research = Earliest Con-
tribution in 1911 - Named by Trens-
urer Spinner.
The so-called conscience fund.- of
the United States Treasury has many
interesting traditions, but no distinct
! history. Even to get at the total
amount of II requires tiresome re-
search, SO this Is rarely attempted. No
separate account of 1t being kept, each
item has to be separately dug out from
the pages of miscellaneous receipts"
/ The earliest contribution to 1t is be-
lieved to have been received in 1911,
when the Register of the Treasury re-
corded an item of income as money
received from a person unknown,
stated to be on account of imports and
| tonnage" 1t remained for Treasurer
1 Spinner. more than half century lat
| er, to give n name to this indefinite
resource of the Government. As the
story goes, q draft for $500 came in
| the mail one day from a person who
said that he had been a quartermaster
| in the army, and had misappropriated
| q large sum. The clerks into whose
| hands the draft passed were in some
perplexity about disposing of 1t, and
| appealed TO Spinner. LET us call Il
a contribution to the conscience fund"
he suggested, ''and publish 1t in the
newspapers, and perhaps we shall get
some more" His judgment proved
correct. The era had been one of
| pickings and stealings, and the publl-
cation had its influence, apparently, in
stimulating the public conscience, for
number of persons who had been
guilty of frauds upon the Government,
some deliberate, some impulsive, and
some which might almost be described
as accidental, began to make restitu-
tion when they found that the Govern
ment was ready to say "Thank YOU"
and ask no questions.
In 1878 the largest aggregate amount
of money flowed In from this source,
Congress having voted to increase its
own salaries and many members con-
sidering the increase violation of
the spirit If not of the letter of the
Constitution. AS the appropriation
had been made under all the forms of
law, nothing remained to le unwilling
or morally quickened members but
to turn back the excess and let it he
credited to the conscience fund. There
was another large contribution, If the
word of the alleged contributor is to
be believed, which, had it been sent
In bulk instead of piecemeal, would
have swelled one years balance per-
haps beyond that of the "salary grab"
year. In this case person mailed
simultaneously $500 to the Secretary
of the Treasury, 5000 to the Treasurer
of the United States, and S4O0 to the
Assistant Treasurer at New York, as
serting that the composite $250O was
the last Of series Of payments where
by he had restored in driblets the sum
of $4,000, of which he felt he had
defrauded the Government. There is
a tradition, also, coming down through
a good many years, Cat package of
$50 notes. to the aggregate value of
$4,000, came in one day with the
serial numbers carefully cut out of
their faces, as If with a view of OBJ
literating any possible trace to the
source of the contribution. The pub
lication Of this news is said to have
brought down upon the Treasury a
deluge of correspondence from i'm
posters, who resorted to various
stories in the hope of getting the
money out again. One went so far as
to claim that the notes had been sent
by his father, who was of unsound
mind, and whose confessed robbery
was an Illusion, while his family had
been plunged into great distress by the
loss of so much money. A large and
well authenticated contribution oc-
Cured as lately as 1896, when an
English clergyman, in behalf of
repentant convert, forwarded from
London f2390. or, in round numbers
S11,95o. No explanation accompanied
the surrender.
The letters enclosing contributions
are various In style. One, written I'm
distinctly feminine hand, puts the
case In nutshell, thus:
8 pair gloves, at frs. 05
centimes, equal aus. IA frs. 75c.
81 14.75.