The suburban citizen., 1901-06-01
THE CONSCIENCE FUND
iAs MANY INTERESTING TRADITIONS
BUT NO DISTINCT HISTORY.

To Get at the Total Amo unit Of II Requires
Tlrosome Research - Earliest Con-
tributlon in 1911 Named by Treas
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 it requires a tiresome re-
search, so this is rarely attempted No
separate account Of it being kept, each
item has to be separately dug out from
the pages of miscellaneous receipts"
The earliest contribution to it is be-
leyed to hGve been received in 1911,
when the Register Of the Treasury re-
corded an item of income as money
received from person unknown,
stated to be on account OF imports and
tonnage" 1t remained for Treasurer
Spinner, more than half a century lat
er, to give a name to this indefinite
resource Of the Government. As the
story goes, draft for $500 came in
the mail one day from person who
said that he had been a quartermaster
in the army, and had misappropriated
a large sum. The clerks into whose
hands the draft passed were in some
perplexity about disposing of it, and
appealed to Spinner. Let us call 1t
contribution to the conscience fund"
be suggested, "and publish it 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 publi-
cation had its influence, apparently, in
stimulating the public conscience, for
q 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 1873 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 a 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 the unwilling
or morally quickened members but
to turn back the excess and let it be
credited to the conscience fund. There
was another large contribution, if the
word Of the alleged contributor is to
be believed, which, had 1t 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 a person mailed
simultaneously $1,000 to the Secretary
of the Treasury, 5000 to the Treasurer
of the United States, and S4OO to the
Assistant Treasurer at New York, as
serTing that the composite S25O0 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, that a package of
T-3O notes, TO the aggregate value of
$4,000, came in one day with the
serial numbers carefully cut out of
their faces as il with a view of OBJ
llterating 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 in
posters, who resorted to various
stories in the hope of getting the
money cut 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 50 much money. A large and
well authenticated contribution oc-
curred as lately as 1896 when an
English clergyman, in behalf Of q
repentant convert, forwarded from
London f2390, OF, in round numbers
Sl1,950. No explanation accompanied
the surrender.
The letters enclosing contributions
are various in style One, wri,ten in
a distinctly feminine hand, puts the
case in nutshell thus:
pair gloves, at frs. 9J
cenllmes, equal ......,,14 frs. 7Jc
o 1475