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JFK Donates Full Salary To Charity

President John F. Kennedy (L) and Vice President Lynden Johnson walk by the South Lawn of the White House prior to the introduction ceremony for the Workmens' Compensation Commemorative Stamp in Washington on August 31, 1961. Photo by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum/UPI
President John F. Kennedy (L) and Vice President Lynden Johnson walk by the South Lawn of the White House prior to the introduction ceremony for the Workmens' Compensation Commemorative Stamp in Washington on August 31, 1961. Photo by John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON (UPI) – President Kennedy has donated to charity every penny of his salary while in the White House and in Congress, it was disclosed Wednesday.

White House sources said the President would turn over his entire $100,000 salary this year to charitable purposes, following a practice he began in 1947 when he became a member of the House of Representatives.

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Last year, the President''s salary some $94,600 – short of the annual pay of $100,000 because he did not take office until Jan. 20 – went to six charities, informants said in confirming a dispatch by Fletcher Knebel of Cowles newspapers.

Kennedy''s salary when he first went on the federal civilian payroll as a congressman from Massachusetts was $15,000 a year. The pay scale was raised subsequently to $22,500.

During Kennedy''s six years as a congressman, eight years as a senator and nearly two years as President, the total of his salary given to charity will approach $500,000.

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