The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-02

Hon. Jno. p. st. John was seen yes
terdsy ut bis room In the Ponce de Leon
by Q representative of THE TINES. Re
is quite q pleasant gentleman to meet
and his Views on the question of free
coinage of silver were very freely ex-
pressed. Ex-Governor st. Johns views
on the above question are we'll known
SO are also his views on the question of
prohibition. he having been candidate
one time for the Presidency on the pro-
hibition ticket.
The reporter asked Governor st. John
IL the question of free coinage 10 gener-
ally understood? His answer:
One of the great issues over which all
the parties differ to-day somewhat is
the silver question, and 1t is wonderful
how much ignorance there is on that
question. In one of the Eastern States
student went 20 8 college professor
and asked, What Is the meaning of
the ratio of 16 to 1?'" Aud the pro-
lessor said it meant the coinage OF six
teen silver dollars to one gold dollar.
Think OF college professor telling q
student that A man came to me the
o.her day and said, II am in favor of
bimetallism II we ldoonly make 1t
work. l am in favor of 1t, but what
puzzles me ia, where are we going to
get the money to buy i,?" He thought
that bimetalliem meant that the gov
ernment should buy the metal. When
/ explained to him what 1t msans he
sAid, That's all right"
WHAT'S meant by the "Dollar of Our
Daddies?"
L have here In my pocket q strange
piece OF money. Itis Continental money,
| such as the fathers of she revolution
used, and l am one Of those old fogies
who is inclined to believe that the
fathers OF the revolution were not
natural born fools, that they knew what
they were about; and 1 believe, too,
when they laid the foundations of our
government, and when after two years
Of discussion they hit upon q financial
plan, they knew what they were doing.
They did not legislAte in favor of Eng
land, as Congress does to-day, but they
made q financial system for our own
people. And here was one of the foun-
dasion stones. (holding up a piece of
Continental money! he read, "Sixty DOL
lars, Number 2421.
This bill entities the bearer to re-
ceive sixty Spanish milled dollars, or
the value thereof, In gold or silver ac-
cordipg to the resolution of Congress
passed at Philadelphia. Septem Der &c,
17TS. Sixty Spanish milled dollars!
There WAS no talk about parity then.
There was no talk about q ffty-cent
dollar then. The Spanish milled dollar,
or "the silver dollar of our daddies" as
we call 1t, was made foundation on
which our financial system was erected
IN ha
not until the Shylocks of this nation got
hold of the throat of the government
chat that dollar was stricken down in
1873.
What reason is given for demonetizing
silver?
One of the most frequent reasons given
for demonetizing silver is 1--WE did not
have much OF It." That Is not true. We
had only coined eight million silver dol.
lars up to 1873. but we coined one hun
dred and twenty millions OF silver money
during that time. You remember under
the law foreign silver coin was made q
legal tender. The English shilling, the
ninety five cent piece. and the Spanish
milled dollar. We old Eoosiers used 10
get together on the Fourth OF July and
trade horses, and one neighbor would
ask another, "Is your horse sound?"and
the answer would come back, "As sound
as . Spanish milled dollar" The Span
ish milled dollar and other foreign coins
were demopetized. and at last they
struck down the silver dollar that we
had coined for eighty odd years. In a
dark hour in 1873, it was done secretly,
and say right here that that act was
one OF the most infamous schemes to
plumber the common people In the in