The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-19
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, May 9.-Infuenced by
the assumption that it would be case
of loves labor lost, the silver organiza-
tions Of the country have left the terri
tory known as the east almost entirely
alone. The leaders Of the silver move
ment have believed, or have appeared to
believe, that goldbug influence was too
strong in this section to grapple with;
that in fact, all the people of the East
ern Atlantic and New England states
with occasional exceptions, were bound
hand and foot by the money power. 1t
is true that nearly all the we'll known
newspapers i'll the principal cities of
this section are edited from the closets
of the money sharks. Sentiment favor
able to the cause of silver has not been
allowed expression in the columns of
those papers, and silver and it's cham
pions have been ibeled, misreprcsented.
abused and ridiculed in both news and
editorial departments; but, all the
same, there are hundreds of thousands
of earnest and uncompromising advo-
Gates of the reconciliation Of silver III
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and New England. Lack of organiza-
ton and the absence of strong press to
support them have kept these thousands
apart, and with slight exceptions there
has not been any concerted movement
on behalf of silver in this part of the
country The cry has gone up that in
the struggle of the people against the
money monopolists the combatants are
divided by sectional lines, and that it is
the south and west against the east
This state Of affairs has pleased the
gold men, because it gave them undis-
puted control of large voting strength
and left them free to concentrate their
forces upon sections that were either
naturally for silver or were debatable
ground.
But the mistakes of the past are to be
corrected; silver's scattered, unorganized
forces in the east are to be brought to-
gether and the easy security of the mon
ey monger is destined to soon receive
violent shock. The tocsin has been
sounded, and soon the clans will begin
to gather under the very strongholds of
goldocracy.
George p. Keeney, general organizer
of the American Silver organization, did
not believe with the other silver men Of
the west that the case was hopeless i'll
the east He contended that there were
thousands of business men in the cities
and manufacturing centers along the At
lantic coast who realized that they, and
the country with them, were suffering
through the degradation Of silver and
the consequent destruction of one-half
of our money. He saw that the interests
of the working classes in this section
were identical with those of the farmers
and 1aborers of the west and south, and
for three months he has been giving his
time to quiet agitation of the subject
of organization among the friends of sill
yer in the principal eastern cities. Mr..
Keeney has had considerable experience
as an organizer, having been instru-
mental i'll putting into shape the for
midable silver movement of the Pacific
coast, and he assures me that in the
light Of past experience he reads the in
dications for organization here, and they
are favorable beyond his greatest expec-
tations Of three months ago.
One Of the most influential and fear
less Of the friends Of silver in the east is
Mr.. William p. st. John of New York.
He is president Of the Mercantile Ma
tional bank Of New York city and holds
place as high as that of any Of his
contemporaries as financier and mana
ger of bank business Mr. ST. John
career as banker and his conversion to
the cause of silver are interesting.
He entered Wall street banking Of
fee in 1867, when 10 years of age.
Thence he wandered into different kinds
of business as an employee, always with
houses standing first in their line. He
was invited out Of the sugar refining
firm Of Havemeyer g. Elder directly in
to the cashiership Of the Mercantile Ma
tional bank in January, 1881. In jan
uary, 1888, he succeeded to the presi-
dency on the death of George W. Per-
kins, with whom he had begun the re-
juvenation Of the Mercantile National
bank. Under his incumbency the volume
Of the business tripled, and, besides pay
ing dividends regularly, the bank has
added 81, 900, 900 Of earnings TO its CAPT
tai
In 1884 Mr.. st. John was elected a
member of the finance committee of the
New York chamber of commerce The
chairman urged upon him as the junior
member his obligation to devote research
to the silver question. Mr.. st. John be-
gan his research as pronounced gold
standard man. He had asserted at q
bankers convention in 1854 that the
Bland act, which restored n partial
coinage of silver dollars, was "dishon-
est i'll inception and vicious in its tend
encies" After six years of research he
began to make minority reports in the