The Roanoke Times

BLACKBURN A BIMETALLIST.

Senator Blackburn, of Kentucky, in an interview, outlines his position on the silver question in unmistakable terms, and boldly challenges his opponents in his canvass for re-election, to show their colors also. He says he never had any secrets in politics; never intends to have any, and that he will never ask the support of the people without giving them the fullest information as to his position and sentiments.

He then goes on to say that for the last twenty years, in Congress, on the stump, anywhere and everywhere, he has earnestly and persistently insisted upon the "restoration of the silver metal to that place in the money system of the country which it had always held prior to the disastrous act of demonetization, passed in 1873." He announces unqualifiedly that he is in favor of opening the mints of the country to unlimited silver metal on equality with gold; that he is opposed to either silver monometalism or gold monometalism and is, without reservation, a bimetallist.

He is opposed to waiting for an international conference, and wants the United States to act at once. He believes that the destruction entailed upon the country by the demonetization of one-half of its representative money has contributed more than any cause to the shrinkage of all values, the depreciation of all property, the stagnation of trade, the paralysis of industry and the financial troubles in which we now find ourselves. He pronounced the act of 1873 as an unconstitutional measure and believes it would have been so held by the Supreme Court of the United States had not a partisan spirit dominated the action of that tribunal.

Daniel Webster, he says, had declared that the constitution of the United States made gold and silver the redemption money of this country, and that neither Congress nor any State had any rightful power to substitute any other nor to destroy either the one or the other metals. He says if Congress had the power to demonetize silver, it must be conceded that it had the same power to demonetize gold.

In conclusion, he asks the newspaper men to use the same energies they have used on him in making the other candidates for the Senate from Kentucky come forward and state their positions. The challenge is directed mainly at Secretary Carlisle, who is understood to be a candidate for Senator Blackburn's place, and, as the Secretary is an avowed advocate of "sound money" according to the Cleveland programme, he may be expected to be heard from at an early date.