Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-12-11
4 FINAL GOODBYE.
THUS ClOSETH THE SECOND
CHAPTER.
The President Takes a Whole
ssRrOadSIde.' TO .sBrIeGly" state
uln..punnprt

The President Takes Whole
BroadSIde'' TO "Briefly" state
The Situatiom-A characteristic
DOcument.
The extreme length OF the last mes.
sage of President Cleveland precludes
the possibility of publishing it in full,
nor is there any necessity for so doing
when We consider the number OF our
readers who would not make begin
ming to wade through a document OF
such ponderous proportions, to say
nothing of the usually dry treatment
OF statistics from that source. Cleve-
land promises i'll an opening para
graph to be "brief," but forgets later
on that people do not attach the inn
portance to the recommendation OF q
retiring President whose advice il
given to a Congress that is antago.
nistic on many matters of policy that
they would to one in harmony with
the lawmaking power, and treats the
subjects submitted with that elaborate
detail for which he is SO we'll noted.
Mr.. Cleveland starts out with con-
CALCULATIONS that the nation has passed
through a political contest involving
momentous consequences. fraught
with feverish apprehension, and
creating aggressiveness SO intense as
to approach bitterness and passion
and the result has been determined by
the decree Of free and independent
suffrage without disturbance of our
tranquility, or the least sign of weak
ness in our national structure" This
seems rather peculiar language for a
President who is the representative OF
a defeated party to use.
After brief allusion to the dis
turbed condition of affairs in Asiatic
Turkey, and an assurance that the
protection of American missionaries
in Ottoman territory has been, and
will be, ample, he turns his attention
to the
THE CUBAN WAR.
The Instruction in Cuba still con-
tinues with all its perplexities. 1t is
difficult to perceive that any progress
has thus far been made towards the
pacification of the island or that the
situation of affairs as depicted in my
last annual message has in the least
improved. Ii Spain still holds Ha-
vana and the seaports and all the
considerable towns, the insurgents
still roam mt will over at least two
thirds of the inland country. The de-
termination of Spain 10 put down the
instruction seems but to strengthen
with the lapse of time, and is evinced
by her unhesitating devotion of largely
increased military and naval forces to
the task. There is much reason to be-
lieve that the insurgents have gained
in number and character and re-
sources and are none the less inflexi-
BILE in their resolve not to succumb
without practically securing the great
object for which they took up arms.
If Spain has not yet re-established her
authority, neither have the insurgents
yet made good their title to he re-
garded as an independent State. In
deed, as the contest has gone on, the
pretense that civil government exists
on the island, except so far as Spain is
able to maintain it, has been practi-
cally abandoned. Spain does keep on
foot such a government, more or less
in the large towns and
their immediate suburbs. But, that
exception being made, the entire cOun-
try is either given over to anarchy or
is subject to the military occupation
of one or the other party. 1t is re-
ported, indeed, on reliable authority
that at the demand of the commander
in-chief of the insurgent army the pu-
tative Cuban government has now
given up all attempt to exercise its
functions, leaving that government
confessedly (what there is best reason
for supposing it always to have been
in fact) government merely on pa
per. Were the Spanish armies able to
meet their antagonists in the open or
in pitched battle prompt and deci-
sive result might be looked for, and
the immense superiority of the Span.
ish forces in numbers, discipline and
equipment could hardly fail to tell
greatly to their advantage. But they
are called upon to face a foe that
shuns general engagements, that can
choose and does choose its own ground
that from the nature of the country is
visible or invisible at pleasure and that
fights only from ambuscade and when
all the advantages of position and
numbers are ON its side. In q country
where there is all that is indispensable
to life, especially by those born and
bred on the soil, it is obvious that
there is hardlya limit to the time dur
ing which hostilities of this sort may
be prolonged. Meanwhile, rs in all
cases of protracted civil strife, the
passions of the cOmbatants grow more
and more inf1amed and the excuses OF
both sides become more frequent and
more deplorable. They are also par
ticipated in by bands of marauders
who, now in the name of one party
and now in the name of another, as
may best suit the occasion, harrass
the country at will and plumber its
wretched inhabitants for their own
advantage. Such condition OF
things would inevitable entail i'm
mense destruction of property even if
it were the policy of both parties to
repress it as far as practicable. But
while such seemed to be the original
policy of the Spanish government, it
has now apparently abandoned it and
is acting upon the same theory as the
insurgents, namely, that the exigen.
cies of the contest require the whole
sale humiliation of property that it
may not prove of any use and advan-
tage to the enemy.
1t is to the same end that, in pur-
suance of general orders, Spanish gar
risons are now being withdrawn from
plantations and the rural population
required to concentrate itself in the
towns. The sure result would seem
to be that the industrial value of the
island is fast diminishing, and that
unless there is a speedy and radical
change in existing conditions it will
pna,, I;SoD~ao~ al 4