The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-04-01
THUR0T0N'S CUBAN SPEECH.
An ImpaSSioned Appeal To otop DeSoidtion In
Cubd---(df For Force Of Arms to
Sweep Spanish TYRANNY Audu.

4, cannot cope.
In the four so called Spanish provinces
there is neither cultivation nor railway
operation except under strong Spanish
military protection or by consent of the
revolutionists in consideration Of tribute
paid.
The revolutionists are in absolute and
almost peaceful possession of nearly
one-balf of the island, including the
eastern provinces of Santiago de Cuba
and Puerto Principe. In those provinces
they have an established form of gov
ernment, levy and collect taxes, main
tain armies and generally levy q tax of
tribute upon the principal plantations
in the other provinces, and, as is COM
monty believed, upon the entire railway
system of the island
Under the inhuman policy Of Weyler
not less than 400,0 self supporting,
simple, peaceable, defenseless country
people were driven from their homes in
the agricultural portions Of the Spanish
provinces to the cities. and imprisoned
upon the barren waste outside the resi-
dence portions of these cities and with
in the lines of intrenchment established
little way beyond.
Their humble homes were burned,
their fields laid waste, their implements
of husbandry destroyed, their live stock
and food supplies for the most part con-
fiscated. Most of these people were old
men, women and children. They were
thus placed in hopeless imprisonment,
without shelter or food.
There was no work for them in the
cities to which they were driven. They
were left there with nothing to depend
upon except the scanty charity of the
inhabitants of the cities and with slow
starvation their inevitable fate.
Revolutionists Unconquered.
It is conceded upon the best ascer-
tainable authority, and those who have
had access to the public records do not
hesitate to state, that upward Of 210,-
900 of these people have already perish
ed, all from starvation or from diseases
incident to starvation.
spain cannot put an end to the exlsJ-
ing condition. She cannot conquer the
insurgents. She cannot re-establish her
sovereignty over any considerable por-
tion of the interior of the island. The
revolutionists, while able to maintain
themselves, cannot drive the Spanish
army from the fortified seacoast towns.
The situation, then, is not war as we
understand it, but chaos of devasta-
tion and depopulation of underlined dura-
tion whose end no man can see.
There has been no amelioration of the
situation except through the charity Of
the people of the United States. There
has been no diminution in the death
rate among these reconcentrados except
as the death supply is constantly dimin-
ished. There is no relief and no hope
except through the continued charity
of the American people until peace has
been fully restored in the island and
until humane government has restored
these people to their homes and has
provided for them anew the means with
which to begin again the cultivation of
the soil.
AS an instance of the discipline
among Spanish cite the fact that
bought the machete of Spanish soldier
on duty at the wharf in Matanzas, on
his offer, for SO in Spanish silver. He
also seemed DESTROYS of selling me his
only remaining arm, revolver.
The pictures in the American news
papers of the starving reconcentrados
are true. They can all be duplicated by
the thousands. never saw, and please
God I may never again see, so deplora-
BILE q. sight as the reconcentrados in the