Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-04-14

AoAetAheA ~ oAAASAi tiAC PORNi VI tAAC 1Heb4A-
ish arms was able to reach by occupa-
tion or by military operations. The
peasantry, including all dwelling in the
open agricultural interior, were driven
into the garrison towns or isolated
places held by the troops. The raising
and moving of provisions of ali kinds
were interdicted. The fields were laid
waste, dwellings unroofed and fired,
mills destroyed, and in short everything
that could desolate the land and rem
der it unfit for human habitation or
support was commanded by one or the
other of the contending parties and exc
cuted by all the powers at their dis
posal.
Horrors OF the Concentration Order.
By the time the present administra-
tion took Office year ago reconcentra-
ton, so called, had been made effec-
tive over the better part of the four
central and western provinces-San
Clara, Matanzas, Havana and Pinar
del Rio. The agricultural population,
to the estimated number of 100000 or
more, was herded within the towns
and their immediate vicinage, deprived
of the means of support, rendered des-
titute of shelter, left poorly clad and
exposed to the most unSanitary con-
ditions. AS the scarcity of food in
creased with the devastation of the de-
populated areas of production destitu-
ton and want became misery ana
starvation. Month by month the death
rate increased in an alarming ratio. BY
March, 1897, according to conserva-
tive estimates from official Spanish
sources. the mortality among the re-
concentrates, from starvation and the
diseases thereto incident, exceeded so
per centum of their total number. No
practical relief was accorded to the
destitute. The overburdened towns, al
ready suffering from general dearth,
could give no aid.
The so-called zones of cultivation
established within the immediate area
of effective military control about the
cities and fortified camps, proved IL
lusory as a remedy for the suffering.
The unfortunates, being for the most
part women and children, with aged
and helpless men, enfeebled by dis
eases and hunger, could not have titled
the SOIL without tools, seed or shelter,
for their own support or for the supply
of the cities. Recommendation, adopted
avowedly as a war measure in order
to cut off the resources of the insur-
gents, worked its predestined result. AS
I said in my message of last December,
it was not civilized warfare; it was
determination. The only peace it could
beget was that Of the wilderness and
the grave.
A Dogged Struggle.
Meanwhile the military situation in
the island had undergone a noticeable
change. The extraordinary activity
that characterized the second year of
the war, when the insurgents invaded
even the hitherto unframed fields of
Pinar del Rio and carried havoc and
destruction UP to the walls of the city
Of Havana itself. had relapsed in a
dogged struggle in the central and
eastern provinces. The Spanish arms
regained a measure of control in Pinar
del Rio and parts of Havana, but, un-
der the existing conditions of the rural
country, without immediate improve
ment of their productive situation.
Even thus partially restricted, the
revolutionits held their own, and their
conquest and submission, put forward
by Spain as the essential and sole basis
Of peace, seemed as far distant as at
the outset.
In this state of affairs my admins
tration found itself confronted with
the grave problem of it's duty. My
message of last December reviewed the
situation, and narrated the steps taken
with view to relieving its acuteness
and opening the way to some form Of
honorable settlement. The assassina-
ton of the prime minister, Canovas led
to change of government in Spain.
The former administration, pledged to
subjugation without concession, gave
place to that of a more liberal party.
committed long in advance to a pol
icy of reform involving the wider prin-
ciple of home rule for Cuba and Puerto
Rico. The overtures of this govern
ment, made through its new envoy,
General Woodford, and looking to an
immediate and effective amelo~ation
of the condition of the island, although
not accepted to the extent of admitted
mediation in any shape, were met by
assurances that home rule, in an ad-
vanced phase, would be forthwith Of
fered to Cuba, without waiting for the
war to end, and that more humane
methods should thenceforth prevail in
the conduct of hostilities. Coincident-
government of Spain continued the pol
icy already begun by its predecessor of
testifying friendly regard for this ma
tion by releasing American citizens
held under one charge or another con-
nected with the insurrection, so that,
by the end of November, not single
person entitled in any way to our ma
tional protection remained in a Span
Ish prison.
The Increasing Destftution.
While these negotiations were in
progress the increasing destitution Of
the unfortunate reconcetrados, and the
alarming mortality among them,
claimed earnest attention. The sue
cess which had attended the limited
measure of relief extended to the suf-
fering American citizens among them
by the judicious expenditure through
the consular agencies of the money ap-
propriated expressly for their succor
by the joint resolution approved May
"a, 1897, prompted the humane extern
sion of a similar scheme of aid to the
great body of sufferers. A suggestion
to this end was acquiesced in by the
Spanish authorities. On the oath Of
December last / caused to be issued
an appeal to the American people in
viting contributions in money or in
kind for the succor of the starving
sufferers in Cuba, following this on
the 9Th of January by a similar public
announcement of the formation of a
central Cuban relief committee, with
headquarters in New York city, COM
posed of three members representing
shs American National Red Cross and
the religious and business elements Of
the community. The efforts of that
committee have been untiring, and
have accomplished much.
Arrangements for free transportation
to Cuba has greatly aided the chari- ]
table work. The president of the
American Red Cross. and representa-