Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-04-15


or support was commanded by one or
: the other contending parties and
executed by all the powers at their
disposal. until by the time the present
administration took office Il year ago,
reconccntration, so-callcd, had been
made effective over the better part of
the four central and western provinces,
Santa Clara, Mantanzas, Havana and
Pinar Del Rio.
The agricultural population to the
estimated number of 300, 600 or more
was herded within the towns and their
immediate vicinity, deprived of the
means of support, rendered destitute of
shelter, left poorly clad and exposed
to the most unsatisfactory conditions.
As the scarcity of food increased with
the devastation of the depopulated
areas of production, dcstitution and
want became misery and starvation.
ALARMING DEATH RATE.
| Month by month the death rate in
creased in alarming ratio, by March,
1898, according to conservative esti-
mates from official Spanish sources,
the mortality among the reconcentra-
dos from starvation and the disease
thereto incident exceeded so per
centum of the total number.
No practical relief was accorded to
the destitute. The overburdened
towns, already suffering from the gen.
eral dearth, could give no aid So
called zones of cultivation, established
within the immediate area of effective
military control, about the cities and
furtified. camps, proved illusory as a
remedy for the suffering.
The unfortuuates being for the most
part women and children, with aged
and helpless men, enfeebled by dis.
ease and hunger, could not have titled
the soil without tools, seeds or shelter,
for their own support or for the sup
ply OF the cities. Recommendation,
adopted avowedly as a war measure in
order to cut of the resources of the
insurgents, worked its predestined re-
suit.
NOT CIVILIZED WARFARE.
AS | said in my message of last De-
cember, it was not civilized warfare; it
was determination, and the only
peace it could beget was that of the
wilderness and the grave.
Meanwhile the military situation in
the island has undergone a noticeable
change. The extraordinary activity
that characterized the second year of
the war when the Insurgents invaded
even the hitherto unharmed fields of
Pinar Del Rio and carried havoc and
destruction up to the walls of the city
of Havana itself, had relapsed into a
dOgged struggle in the central and
eastern provinces.
The Spanish army regained meas
| ure of control in Pinar Del Rio and
parts of Havana, but under the exist
ing conditions of the rural country,
without immediate improvement of
their productive situation. Even
thus partially restricted, the revolu.
tiOnists held their own and their sub
mission, 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 adminis1
tratiOn found itself confronted with
the grave problem of its duty. My
message of last December reviewed the
situation and detailed the steps taken
with view Of relieving the acuteness
and opening the way to some form of
honorable settlement.
THE CHANGE OF MINISTRY.
The assassination of the prime
minister, Canovas led to a change of
government in Spain. The former
administration, which pledged sub
jngation without concession, gave
place to that of more liberal party,
committed long in advance to policy
Of reform involving the wider principle
Of home rule for Cuba and Porto Rico.
The Overtures of this government
made through its new envoy, General
Woodford, and looking to an immed-
late effective amelioration of the con-
dition of the island, although not ac-
cepted to the extent of admitted media.
ton in any shape, were made by as
surances that home rule in an ad-
vanced phase should 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.
incidentally with these declara-
tions, the new government Of Spain
continued and completed the policy
already begun by its predecessor OF
testifying friendly regard for this ma
ton by releasing American citizens
held under one charge or another dur
ing the insurrection, so that by the
end OF November, not single person
entitled in any way to our national
protection reclinei in Spanish prison.
DEsTITUTIoN INCREASED.
While these negotiations were in
progress the increasing destitution of
the unfortunate reconcentrados and
the alarming mortality among them
claimed earnest attention. The sue
cess which had attended the limited
measure of relief, extended to the
suffering American citizens among
them by the judiciOus expenditure
through the consular agencies, of the
money expended for their succor by
the joint resolution approved May "a,
1897, prompted the humane extension
of similar scheme to that great body
of sufferers. A suggestion to this end
was acquiesced in by the Spanish au-
thorities.
On the oath of December ! caused
to be issued an appeal to the American
people inviting contributions in money
or in kind for the succor of the starv-
ing sufferers in Cuba.
| CUBAN RELIEF ORGANIZED.
Following this, on the Sth of
January, by similar public announce
ment Of the formation Of a central
Cuban relief committee, with head
quarters in New York city, composed
of the members representing the ma.
tional Red Cross and the religious and
business elements of the country.
| The afthrtS nf that oc,,, too ho xo haa,,