Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-04-12
A MESSAGE Al, LAST.
Continued from First Page.

Rio. The agricultural population to
the estimated number of 900, Coo OIL
more, was herded within the towns and
their immediate vicinage, deprived OF
the means OF support. rendered desti-
tute OF shelter, left poorly clad, and
exposed to the most unsanitary condi-
tons. AS the scarcity of food increas-
ed with the devastation of the depopu-
lated areas of production, restitution
and want became misery and starya-
ton. Month by month the death rate
increased in an alarming ratio. By
March, 1897, according to conservative
estimates from official sources, the
mortality among the reconcentrados,
from starvation and the diseases there
to incident, exceeded so per centum OF
their total number. No practical re-
lief was accorded to the destitute. The
overburdened towns, already suffering
from the general dearth, could give no
aid. So-called zones of cultivation,
established within the immediate area
OF effective military control about the
cities and fortified camps proved illu-
sorry as a remedy for the suffering.
The Unfortunates.
being for the most part women and
children with aged and helpless men
enfeebled by disease and hunger, could
not have titled the soil without tools
seed or shelter for their own support
or for the supply of the cities. Re-
concentration, adopted avowedly as d
war measure in order to cut off the re-
~
predestined result. AS | said in my
message Of last December, it was not
civilized warfare; it was extermina-
ton. The only peace it could beget
was that Of the wilderness and the
grave. While the military situation
in the island had undergone a notice
able change, the extraordinary actlv-
ity that characterized the second year
Of the war, when the insurgents in
yaded 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 re-
lapsed into logged struggle in the
southern and eastern provinces. The
Spanish arms regained a measure OF
control in Pinar del Rio and parts of
pob tllQSt LILO CAiGIlhS NOAi
ditions Of the rural country, without
immediate improvement of their pro-
ductive situation. Even thus partial
ly restricted the revolutionists held
their own and their conquest and sub
mission, put forward by Spain as the
essential and sole basis Of peace,
seemed as far distant as at the outset.
channn in PnIicv
In this state of affairs my admins
tration found itself confronted with
the grave problem of its duty. My
message of last December reviewed the
situation, and narrated the steps taken
with a 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 con-
cession, gave place to that of a more
liberal party, committed long in adj
vance to policy of reform involving
the wider principles Of home rule for
Cuba and Puerto Rico. The over
lures of this government, made
through its new envoy. Gen. Wood
ford, and looking TO an immediate and
effective amelioration of the, condi-
tions OF the island, although not ac-
cepted to the extent of admitted med
iation in any shape, were met by as
s,lrances that home rule, in an adj
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-
ly with these declarations, the new
government of Spain continued and
completed the policy already begun by
its predecessor, of testifying friendly
regard for this nation by releasing
American citizens held under one
charge or another connected with the
insurrection. so that by the end of
November. not single person entitled
in any way to our national protection
remained
In a Spanish Prison.
While these negotiations We're in
progress, the increasing restitution of
the unfortunate reconcentradoes
and the alarming mortality among
them claimed earnest attention The
success which had attended the limit
ed measures of relief extended to the
suffering American citizens among
them by the judicious expenditure
through the consular agencies of the
money appropriated expressly for their
succor by the joint resolution approved
May "a, 1897, prompted the humane
extension of a similar scheme of aid
70 the great body of suffe- ers A sug-
eestion to this end was acquiesced in
BY the Spanish authorities. On the