Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-04-14

PRESIDENTS
SUGGESTION

WASHINGTON, April l2.-The presi-
dents message on the Cuban question
says:
To the Congress Of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the consti-
tutlon which commands the president TO
give from time to time the congress in
formation of the state OF the Union, and
70 recommend to its consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
expedient, 1t becomes my duty now to ad-
dress your body with regard to the grave
crisis that has arisen in the relations OF
the United States TO Spain by reason OF
the warfare that for more than three
wears has ragged in the neighboring island
of Cuba. l do so because of the intimate
connection of the Cuban question with
the state of our own Union and the grave
relation the course which it is now incum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must needs
bear to the traditional policy of our gov
ernment, If it is to accord with the pre-
cept laid down by the founders OF the re
public and religiously observed by each
succeeding administration to the present
day.
i,he present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar instructions
which have occurred in Cuba against the
dominion of spain, extending over
neriod of nearly half n century, each of
which. during its progress has subjected
the United States to great expense and
effort i'm enforcing its neutrality laws,
caused enormous losses to American trade
and commerce, caused irritation, annoy
ance and disturbance among our citizens,
and by the exercise OF cruel: parDarous
and unciyilized practices OF warfare,
shocked the sensibilities and offended the
humane sympathics of our people.
Effects Of the Rebellion.
Since the present revolution began, in
February, 1S95. this country has seen the
fertile domain at our threshold ravaged 10y
fire and sword in the course Of struggle
nneoualed in the history Of the island, and
rarely paralleled as to the number of COM
batants and the bitterness of the contest
by any revolution of modern times where
a dependent people, striving to be free,
have been oppressed by the power of the
sovereign state. Our people have beheld
n once prosperouS community reduced to
comparative want, its lucrative commerce
virtually paralyZed, its exceptional pro-
ductiyeness diminished, its fields laid
waste its mills in ruins, and its people
nerishing by tens of thousands from hun
rer and restitution. We have found our
selves constrained, in the observance of
that strict neutrality which our laws en-
ioin and which the laws of nations COM
mands, to police our own waters and
watch our own seaports in prevention of
any unlawful action in aid of the Cubans.
Our trade has suffered; the capital in
vested by our citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost, and the temper and
forbearance of our people have been so
sorely tried as to beget perilous unrest
among our own citizens, which has inev-
fr.,hra ti,,,a 70.
time in the national legislature, so that
issues wholly external to our own body
polite engross attention and stand in the
way of that close devotion to domestic ad-
yancement that becomes self-contained
commonwealth, whose prime maxim has
been the avoidance of foreign entangle-
ments All this must needs awaken and
has indeed aroused the utmost concern on
the part Of this government, as well dur
ing my predecessors term as in my own.
Attempts Made to Mediate.
In April, 1885, the evils from which our
country suffered through the Cuban war
became SO onerous that my predecessor
made an effort to bring about peace
through the mediation of this govern
ment in any way that might tend to an
honorable adjustment of the contest be-
tween Spain and her revolted country, ON
the basis of some effective scheme of
government for Cuba under the flag
and sovereignty of Spain. 1t failed,
through the refusal of the Spanish gov
eminent then in power to consider any
form of mediation, or indeed any plan of
settlement which did not begin with the
actual submission of the insurgents to
the mother country, and then rely on such
terms as Spain herself might see fit to
grant The war continued unabated. The
resistance of the insurgents was in no wise
diminished.
The efforts of Spain were increased,
10th by the dispatch of fresh levies to
Cuba and by the addition TO the horrors
of the strife OF a new and inhuman phase
happily unprecedented in the modern his
tory of civilized Christian peoples. The
policy of devastation and concentration
inaugurated by the captain generals
bando of Oct. 2l, 1896, in the province of
Pinar del Rio was thence extended to en-
brace all of the island to which the Span
ish arm was able to reach by occupation
or by military operations. The peasantry,
including all dwelling in the open agri-
cultural interior, were driven into the gar
rison towns or isolated places held by the
troops. The raising and movement of
provisions of all kinds were interdicted.
The fields were laid waste, dwellings un-
rooted and fired, mills destroyed and, in
short, everything that could desolate the
land and render it unfit for human habi-
tation or support was commanded by one
or the other of the contending parties,
and executed by all the powers at their
disposal.
Awful Suffering of the People.
BY the time the present administration
took office a year ago reconcentration-so-
called-had been made effective over tho
better part Of the four central and west
ern provinces, Santa Clara, Matanzas,
Havana and Pinar del Rio. The egricult-
ural population, to the estimated humber
Of 300,O or more, was herded within the
towns and their immediate vicinage, de-
prived of the means of support. rendered
destitute of shelter, left poorly clad, and
exposed to the most unsanitary condi-
tions. AS the scarcity of food increased
with the devastation Of the depopulated
areas of production, destitution and want
became misery and starvation. Month by
month the death rate increased in an
alarming ratio. - March, 1897, accord
Ing to the conservative estimates from Off
cial sources, the mortality among the re-
concentrates, from starvation and the
diseases thereto incident, exceeded 80 per
centum of their total number. No prac-
tical relief was accorded to the destitute.
The overburdcned towns, already suffer
ing from the general dearth, could give
no aid. Socalled zones OF cultivation,
established within the immediate area of
effective military control about the cities
and fortified camps proved illusory as
remedy for the suffering. The unfortu.
mates, being for the most part women and
children with aged and helpless men, en-
feebled by disease and hunger, could not
have titled the soil without tools, seed OF
shelter, for their own support or for the
supply of the cities. Recommendation,
adopted avowedly as a war measure IL
order to cut off the resources of the in
surgents, worked its predestined result.
As | said in my message of last Decem-
Der, Ii was not civilized warfare; it was
determination. The only peace it could
bcget was that of the Wilderness and the
grave. While the military situation in
the island had undergone 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 II dogged struggle in the
central and eastern provinces. The Span
ish arms rcgained mcaSurc of control in
Pinar del Rio and parts of Havana but
under the existing conditions OF the rural
country, without Immediate improve
mGnt OF their productive situation. Even
thus partially restricted the revolution
lists 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 ut the outset.
Spanish Policy Changed.
In this state of affairs my administra-
ton 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 It's acuteness and opening the
way to some form of honorable settle
ment. The assassination of tie prime
ministcr Cnnoyns led TO a chnnce OF GOV