The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-04-11

volted colony on the basis of some eff
fect1Ve scheme for self-government for
cuba under the flags of sovereignty of
Spain 1t failed through the refusal
OF the Spanish government then in
power to consider any form of media
ton or indeed any plan of settlement
Wnlcn dld not begin with the actual
SUBMISSION of the insurgents to the
mother country, and then only on such
terms as Spain herself might see fit to
grant The war continued unabated.
Ihe resistance of the insurgents was in
no wise diminished.
The efforts of Spain were increased,
poth py the dispatch of fresh levieS to
CUBA and by the addition to the horrors
of the strife of a new and inhuman
phase happily unprecede in the mod
ern history of civilized Christian people
The policy of devastation and concen-
trat1on, 1naugurated by the captain
generals band of October 21, 1896, in the
province of Finar Del Rio was thence
extended to embrace all of the island
TO which the power of the Spanish arms
was able to reach by OccupatiOn or by
military operations.
The peasantry, including all dwellings,
in the open agricultural interior We've
driven into the garrison towns of isoIa-
ted places held by the troops The rails
ing and movement of provisions of all
Kinds were interdicted The fields were
lald WaSte,dWelingS unrOOfed and fired,
mills destroyed and, in short every
thing that could desolate the land and
render it unfit for human habitation or
other of the contending parties, and ex-
ecuted by all the powers at their dis
pOSal.
By the time the present administration
TOOK ofhce, year ago, reconcentra ton
so called-had been made effective over the
better part of the four central and west
Havana and Pinar del Rio. The agricuI-
turai popula @ m ton, to the estimated num-
Der OF 100000 or more, was herded within
the towns and their immediate vicinity,
deprived of the means of support, render
laff V-Ix o1-,. i
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 be-
month the death rate increased in an
alarming ratio. By March, 1897, accord
cial Spanish sources the mortality among
the reconcentrados from starvation and
per centum of their total number. No
practical relief was accorded to the des-
suffering from general dearth, could give
no aid. So-called zones of cultiva ton.
eHective military control about the cities
and fortified camps, proved ilIusionary as
tunates. being for the most part Women W1i1
and children with aged and helpless men,
not have titled the soil, without FOOLS
seed or shelter, for their own support or
for the supply, of the cities. Reconcen-
tration, adopted avowedly as a war meas
ure in order to cut off the resources of
the insurgents, worked its predestined re-
suit As said in my message of last De-
cember, it was not civilized warfare: it
was determination: The only peace it
could beget that of the wilderness
and the grave.
Meanwhile the military situation in
the island had undergone a noticea BILE
change. The extraordinary activity that
characterized the second year of the
war when the insurgents invaded even
the hitherto uninhabited fields of Pinar
del Rio and carried havoc and destitu-
ton up to the walls of the city of Ha-
vana, itself had relapsed into a dogged |
struggle in the central and eastern nro-
vinces.
The Spa nish arms regained a measure
of control in Pinar del Rio and parts of |
Havana, but under the existing condi-
tions of the rural country without, i'm |
mediate improvement of their produc-
tive situation. Even thus partially re- |
stricted, the reVolutionists held their |
own and their 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 administra-
tion found itself confronted with the |
grave problem of its duty. Ny message |
of last December reviewed the situation
and detailed the step taken with a view
of relieving its acutenesS and opening I
the way to some form of honorable set |
The assassination of the prime |
minister, Canovas, led to a change of |
in Spain. The former ad- |
pledge to subjGgation |
without concession gave place to that |
of more liberal party, committed long |
in advance to a policy of reform inyolv- |
ing the wider principle of home rule for |
Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The overtures of this government, |
made through its new envoy. General /
Woodford and looking TO an immediate |
and effective amelioration of the condi- |
ton of the island, although not accept