The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-12
PRES. M'KINLEl'S MESSAGE
Continued from First Page.
Reconcentrati ton.

island to which the power of the span ish arms was able to reach by occupa- tion or by military operations.
 The peasantry, including all dwell- ing in the open agricultural interior, were driven into the garrison towns or isolated places held by the troops. The raising and movement of provis- ions of all kinds were interdicted. The fields were laid waste, dwellings unroof- ed and fired, mills destroyed and in short everything that could desolate the land and render it unfit for human habitation or support was commanded by one or the other of the contesting parties and executed by all the powers at their disposal.
 By the time the present administra- ton took office a year ago, reconcen- tration-so called had been made ef- fective over the better part of the four central and western provinces, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Havana and /Pinar del Rio. The agricultural population to the estimtaed number of 100000 or more was herded within the towns and their | immediate vicinage, deprived of the ! means of support, rendered destitute of | shelter, left poorly clad and exposed to l eiiC iIOol Qlocllllldly CollbitioAts' AA' | the scarcity of food increased with the devastation of the depopulated areas | of productions, destitution and want became misery and starvation. Month by month the death rate increased in an alarming ratio. By March, 1897, ac- l cording to conservative estimates from l official Spanish sources, the mortality | among the reconcentradoes, from star vation and the diseases thereto incl dent, exceeded 50 per centum of their to- l tai number. No practical relief was ac- l corded to the destitute. The overburd- ened towns already suffering from gen. l eral dearth could give no aid. The so- 1 called zones of cultivation" establish l ed within the immediate area of effec- | tive military control about cities and l fortified camps proved illusory as a 1 remedy for the suffering. The unfortu- mates being for the most part women | and children with aged and helpless l men, enfeebled by disease and hunger, | could not have titled the soil without l tools, seed or shelter, for their own l support or for the support of the cities. l The recommendation adopted avowed- l ly as war measure in order to cut | off the resources of the insurgents, | worked it's predestined result. As I said in my message of last December l it was not civilized warfare. It was extermination. The only peace it could beget was that of the wilderness and the grave.
 Military Situation in Cuba.
 Meanwhile, the military situation in the island had undergone noticeable | oho ha tu that characterized the second year of war when the insurgents invaded even the hitherto unharmed fields of Pinar del Rio and carried havoc and destruc- tion up to the walls of the city of Ha- vana itself, had relapsed into dog ged struggle in the central and eastern provinces.
 The Spanish arms regained a. 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 revolutionists 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 adminis- tration found itself confronted with a grave problem of it's 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 hon. orable settlement.
 Administrator Problem.
 The assassination of the prime minis ter, Canovas, led to a change of gov ernment in Spain. The former admin istration, pledged to subjugation with out concession, gave place to that of a liberal party. committed long in ad- vance to a policy of reform involving the wider principle of home rule for Cuba and Porto Rico.
 The overtures of this government made through it's new envoy, General Woodford, and looking to an immediate and effective ameioration of the condi- tion of the island, although not accept ed to the extent of admitted mediation in any shape, were met by assurances that home rule in an advanced phase would be forthwith offered to Cuba without waiting for the war to end, an6 that more humane methods should thenceforth prevail in the conduct ot | hostilities.
 Coincidently with these declarations the new government of Spain continued and completed the policy already begur by it's predecessor, of testifying friend ly regard for this nation by releasing American citizens held under one charge or another connected with the insurrection, so that, by the end of No vember, not a single person entitled ir any way to our national protection re- mained in a Spanish prison.
 | Relief of fReconeentrados.
 While these negotiations were in pro- gress the increasing Restitution of the unfortunate reconcentrados and the alarming mortality among them claim ed earnest attention.
 The success which had attended the | limited measure of relief extended tC the suffering American citizens among them by the judicious expenditure through the consular agencies of the money appropriated expressly for theil success by the joint resolution approv- ed May A, 1897, prompted the humane extension of similar scheme of aid tc the great body of sufferers.
 A suggestion to this end was ac
 guiesced in by the Spanish authorities
 On the 24th of December last I caused | to be issued an appeal to the American