The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-14
CONGRESS FOR A CLASH.
Continued from First page.)

ASsOiu'tou ana report from ms cOnmittee
and requested that they be read. The re-
port was a terrific arraignment of Spain
and her policies, yet so eager were all u
hear every word that not the slightest
demonstration occurred throughout the
reading.
The report takes up the Maine disaster
as the leading topic for consideration and
plunges into that question in its first sen
tence, which is as follows:
THE destruction of the United States
battleship Maine, of two of her officers
and 264 of her crew in the harbor of Ha-
vana on the night of Feb. 10, 1898, excited
to an unprecedented degree the compassion
and resentment of the American people. "
Continuing, the report says: Nantes
tations of that resentment were suspended,
although the feeling was not allayed, by
the self-restraint of our people, who de-
termined 10 mold their judgment. an sus-
pense concerning their ultimate action I'M
til an official investigation should disclose
the cause of the great disaster. and enable
them, by direct or circumstantial testimo-
ny, to impute the responsibility therefor.
THAT investigation has been made 1t
was conducted with judicial thoroughness
strating by conclusive proof the efficient
personal cause of that sinister event was
the usual one of exposing plotted and mys-
ferrous crimes No such difficulty, how
ever, obscures its official and responsible
cause
The committee says that the explosion of
the Maine was linked, with a series of pre-
| cedent transactions, which cannot in rea-
son be disconnected from it
parent that no one can even plausibly
deny its existence, it is merely one reason
tor the conclusion to which the investiga-
ing mind must come in considering the
entire subject of the relations of the
United States with that government"
Concluding this portion of its presenta-
tion the committee says; THE duplicity
and perfidy of the Spanish character as
they have always been. are demonstrated
stlll to continue by their manifestations
during the present war in Cuba. All
these circumstances, considered cumula-
lively, warrant the conclusion that the de-
struction of the Maine was comprised
either by the official act of the Spanish au-
thoities (and the ascertainment of the par
tleular person is not materially or was
made possible by a negligence on their
part so willing and gross as to be equiva-
lent in culpability to positive criminal ac-
tion."
In taking up the more general subjects,
the committee express the opinion that
1.-The United States ought at once to recog-
nize the independence of the people of
Cuba, and also ought to intervene to the
end that the war and it's unexampled
atrocities shall cease, and that such in
dependence shall become settled political
fact at the earliest possible moment by
the establishment by the free action of the
people of cuba, when such action can be
had, of a government independent in fact
and form"
The committee assert that the cause OF
Spain has continually grown weaker,
while the cause of the insurgents has
grown stronger, and say that the few re-
Inducements now being sent to Cuba do
not supply a 1.-THE of Spain's losses caused
by battle and disease"
1t is asserted that the Spanish govern
ment has violated the laws of civilized
warfare in the slaughter of prisoners and
the massacre of sick and wounded.
On the subject of intervention the COM
mittee says: Justification for interview
ton is strengthened in such cases as the
present, where the expressions by a state
of it's subjects have been so inveterate
atrocious and sanguinary as to require in
tervention by other nations in the interest
of humanity and the peace of the world,
for the purpose of overthrowing that gov
eminent and establishing or recognizing
another in it's place as the only means of
extirpating an otherwise incurable and
dangerous evil"
The autonomy scheme which was prom
ised, and which was alluded TO by Presi-
dent Mckinley an his last annual message,
is pronounced "specious and illusory."
The following is the majority resolu
tionS rppOrfp6 nv Senator Davis:
whereas, The abhorent conditions which
have existed for more than three years
in the island of Cuba, so near our own
borders, have shocked the moral sense of
the people of the United Sta ties, have been
a disgrace to Christian civilization, Gull
minating, as they have, in the destruc-
ton of a United States battleship, with
two hundred and sixty-six of Its officers
and crew, while on a friendly visit in the
harbor of Havana, and cannot longer be
endured, as has been set forth by the
President of the United States i'm his
message to Congress of April II, 1898, upon
which the action of Congress was invited;
therefore,
'Resolved, first, That the people of tie
island of Cuba are, and of right ought to
be. free and independent.
Second, That it is the duty Of the United
States to demand and the government
of the United States does hereby demand.
that the Spanish government at once re-
hnuuish it's authority and government in
the island of Cuba, and withdraw its land
and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban
waters.
Third That the President of the United
States be, and he hereby is, directed and
empowered to use the entire land and nav
al forces of the United States and to call
into actual service of the United States
the militia of the several states, to such
extent as may be necessary to carry these
resolutions INTO effect"
Mr.. Hoar of Massachusetts demanded
that the resolutions lie over under the
rules until tomorrow. The Vice Presi-
dent sustained the point.
Senator Turpie then presented the re-
port of the minority of the committee as
follows:
THE undersigned members of the COM
mittee on foreign relations cordially concur
In the report made upon the Cuban resolu-
lions, but we favor the immediate recogni-
ton of the republic of Cuba as organized
in that island as a free, independent, and
sovereign power among the nations of the
world"
1t was signed by Senators Turpie, Mills,
Daniel, and Foraker.
MIR. Hale offered a substitute for the
nandipo resolution anfhorizinV the Dragi-