The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-18

have on their backs, their stock and
other belongings being Appropriated by
the guerrillas. When they reached the
towns they were allowed to build huts
of palm leaves in the suburbs and va
cant places within the trochas and left
to live if they could. Their huts are
about ten to fifteen feet in size, and for
want of space are usually crowded to-
gether very closely. They have no floor
but the ground and no furniture, and
after a years wear but little clothing
except such stray substitutes as they
con extemporize- With large families
or with more than one in this little
space, the commOnest sanitary provis-
ions are impossible. Conditions are I'M
mentiOnable in this respect. Torn from
their homes, with foul earth, foul air,
foul water and foul food, or none, what
wonder than one-half have died and
that One-Quarter of the living are so
diseased that they can not be saved.
A form of drOpSy is a common disorder
resulting from these conditions Little
children are still walking about with
arms and chest terribly emaciated, eyes
swollen and abdomen bloated to three
times the natural size. The physicians
say these cases are hopeless.
Deaths in the streets have not been
uncommon. 1 was told by one of our
consuls that they have been found dead
about the markets in the morning
where they had crawled, hoping to get
some stray bits of food from the early
hucksters, and that there had been
side the market, surrounded by food.
These people were independent and
self supporting before Weyler's order.
They were not beggarS even now. There
are plenty of professional beggarS in
every town among the regular resi-
dents, but these country people, the
reconcentradOS, have not learned the
art. Rarely is hand held out to you
for aims when going among their huts.
but the sight of them makes an appeal
stronger than words.
T
Others have described their condition
far better than I can. It is not within
the narrow limits of my vocabulary to
portray it. I went to Cuba with a
strong conviction that the picture had
been overdrawn; that a few cases of
starvation and suffering had inspired
and stimulated the press correspond
entS, and that they had given free play
ted imagination. Before starting l re-
ceived through a mail leahet published
by the Christian Herald, with cuts of
some of the sick and starving recOncen-
tradOs, and took it with me, thinking
these were rare specimens got up to
make the worst possible showing. I
saw plenty as bad and worse; many
that should not be photographed and
shown. could not believe that out of
a population of 1000 900, 200, 600 had died
within these Spanish forts, practically
prison walls, within a few months past
from actual starvation and diseases
caused by insufficient and improper
food.
My inquiries were entirely outside of
sensational sources. They were made
of our medical officers, of our consuIs,
OF city a1cadeS (mayOrS), of relief COM
mittees, of leading merchants and
bankers, physicians and lawyers. Sew
eral of my infOrmants were Spanish
born, but every time the answer was
that the case had not been Overestimat-
ed. What L saw 1 cannot tell so that
others can see it. 1t must be seen with
ones own eyes to be realized. The Los
PaSoS hospital in Havana has been re-
Gently described by one of my col
leagues, Senator Gallinger, and can
not say that his picture was overdrawn,
for even his fertile pen could not do
that He visited it after Lassar, one
of Miss Barton's very able and eff
cient assistants had renovated it and
put in cots. 1 saw it when four hun
dred women and children We're lying on
the stone floors in an indescriba bic
state of emaciation and disease, many
with the scantiest covering of rags,
and such rags, and sick children naked
as they come into the world. And the
conditions in the other cities are even
worse"
In concluding his speech Senator
Proctor said:
Z have endeavOred to state in not
Incorporate order what I saw and
heard, to make no argument thereon,
but leave everyone to draw his own
conclusion. To me the strongest ap-
peal is not the barbarity practiced by
Weyler, nor the loss of the Maine-if
our worst fears should prove true-ter-
rible as are both of these Incidents but
the spectacle of a million and a half of
people, the entire native population of
Cuba, struggling for freedom and de-
liVerance from the worst InisgOvern-
ment of which ever had knowledge.
But whether our action ought not to be
Influenced by any one or all these
things, and if so, how far, is another
question. I am not in favor of annex
alton, not because I would apprehend
any particular trouble from it, but be-
cause it is not wise policy to take in
any people of foreign tongue and train
ing and without any strong guiding
American element. The fear that if
free the people of Cuba would be revO-
lutiOnary is not so we'll founded as has
been supposed, and the conditions for
good self government are far more ia
vOrable. The large number of edu-
Gated and patriotic men, the great sac
rifices they have endured, the peace
able temperament of the people, white
and black, the wonderful prosperity
that would come with peace and good
home rule, the large influx of Ameri-
cans and English immigration and
money, would all be strong factors for
stable institutions.
But it is not my purpose at this
time, nor do 1 consider it my province
to suggest any plan. merely speak
of the symptoms as I saw them but
do not undertake to prescribe. Such
remedial steps as may be required may
safely be left to an American president