The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-04-15
Policy Of Devastation The Overtures Made
Tho Starving Cubans Fed-PropOsi-
lions Hladc-Precedents ON Recognition
The Maine Wreck-Power Asked to
Terminate Hostilities.


grave crisis that has arisen in the relations Of
the United States to Spain by reason of the
warfare that for more than three years has
ragged in the nefghboring island Of Cuba 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 Is now
incumbent upon the nation to adopt must needs
bear to the traditional policy Of our govern
ment 1t Is to accord with the precepts laid down
by the founders Of the republic and religiously
observed by succeeding administrations to the
present day. The present revolution is
but the successor of other similar
Instructions which have occurred in Cuba
against the dominion of Spain extending over q
period Of nearly half a century, each of which,
during It's progress has subjected the United
States to great effort and expense in enforcing
Its neutrality laws. caused enormous losses to
the American trade and commerce, caused irri-
tation, annoyance and disturbance among our
citizens, and by the exercise Of cruel, barbar-
GUS and unciviliZed practices of warfare,
shocked the sensibilities and offended the hui
name sympathies Of our people Since the
present revolution began in February, 1885,
this country has seen the fertile domain at our
Threshold ravaged by fire and sword in the
course OF o struggle uneQualed In the history OF
the island and rarely paralleled as to the num-
Der OF the cOmbatantS and the bitterness Of
the contests by any revolution OF modern times
where dependent people, striving to be Free
have been opposed by the power of the sovereign
community reduced to comparative want, its
commerce virtually paralyzed, its exceptional
productiveneSs diminished. its fields laid waste
its mills in ruins and its people perishing by
tens of thousands from hunger and restitution.
We have found ourselves constrained, in the
observance of that strict neutrality which our
laws enjoin and which the law Of nations COM
mandS, to police our own waters and watch our
own seaportS in prevention Of any unlawful act
in aid of the CubanS Our trade has suffered:
the capital invested by our citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost. and the temper and fOrbear-
ance of our people have been so sorely tried as
to beget perilous unrest among our own cti-
zens, which has inevitably found its expression
from time to 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 advancement
that becomes q self-cOntented commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the avoidance Of
oil foreign entanglementS. All this must
needs awaken and has indeed aroused the ut
most concern on the part of this government as
we'll during my predecessors as my own.
Efforts to Bring About Peace.
In April. 1896, the evils from which our coun-
try suffered through the Cuban war became so
onerous that my predecessor made an effort to
bring about peace through the mediation Of
this government in any way that might tend to
an honorable adjustment OF the contest be-
tween Spain and her revOlted colony, on the
basis of some effective scheme of self-govern-
ment for Cuba under the flag and sovereignty
of Spain. 1t failed. through the refusal Of the
Spanish government. then in power. to cOnsid-
er any form of mediation or indeed any plan Of
settlement which did not begin with 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 con-
tinued undated. The resistance. OF the In
surgentS was in no wise diminished
Policy of Devastation.
The efforts of Spain were increased, both by
the dispatch of fresh levies to Cuba and by the
addition to the horrors of the strife Of q new
and inhuman phase happily unprecedented in
the modern history OF civilized Christian peo-
pies. The policy Of devastation and corcentra-
tion. inaugurated by the in-general's
bands of October 81, 1896. in the province of
Pinar del Rio was then extended to brace all
? of the island to which the power OF the Spanish
arms was able to reach by occupation or mill
tary operations The peaSantry, including all
dwelling in the open agricultural interior. were
driven into the garrison towns or isolated
places held by the troops. The raising and
movement Of provisions of all kinds were in
terdicted. The fields were laid waste, dwell
ings unroofed 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 contending parties and executed by all the
powers at their disposal
By the time the present administration took
Office, o year ago. Recommendation. so called,
Ind been made effective over the better part
of the four central and western provinces
Santa Clara, Matanzas. Havana and Pinar del
Rio The agricultural population, to the eS-
timated number OF 100000 or more, was de-
prived of the means OF support, rendered desti-
tute of shelter left poorly clad and exposed to
the most unSanitary conditions As the scar
CITY of food increased with the devastation of
the depopulated areas of production, destitu-
ton and want became misery and starvation
Month by month the death rate increased in
an alarming ratio By March, 1897, according
TO conservative estimates from official Span
fsh sources the mortality among the reconcen-
trados from starvation and the diseases there
to incident exceeded 80 per cent OF their total
number No practical relief was accorded to
the destitute. The ov erburdened towns, al
ready suffering from the general dearth could
give NO aid. So-called zones Of cultivation,
established within the imm ediate area Of ef-
fective military control about the cities
and fortified camps proved nlusory as q rem
eslv for the suffering. The unfortu-
Mates being for the most part women and chill
slren with aged and helpless men, enfeebled by
disease and hunger, could not have titled the
soil without tools, seed or shelter, for their
own support or for the supply Of the cities.
RECOMMENDATION adopted avowedly as o wal
measure in order to cut on the resources OF the
;nsurpents, worked its predestined results As
7 said in my message of last December 1t was
mot civilized warfare: it was determination
T,ha only peace it could beget was that Of the
wilderness and the grave