El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-04-11
MCKINEEY'S
COLD FIGURES
The Message Reviews the Movement
for Relief to RecnnceDtradOs, and
Shows the High Rate of Mortality
Among the Stricken Cubans.

Shows the High Rate of Mortality
Among the Stricken Cubans.
The message says further that in the
national legislature issues were wholly
external t, our own body and political
instten'ion was allowed to stand in the
way of that close devotion to democra-
tic Advancement.
The message reviews the movement
begun in November to secure
contributions for the relief of the con-
centrados. It stated that nearly 2O0,
600 in money and supplies had reached
the sufferers and 'hat more was forth
coming. Thousands of lives have
been saved. By the time the present
ADM nistration took the office a year
ago, the agricultural population of the
island estimated to number 300.
600 or more, was herded within the
towns, and their immediate vici nifty
rendered destitute of shelter: left poor
ly clad and exposed to the most unsan-
itary conditions. By March l, 1897, a
conse- vat,ve estimate from Spanish
sources places the mortality among the
reconcentrados from starvation and the
diseases thereto incident, to exceed
so per cent of their total number.
So called Zones of cultiva-
tion'' established within the
immediate area of effective
i've military control aOout the cities
and fortified camps, proved illusiOnary.
The unfOrtunateS being for the most
women and chi dren with aged and
bel pless men, enfeebled by hunger,
could not have titled the soil with
out tools, seed or shelter for their own
support, or for the supply of the cities.
Reconcentration was adopted avowedly
| as a war measure, in orc er to cut off the
resources of the insurgents, has
worked it's predeslined results. AS
said in my message of last December,
it was not civilized warfare-it was
determination. The only peace it
could beget was that of
the wilderne. and the grave.
Meauw aile Ithe military situation in
the island had undergone noticeable
change. The extraordinary activity
that Characterized the second year of
the war, when the insurgents invaded
the hitherto unharmed fields of Pinsr
del RIO, and carried havoc and des-
! truction up to the walls of the City of
Havana itself, had relapsed
irtp dogged struggle in the
central and ,e eastern provinces provinces.
the revolutionists held their own, and
the conquest of submission put for
ward by Spain as the essential and sole
basis of peace seemed as far distant
as at the outset. In this state of af-
/ fairs my administration found itself
CO fronted with the grave problem
of its duty. My message of last
| December review ed the situation and
rated steps taken to open the way
for some form of honorable settlement.
Those elem 'nts of danger aud dis
order that are already pointed out
have been strikiugly illustrated by o
tragic event which has deeply and
Justly moved the American people.
have transmitted to congress the re-
| port of the naval court of inquiry
This board which had the unqualified
confidence of the Un ted States govern
ment was unanimous in its
verdict that the Maine was blown up
by an exterior explosion-that of a sub
marine mine. 1t did not assume to
place the respor ibi'ity. That re.
mains to be fixed. Iu any event the
destruction of the Maine by whatever
exterior cause is patent and impress
sive proof of a state of things il
Cuba that is intolerable AMI that the
the Spanish government cannot assure
safety il the Havana harbO- on a mis-
sion of peace, and which was rightfully
there. Fur; her referring 10 is con
nectiOn to recent diplomatic cores
pondence, a dispatch from our mio istel
to Spain Of the Goth ultimo, contain
ed the statement that tht
Spanish minister for foreign affair
assured him positively that Spain viii
do all that the highesi honor aut
Justice require in the matter of tn
Maine. The reply above referred t.
! on the 3lst ultimo also contained a.
: expression of the readings of Spain t.
J submit to an arbitration all the dill
I ference which can ari se in this matter
The president, in the course of hi
message said he asked for An armis ic
I in Cuba on March 27. Spain replie
that she would grant it if the insur
gents asked it of them temporarily
The president quoted Jackson's mes