The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1898-04-21

Cuban message TO Congress. He favors
intervention to terminate hostilities in the
island and asks discretionary authority,
but opposes recognition of present Cuban
| government. The full text of the mes
sage follows:
Obedient to that precept of the constitu-
ton which commands the President to
| give from time to time the Congress in
formation of the state of the Union and
to recommend to their consideration such
measures as he shall judge necessary and
| expedient, it becomes my duty now TO ad-
dress your body with regard to the 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 neighboring 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 it is now incum-
bent upon the nation to adopt must needs
bear to the traditional policy of our Gov
ernment if it is to accord with the pre-
cepts laid down by the founders Of the
republic and religiously observed by sue
ceeding administrations to the present
day.
The present revolution is but the sue
cessor of other similar instructions which
have occurred in Cuba against the domin-
ion of Spain, extending over period Of
nearly half a century, each of which, dur
ing its progress, has subjected the United
States TO great effort and expense in en-
forcing its neutrality laws, caused enor-
nous losses to American trade and
commerce, caused irritation, annoyance
and disturbance among our citizens and
by the exercise Of cruel, barbarous and
uncivilized practices of warfare, shocked
the sensibilities and offended the humane
sympathies of our people.
Ravaged by Fire and Sword.
Since the present revolution began in
February, 1895, this country has seen the
fertile domain at our threshold ravaged by
fire and sword in the course of a struggle
uneQualed in the history of the island and
rarely paralleled as to the number of the
combatants and the bitterness the con-
test by any revolution of modern times
where a dependent people, striving TO be
free, have been opposed by the power of
the sovereign state. Our people have be-
held once prosperous community reduc-
ed to comparative want, its commerce vir
tually paralyzed, its exceptional produc
tiveness diminished, its fields laid waste,
its mills in ruins and its people perishing
by tens of thousands frcm hunger and
destitution. We have found ourselves
constrained, in the observance of that
strict neutrality which our laws enjoin
and which the law of nations commands,
to police our own waters and watch our
own seaports in prevention of any unlaw-
full 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 forbearance of our peo-
| pie have been SO sorely tried as to beget
perilous unrest among our own citi-
zens, which has inevitably found its er-
! preston 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 devo-
ton 10 domestic advancement that be-
| comes a self-contented commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the avoid
ance of all foreign entanglements. All
this must needs awaken, and has, indeed
I
this Government as well during my prede-
cessor's term as my own.
Evils of Recommendation.
In April, 1896, the evils from which our
| country suffered through the Cuban war
became so onerous that my predecessor
made an effort to bring about a peace
through the mediation of this Government
in any way that might tend TO an honor
able adjustment of the contest between
Spain and her revolted colony on the
basis Of some effective scheme of self
| government for Cuba under the flag and
sovereignty of Spain. 1t failed through
| the refusal of the Spanish Government
then in power TO consider any form of
mediation, or, indeed, any plan of settle
ment which did not begin with the 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 continued unabated. The re-
sistance of the insurgents was in no wise
diminished. 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 a new and iubu-
man phase, happily unprecedented in the
| bipueih uiSlOls VI SurlStlAD DeO-
pies. The policy of devastation and CON
centration lnaugurated by the captain
generals bando Of Oct. p, 1896, in the
province of Pinar del Rio, was thence
extended 10 embrace all of the island
which the power Of the Spanish arms was
able TO reach by occupation or by military
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 interdicted. The fields were
laid waste, dwellings upToofed 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
Herded in the Towns,
By the time the present administration
took office a year ago reconcentration--so-
called-had been made effective over the
better part of the four central and west
ern provinces-Santa Clara. Matanzas
Havana and Pinar del Rio. The agricul-
tural population, to the estimated mum
Der of 3O0,G00 or more, was herded with.
in the towns and their immediate vicin-
age, deprive. Of the means of support
rendered destitute of shelter, left poorly
clad and exposed to the most unsanitary
conditions.
AS the scarcity of food increased with
the devastation of the depopulated areas
of production, destitution and want be
came misery and starvation. Month 10y
month the death rate increased in al
alarming ratio. By March. 1897. accord
ing to conservative estimates from Off
cial Spanish sources, the mortality among
the reconcentrados from starvation anC
| fha diseas so thereto incident eyceeded ~