Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-11
1925 O'CLOCK P. M.
FORCIBLE INTERVENTION
The One Point Strongly Urged in the
Message.
PRESIDENT MCKINLEY TO CONGRESS
The Destruction Of the Maine vigorously
Treated.
SPAINS INC0MPETENCY TN CUBA PROVED
Latest Propositions Submitted to This Gov
ernment Referred to-
NO CHANGE OF PROGRAM
SPANS INCOMPETENCY In CUBA PROVED
NO CHANGE OF PROGRAM

The President sent the following message
today:
To the Congress of the United States:
Obedient to that precept of the Constitu-
ton which commands the President TO give
from time to time to the Congress informa-
ton of the state of the Union, and to rec
ommend to their consideration such meas
ures as he shall judge necessary and eX-
pedient, 1t becomes my duty now to address
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 connec-
ton of the Cuban question with the state
of our own Union and the grave relation
the course which it is now incumbent upon
the natiCn to adopt must needs bear to the
traditional policy of our government if it
Is to accord with the precepts laid down
by the founders of the republic and relig-
iously observed by succeeding admnistra
tions to the present day.
The present revolution is but the success
sor of other similar instructions, which
have occurred In Cuba against the domin-
ion of Spain, extending over a period of
nearly half a century, each Of which, dur
States TO great effort and expense in en-
forcing its neutrality laws. caused enor-
nous losses to American trade and COM
merce, caused irritation, annoyance and
disturbance among our citizens. and, by
the exercise Of cruel, barbarous and un-
civilized practices of warfare, shocked the
sensibilities and offended the humane SYM
pathies Of our people.
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 strug-
gle uneQualed in the history of the island
and rarely paralleled as to the number of
the combatants and the bitterness of the
contest by any revolution of modern times
where dependent people striving to be
free have been opposed by the power Of the
sovereign state.
Our people have beheld once prosperous
community reduced to comparative want,
Its lucrative commerce virtually paralyzed,
Its exceptional productiveness diminished,
Its fields laid waste, it's mills in ruins, and
Its people perishing by tens of thousands
from hunger and destitution. We have
found ourselves constrained. in the observ-
ance of that strict neutrality which our
laws enjon and which the law of nations
commands 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 in
vested by cur citizens In Cuba has been
largely lost. and the temper and forbear-
GDce of cur people have been SO sorely
tried as to beset perilous unrest amongq
our own citizens, which has Inevitably
found its expression from time to time in
the national legislature, that issues
wholly external to our own body polite
engross attention and stand in the way of
that close devotion to domestic advance
- ment tnat becomes a self-contaned COM
monwealth, whose primal maxim has been
the avoidance of all foreign entanglements.
ALI this must needs awaken. and has. In
deed, aroused the utmost concern on the
part of this government. as well during
my predecessors term as In my own.
In April, 1896, the evils from which oul
country suffered through the Cuban wal
became so enormous 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 ard her revolted colony. on the basi.
of some effective scheme of self-govern
ment for Cuba under the flag and sover
eighty of Spain. It failed, through the re
frsal of the Spanish government then IL
power to consider any form OF mediation
or. indeed. any plan Of settlement whicl
cid not begin with the actual submissio,