Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-04-21
Mr.. N K|NLEYS MESSAGE
The President Sends to Congress a
Communication About the Stu
alton Existing in Cuba.
THE EFFORTS 70 BRING ABOUT PEACE.
Foley Of Devastation-The Overtures Made
The Starving Cubans Fed-PFopOsi-
lions Made-Precedents on Recognition
The Maine Wreck-POwer Asked to
Terminate Hostflities.

The Maine Wreck-Power Asked to
Terminate Hostilities.
WASHINGTON. April 1.-THE presi-
dent to-day sent the following mes
sage to the congress of the United
States:
Obedlent to that precept of the constitution
which commands the president to give from
time to time the congress information of the
state of the union and to recommend to their
consideration such measures as he shall judge
necessary and expedfent it 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 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
ent if it 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 a
period of nearly half a century, each OF which,
during its progress, has subjecte 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
Gus and uncivilized practices of warfare
shocked the sensibilities and offended the hui
name SympathieS of people. Since the
present revolution began in February, 1895,
this country has seen the fertile domain at our
threshhold ravaged by fire and sword in the
course of struggle unequaled in the history of
the island and rarely paralleled 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
state. Our people have beheld a once prosperous
community reduced to comparative want, it's
commerce virtually paralyzed, it's exceptional
lproductiyeness 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 ehjoin 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 citizens in Cuba has
been largely lost and the temper and forbear-
ance of our people have been so Sorely tried
TO beget perilous unrest among own citi-
GEMS which has inevitably found its expression
from time to time in the national legislature
that issues wholly external to own body
polite engross attention and stand in the way
of that close devotion to domestic advancement
that becomes a self-contented commonwealth
whose primal maxim has been the avoidance of
all foreign entanglementS. All this must
needs awaken and has indeed aroused the ut
most concern on the part of this government as
well during my predecessors as my own.
Efforts to Bring About Peace.
In ApriR 1896. the evils from which our coun-
try suffered through the Cuban war became so
Onerous that my predecessor made eff 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 or 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 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 a new
and inhuman phase happily unprecedented in
the modern history of civilized Christian peo-
pies The policy of devastation and coEcentra-
zion, inaugurated by the captain general s
bands of October 81 1885, in the province of
Pinar del Rio was then extended to embrace all
of the island to which the power of the Spanish
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
b the time the present administration took
office, q year ago, RECOMMENDATION, so called
had 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-
~
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 onicial Span
ish sources, the mortality among the reconcen-
trados from starvation and the diseases here
to incident. exceeded so per cent of their total
number. No practical relief was accorded tC
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 immediate area OF ef-
fective military control about the cities
and fortified camps proved nluSory rem.
edy for the suffering. The unfortu-
mates, being for the most part women and chill
dren with aged and helpless men, enfeebled by
disease and hunger. could not have titled tn,
soil without tools, seed or shelter, for theil
own support or for the supply of the cities
Recommendation adopted avowed1y a wa
measure in order to cut OF the resources of tn,
Insurgents worked its predestined results A.
I said in my message of last December it wa
not civilized warfare: it determination
The only peace it could beget was that of tn
wilderness and the grave
Relarsed into Dogged Struggle.
Meanwhile the military situation in the is
land had undergone noticeable change. TIL
extraordinary activity that characterized tn
second year OF the war. when the insurgents in
vaded even the hitherto unframed fields o
Pima del Rio and carried havoc and destitutiol
up to the walls of the city OF Havana itself
had relapsed into logged struggle in the cen
trail and eastern provinces. The Spanish arm