Evening star., 1898-02-18
DYING OF HUNGER
Relief for Starving Cubans by No
Means Sufficient.
as INTANGIBLE rs AUTONOMY
What Trip Into the interior Has
Revealed.
W II AT W A S E KIP ECT E D

Copyright, 1885, by Charles NJ. Pepper.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
SANTO DOMINGO,
Santa Clara Province,
February IL, 1S9S
1 am trying to find out something about
American relief for the starving country
people. So far the relief to them has been
as intangible as the policy of autonomy.
1t is invisible and unknown means of
bettering their condition. They have heard
of it in some places. but they have not been
able to eat it. Their stomachs are still
en- PITY. They nsed food, clothing, medi-
cines. L believe it is nearly two months
since the President issued his appeal. The
country people heard of the appeal in a
vague way. OF the relief they have not
heard.
1 have made inquiries along the route for
a distance of 2UO miles east of Havana. 1t
is the same story everywhere. No Ameri-
can relief this side of Matanzas and very
little relief of any kind. Travelling. how
ever. is less narrowing to the traveller In
half a dozen trips, l have not made one in
which the begging was little obtrusive
as now. TO a person making the journey
for the first time, 1t might seem a terrible
exhibition of the condition to which the
country has been reduced. Not so to one
who has been over the ground previously.
l have seen the concentration camps
pCpulous as a crowded city. 1t has been
my experience to see these people drawn up
in double file along The railroad tracks, old
Men, women with puny children at their
breasts. half-clad girls. young boys.
stretching forth bony hands and struggling
like starved wild cats for the aims which
might be tossed them by the compassion
ate stranger. That sight is no longer wit
messed While the scenes of Individual suf-
fering are such that a traveller would glad
ly close his eyes to them, the beggars no
longer surround the trains and besiege the
travellers in a mass. The grave has claim
ed so many that a mass meeting of recon-
ccntradoes at any one point would not be
possible. Hundreds of the bohios, or palm
huts, in which they were huddled, are now
tenantless.
Dying of Hunger.
1t was with an underlined hope that the
conditions were improved, that 1 made
Tasty visit to some OF the huts. A mo-
mentary glance in the interiors was
enough. 1t did not need the beseec hing
" ords of the inmates to call forth SYM
I'athy. Many of them, the children espe-
Cially, are dying of hunger, just as others
have died for the last eighteen months.
They live or what can be begged. Where
rations are issued at all, they are insufIi-
cient, poorly adapted to the needs of the
suffering and issued i'll fitful way But
the Generalization of Spanish authority is
so great that relief from them has long
since ceased to be expected. Begging re-
nains the chief means of the reconcen-
tradoes procuring food, and in the smaller
places there is no one from whom they can
beg. 1t is like seeking sustenancs from a
dead tres.
What remain Of the country people are
still kept N the concentration camps and
In tae villages. The military authorities
contirre to rullify the effort to put them
back in their homes in the country The
inquirer will look in vain for a single sign
that they have been returned to their
homes. The eyes, wearied by evidences of
desolation, are not able to feast themselves
On the indications Of a fresh rural life
springnig from the ruins Of agricultural
industry. In continuous ride of 100 miles
l counted scores and scores Of the thatch-
less rafters Of the bohios, but not one in
stance in which the huts had been re-
thatched and repeopled. Out of a dozen
sugar mills which have not be en- destroyed
three were grinding. On these plantations
work has been found for some Of the re-
concentradoes; but for the mass Of the
country people nothing has been done.
Where the zones of cultivation have been
nominally extended the extension has
amounted to a few hundred yards. The in
quiries everywhere met with that answer.
There was not enough cultivation to yield
the means Of life to the people Of the
neignbOrhOOd and sustenance was not be-
ing received from outside.
What Was Expected.
1 am writing hastily in order to catch the
Havana mail, and in this letter can only
sum up the conditions. We got hint in
Havana that the United States having
undertaken what Spain Is unable to do
to feed the starving people of Cuba-in-
tended to do it on a scale proportionate
to the task. There was the further hint
that this succor was the prelude to events
which would remove the cause of starva-
tion in Cuba l do not know whether this
is true or not. The starvation viii not stop
as long as people remain to be starved
until the cause is removed. But an extern
sive plan of temporary relief might bridge
over short period and save the lives Of
some thousands of the population. The
point am trying to make clear Is that so
far as the country people, for whom the
relief was originally asked, are not being
relieved to the extent of a single loaf of
bread, know from personal investigation
that q large number of persons in Havana
are starving. The food which goes to them
In the name of the generous and philan-
thropic American people helps to fill a void
in stomachs that feel the cravings of hun
ger. In time a system may be organized
which will insure that none of the charity
goes astray, and the United States may
feed the poor of Havana and the imme-
diate neighborhood for an indefinite Pc
riod with the certainty that they are do
ing a good work. But this does not help
the poor in the country, who are even
worse off than those in Havana. The other
day. when Captain General Blanco was