Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-04-11

times. where dependent people, striv
ing to be free, has been opposed by tho
power of a sovereign state. Our people
have beheld a once prosperous commune
ty reduced to comparative want, its com
merce virtually paralyzed, It's exceptional
productiveness diminished, its fields laid
waste. its mills in ruins and its people
perishing by tens of thousands from
hunger and destitution. We have found
ourselves constrained in observance OF
that strict neutrality which our laws
enioin. and which the law of nations
commands, to police our own shores and
watch our own seaports in prevention
of any unlawful act In aid of the Cubans.
Our trade has suffered; capital invest.
cd by our citizens in Cuba has been
largely lost, and the temper and for.
bearance of our people has been SC
sorely tried as to beget a perilous un-
rest among our own citizens, which has
inevitable found it's expression 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 devotion
to domestic advancement that becomes
q self-cOntented commonwealth, whose
primal maxim has been avoidance of all
foreign entanglements. All this must
needs awaken and has indeed aroused
the utmost concern on the part of this
government as well as during my pre-
decessors as my own administration.
Starvation and Disease.
The president reviews the futile cf-
forts of this government in 1896, to
bring about peace and cessation OF the
policy of devastation and concentration
and cruelty pursued by
Spain. SIN the provinces OF Santa
Clara, Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del
Rio, the agricultural population to the
estimated number of 100000 or more,
was herded within towns and their i'm
vicinity, deprived of the means
of support, rendered destitute OF shelter
and left poorly clad and exposed to most
unsatisfactory conditions. In March,
1898, according to conservative esti-
mates from official Spanish sources, the
among the reconcentrados
from starvation and disease exceeded so
per centum of their total number and no
relief was accorded to the desti-
tutc."
The president further says: RECON-
centration as adopted avowedly as a war
in order to cut off the resources
of the insurgents, has worked its pre-
destined result AS | said in my mes
sage of last December it was not civil
zed war: it was determination. The only
peace it could beget was that of the
wilderness and the grave
Summary of the Message.
The presidents message asks congress
to authorize the president to take such
measures to secure the termination of
hostiltes in Cuba and secure the estab-
Iishment of a stable government there,
and to use the military and naval sery-
ices of the United States as may be nec-
essary for these purposes. The presi-
dent says the only hope of relief from
which can no longer be en-
dured, is the forced pacitcation of the
island. The issue Is now with congress
and he awaits its action, standing pre-
paired to carry out every obligation
imposed on him by the constitution.
Spain's decree for the suspension Of hos
tllities is submitted to congress for just
and careful attention, with the Observa-
lion that if the measure attains sue
sessful result, "then our aspirations as a
a peace loving people will be realized.
If 1t fails, it will only another justitica-
lion for our contemplated action"