The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-04-12

] the contending parties. and executed by
/ all the powers at their disposal.
By the time the present administra-
! ton took office a year ago, reconcentra-
] tiCn-so- called-had been made effective
I ever tie better part of the four cen
/ trail and western provinces, Santa
! Clara, MatanZas, Havana and Pinar del
/ Rio.
The agricultural population, to the
/ estimated number of 300, 900 or more.
was herded within the towns and their
/ immediate vicinity, deprived of the
means of support, rendered destitute
/ of shelter, left poorly clad, and exposed
, to the most unsatisfactory conditions.
AS the scarcity of food increased with
I the devastation of the depoDulated
/ areas Of production, restitution and
/ want became misery and starvation.
! Month by month the death rate in
/ creased in alarming ratio BY March,
/ 1897, according to conservative estimates,
/ from official Spanish sources, the NOR
I talfty among the reconcentrados from
I starvation and the disease thereto in
! cident exceeded so per centum of the
/ total number. No practical relief was
accorded TO the destitute. The over
burdened towns, already suffering from
| the general dearth, could give no aid.
o-called zones of cultivation, estab-
1 lisbed within the immediate area of
effective military control, about the cit
/ les and fortified camps, proved iHusory
as a remedy for the suffering. The I'M
fortunates, being for the most part
women and children. with aged and
helpless men. enfeebled by disease and
hunger, could not have titled the soil
without tools, seeds or shelter, for their
own support, or for the supply of the
cities
Recommendation, adopted avowedly
as a war measure. in order to cut off
the resources Of the insurgents. worked
its predeStined result. AS I said in my
message of last December. it was not
civilized warfare; it was determination.
The only peace it could beget was that
of the wilderness and the grave
THE MILITARY SITUATION.
! Meanwhile, the military situation in
the island had undergone a noticeable
change. The extraordinary activity
that characterized the second year of
the war. when the insurgents invaded
even the hitherto unframed fields of
PInar del Rio and carried havoc and
restitution up to the walls of the city
of Havana itself, had relapsed into a
logged struggle in the central and east
ern provinces. The Spanish army re-
gained a measure of control in Pinar
: d.
der the existing conditions of the rural
country, without immediate improve
ment of their productive situation.
Even thus partially restricted, the rev.
olutionists held their own, and their
submission, put forward by Spain at
the essential and sole basis of peace,
seemed as far distant as at the out
set.
THE SAGASTA REGIME.
In this state of affairs. my admins
tration found itself confronted with the
grave problem Of its duty. My mes
sage of last December reviewed the
situation and detailed the steps taken,
with a view of relieving its acuteness,
and opening the way to some form of
4 honorable settlement The aSsasSina-
ton of the prime minister. Canovas,
led TO a change of government in
Spain. The former administration,
which pledged subjugation without con-
cession, gave place to that of a more
liberal party, committed long in adj
vance TO a policy of reform involving
the wider principle of home rule for
Cuba and Puerto Rico. The overtures
OF this government. made through its
new envoy. General Woodford, and
looking to an immediate effective amel-
iCration of the conditions of the island
although not accepted to the extent of
met by assurances that home rule in
an advanced phase. would be forthwith
offered to Cuba, without waiting for
the war to end, and that more humane
methods should henceforth prevail in
the conduct of hostilities. Incidentally,
with these declarations. the new gov
eminent of Spain continued and COM
pleted the policy already begun by its
predecessor. of testifying friendly re-
gard for this nation. by releasing Amer
lean citizens held under one charge or
another connected with the insurrec-
ton. so that, by the end of November,
not a single person entitled in any way
to our national protection, reclined in a
Spanish prison.
DISTRESS OF RECONCENTRADO
While these negotiations were in pro-
gress, the increasing restitution of the
unfortunate reconcentrados and the
alarming mortality among them claim
ed earnest attention. The success which
had attended the limited measure OF re-
lief extended to the suffering Ameri-
can citizens, among them by the judi
cious expenditure through the consular
agencies of the money appropriated ex-
pressly for their succOr by the joint
resolution approved May "a 1897.
prompted the humane extension of a
similar scheme to that great body of
sufferers. A suggestion to this end
was acquiesced in by the Spanish au-
thorities. on the cath of December last
/ caused to be issued an appeal to the
American people. inviting contributions
in money or in kind for the succor of
the starving sufferers in Cuba. Follow
ing this. on the Sth of January, by a
similar public announcement Of the
(Contfuued on mage a