The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-04-15
1RE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
His Communication to Congess on
the Cuban Question.
A POWERFUL PRESENTATION.
Fayors Forcible Intervention to Termin-
nate Hostilities and Asks Discretion
airy Authority I'm the Matter-Re-
sponsibility Rests with Congress.

Following is the text of the presidents
message:
10 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
information of the state or the union,
and to recommend to their consideration
such measures as he shall judge neces-
sary and expedient, 1t becomes my duty
now to address your body with regard to
the grave crisis that has arisen in the
relation of the United States to Spain by
reason or the warfare that for more than
three years has ragged In the neighboring
island of Cuba. 1 do so because OF the
intimate connection of the Cuban ques-
ton with the state of our own union and
the grave relation the course which 1t is
now incumbent upon the nation to adopt
must needs bear to the traditional policy
or our government II 1t Is to be in 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 sue
cessor or other similar instructions
which have occurred in Cuba against the
dominion of Spain extending over
which, during its progress, has subjected
the United States to great effort and eX-
pense in enforcing its neutrality laws,
caused enormous losses to American
trade and commerce, caused irritation,
annoyance, and disturbance among our
sha and uneviieeS nraec cruel
warfare shocked the sensibilities and
offended the human sympathies 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
struggle unequaled in the history of the
island and rarely paralleled as TO the
number of the combatants and the bit
of modern times where dependent peo-
pie, striving to be free, have been OPP
posed by the power of the sovereign
STATE our people have 6eneid "a once
parative want, its lucrative commerce
virtually paralyzed, its exceptional pro;
waste. its. mills in ruins and its people
perishing by tens Of thousands from hum
ger and restitution. We have found our
selves constrained, in the observance of
that strict neutrality which our laws en-
join and which the law of nations COM
manos. 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 our citizens in Cuba has been
largely lost and the temper and forbear-
ance of our people have been so sorely
tried as to beget q perilous unrest among
our own citizens, which has inevitably
found its expression from time to time
In the national legislature, so that issues
external to our own body polite engross
attention and stand in the way of that
close devotion to domestic advancement
that becomes q self-contained common
wealth whose primal maxim has been
the avoidance of all foreign entangle-
ments. All this must needs awaken and
has indeed aroused the utmost concern
on the part of this government, as well
during my predecessors term as In my
own.
country suffered through the Cuban war
became so onerous that my predecessor
made an effort. to bring about peace
through the mediation Of this government
in any way that might tend to an hon.
orable adjustment Of the contest between
Spain and her revolted colony, on the
basis of some effective scheme of self
government for CUBA under the flag and
sovereignty of Spain. 1t failed. through
the refusal of the Spanish government
Mediation e p0 or indeed p any plan Of o settler
ment which did not begin with the actual
Submission of the insurgents to the moth
as Spain herself might see. fit to grant.
The war continued undated. The resist
ance of the insurgents was in no wise
diminished
The efforts of Spain were increased
both by the dispatch of French levies to
Cuba, and by the addition to the horrors
of the strife OF new and inhuman
phase happily unprecedented in the mod
ern history Of civilized Christian peo-
pies.
The policy Of devastation and concen-
erale Bando of October q, 1896, in the
province of Pinar Del Rio was thence
extended to embrace all of the island to
which whit the power of the Spanish army was
tary operations. The peasantry, includ-
ing 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 interdicted.
The fields were laid waste, dwellings un-
| ~ Ia 1AaN xvA1 .x,1 H..
short everything that could desolate the
land and render 1t unfl. for human habita-
ton or support was commanded by one
or the other of the contending. parties
and executed by all powers at their dis
posal.
BY the time the present administration
called-had been made effective over the
better of the four central and western
provinces, Santa Clara, Matanzas, Havana
and Pinar Del Rio. The agricultural pop
ulation, to the estimated number of 30O,-
600 or more, was herded within the towns
and their immediate vic!nase. deprived of
the means of support, rendered destitute
of shelter, left poorly clad and exposed to
the most unsanitary conditions. AS the
scarcity Of food increased with the devas-
tation of the depopulated areas of pro-
misery and starvation. Month by month
the death rate increased in an alarming
ratio. BY March, 1897, according to con-
sentative estimates from official Spanish
centrados, from starvation and the dis
Eases thereto incident exceeded 30 per cent
of their total number. No practical relief
was accorded to the destitute. The over
burdened towns, already suffering from
the general dearth, could give no aid
So-called zones of cultivation" estab-
lished within the immediate area Of eff
fective military control about the cities
and fortified camps proved illusory as q
remedy for the suffering. The unfortu-
mates, being for the most part women
and children with aged and helpless men,
enfeebled by disease and hunger, co-1tS
not have titled the soil without tools,
seeds or shelter, for their own support
or for the supply of the cities. Recon-
centration, adopted avowedly as a war
measure in order to cut off the resources
of the insurgents, worked its predestined
result. AS 1 said in my message of last
December, IL was not civilized warfare;
1t was determination. The only peace It
could beget was that of the wilderness
and the grave.
In this state of affairs my administra-
ton found itself confronted with the grave