T42 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



lated areas of .production, destitution and want be- 

 came misery and starvation. Month by month the 

 death rate increased in an alarming ratio. By 

 March, 1897, according to conservative estimates 

 from official Spanish sources, the mortality among 

 the reconcentrados from starvation and the diseases 

 thereto incident exceeded 50 per cent, of their total 

 number. No practical relief was accorded to the 

 destitute. The overburdened towns, already suffer- 

 ing from the general dearth, could give no aid. So- 

 called ' zones of cultivation,' established within the. 

 immediate area of effective military control, about 

 the cities and fortified camps, proved illusory as a 

 remedy for the suffering. The unfortunates, being 

 for the most part women and children, with aged 

 and helpless men, enfeebled by disease and hunger, 

 could not have tilled the soil without tools, seed, or 

 shelter for their own support and for the supply of 

 the cities. Reconcentration, 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 extermination. The only 

 peace it could beget was that of the wilderness and 

 the grave. Meanwhile the military situation in the 

 island had undergone a noticeable change. The 

 extraordinary activity that characterized the second 

 year of war when the insurgents invaded even the 

 hitherto unharmed fields of Pinar del Rio, and car- 

 ried havoc and destruction up to the walls of the 

 city of Havana itself, had relapsed into a dogged 

 struggle in the central and eastern provinces. The 

 Spanish arms regained a measure of control in Pinar 

 del Rio and parts of Havana, but under the exist- 

 ing condition of the rural country without imme- 

 diate improvement of their productive situation. 

 Even thus partially restricted the revolutionists 

 held their own, and their conquest and submission 

 put forward by Spain as the essential and sole basis 

 of peace seemed as far distant as at the outset. In 

 this state of affairs my Administration found itself 

 confronted with the grave problem of its duty. My 

 message of last December reviewed the situation 

 and narrated the steps taken with a view of reliev- 

 ing its acuteness and opening the way to some form 

 of honorable settlement. The assassination of the 

 Prime Minister, Canovas, led to a change of Govern- 

 ment in Spain. The former Administration, pledged 

 to subjugation without concession, gave place to 

 that of a more liberal party, committed long in ad- 

 vance to a policy of reform involving the wider 

 principles of home rule for Cuba and Puerto Rico. 

 The overtures of the Government made through its 

 new envoy Gen. Woodford, and looking to an im- 

 mediate and effective amelioration of the condition 

 of the island, although not accepted, to the extent 

 of admitted mediation in any shape, were met by 

 assurances that home rule in an advanced phase 

 would be forthwith offered to Cuba without wait- 

 ing for the war to end, and that more humane efforts 

 should thenceforth prevail in the conduct of hostil- 

 ities. Coincidently with these declarations the new 

 Government of Spain continued and completed the 

 policy already begun by its predecessor, of testifying 

 friendly regard for this nation by releasing Ameri- 

 can citizens held under one charge or another con- 

 nected with the insurrection, so that by the end of 

 November not a single person entitled in any way 

 to our national protection remained in a Spanish 

 prison. 



" While these negotiations were progressing the 

 increasing destitution of the unfortunate reconcen- 

 trados and the alarming mortality among them 

 claimed earnest attention. The success which had 

 attended the limited measure of relief extended to 

 the suffering American citizens among them by the 

 judicious expenditure through the consular agencies 



of the money appropriated expressly for their suc- 

 cor by the joint resolution approved May 4, 1897, 

 prompted the humane extension of a similar 

 scheme of aid to the great body of sufferers. A 

 suggestion to this end was acquiesced in by the 

 Spanish authorities. On Dec. 24 last I 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, following this on Jan. 

 8 by a similar public announcement of the forma- 

 tion of a Central Cuban Relief Committee, with 

 headquarters in New York city, composed of three 

 members representing the American National Red 

 Cross and the religious and business elements of 

 the community. 



"The efforts of the committee have been untiring 

 and have accomplished much. Arrangements for free 

 transportation to Cuba have greatly aided the chari- 

 table work. The president of the American Red Cross 

 and representatives of other contributory organi- 

 zations have generously visited Cuba and co-opera t< d 

 with the consul general and the local authorities 

 to make effective distribution of the relief collected 

 through the efforts of the central committee. 

 Nearly $200,000 in money and supplies has already 

 reached the sufferers, and more is forthcoming. 

 The supplies are admitted duty free, and transpor- 

 tation to the interior has been arranged so that the 

 relief at first necessarily confined to Havana and 

 the larger cities is now extended through most if 

 not all of the towns where suffering exists. Thou- 

 sands of lives have already been saved. The neces- 

 sity for a change in the condition of the recona //- 

 trados is recognized by the Spanish Government. 

 Within a few days past the orders of Gen. W T ey lei- 

 have been revoked, the reconcentrados are, it is 

 said, to be permitted to return to their homes, and 

 aided to resume the self-supporting pursuits 01 

 peace ; public works have been ordered to give 

 them employment, and a sum of $600,000 has been 

 appropriated for their relief. 



" The war in Cuba is of such a nature that, short 

 of subjugation or extermination, a fine military vic- 

 tory for either side seems impracticable. The al- 

 ternative lies in the physical exhaustion of the one 

 or the other party, or perhaps of both, a condition 

 which in effect ended the ten years' war by the 

 truce of San Juan. The prospect of such a protrac- 

 tion and conclusion of the present strife is a contin- 

 gency hardly to be contemplated with equanimity 

 by the civilized world, and least of all by the United 

 States, affected and concerned as we are, deeply mid 

 intimately, by its very existence. Realizing this, it 

 appeared to be my duty, in a spirit of true friendli- 

 ness, no less to Spain than to the Cubans, who have- 

 so much to lose by the prolongations of the struggle, 

 to seek to bring about an immediate termination of 

 the war." 



The President recounted the recent diplomatic 

 efforts of the United States, and examined the un- 

 tried measures mentioned in the last annual mes- 

 sage viz., recognition of the insurgents as Ix-lli.ucr- 

 ents, recognition of the independence of Culm. 

 neutral intervention to end the war by imposn 

 rational compromise between the contestants. or 

 intervention in favor of one or the other party. 

 forcible annexation being excluded as being crimi- 

 nal aggression according to the American code of 

 morality. The recognition of belligerency would 

 effect nothing toward the pacification of the island, 

 while the recognition of the independence of the 

 present insurgent Government would be contrary 

 to the uniform policy and practice of the United 

 States, which has been to avoid interfering in dis- 

 putes relating to the internal government of other 

 nations, and eventually to recognize the authority 

 of the prevailing party without reference to Amer- 



