Supplies and provisions have been sent to the various points in
Arkansas and Mississippi by this committee, but the utmost that can be
done by these efforts is to partly relieve the most acute cases of
suffering. No action has yet been taken for the great majority of the
inhabitants living in the interior, whose condition has already been
described.
Under these conditions and having exerted themselves to the fullest
extent, the local authorities have reluctantly confessed their inability
to further cope with this distressing situation unaided by relief from
the Government. It has therefore seemed to me that the representatives
of the people should be promptly informed of the nature and extent
of the suffering and needs of these stricken people, and I have
communicated these facts in the hope and belief that the legislative
branch of the Government will promptly re-enforce the work of the local
authorities in the States named.
WILLIAM McKINLEY.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, April 14, 1897_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith for the consideration of the respective Houses
of the Congress, a report of the Secretary of State representing the
appropriateness of early action in order that the Government of the
United States may be enabled to accept the invitation of that of the
French Republic to participate in the Universal Exposition to be held
at Paris in 1900.
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