Arizona citizen., 1872-06-22
PEACE.

nations from @ period as far back as the memory of man runneth, and re- volutions are constantly being enacted and the hand of neighbor is raised against neighbor and brother against brother, yet how desirable and how agreeable is the word Peace to those long accustomed to turmoil, strife and danger. We of Arizona have been so long accustomed to danger and blood shed that we can hardly realize that any other life is in store for us. We have accepted it as fact and if there is anything better, we shall receive it as an unexpected blessing. We have been compelled to shape our business and habits of life to the circumstances which surrounded us; and so habit uated have we become to this life that we hardly realize what we lose by state of war. But moments refec- ton will convince any one of the i'm mense waste of resources from some cause. Go to farmers house and all around will be seen thousands of acres of excellent pasture lands, af- fording an abundance of food the year round, with little or no stock to eat it; inquire the cause and the stories are all the same. "I had stock, or l have replenished my stock time and again, but the Indians have taken them from me and those I have, 1 am compelled to keep constantly under guard, with the chances more than ever that the herders will be murdered and my stock taken" Ask why the mountains have not been more explored for mines, or the many valuable ones found are not worked, and you will be told that the same cause has prevented it. What is the result of this condition of affairs ? The immense mining wealth of the Territory undeveloped, only sufficient agriculture to supply the wants of the people, and the only market we have is the army. The consequence is that with the uncertainty of the army, here to-day and there tomorrow, the market for the farmer becomes just as uncertain. Rivalry among con- tractors causes them to bid just as low for contracts as it is possible to obtain the grain with the prospect of small margin, and if perchance one contractor can obtain the control of all the contracts of the Territory, he can then dictate terms, as is the case this year. The farmer is compelled to carry his gun strapped to him in his field with constant danger of being shot in the back-with no hope of re- muneration except such as the contrac- tor chooses to give him for his grain. He is too poor to take large contracts; he perhaps has no friends to go on his bonds, and certainly no money to pay the necessary outlay before he will get returns from the government, and he is denled the privilege of selling his grain direct to the government in open market. Goldsmith beautifully says in words as true as Holy Writ:
 "But bold peasantry, their country's pride,
 When once destroyed can never be SUD- piled"
 Is it not so, that through the evils of war as the primary cause, and the at tending evils that have grown out of it as above referred to, that "our bold peasantry," if not destroyed are to- day in poverty and suffering priva- tions, hardships and dangers that, if properly rewarded, should soon place them in position of independence and above want? There is but one hope for bringing about @ change for the better-peace; with it there is not a. farmer but can Dlace himself in a