Arizona citizen., 1873-05-17


 GENERAL ScHoFIELD admits that it would be a speedy settlement of the problem if General Crook, whom he believes to be the best Indian fighter in the United States. | should be called to take command of the troops at the Lava Beds, but it would be recurring a great deal of one man to take charge of a new campaign immediately aft.r closing one so arduous as has been his in Arizona.
 We take the above from The Alta. and are pleased to see the high es- timate Gen. Schofield places in the ability of Gen. Crook, but for reasons quite different from those expressed by him, we object to the transfer of Gen. Crook to any other field of duty. We begged, pleaded and entreated the government to send him here, long before he was sent. We had com plained, of the inefficiency of depart ment commanders, and were charged with being unreasonable for making these complaints, but we saw men and women falling daily victims to savage atrocity, and little or no effort put forth to prevent 1t, and so anxious were we to have @ change, that we were willing to have our motives misconstrued if we could but accom- plish it. It is we'll known by all who lived here at the time Gen. Crook as sumed command that the country was overrun with Apaches; the soldiers were demoralized, the horses had b1en fed on foolscap until but few were serviceable, there was no system, order or organization, and the Apaches were masters of the situation and did about as they pleased. Naturally Q strong appeal went forth from Ari- zona for relief. We were told by the department commander that we must not complain, that if we did, all the troops would be withdrawn; that we should suppress from the outside world the knowledge of the butchery that was going on, in order to get immigra- tion and obtain more material for the scalping-knife and tomahawk. We plainly saw that no relief could be ex- pected from those who had been sent here to protect us, and we appealed to higher authority at Washington. We were told that no more troops could be spared to this department, and we replied that one man more was all that was required and that man was Gen. George Crook. This proposition was looked upon as so grave an in- upon the rules of the Army, that it was declared absurd, and to Senator Stewart and Attorney Gen. eral Williams, we are indebted mainly for his being sent here. They ap- peale1 to the President to send him as the best means of stopping the flow of blood, and the President cut very large amount of red tape and sent him, and no one act of President Grants administration has been so generally applauded on the Pacific Coast as this. Gen. Crooks eminent services are now acknowledged throughout the United States, from the General of the Army down to the humblest citizen. The army did not select him for this field of duty and there was much wonder and complaint in army circles because old fossilized rules had been disregarded, to save the lives and property of American citi- zens. For a.year after he assumed com mand this influence hampered Gen. Crooks operations. Time has more than realized the estimate placed on his ability by the people of this Ter ,itory and they should now be heard md consulted as to the time when it s safe to allow him to leave, and we assure the higher military authorities hat it has not yet arrived. It is true hat Gen. Crook has demoralized the Apaches, and that most of them are low on reservations, and with the ex- :eption of Cachise's band, are willing o accept any terms he chooses to offer o save their lives. It is true thatN hese same Apaches have fought he Kingdom of Spain and the Re VI ,ublics of the United States and |, Iexico and all the friendly tribes. nd have never acknowledged con- ueror before. But why now have N hey accepted the situation /? Is it be- Hs ause they have met with change of cart, or love the white man more /? lc Certainly not. It is for no reason IF ther than that in Gen. Crook they ) ave found man of courage, will nd energy, who adopts their style of q rarfare, who beats them in strategy nd cannot be deceived by their