The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-02-27


their civil war out of Arizona's front yard.
That's always the way. Scott never gets well
started on an army job anywhere but what he is
yanked away to go somewhere and do some
pacifying.
He is Uncle Sans star pacifier.
Dark-skinned people, whether they be Mexican
or straight Indian, or Cuban or Filipino, take to
him as children take to a fond uncle. Some
times he has to lick them first. When he does,
he ticks them thoroughly. But that is only on
rare occasions. AS a rule he has them eating
out of his hand within a week.
Two years ago, with a lifetime of experience
behind him, he went down to the Mexican border
as colonel of the Third United States cavalry.
There he remained until last April, when he
came to Washington to become assistant chief
of staff and a ~brigadier general. Only a few
weeks ago he moved up to be chief of staff.
Those two years on the border made him, OBJ
viously, the man to settle the new trouble that
has arisen. All through his army career he has
made it a rule in all problems with which he has
had to deal to study the personal equation"
So he studied the personal equation of Pancho
Villa, for one, and of Benjamin Hill, the Carranza
general, who has been making most of the recent
fuss near Naco, Ariz. He came to know both
men we'll, and they, in turn, conceived a pro-
found respect for him and even a sincere aAec-
ton. His hold over them is said to be remark
able.
1t is admitted that no man living knows the
American Indian more thoroughly than does Gen.
eral Scott. He has fought the Indian and con-
quered him., but many times more he has rea-
soned with him and conquered him even more
completely. The ~pre-eminent master of Indian
sign language, the author Of standard scientific
works on American ethnology, General Scott is
quite as well known in the field of scholarship
as in his profession.
Lacking political influence or powerful friends,
General Scott was thirty years in the army be-
fore the country at large came to know his name
at all. His work, remarkable as it was, was done
out of the public eye. He did not have the
faculty of pushing himself forward. But in re-
cent years the reward has come. Promotion, SO
long delayed. while younger men leaped over
his head. has been rapid. And now he heads
the army.
Observe him at his desk in the war depart.
ment, his bullet-torn hands, shy several fingers,
busy with the multitude of papers presented to
him, giving his orders in gentle, conversational
tones, his appearance, his manner, his attitude
precisely the same as when he was a major of
the line those few years ago, modest, democratic,
kindly. The erect head, the keen, searching eyes,
the strong jaw proclaim the man who is master
of himself, fit for omman
Curiously, the dependents of Uncle Sam know
him even better than the civilized folk know him.
With the Indians of the West and with the saw
age peoples of the Sulu archipelago the name Of
Scott is held in reverence. Their faith in him
is absolute, their devotion answering.
Away back in 1891, when occurred through
all the West the last serious Indian outbreak,
when. in some mysterious manner the Indians
from the Canadian line to the Mexican border
suddenly fell victims to the Messiah craze. went
to ghost dancing and left their reservations for
the war path. the grim Jest that was banded
about through the army posts ran:
1.-The United States army is holding down the
Indians in the Northwest; Scott is holding them
down in the Southwest"
II was generally admitted that Scott did the
better job OF the two.
Every since then, whenever the Indians any
where get restless and trouble starts. both the
interior depa rtment, which has Jurisdiction over
the Indians. and the war department set up the
cry, Send for Scott!"
Experience has shown that it is far better.
cheaper and more efficient to put Scott on the