The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-05-07
MAJOR GENERAL
 CROWDER IS ON
 LAST COMMAND
Soldier and Diplomat Pass es Away After Dis
 tinguished Career


 Gen. Enoch Herbert Crowder, soldier and diplomat. former Ambassador to Cuba, aged 73 years. died today after general breakdown.
 Routine army orders which, in the early sos removed Lieut.. Enoch Herbert Crowder from cavalry field service to an instructorship in mili- tary science at the University of Missouri, resulted in development of one of the outstanding legal ex- perts of the United States Army and laid the foundation for un- usual administrative and diplomatic work.
 Arrived at the university, Lieut.. Crowder decided to study law and he took a degree in that field in 1886. Ultimately he became Judge Advocate General of the army and invested with Provost Marshal Gen. eral powers early in the World War, it was he who originated the draft system which drew 100000 men into the national army.
 Drafted Cuban Laws
 Earlier the decision of the United States to oversee the establishment of constitutional government in the new Republic of Cuba set Crowd er's career on a course toward high diplomatic achievement. He draft ed personally many of the basic laws of that nation and later be- came the first American Ambas- sador in Havana.
 He was twice recognized by votes of thanks passed by the Cuban Leg islature.
 From Edinburg, Mo, where he was born in April II, 1859, Crowder was appointed to the Military Acad- emy at West Point. He graduated in June, 1881, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of cavalry and sent to duty on the Texas-Mexico border. He was sent from the bor- QSI tO lilo OlllFClolVy OA NllooOui assignment.
 Arrest of Sitting Bull
 From the campus he wene back to field duty. This included scout ing work in New Mexico and the Dakotas, where Indians still were troublesome. Incidental to the lat ter assignment he witnessed in 1890 the arrest of the famous Sioux Sit- ting Bull, who IA years earlier had been a leader in the battle that wiped out General Clusters com mand. A few days after the arrest Sitting Bull was killed in a fray that started when his followers tried to rescue him from the h. dian police.
 A friend who knew Crowder in those days said that in the vigor of his bearing, elastic step and tanned skin there was a suggestion that in active conflict this slender, brown-eyed young officer would be a "hornet." But he was destined scarcely ever to smell burning pow der.
 His bent for military law turned him toward the judicial aspects of the army and within 10 years after his graduation from West Point he was assigned as Acting Judge Ad- vocate of the Department of the Platte with headquarters at Omaha. Thus began more than 30 years service in the Judge Advocate Gen. erals department.
 Goes to Philippines
 When the Spanish American War broke out in 1898 Crowder was sent as Judge Advocate for the Fourth Army Corps headquarters at Mobile, Ala. This outfit was scheduled for duty in Cuba, but the decision on military occupation of the Philippine Islands sent Crowder, then a Lieutenant Colonel, scurrying across the continent to answer orders at San Francisco. There he was made Judge Advo- cate of the Eighth Army Corps, and sailed to the Philippines with that force.
 With a variety of commissions, Crowder then played an important role in the legal transfer of the sovereignty of the Philippines from Spain to the United States. For a time he was an Associate Jus tice of the islands Supreme Court.
 Tn 1904 he was detached to serve as an observer for the United States with Japanese forces in the Russo-Japanese conflict. He witt messed the siege of Port Arthur, was present at the epic battle of the Yalu and saw much of the final struggle along the Mukden line.