KU KLUX KLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1922, Page 11

KU KLUX KLAN.

TERRORISTS IN CALIFORNIA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN , FRANCISCO, March 14. Southern California has been thrown into a state of turmoil by scattering email armies of nijrht-riderß, masquerading as members of the Ku Klux Klan, and many sensational outrages have been perpetrated in the oilfield regions of Taft, Maricopa and Coalinga, near Bakcrsfield. The mysterious bands of men garbed in pillow"eases and sheets terrorised the citizenry of these towns for ten days or more, and tension continued high. In Taft the situation started with two attacks against Eli Andrews, a rent car driver. Then followed the roping and aeeauit on George N. Bowman, a druugi»t of Maricopa. who was peremptorily warned to leave forthwith, and did so after having been dragged through an evil-smelling: oil sump, thick as molasses, and which gave the same general result as a tar bath to the unfortunate chemiat. J. R. M.ison. an ostponath. wn*» ti\k«n from his home a:ul brutally teiten. Upon his body were found marks, which « physician said evidently had been made by a epiked club. Robprt Jackson, n butcher, employed in a shop at Fellows, received notice to leave, told his employer about it, and departed immediately.

Oecar Richardson, an oil driller, left after the receipt of a warnin? to quit card playing- These are practically all the authenticated cases in the first chapter of violence and threats attributed to the Ku Klux Klan. There have been scores of rumours of letters and postcards being received from the X.X.X., warning the recipients against various practices, and sometimes merely telling them to get out of the community without giving reasons. VISIT CHI'RCH. Aroused by the reappearar.ee of nn armed gansr. dressed in the full regalia of the Ku Klux Klan. which visited the Baptist Tabernacle of Rev. Van Dyke Todd in Fellows on a Sunday night, residents of Maricopa organised a shotgun squad to await further developments. This vigilance committee wa3 composed of a number of lead'nj c.ti- :- rens who said they were ready to receive any nijrht. riders, whether white hooded or black capped, with buckshot, and ask questions later. F.li Andrews returned to town, but receiving further warnings left, and later he was discovered painfully bruised, half frozen from exposure, and covered with tar and feathers, lyins under the floor of a building in Taft for several hnur.3 before 'he dared co home, where he wa<? persuaded by his relatives to leave tho town to save further illtreatment. It was learned that Andrews had lx?cn charged by the klansmen with bootlegging and selling narcotics before he was bc.iten to the ground with ropes. Some comedy was introduced into the situation at Fellows when it heroine known that one citizen had been found hiding beneath his automobile nftrr the klajismen visited the church, and that another well-known resident had slept in the crown of an oil derrick, some 90 tb' 100 feet abovp the earth's surface. Most of the people in Fellows and Taft are now carrying formidable, .jeyolyew, and do not hesitate to shoot when opportunity offers. FRENCHMAN WARNED.

The .finit ''Kack hand" warning received by a resident of BakersScld sincn t'hp. activities.becan in Korn County o' tbc Klu Klux Klan and other secret societies posing under the kian's signature, wae received by Jean Eyraud. pioneer East Side merchant. The warninjr said: "J. Eyraud: Warning! Beware! This is the time to stop talk n; about the loafers' union. You talk to yourself lons enough, but remember our j society don't talk much but means a j hell of a lot. Sut up or get out. Your advice.—SOMEONE." The word "hell" in the note was ' heavily underlined four time?. The letter ' was written with pen and ink, on ordi- ] nary lined stationery. i Eyraud immediately took the note to . Ohief of Police Charles H. Stone, who authorised the merchant to carry a loaded revolver. ; Eyratid, who ia French, was greatly j mystified over the "warning." The little oil town of Taft wns ; thoroughly aroused over the depreda- : tions of these terrorists, and the town ', epeedily reeem'bled an armed camp. Not ; even in the days of the old frontier did so many citizens carry pistols as were doing through fear of the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, the night riders, the vigilantes, or whatever they might be. Doors of homes were barricaded at night, sa.wed-ofT shotguns were trained on windows and neignfooi.Thoods were organising for mutual defence. And causing it all there seemed to be a myeterious battle being waged behind a double mark, of deepest secrecy. Without the leadere or the rank and file of either faction ibeing known, there appeared to be two factions in the field, each operating under the guise of the avu Klux Klan and one representing itself to be the other. The Californian police were worried beyond measure, and failed to check the activities of the roving bands of terrorists. The first woman "victim" of the white-robed night riders who have visited the oilfields district was Mrs. Mary Barnes, aged 35, a hotel proprietor, of Taft, who waa given twenty-four fljours' notice to vacate the town, and she hurriedly departed. Neighbours stated that Mrs. Barnes admitted that twelve men wearing the conventional white hoods and gowns of Klansmen surrounded 'her house and ordered her to leave. KLAN OHIEF A'NGKRY. \ William S. Coburn, the Los Angeles attorney and Grand Goblin of the Knights of the Ku' Klux Klan, was irate when he learned that the terror- . ists had been masquerading as members j of the .K.K., and said he would "expose those who were 'breaking the laws and hiding behind the Ku Klux organisation." ' "I am tired of this bunk, and I am I going to put a stop to it," Coburn said. "We have more than 3000 men in Kern , County, and I am going to personally conduct a campaign to turn up the evil- j doers." I He said the' members of the organisa- ! tion were sworn to i/phold the laws, yet whenever the X.X.X. had offered to assist in such work there had been a protest that "We don't need your help," and "it would 'be a reflection on us if we allowed you to do so." Coburn indignantly denied that the terrorism was attributed to the Klan, and said he would clear up the situation and expose the wrongful parties. .An independent statement issued in Btkersfield said there was a split ie the

oilfields section of the Kn Klux Klan Knights. The conservative knights had wanted to work quietly to clean up the disagreeable features of some of the towns of the area, as the police authorities had been unable to do so. These conservative members wanted to work quietly and get rid of bootleggers, dope peddlers and gamblers, and their women confederates, one by one, with nothing sensational to attract outside attentjon. The radicals stood for summary action, spectacular exploits to serve as warnings to all "undesirables," and publicly that would strike terror to the hearts of malefactors. They had their way, and the conservatives believed, it was claimed, that they had gone too far. A grand jury commenced investigating, Federal authori- | ties started tracing illegal warnings sent 'by mail, and Government service , agents were said to be in the fields. ! During tho recent strike in the oilfields, when the labour unions maintained an armed vigilante committee, there was complete order, but wheu they disbanded, a horde of undesirables flocked in again, and bootlegging was admittedly worse than it had ever been known to bo. Taft recently was stirred to white-hot by the discovery that bootleg liquor and drugwere being sold to high school boys. The bootlegger or dope peddler gener all}- moves into an oilfield town with a girl, who passes as his wife. Often another girl arrives soon, passing as his sister or her sister. They are the lure for the illicit traffic in which their i/n----speakaible male companion engages. To make indignation more tense, a great many substantial citizens believe that some town and city officials have been looking the other way and "getting theirs." On. the whole the situation is a perplexing one to set the blame. w'.tU the

Ku Klux Klan denying in ste'ntoiian tones the imputation that they have set in motion this terrorism, which, however, seems to have the main object of cleaning up vice and expelling the army of undesirables who have lately been infesting these towns engaged in pumping and refining gasoline for the world's supply. The fact remains that many of these undesirables have fled from " the oilfield region, many of them having been unceremoniously conducted to the limits of the town, where they have been tarred and feathered and left to try their luck elsewhere. The police remain powerless.