THE HOODED TERROR.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 219, 13 September 1923, Page 11

THE HOODED TERROR.

KU KIUX KLAN ACTIVITIES. . * s RECORD IN AMERICA. I jhe establishment ~f a I 53J n to -other I • in jor tlio Sonthom iuks lias EJ •"*', °£n ,1 lcu, S eH in lluwe columns. 1 •f viw Zealnndc-r S ur- toe fond of I ana | hU TLd by an "Impr-ial Wizard.- ami .1 Cited Cyclops," and all the «W : I ridiculously named offle-r. m the | "Invisible Empire. M In eight years the Klan has prown fe, „ powerful and weahhy in America g that it can influence elections, corrupt g officials and terrorise citizens; and it | i, not impossible that souieUiing of the H kind may be done Lore. Certainly the B Movement has been started, and he | recent' grandiose ntterances ot the H ►Imperial Wizard' , makes it plain Urat | he contemplates an attempt to finbrnce g ,11 the English-speaking countriee in | one universal realm or the Knights of | the Ku Klux Klan. | HOW THE X.LAN BEGAN. | Just what this would mean.may hest g le judged from the history of the Klan | in America. g Founded in ISO-"", during the unmtttled » times that followed the American Civil |H War. the Klan was originally inornded g to protect Southern whites ajiainst the H freed negroes and the Northern aidven- | hirers who fanned their disconte.nt.i But, i as is inevitable where men possess M power without responsibility, patriotism J goon became a mask for malice, cruelty | and greed, and the Klan became oordi- | ally detested. Law and order I been restored, there was no longer any I yalid reason for the Klan's ertietonce, | end public feeling forced the pnssage g of the Act which resulted in itjs dissolution in 1870. The present Klan is an entirely distinct organisation, inspired, not 'by any j great national trouble, but tlm lust of a few men for power and gold. In 101") there was a "thun-lipped, long-nosed, spectacled man" in Atlanta (Georgia) named William Joseph Simmons." "Colonel" he called lrlmself — probably because he had been a, Methodist parson, a travelling salesman, and a member of an organisation Grilled the Woodmen of the World. Simn.Kins was very hard up, and this, comb/ined with the" fact that he had the ma'aia of the dreamer and fanatic for seenfit societies, gave rise to his great ideal. Calling together 34 friends, he foiiriilicd another Ku Klux Klan. and presumably because he had been a salesman for men's garters, was appointed "Imperial i Wizard of the Invisible Empire." c The movement spread slowly, and by | 1920 the membership, according to a i well-informed article in a reaent num- S her of the "World's Work," only | 5000. Simmons, who had -lieen die- t charged for his incompetence J, sis a sales- r nan of (jarters, was an equ/.lly incompetent Imperial Wizard. D/.jth he and Jhe XUn were in debt, and the *i«feYiil iVlace" was located on the 3p floor of v second-rate oflh c building. THE PgnFITS OF " B( DOST." It was ai this stage that E<l\vard Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabetbj Tyler entered the story. Clarke had been a company promoter—with unhst ppy results for investors —and was ncr vv a professional booster. Mrs. Tyler was a kindred spirit. binding that Simmons wu s desperately short of money. Clarke agreed to increase the Klan's members' bip in return for eight dollars out of .every 10 dollars entrance fee, and he «uid Mrs. Tyler began to hustle. They ran publicity campaigns, employed sctcres of agents, and, by playing on the. prejudices of Americans against Koina a Catholics, and foreigners, began to enlist members by tens of thousands. This isystematie sale of hate brought, in the first 15 months. 86,000 members at 10 dijiirs a head. The receipts amounted to Hli0,00(l dollars (about £175,000), of vriricb Clarke and Mrs. Tyler received fi!\04)00 dollars and Simmons 170.000 dor\nrs. In case you I ire wasting any pity on tSio benevolent '"Colonel," perhaps it ivuuJil be as well to explain that lie was to receive the fees ] that came later, as wcdl as the profits j from such side-lines as She sale of robes, I on which he cleared abo ut 100 tier cent. I And the movement i< still spreading | Since 1921 the Klan Jias grown enor- I niously, not only in the Southern Stales. I but in the Middle Wei-t, the West and I North. It is generally- estimated that the total membership "(s now between two and three million.!), its funds run into millions of pou'ads, and its power in public affairs, exentisedboth through the vote and by corruption, constitutes a menace to American Government. SORDID Rl-rt'ELATIONS. The sensational di ae of the Klan to power naturally aroused anxiety imongst sane. Americans. A long succession of outrages .resulted in exposures t>y thp New York: "World' , and Xew York "American." and a campaign of suppression by Kbit*; and Federal authorities was begun. Investigations not only throw light mi Hie sinister methods of the Klan. ibtit enabled the world to form ii pretty accurate idea of the people who had b-R'ii responsible for its rise. _ The facts were disclosed that Clarke, "for the good of t te order." was recently ejected from offien because he had either kept Simmons drink, or taken advantage of his drunkenness, to make himself ''Imperial Vjizard": Simmons in March last was aillowed to retire on his riches, with the viijrue title of "Emperor"—how then? democratic Yankees love a title!—alid was succeeded by Hiram Wesley lAans. a dentist from Dallas I Texas I: Clarke, it was stated, had been charged, at different times with embezzling churcfi funds. misusiiiL' mails and violating the White Slave Aft; and Mrs. Tyler had been arrested with him in a disorderly ihoiise owned by herself. Such are the founders of the new Kingdom of Heaven frpsigncd by the Ku Klux Klan.