THE KU-KLUX KLAN.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17631, 7 December 1922, Page 7

THE KU-KLUX KLAN.

LEGAL INVESTIGATIONS STARTED. (By Cable— Pruo Association—Oprritrht.) (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.; NEW YORK, Doc-ember 5. Actions against the Ku-klux Klan began to-day. In New York two grand juries started investigations of the organisation's activities here, and an aldermanic in- i vestigation is also proceeding in Chicago of the Klan membership among municipal employees. One Chicago judge also questioned every prospective juror whether he was a member of the Klan. Mr George H. Tinkham, member of the House of Representatives for Boston, Massachusetts, sent a letter to President Harding asking why the President was so anxious to enforce the ISth amendment (the liquor prohibition amendment) while, the 14th amendment which guaranteed votes to negroes was i a dead letter in the Southern States, owing to the activities of the Klan. He asked the President to urge Congress to decrease the representation* of those Southern States as the law provided in the case of violations of the 14th amendment. [Article 14 of the Constitution of the United States, popularly known as the Reconstruction Amendment, was ratified on July 2Sth, 1868. The amendment received the support of 23 Northern States; it was rejected by Delaware, J Kentucky, Maryland, and ten Southern States. California took no action. Subsequently it was ratified by the ten Southern States. The first section of the amendment provides that all persons born or naturalised in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the> United States and of the State in which they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within ita jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The second section of the amendment apportions the representation of States in Congress, and provides that when the right to (vote at any_election is,denied to any of the male members of a State, being 21 years of age, and a citizen of the United States, the basis of that State's representation "shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizenß shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 21 years of age in such State."]