DISINTERRING THE KLAN.

Evening Star, Issue 25769, 16 April 1946, Page 4

DISINTERRING THE KLAN.

In a desperate. search for Fascist tendencies among her recent great Allies Russia has lashed out at certain democratic institutions which might not be very creditable organisations, but which are permitted to exist and ultimately find their unimportant level by the very principles of freedom which democracy represents. It is not likely, therefore, that much concern will be felt at a Moscow radio commentator's allegations of a revival of the American Ku Klux Klan, and contacts between that organisation and Fascism in Italy and Germany.. To claim that it was to some degree the American forerunner of the rise of Fascism in Europe is stretching imagination beyond all reasonable limits. The Klan was a purely national organisation, of an admittedly undesir- j able character, which nourished for a time and waned in influence years I before Hitler seized power in Germany. The fact that it inherited opposition to Roman Catholicism from a similar i organisation of the late nineteenth century, and added a measure of antagonism to the Jews, provided a similarity to Nazism which was fortuitous rather than real. In its heyday it boasted a membership of a hundred thousand in a nation of more than a .hundred millions; which suggests that it was never a serious competitor to the legitimate forces of law and order. In a democracy there is always opportunity for the development of movements which the good sense of the people as a whole rejects, but which may claim a following for a time. This is a situation which the Russians cannot comprehend, committed as they are to a political system which admits of the existence of no party _ other than the one in power. It is possible that if it' could have gained sufficient authority the Ku Klux Klan might have been just as great a threat to the liberty of the individual as Nazism was in Germany—or Communism in Russia, for that matter—but it is not the democratic way to suppress completely any group which does not think or act in accordance I with the views of the majority. So far from acting in concert with Fascist elements in Germany the Ku Klux Klan actually intimidated German sympathisers among the American population. It appealed to a people suffering from the hysteria of the First World War, and gave opportunities for the members of so-called patriotic organisations, which had forced the purchase of war bonds on unwilling or indifferent citizens, to continue to exercise some power. The reaction to a wave of post-war immorality flaunted before an inert police gave the Klan opportunities to use its terror to punish evil-doers. It cherished racial and religious pre-

judices, and was regarded bv many of its members as a crusade for Protestant Christianity, native Americanism and white supremacy. Its greatest strength was in the south and middle-west. Inevitably, abuses of power and corruption alienated the Klan's most conservative members, and there was a reaction against the practice of mob rule. Lynchings and other incidents horrified even a nation with a fairly strong stomach for cruelty to the negro, and ultimately its power waned. Mussolini and Hitler may have learned lessons from its methods, but there is no evidence of any point of contact between the dictators and the Klan. Equally is the Moscow commentator without evidence to support his claim that the Klan is resuming its activities. Americans believe that it is dead, and will remain well buried —a discredited group which was never a serious power in the land.