KU KLUX KLAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 295, 10 November 1934, Page 7

KU KLUX KLAN.

REVIVED IN UNITED STATES.

Tbe Ivu Klux Ivlan is being mobilised in the United States once more, this time in defence of the Constitution against Sovietism, Communism, Fascism, and any other ism obnoxious to the select “patrioteers,” says the Manchester Guardian. The programme is all-inclusive. Tbe Klan is out to “save” the country, going through the same mummery, masking itself under gown and hood, and burning tbe symbol of Christianity as an evidence of its good faith and high intention. Now, it is announced, is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of the imperilled Constitution. Already the word has gone forth from “a sacred grove in Georgia,” and conclaves, it is reported, are forming in Oklahoma, and preparing to invade Kansas and Texas. If they follow the record, wizards, cyclops, kleagles, dragons and klansmen of the ranks soon will be gathered on the green at midnight, and sallying forth, under cover of darkness, to burn a cross at some neighbour’s door, in token of their veneration of the Constitution.

Dr Hiram W. Evans, Imperial Wizard, has issued the summons and appointed his chief of staff. The call runs:—

“Public spirted people, klansmen and non-members alike, realise that this nation is in great danger. Because of its record of heroic achievement, the Klan has been called upon by them to mobilise and co-ordinate those who are interested in preserving the Constitutional Government set up by our forefathers. , . , “Answering this request for vital service, and from among those who beyond question have organisation ability, character, and national reputation for public service, I have chosen as the one pre-eminently capable of doing the job, Klansman M. 0. Dunning. I have appointed him chief of staff in charge of propaganda. The Klan has delivered in every crisis since the Civil War, and can be counted on now.

“Klansmen in action, competent and courageous, will lead the American people to see that individual liberty and Constitutional Government shall not perish, and that this nation be no longer the victim of alien propaganda.” Mr Dunning, former chairman of the Fish and Game Commission for Georgia, and for many years United States Collector of Customs at Savannah, has accepted the appointment of chief aide to the Imperial Wizard. Not long ago Mr Dunning was presented with the Arthur Lucas Trophy, given annually for the most meritorious public service performed by a citizen of Savannah.