THE KU KLUX KLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18446, 6 January 1922, Page 8

THE KU KLUX KLAN

Many reports in the American press at the end of the war indicated a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, the. secret brotherhood created in the. Southern States for the terrrorising of the emancipated negro after the Civil War. These reports were connected with various kinds of mob violence, and the American public seemed inclined, before the present year, to dismiss them as part of the unavoidable post-war hysteria. More recently, however, the evidences have pointed to the remarkable growth of a new terror; and since the beginning of September the New York World, and papers syndicated with it throughout the country, have been publishing an" elaborate exposure which indicts the Ku Klux Klan as the most outrageous secret society of the modern world. The purpose of the original “Klan ’ was the assertion of white supremacy as against the negro freedmen and their political friends and exploiters. There can be no doubt that a main influence in the revival was the fear with the recruiting of negroes for the European War and the increased economic strength enjoyed by the negro as the result of the labour shortage. But the resolve to “keep the 1 negro in his place” has become a secondary matter with the brotherhood today. Its range is far wider., The Ku Klux Klan is not only anti-negro. It is anti-Semite, anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, anti-Labour. Indeed, its organisers have so interpreted the great cry of “100 per cent. Americanism” that they apear to have devised a society, a programme, and a ritual by means of which all the fear and folly and hatred of this unrestful time can be mobilised and capitalised. The creator of the new Ku Klux Klan is “Colonel” William Joseph Simmons, of Atlanta, Georgia, who, one autunm. midnight six years ago, led 33 _ of. his adherents to a mountain-top outside his city. There and then, aa they stood ‘ bathed in the sacred glow of the fiery cross, the Invisible Empire was called from its slumber of half a century.” Colonel Simmons took to himself the title of Imperial Wizard, which has at least a _ strikingly unAmerican sonnd. The Knights of the Ku Klux KJain were incorporated as _ a regular fraternal secret order. Among its purposes were the maintenance of white supremacy, the protection of womanhood, and the keeping “eternally ablaze the sacred fire of a fervent devotion to a pure Americanism.” The Order was described as “the soKil of chivalry and-virtues impenetrable shield.” The Imperial Wizard worked out its basis. In order to ‘ enter the portal of the Invisible Empire a man must be a “white, native-born, Protestant, Gentile American citizen,” the point being, according to the Klan (in glorious defiance of the most obvious tact on the American continent),.that a coloured man, a European immigrant, a Catholic, or a Jew cannot be 100 per cent. American. The Imperial Wizard found a valuable ally in Mr Edward Y. Clarke, also of Geprgta, whom h© appointed director of publicity, general organiser, and chief recruiting officer, under the engaging cognomen of “Imperial Kleagle,” and with him is associated Mrs Elibabeth Tyler as head of the women’s division. These two, it is evident, make a strong combination, for their joint efforts have resulted in the building up of a “secret organisation m 45 ont of tbe 48 States of the Union, with a membership believed to be between 500,000 and- 650,000, all bound by the secret pledge' of the Order, and all contributing to headquarters. The recruiting scheme developed by the Imperial Kleagle shows that no single trick of scientific salesmanship has been left unexploited. The country has been mapped out into districts, i given over to a large force of organisers working, on commission. Every enrolled member pays lOdol to the "kleagle” who ’enlists him. _ The member pays also, bjdol for a white ceremonial robe. It is estimated that, working expenses being allowed for, a membership of half a million cannot have brought Jess than 2£dol millions to the machine. The laughable side of the Ku Klux Klan is the astounding jumble of rubbish making: up the ritual of the Order; the horrible side is in the tale of outrage—the New York World lists over 150 incidents —which has given the Klan- its sinister pre-eminence among the terrorist societies of the Western Hemisphere. Midnight raids of Klansmen, in their grotesque outfit of white robe and hooded mask, abductions, floggings, tarring-and-feather-ings, brandings on the forehead with the letters “K.K.K.”—these and other horrors are oh the record of recent enterprises, along with only too much evidence of collusion in some districts between the Klan and the police and sheriffs. Hideous, however, as is the revelation of the social terror which the revival of the Ku Klux Klan has brought with it x it would seem that, on the whole, the public is more , taken up with the preposterous mummeries of' the secret society and the disclosure that at least half a million Americans Lave been induced to part with good money in order to be reckoned among the devoted adherents of the Head of the Invisible Empire, to whom they swear a terrifying oath of fealty. There are monstrous rites of initiation, with incantations apparently engendered by the Imperial Wizard, the mark of whose literary manner is his subjection to the initial sound “Kl.” The Ku Klux scripture is the Kloran. The meetingplace is the klavern; the members hold klonversations. The chaplain is a klndd; a hymn is a klodo; the ceremonies close with the kloxology. The local organiser, or salesman, is a kleagle, a secretary is a kligrapp, a lecturer a klokard! There are other titles. The kleagles report to the King Kleagle of the region, who defers to the Grand Goblin of a larger domain, who in turn has something to do with the Exalted Cyclops—a hierarchy suggestive of unutterable nightmares. America has always been a land favourable to secret fraternities. It would be interesting to inquire into the varied origins of this most amazing of all. How far, for instance, has it to do with medievalism and European romance, with Freemasotiry and its imitators; how far with the thinness of tho legendary -stratum in a young civilisation? In tho meantime Congress and tho Department of Justice have been turned on the Ku Klux Klan, while the country is swept by a mingled .storm of anger and disgust, contending with gusts and shouts of laughter.—S. K. R, in the Manchester Guardian.