A SINISTER BODY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16902, 29 November 1922, Page 7

A SINISTER BODY.

HISTORY OF THE KLAN. The Ku Klux Klau lia-s been exerting continuous ami increasing effect upon politics and life in the Southern States of America for the past five years. It is an organisation whose professed motives were highly commendable, but whose methods are detestable. The members of this “secret” society shielded against recognition by their iong white robes, masks, ami conicai caps, took it upon themselves to deal w ith persons whose conduct or opinions gave offence to the " Knights ” of the “ Klan Their methods were neithei just nor gentle: the beating and tarring and feathering of men and women incurring their displeasure appeals to iiave been a quite common incident, and much graver charges have been made against the * Klan.” Cowardly attacks upon American citizens by “ Klansmen ’ as a punishment for real or imaginary offences became, so frequent. and the pernicious influence of the society began to extend so rapidly that demands have been made for its j i expression. ORIGIN OF THE NAME The name. Ku Klux Klan, is taken sixty years ago. played a considerable | part- in American history. After the Civil War. after the North had conquered the South and had freed the .slave*. the resulting social and eoom iir chaos left a. very difficult situation for the whites. Tho conquering North not only fried the slaves, but gave them complete suffrage. The oonquenci was that in many sections oi the South the negro portion of the population, which only five years before * ha,! been in shivery, became a majority j i of the electorate, and was in a posi- ! lion to assert political dominance over | ! their former owners. As a means of ; Lseli'-deferior against this condition, the ; j writes organised themselves into this avowedly to restrain the negroes, j through fore: and intimidation, from j the excesses which suddenly liberated : and enfranchised slaves might be | tempted to practise upon the white j portion of tlio population.

LAPSE OF THE KLAN. in the course of time, however, all this stopped. The spirit of revenge j end repression ceased to actuate the j North, and the Federal troops were \ withdrawn from the Southern States, i Thereupon the Southern States. by * various devices designed to evade the ! Constitution, got rid of negro suffrage. Throughout practically all the South - j ern States the negro ceased to he a 1 voter. The white population became dominant politically. socially. and ' cconomicallv. and conditions stabilised : themselves on that basis. For forty! vears or more Hie negro in the South | cheerfully aceepted a status of social j and political inferiority. XECiKOKK CAVSE REVIVAL The thing which threatened to ! change this, and tin* thing which gave ! rise to the revival <>! the Ku Klux Klan. was the same thing which in a f multitude til ways has caused unrest in i every part of the world. namely the war. When America went into the war th-. negroes were <1 rafted as soldiers j on the same basis a- everybody else, j Many of them were sent to France. ! and their experience in that country was such as to make them discontented i with their social inferiority in their American homes. 'l’lie French, having :: point of view toward black soldiers and the black races generally which is totally different from the American point of view, tea ted the American negro soldiers on the same basis as everyone else, and gave them | a feeling about their status in the j world which, when they returned -.> j their homes in the Southern States, j manifested itself in a disturbing way j There are places in the Southern State, j where the negroes outnumber tie* i whites sometimes by as many as thro.? l or four to one Ti can be realised I readily that negro soldiers, coming j back from an experience in France ! where thev were treated as equals, j brought with thin a spirit which dis j turbed the whites in those communities where the negro population is most A NTT CATHOLIC PREJUDICE ItV w as as a means of self-defence, a means of reassuring white supremacy, that the old Ku Klux Klan. which had been out of existence tor forty years or more, was revived. From the South, where its activities were main ly. or at least primarily. concerned with the negro, the Klan began to spread throughout the country In communities when* the negro, by rea Hon vif the fewness «>f hi* numbers, eon to tit ute nu problem, the Ku Klux Klan

was adapted to take account of p I wholly different kind of prejudice, j T here is always, in some parts of i America, a degree of suspicion against ! the Catholic Church. About once in every generation it manifests itself in ; a prejudice not unlike that •which ' i characteristic of Ulster. From time j to time various erics are raised against i the Catholic Church. Because the head of the Catholic Church resides in Rome, the old American suspicion against foreign domination is appealed to. Just as in Lister, ancient history is revived to justify the charge that the Catholic Church aims at the dominance -of the Church over the. State, and the counter-cry expresses ■ self in slogans calling for the continued separation of Church and State. A WAVE OF ANTT-REMTTTSM. In addition' to all this, the Jewish population in some American eoinmuni lic-i has reached such proportions that we have in America to-day a movement and an agitation similar in kind, and not much less in degree, than the •mt-i Semitic .sentiment characteristic of some .European coentries. It is true that, taking America as a whole, the Jewish population is only about 3 *or 4 per cent. The total population of America is about 110,000.000. while tho total Jewish population is only about 4,000.000. But this Jewish population is concentrated. Tn New York City, for example, it is probable that as much as 25 per cent of the total population is Jewish. There are smaller c ities which have the same proport-ion. Starting in these communities where the Jewish population is dense, there has spread throughout the country a wave of anti-Semitic prejudice. It crops out in every section of society. Just recently much public uproar arose over a proposal to limit tho proportion of .Jewish students in Harvard University. The “ Klan " is, in fact, fanatically j anti-negro, anti-Oriental, anti-Jewish. i and anti-Roman Catholic, and deludes I itself into tlio belief that because of | this it is intensely pro-American. Patrii otism based upon ferocious hatred of I all persons incapable of changing their j complexions or their ancestry is quite i out of date or should he. nor is it ! patriotic t\> regard another citizen as I an implacable enemy because of a difj ference in religious observances. It is not generally known that the j name Ku Klux Klan was derived from ■ the sound made by the cocking of the | hammer of a type of rifle used in | the American Civil War. The eockj ing of a rifle was at one period one . of the society’s signs and the words j Kn Klux Klan became a password.