KU KLUX KLAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17350, 15 May 1924, Page 12

KU KLUX KLAN.

TERRIBLE ACCUSATIONS, By T«l«sraph—Pr*M amocl&Uod —Copyright Australian and N.Z. Cabie Association. WASHINGTON, May 13. A Senatorial committee which is inquiring into the alleged fraudulent election of Senator Mayfield has brought Congress into an investigation of the Ku Klux Klau for one first time since tlic Rian's modern revival. The hearing has developed into a serious affair. Women were ordered from the committee room, and a Witness told terrible stories of torture, cruelty, and invisible government by the Klan, especial!v in Texas. Former Klan officials described the espionage system, whereby neighbour spied upon neighbour, and a fewmalignant personalities wreaked per sonal vengeance on whites and blacks alike. The latter wore subjected to unrelenting persecution and intimidation. A witness further described the intricate but effective political organisation maintained by the Klan, which, through its military discipline, destroyed and made candidates for vari ous offices. Attempts are being made to widen the Senate inquiry into an investigation of the Klau nationally, and there is an agitation for both parties to adopt an anti-Klan policy at their conventions. Tn February. 1923, George Peddy, * defeated candidate, filed with the Senate formal charges against the Ku Klux Klan, alleging that Senator-elect Earl Mayfield had been illegally elected. He charged the Klan with taking fraudulent, and reprehensible measures to defeat him, and with commit ting many serious crimes in Texas, where it wielded vast political, govern mental, social, and religious powers foi ics own ends.