The Clash in the Klan

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 33, 23 August 1923, Page 23

The Clash in the Klan

Women are to blame, it is said, for the'bitter fight in the Georgia courts for control of the Ku Klux Klan. The legal battle raged for a week, then simmered down when a judge of the Superior Court placed the administration of the Klan's affairs in the hands of a commission consisting of the Klan's founder, its present head, and a municipal court marshal of Atlanta. "Nevertheless, the short. civil war in the official circles of the Klan. will do more to end the career of this organisation than all the criticism which has been levelled at it from the outside," believes the Asheville (N.C.) Times. Klansmen on both sides also declare that the controversy is the most serious that has ever threatened the existence of the order, according to an Atlanta dispatch to the New York Tribune. Heretofore, notes the Atlanta Constitution, "the heads of the Klan have met opposition with a solid front." The Klan controversy, says this same Georgian paper, is the outgrowth of Colonel Simmons's recent announcement that the Kamelia, a woman's organisation formed by him, would be allied with the Klan. The Imperial Wizard, H. W. Evans, thereupon issued an order forbidding Klansmen from participating in the new Klan for women. 'This edict —but we will let a Philadelphia Public Ledger editorial writer tell the story: "All is konfusionindeed, one might almost say khaos —in the Grand Headquarters of the Ku Klux. Internal explosions are occurring daily, and no one knows what the end may be. "A year or so ago Wizard Simmons, sitting alone in his palace a Atlanta, asked himself whether Avizarding were not, after all, rather rough work, and whether it wouldn't be nicer to be an Emperor with a throne 'n' everything. And Emperor of the Invisible Empire he became by his own proclamation. It was not long till Emperor Simmons had cause to wonder whether - he hadn't elevated himself out of power. A new Imperial Wizard, one 11. W. Evans, had been appointed. Emperor Simmons seems often to have thought fondly of the $3 per hood which he had garnered in earlier and happier days. He appears to have descended from his throne to make a few inquiries about it, only to be ignored by his chief magician. So he went to the lawyers. He started a suit, with sheriffs, affidavits, lawyers, seizures, injunctions and counterinjunctions all in a. magnificent row. He ousted Evans for a day. Then he was ousted in turn. When he found himself being edged out of the order, he was suddenly illuminated within by a new inspiration. He would organise the Kluxettes! He would have a ladies' Klan, and sell hoods and furniture for their klaverns. These are times of equal rights, and if there is any fun to be had out of tar and feathers, why shouldn't women have their share?

"When the emperor of the Ku Klux announced to the world that he was organising the feminine Klan, the Kamelia, the new Imperial Wizard, Evans, ordered Klansmen everywhere within his jurisdiction to have nothing to do with the -Kluxettes or their order. Evans charged Simmons with greed; Simmons charged Evans with greed. ... "There are conferences and uproarious rows in all the klaverns of the Klux. Sentiment among the officials is divided. Some are for the Emperor and some are for the Imperial Wizard. "These people are not krazy. They are not even slightly kukoo. "Koin is koin." "But it is not of the slightest interest to an overwhelming majority of the American people whether Emperor Simmons or Imperial Wizard Evans is the big cheese of the Ku Klux Klan," thinks the Norfolk Ledger-Vis-patch. "What is of interest is that this legal-proceeding is veryxapt to put the eternal kibosh on the jrhole mass of flummery and flubdub, half absurd and half vicious, known as the Ku Klux." Already, reports an Atlanta correspondent of the New York World, Klans in several States are disbanding as a result of the bitter fight for control. In fact, observes the La Grange (La.) Reporter, "if the fight keeps up between the leaders of the Klan, the Klansmen may be so busy mobbing one another that they won't have time to mob any more outsiders." —The Literary Digest. . . "*"