VANISHING KU KLUX

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 January 1931, Page 7

VANISHING KU KLUX

NOTORIOUS KLAN ON LAST LEGS ONCE POWERFUL AND OPULENT MILLIONS JOINED, BUT FEW LEFT

The Ku Klux Klan, a powerful political factor in some States five years ago is now on its last legs, according to a story in the Washington “Post. This information, it is explained, comes from an. “authoritative source.” Figures compiled show that the membership, which had climbed to about 9,000,000 in 1925, has dwindled to less than 35,000 in 1930. It is estimated that ini to 1925 the klan collected in fees more than 90,000,000 dollars. The Ku Klux Klan, which backed William Gibbs McAdoo for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 1924, played an' important part in the national* convention in New York. DOMAIN VANISHING , “To-day a crumbling shell of juggernaut skidding dizzily towards oblivion, the klan makes a last desperate stand, the “Post” says. “Casting a faltering shadow athwart the ballot box to exact tribute for a political power exposed as a colossal myth, and ruling a vanishing domain, fantastically small even now, it is dying.” Former members of the Invisible Empire, says the story, want to pose it as a great money-making organisation for the benefit of a few head men. They assert that it is a shining example of big business. Millions of men who belonged to the order have never been able to learn just liow much money was taken in during tlie days of prosperity or where it went. The sum paid out in salaries to the imperial wizard and liis lieutenants is not listed. THE FUNDS POURED IN

Channels for a highly remunerative inflow of funds came from the higher degrees of “Knight lvamelia,” for which more than a million knights paid five dollars each, and that of “Knight of the Great Forest,” which numbered some 80,000 members. Since its incorporation in Georgia in 1920, with its citadel at Atlanta, the klan is estimated to have received more than 10,000,000 dollais annually from these two elevated rank sources alone. Edward Young Clarke, of Atlanta, was first to see the possibilities in the klan movement. Colonel William Joseph Simmons, who conceived the idea to organise something on the order of the original Ivu Klux Ivlan and who struggled along for years making spreadeagle speeches, ‘ and struggling for financial existence, accepted an offer of Mr Clarke to make the klan a “business success.” Clarke was to propagate, and Simmons to operate the klan. CLARKE GETS THE MONEY IN Being an expert advertiser and organiser, Clarke soon put the klan on its financial feet. A controversy that came later resulted in the elimination of Clarke and Simmons and the promotion of Dr. Hiram W. Evans, a Texas dentist. Evans took the klan over at its most prosperous period, hut was not aide to keep going the steady flow’ of money started by Clarke. Figures given to the “Post” purport to show for the first time the extent of tlie rise and fall of the klan. - By 1925 the membership of the order had reached a total of 8,1)04,471, lmt after that it commenced to fade. This number represented all persons invited up to that year. It was about the time that Imperial Wizard Evans made a demonstration in Washington and announced that from then on the klan would discard its hoods and other disguises. By the last of 1920 the membership had fallen to 2,061,181. the membership fell rapidly after that. It was 321,411 in 1927, 145,409 in 1928, 82,002 in 1929, 34,094 in 1930.