THE KU KLUX KLAN.

Shannon News, 23 November 1923, Page 4

THE KU KLUX KLAN.

Jk SCORCHING INDICTMENT.

There can be no sort ox ctouux now j that an attempt' is being 'made to j establish." active branches 1 of the Xu Klux Klan in Australia and New Zea- j land. , . , - The thing is ominous enough, tor not only is Ku Klux a criminal institution with a horrible past, but it is supported in Australia by a few. parsons of the class that is ; mainly • sectarian- and political. Whenever that sort of parson 1 ■! ll_ * » nrt ' ' Srtftl fttV. lt»' IS tlniG

for the democracy to go for that secret society with an axe. , It is not clear that any serious harm •has been don'e in and around Sydney yet A few men have been cautiously approached in an attempt to get supanonymous letters have been written, and there is a possibility that one ox two aitizens have been assaulted, diu port for the obscene thug body, a few Klux Klansmen are notorious cowards and alwavs work in packs, like the less

offensive hyenas. The Ku Klux Klan came into being; after the American Civil War, and a little later (having committed many foul outrages in the meantime) it was denounced by President Grant and President Hayes, and wiped out of open existence for many years. Traces of it were left, however, as a trickle ot secret slime. When a negro was burned with horrible barbarity on suspicion of having molested a white woman, Ku Klux built the pyre and applied the touch. For the amazing retrogression and stagnation of the Southern States, for the vast dull failure of civilization there, ■Ku Klux has been chiefly to

b For the modern revival of the Ku Klux Klan/discredit goes in, the-first• place to one, William Joseph I n 1915 he 'and thirty-three, other dirtr rogues climbed a little mountain ini Georgia and “inaugurated visible Empire of the K.K.K., Simmons being elected Impenal Wizard. The negro was beginning to show signs of mental improvement and lionest ambition, and Mr. Simmons and his mean , toughs hated the idea; but they did hot really begin to be outrageous till after 1918. The negroes were, relative- • w*; ,1 n i.. Awtmu/ion

ly to their number, the hnest fighters in the Great War, and Ku Klux was unable to forgive them that, bo that? when the.war ended and the brave negroes returnee, Ku Klux made a, systematic effort to torment and suppress them. Business rogues saw money in' the nefarious thing, and set out to systematize it. The Klan began to torture individuals and set up a sort of censorship'ofits own. A Mrs. Beulah John son in Texas was awaiting judgment in a bigamy case. The gentlemen of e Ku Klux Klan came along, dragged her from her house, stripped her, tarred and feathered her, subjected her to nameless indignities. So much for the gang that had sworn to “protect, the home and womanhood, to shine forth in a naughty world as the soul chivalry and virtue’s impenetratable shield. But it seems that jiny-

thing can be got through. 'Judged oy its works the Ku Klux Klan is vile and ignoble unspeakably. Tko ''great body of decent opinion in the United States is utterly opposed to it. But,.its business supporters -saw .money and “swift” in it, actually made a lot of 'money by it; and in the most Christian Republic big money can always conupt the police and State Legislatures. Membership in the K.K. was sold to half-a-million of fools, at ®° .-l 1011 time. The novice pays a first fee ot tea dollars, of which four dollars goes to the sales’ manager. The head of the Klan in that district takes another dollar as his bit. Then there is _the Chief Goblin. In the end four and ahalf dollars of the ten reaches the Imperial Wizard. That is only one item. Next comes the white robe, which is L. -In,-.* 4*l TYIUQ

sold to each new member at four times its cost. (In the United States there are well over ft hundred million people who are inordinately fond of dressmgand his erowd of fakes and swindlers have got th'e simple American people by the neck. They know the weaknesses of ”100 per cent. Americans,” and play on them shamelessly. The Imperial Wizard issues edicts m a preposterous jargon which the American oddly takes to: be dignified. One ot these edicts is dated “the Deadly Day of the 1 Windy Week of the Appalling - Month of the year of the Klan LIl. That sort of rank tomfoplery ajways hocusses the simple American mind, lo make the hocussing easier, the Klan

has blasphemously made and adopted a Bible of its own, the Kloran. A copy of this is to be seen in the library of Congress, as follows: —r “From this volume we may learn something of the ritual of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the initiation and baptism being a. peculiarly entrancing piece of mumbo-yimbo. The Ku Klux altar is covered with the Stars (and Stripes. There is laid upon it a naked sword or dagger; a Bible open at Romans XII. (the chapter, it is good to -note, containing the great injunction against the taking of vengeance); and a bottle of water. This done, the fiery cross illumines the Klavern. The Klansmem form up, with four ” terrors” or station-guards. An opening ‘ ‘ Klode” is sung. The Kladd (chaplain) leads in,prayer: “We invoke Thy blessing upon our Emperor, tho Imperial Wizard.” A fearsome fourfold oath is administered to the initiate.

He swears unconditional obedience to the constitution and laws of the K.K.K, which he has not heard or read.” And so on, with a lot more terrible twaddle. How grown men and women cam tolerate such slush nobody outside America can guess; blit it is a sort of slush to which a certain type of American mini is perculiarly addicted. A little while ago half-a-million Americans had paid their ten dollars (and extras) to b© enrolled in the Ku Klux Klan. The attempt _to establish branches in Australia is merely part of that money-making scheme. But the thing most important for the honest Australian to bea,r in mind is that Ku Klux is an association in its origin and actions and intentions vile. Its plan is i to overrun the law and defy it in the interest and for the aims of private spite and sectional,, prejudice. In Australia its only hope of success

lies in : fomenting sectarian feeling, and every parson apologist of K.K. in this Commonwealth is a sectarian fapatic. Established in Australia, Ku Klux would at once set itself to destroy religious and social freedom,, the purity of politics (however much of ! that may remain), and the harmony ef the labour movement. K.K. is a body vowed to gang-terrorism, blackmail, and cowardly outrage. It is in every way opposed to British traditions and temperament. It works to get its slimy grip on the homes and consciences of the people. Vhat about.it?-”The Triad.”