Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-25
kU KILN IN GEORGIA.
4 Secret Organization That Cares for
Neither Law Nor Life.

l have Just returned from weeks stay
in Murray county, which is the center or
the region terroriZed by the White caps
organization, which the United States au-
thorities are endeavoring so hard TO break
up. writes a New York Herald correspond
ent at Atlanta, Ga. The organization not
only has existed there since the ku klux
DAYS OF reconstruction, but IL has grown
so that II rules the entire county, debating
the politics regulating the people, pro-
tecting the moonshiners and dealing out
death to the informers and spies.
Credited to this organization are some OF
the blacklist crimes in the history of the
state-crimes that have gone unpublished
because, by the perfection OF the organiza-
ton the state courts have been rendered
helpless-rt ndered so, too, because some OF
the most prominent men in Murray,
Gordon and Whitfield counties have be-
come members of the organization or have
given 1t aid The stories that have come
from there have been traced to their
sources, and the Information upon which
the United States authorities have been
trying to secure convictions is thoroughly
and completely substantiated.
iHte first stories that came to the district
attorneys office were from Deputy Marshal
Tom Wright and two 'moonshinerS.
Jim" Chastain and w. /. Hainmick. They
declared that there was an oath-bound
organization In Murray county, extending
into Gilmer. Whitfield and Gordon counties.
which embraced in its membership not
merely the illegal distillers. but the sub
stantial farmers, the county officers and
In many cases the leading business and
professional men and clergymen of the
four counties. 1t was organized many
years ago by the distillers in the Cohutta
and Fort mountains.
Its purpose at first was to protect its
members against informers and to furnish
bonds for one another in case of arrest
ar1 To h...
In such a way as to effect the release of
the man under arrest Later on, AS men In
the valleys wanted protection from
picion OF informing, they Joined the order
to be aided still later by men seeking Office
who needed the votes they knew such ad-
heson would bring them. Between fear
and f1attery, and hope of reward, this or
ganiZation spread until IL covered all the
counties named, and even beyond. Later
the name was changed to that of the
Regulators as IL now stands, or. in the
ordinary parlance OF the common people
there the ku klux.
II has more than eight hundred members
i'm the three counties of Murray, Gordon
and Whitfield They stand together as enc
man in politics and everything else. In its
ranks are many Of the preachers living in
the territory named.
1t Is openly charged up there that John
Edmondson. one of the most substantial
farmers In Georgia. is the head of the White
Caps. and eX-Deputy Marshal Rembert Is
Edmondson's son-in-law. Edmondson is
the unquestioned king of Murray county.
his word is absolute law. and he makes no
secret OF his sympathy with the Illicit dis
tillers, and his hatred for the informers.
In an interview he justides his position
thus:
III tell you what this whole trouble
means The internal revenue laws inter-
fere with a mans right to manufacture his
own produce, and carry man away from
home to try him. He is carried away on
the oath OF some trifng wretch, who
would not be believed Oh oath in a court
of justice. A wife and family are left
alone and without means of livelihood,
while "a perjured witness earns fees by
having the husband and father down In
Atlanta. 1 have known men To he torn
away from sick wives and dying children,
suffering all manner of agony they are
carried away from those whom they love"