Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-02-24
THAT FAKE K. OF
c. OATH EXPOSED
In Philadelphia Court, Printer and
Calculator Admit Charge
of Calumny,

OfCllCuC uclo uSSA ~ ANAA
oath attributed to the Knights o
Columbus. Several millions of cop
les of this glaringly absurd oatl
have been circulated, especially OF
the eve of local elections. Catho
lies in general, and even members o
this libeled order, differed as t.
whether it was worth while to an
swer these attacks, or to seek tt
punish the publishers. Some were
of the opinion that the absurdity o.
the bogus oath carried it's own de-
NAL. others, however, decided thai
endurance had ceased to be virtue
with the result that, Messrs. Me-
CONCEAL and Stage of Philadelphia
two of the guilty parties were call
ed upon to answer to the charge OF
conspiracy. These men were charg-
ed jointly with conspiracy to de-
fame and Cypress the members OF
this order, by causing said matter to
be circulated. The following from
the Philadelphia Evening Telegram
gives in brief the result of the pro-
ceedings, admitting that the circu-
lars which they printed and distrib-
uted last spring, purporting to be
an oath taken by the Knights of
Columbus, was case of calumny
and absolutely without foundation,
Chas. H. Stage, 4143 Lancaster Az
enue, and Charles Megonegal, of
Forty-third & Brown streets, enter
ed pleas to indictments charging IL
bel and conspiracy to libel the or
ganization, in Quarter Sessions
court. on Jan. Goth, 1914: S.
Philadelphia, Feb. 81, 1913.
Menace Publishing Co., Aurora, Mo.
Gentlemen: Mr. Peter McLaren
and myself are associated in the
case of libel and conspiracy brought
by the knights of Columbus against
Clarence H. Stage and Charles
Megonegal of this city.
I'VE notice in your issue of March
l that you are prepared to print and
distribute the complete ritual and
secret work of the Knights of Col
umbus, and we desire to obtain an
authentic copy of said ritual and Sc
cret work for use in the trial of our
clients, since the prosecution alleges
that there is no oath taken by can
didates of any of the K. c. degrees.
Can you supply us with what we
desire and need?
"Our clients have no knowledge
Of the authenticity of the X. c.
oath, having received them in the
first instance from your company,
and they naturally rely upon you
to aid them in their present difficult
ty.
"An early reply will be greatly
appreciated. Yours very truly,
Leroy n. King"
The reply of The Menace which
thus was brought into evidence, is
as follows:
Replying to your letter of Feb
ruary 9th we wish to state that we
are not in possession of the ritual
and secret work of the knights of
Columbus, but we believe we are in
fair way to get it, and the state
ment in recent issue of The Men
ace, which led you to believe that
we had it in our possession, while
somewhat of a. bluff on our part,
was based on the fact that we know
that it can be had. You will note
that we printed in our No. 80 the
ritual and secret work of the Hi
bernians, and we are positive that
it is authentic The alleged oath
which your clients in Philadelphia
were arrested for distributing, was
circulated in practically every state
during the late campaign and the
demand upon us for this document
was something great, and we had
received copies of them from so
many sources we simply printed and
handled them as we would any other
job of printing, to supply the de-
mand, and while we have no apollo
les to make for so doing, we do
not have any evidence that the oath
is the one which is taken by men,
bers of the knights of Columbus.
We feel sure that it would be
folly for you to undertake to base
your defense on the authenticity Of
this document.
We note that some of the officials
are claiming that 1t is not an oath
bound order, which Of course is q
subterfuge and untrue. You can de-
pend on them resorting to any meth
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