Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-12
500, 900 BUSY BOAT-ROCKERS
HARD AT WORK IN THE v. S.
The Narrative Of ku kiux Borers From
Within and Their Labors to
Divide the Country

DINIDE nation or a political state and,
- of course. you weaken it by half. Di-
vide it again and you leave It exposed to all
the cumulative forces Of ruin and disnte-
grafton.
Go up and down the United States and
patiently range religious creed against re-
ligious creed, befouling mems minds with
whispered lies-dividing the people into an
tngonlstic groups moved by mutual hate and
furious. unexplainable suspicions-and what
can become of the spirit of national unity
that we have created out of more than
century of experience and hopef
How will it fare with us in the next
great emergency?
What will become Of the sense of common
aims, common purposes and common des-
tiny that is the true source of our strength.
and how are We to survive in a world of
highly organized national effort?
When a civilized order is divided against
itself the end is in sight. nation is in
some ways Ike an army in the field. Break
1t in two and you can trampe it at your
leisure.
A wedge Of the sort which military com.
mandere in Europe used to talk about is
being driven into the life of the United
States Behind It is the more or less mys-
terious group Of men who have revived
Ku Kluxism and intensified and multiplied
and expanded the passions that made the
old organization dangerous and detestable.
So menacing is this movement to America,
so destructive is it to the foundations of
our common life, that 1t would be easy TO
suspect its leaders Of purposes far shrewder
and more studiousy malignant than any
now apparent on the surface of their scheme.
Outwardly the Ku Kluxism of the hour
seems merely like an astounding manifesto
tIon Of mass neurosis
1t exhibits at every turn the unthinkable
malice and the love Of uncanny suggestive
ness shabby limitations of mystery and dark
grandeur that ordinarily are apparent only
in subnormal minds. Its central appeal is
to instincts of vanity and cruelty. Its
books are n hash Of English that can only
amaze a reasoning being.
Yet a survey OF the country shows that
about 800. 900 men have solemnly sworn
allegiance to Kluxism and its Wizards and
Goblins and joined in secret war upon
Catholics. Jews. Negroes and the foreign
born and those of foreign parentage.
Each member Is required to pay $40 for
the rights Of citizenship in the "invisible
empire" for the right to MD in establishing
law above the written law and government
above the established Government of the
United States and it's various communities.
Judge William b. Sheppard. of the
United States District Court of New York,
who has just ordered a Grand Jury inves-
tigation of this extraordinary business. may
be right in assuming that Ku kluzism, II
it is not Curbed. may prove to be as disrup-
tive to the life of America as boIShevism
has been to Russia.
The Baltimore Sun may be right in its
assertion that Imperial Wizard Simmons
and his associates are merely engaged in n
large and extremely profitable exploitation
Of suckers.
In either event, the Ku Klux Is danger
ous. 1t is being zcalously pushed through
n card Index system of efficiency and with
an army Of professional organizers and
propagandtsts.
What its ultimate purpose may be no one
is permitted to know. Its avowed purposes
are amazing enough to bewilder people ac-
customed to think in rational terms.
Men who 60 abroad in masks-unashamed
Of the badges mmcmorinlly associated with
cowardiCe and Crimc-assume to be secret
censOrs Of the moral. religious, social and
political life of the country, to administer
justice independently. to torture and burn
If the whim sezcs them-and to formulate
their codes according to the will of gem
tleman who sits in Atlanta counting his
money and writing books that would be
funny If they were not for the most part
unintelligible.
Whether the Ku Klux Is due merely 10
mental alterations in it's leaders or TO n
scheme larger than any Of its members sus-
pcrt, it needs daylight let in upon IT,
Daylight II shall have.
The columns Of this newspaper are opened
today to admit the detailed truth about
the organization as It has been revealed in
a carefully made country wide investigation
Day by day We shall print the story Of
the Ku Klux. We rhall tell no more than
the, truth about it. That Is enough
What could be more astonishing than the
spectacle Of large and increasing group of
men a. the business of creating n separate,
independent Government of intolerance
within the United Statcs-within country
that has grown great because Of the un-
wavering devotion of Protestant and Cath.
Olc Jew and Gentle, white men and black.
who from the beginning have hoped and
fought and died for It without n shadow Of
doubt to temper their love Of the land or
their loyalty to its Government?
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