Durant weekly news. (Durant, Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 190?-1944, 1921-08-05
MINISTER BRANDS KU
kLUX kLAN AS NOTHING
MORE THAN MOB RIjLE

In stirring sermon last Sunday
night, Rev c. B. Cross, pastor of
the First NJ. E. Church said. THE
secret order OF the Ku Klux Khan. as
1t has developed in the past two
months. is nothing more nor less
than mob rule"
The church was crowded following
an announcement Of the pastors test
for the night discourse.
Ihe organizers OF the Ku Klux
kian were the best and most honest
men in the communities in which
they ived," Rev. Cross continued.
and their motives were the highest
ever used for the foundation of an
organization: the protection of the
innocent and the weak from the
criminality Of the individual. How
ever, no organization, which works
in the dark, with faces hidden. can
live up to the high motives which
the founders of that organization in
tended it to do"
IF l can't convince you by plain
reasoning. then can't make you be-
lieve me. But thinking clearly, an
swer these questions: Do you be-
lieve anarchy will be good for Amer
lea. Do you favor bOlshevism? Do
you believe in mob law? II let alone,
the ku klux klan and its outgrowths
would develop into just these situa-
tiOns in America. If any of these
four things persist, the government
will be overthrown, and I'm not an
alarmist either. Neither am I a pes
simist.
Il believe Bryan County has the
best officers in the whole United
States. but the officers are bound
hand and foot by the underlying prin-
ciples Of the law. Officers never
worked harder than ours to clean up
the county Of the whiskey traffic,
immortality and thievery, but as we
have all seen there are some things
that the law cannot touch. In Tulsa
1t is said that men swap wives more
than men in Bryan county trade
horses. And what did this condition
lead to? The officers we're not able
to cope with the situation as it was
and riot ensued, which damaged
the innocent more than 1t punished
the guilty.
There are conditions In Bryan
county which ought not to be. Boys
have been killed by poison whiskey
and innocent girls have been ruined.
The result is that men with high
principles try to correct the wrong.
admit that the wrong needs right
ing. am intensely concerned over
the situation, but 1t is question that
must be faced squarely, must face,
thinking clearly and logically. There
is one fault that find with Durant
and it Is the fault with almost every
other town in the nation. Durant
doesn't like to face unpleasant Ques-
tions squarely. But, silence does not
bring peace and submission does not
result in the best order of things. l
have spoken on this subject, not to
be sensational and to attract at
tention, but l have chosen this theme
because l believe it needs solution.
I think it better to prevent the khan
from coming to Durant than to fight
it after it gets here. Already where
Klans have been organized, anti
klans have sprung up, and they are
thousand times worse than the Ku
Klux Klan. which was organized with
the highest motives in view. AS in
the past Civil War days when the
Ku Klux Klan was organized for the
highest purposes that ever an organ
ization was formed, bad things re-
suited. Criminal individuals used the
hood and sheet for selfish and utter
ior purposes, until at last the best
and truest southern gentlemen were
forced to give their own organization
its death Llow. Therefore l hope the
Klan is never organized in Durant
believe there is another remed!
which will he much more effective
will deposit 500 in the First Ma
tional Bank to guarantee that thi:
remedy will work. Select ten OF thu
best men in Durant as court OF in
quiry. whose duty it will be to take
the names of every man guilty o
drunkenness, every person guilty o
immortality and any other offenses
and publish their names daily in
newspaper"
JAP PEOPLE WANT NO WAR