Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-10-14
PROPAGANDA DE LUXE

A SSISTANT WIZARD CLARKE, of the
~ Ku Klux Klan, obviously has missed
his calling. He ought to leave the Klux and
open n school Of training for such amateur
dramatlsts as David Belasco and George
Cohan. That impression was unavoidable
Yesterday when the news tricklcd in from
Washington and Atlanta where the able
hand of Clarke was revealed in the swift
unfolding of n drama Intended to have half
the country for a stage.
At the moment when Wizard Simmons was
preparing for his astounding burst of ora
tory in congressional committee room, the
news arrived that hard hearted assassin
had fired two shots into the home of Mrs.
Elizabeth Tyler, and that the high priestess
Of all lady kluxers would have been killed
had she not stopped at the right instant
''over the bedside Of her sick child"
The hard malignity of all who aren't Of
the Ku kluN outfit was deftly suggested in
an opening act preparatory to the appear
nncc of the Imperial Wizard in Washington
and the loud reading of speech laudatory
Of tho Klan presumably written, of course,
by Clarke. Here was the sympathy making
machine under full steam. Unfortunately,
however. the Atlanta police after a few
hours Of search and questioning at Mrs.
Tyler's home, dropped the case and i'm
piled broadly that the shooting was staged
That incident and the character Of the
address made IN his own defense by Sim
mons provided the country with its first com
pete view Of a propaganda organization Of
the first class operating In daylight. Clarke,
speaking with the voice of Simmons, wasn't
talking for the information of congress
SiOnaI committee He was talking for the
telegraph wires that lead from Washington
tu the newspapers of the country. The
%unplay in Atlanta was to have been in the
nature of soft music at this performance.
Such things are done every day in the
United States The reoplc whose business
it is to make public opinion have arts that
the ordinary man in the street never
dreams Of
OF the Wizards defense Of himself and
his organization It may only bc said that
II appears to have been formulated without
any respect for the collective intelligence of
the hearing committee. Simmons in his best
voice insisted that he was a good citizen,
that all members Of his Klan are good
citizens. But he revealed incidentally that
whatever may be said Of the members OF
the Khan, the kleagles seem TO have been
willing to lie at great rate to all pros
poets when they talked Of the membership of
the organization. The Keagles advertised
a membership of 500 900. Simmons swears
that his followers number little more than
l0O, 900. That, however, does not greatly
matter.
The question OF good citizenship raised by
Simmons is one that he should hesitate to
mention In public place What have
masks and dark oaths and black hand let
tors and lynchings and crazy pledges of
allegiance to an invisible empire TO do
with good citizenship in the United States?
The first duty of any good citizen is to live
in peace with his neighbor. to respect the
constitutional provision which guarantees 10
all men equality under the law and the right
TO worship according to the dictates OF their
ronscences a good citizen would sutfocate
in the atmosphere created in the haunts of
tho IN Khx