The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-09-30
IS THE X. X. k. ORGANIZED FOR
GRAFT?


| AS further exposure Of the designs
| of the Ku KIux Khan are made by
the New York World and the Dallas
News, working jointly in the task OF
showing it up to the world in its true
| light, it becomes even more Of me-
mace to peace and order than was at
first supposed. AS The Times insisted
from the start it would be, it has
proved convenient cloak for lawless
men to cover their nefarious designs
/ against society. 1t may be that all
j the crimes and misdemeanors commit
ted in its name are not justly charge
able to it, but we have the best of evil
dence that some of them are. The
Beaumont Khan did not attempt to
deny the charges against it, but brave
| II admitted their truth. Then the i'm
perial wizard and emperor Of the inyis-
ible empire" as he now styles himself,
declared that the charter of the Beau
mont Khan must be surrendered and
the khan disbanded. That nray have
been done. If it was we have never
heard Of it,
But lawlessness is not the only
charge that the World brings against
the. khan 1t is withal gigantic graft,
as much so as that for which Ponzi
is now serving time. The imperial
tr,;zard nIa;,,,r Sha+ 4I,rx o,.dor ,,,l,;1t
now has extended to all the states
but two or three, has 100000 members.
Each one of these 100000 members
has pledged his personal allegiance TO
William Joseph Simmons. the head
of the order. If their oaths are worth
anything at all, they are not as free
as the Germans were before the kaiser
gave UP the game and fled to Holland
Each one of these 100000 members
must donate" $40 on joining the order,
of which 81 goes to the organizer, or
kleagle, as he is called in the mys-
tifying and grandiloquent jargon of
the khan. That is not ALL Each
klansman must have his disguise, a
fiimsy cotton sheet covering his per-
son. For this he is charged $3.50 by
the headquarters in Atlanta. Now
you have an expense of $3.50 for each
man who becomes a klansman. Multi
ply this figure by six hundred thou
sand, and you have the cost of the
khan to it's members and can form
some idea of the colossal graft enjoy
ed by the imperial wizard, into whose
Golfers all these exactions are sup
posed to land.
There are 214 of these kleagles, so
called, spread all over the United |
States, and they are very busy earn
ing their 81 per, and for every addi-
ton they bring into the order the i'm
perial wizard, snugly, ensconced in
his den in Atlanta, gets Sc, besides
his share of the profit on regalia and
equipment. 1t is one of the great I
money making schemes of modern
times. No wonder that he resists
oSi Chuouoiy tHO CApOoC WHICH Lie /
World is making, and threatens all
kinds of trouble He announces his
intention to prosecute every paper in
the United States which publishes
anything derogratory to the sancros-
anct K. K. K. He expects the 200
able lawyers whom he has engaged
will collect as mucch as $4,000, 900 I
from the slanderous sheets.
They might begin with Federal i
Judge Shepard, of Pensacola, now sit
tnig on the bench in New York, who
says:
ANY organization which holds its
meetings by the light of bondfires in
secret places and the members of
which wear white suits and masks,
which attempts to prevent orderly
citizens from the enjoyment of their
constitutional rights, freedom of
speech, conscience and right of trial
by jury, is proper subject for in
yestigation by grand jury. That is
because such behavior on the part of
a secret society is conspiracy, and
the law can be brought to bear upon
them"
1t would not be surprising if the /
imperial wizard and emperor of the
invisible empire should eventually find
it necessary to issue his edicts from I
federal peniteniary. That is the
proper place for anyone who assumes
imperial honors and titles is this de-
mocratic republic Tampa Times