The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1921-07-27
IMPERIAL WIZARD
ISSUES STATEMENT
AS TO KLAN'S WORK
Will Disband Organization
and Suspend Members if
Guilty of Lawlessness
REIGN OF TERROR IN
TEXAS, FLORIDA CAUSE
Order Based on Great Moral
Principles, Says Col.
w. j. Simmons

The imperial wizard of the Knights
OF the Ku Klux Khan, Col. William
Simmons, Atlanta, Georgia, issued
an interview Friday to one of the ma
tional news agencies, stating that he
had detailed thirty men to investigate
the alleged lawless acts OF members
of the Khan in Texas, Florida and per-
haps in Oklahoma.
He stated further that if any mem
bers of the order or any local branch
were guilty OF such acts he would sus-
pend the members and revoke the
charters of such local organizations.
Going further in his statement he said
that if it was necessary he would
abolish the order, burn the parapher-
MALTA and costumes and turn in to the
law authorities a list Of the members
in every community in order that the
officials might keep tabs on the &C,
lions of these members in their re-
spective communities.
Col. Simmons stated emphatically
that the Ku Klux Khan was not an or
ganization dedicated to lawless acts
such as have been perpetrated in Tex
as in great numbers, also in Florida
and Oklahoma in less numbers recent
Iy. Tarring and feathering and whip
ping of individuals who might have
raised the ire of such local organi-
cations of the order of individual
members thereof would not be tolerat-
ed, as the Knights of the Ku Klux
Khan was dedicated to nobler purposes
and proposed to strengthen the arm Of
law to the end that such laws now
in effect would be fully enforced, and
to that end proposed to cooperate
with the officials in enforcing such
laws.
Many communities OF Texas la e
been terrorized recently by acts of the
Khan, or acts supposed to have been
committed by the Khan. For instance,
some months ago a physician, Dr.
Paul, at BEAUMONT, was taken out in
the woods, whipped and then tarred
and feathered and taken back into
the city and dumped from an alton o.
bile on the principal street corner
where he was in full view of passers-
by.
The occurrence caused a bit OF ex-
cftement and was neralded all ever
the nation, luridly illustrated story
in a Sunday magazine section of many
newspapers having brought the at
tention of millions of readers. An In
vestigation of the affair made by the
grand jury of Jefferson county in
which Beaumont is located, failed to
disclose who was responsible for the
act, but the jury returned an indict-
ment on nine counts against the doc
tor himself, charging malpractice and
other illegal things in the practice Of
his profession.
Then followed long series of SINH
lar acts in many sections of Texas,
eliminating last Thursday night at
a small village in northern Texas,
near Childress, where band of mask
ed men (supposed to be Klansmenl
called at the home of man and mott
fled him to come out. He responded
with a shot from his gun and one OF
the band fell mortally wounded, dy-
ing shortly afterwards.
In Houston. San Antonio, Austin and
other places the masked terror" has
gotten in its deadly work, and so evil
dent has become the necessity of TAX
ing steps to curb this spirit that the
governor took hand, and at the
special session of the Texas legisla-
ture, now sitting. one or more bills