The Washington herald., 1922-05-24
Oregon and Texas Meet
New Political Factor,
Says Sullivan
RELIGIOUS FACTOR
BEING INJECTED
Senator Culberson's Rival
.Esp0uses Cause of
Hammers.
By, MARK SULLIVAN.

The result OF the Oregon re-
publican primary for the governor
ship makes IL certain that the Ku
Klux Khan and a series of afiliate1 !
religious questions will continue to
the front in Oregon. and will have
a considerable effect on the No
vember elections. And the Ku Klux
Khan Is going to be a major politi-
cal issue in at least one other
State.
In the Oregon primary Hall was
the candidate OF the so-called
Federated Patriotic Societies" His
opponent. the present governor. Oh
colt. was supported by those ele-
ments in Oregon who look upon
the Ku Kiux Klan as undesirable
and regard every kind Of intru-
sion of religious questions> into
politics as deplorable. The close
ness of the result makes IL certain
that these questions will be car
ried into the November election.
and makes II possible that a Demo-
cratic governor may be elected in
this normally strong Republican
State.
hhtI-S utnoIc movement
II is not merely the Ku Klux
Klan that is active in Oregon poll
tics. Their purposes are helped by
other organizations who are ordi-
narily on a much higher plane and
do not commonly take an active
part in politics. Under the name
OF the Federated Patriotic Socie-
ties" these organizations are d.
recting their energies. among other
things. against the Catholic paro-
chial schools. The Federated Pa
triotic Societies are backing an
amendment to the Constitution
which shall compel every child tc
attend the public schools through
the primary grades.
Parenthetically. one of the Oregon
results throws light on some other
issues. The Oregon Represents,
tive. c. N. Macarthur, VIII" repre-.
sents the district that include,
the city Of Portland. was on,
of the comparatively few men "
Congress who opposed the soldie,
bonus. For this he was opposed
in the primary by the Americar
Legion. Representative Macarthur
also had opposition from the HI
Klux Khan and from labor. Ir
spite Of this he was carried througf
to remarkable success by thu
favor in which he was held for hi,
known independence.
Khan In Texas.
The other State in which the XIV
Klux Klan figures in politics to g
decree diffiCult for outsiders t.
realize is Texas. In this state on,
Of the four veterans of the Senate
Charles A. Culberson. is a candidate
for reelection. He has declared
against the Ku Klux Klan as g
menace to civil law and organized
society One of Senator Culher'
sons opponents has come out with
a speech in which he indorses ant
praises the Ku klux Khan IN
ecstatic language. The man wh'
takes this position is not an un'
known, nor an erratic radical, mol
provincial. I He is Robert l.
Henry. who has spent twenty years
in the Lower House of Congress
and rose to he one of the five oil
six Democratic leaders and chair
man of the important Committed
on Rules.
In Texas the activities of the Ku
Klux Klan seem to be less exclu'
sively religious than in Oregon. 1r
Texas the Klan has made Itself a
kind of social censor of personal
conduct. especially in matters con-
cerned with what is occasionally
described as the moral code.
A man whose conduct Is regarded
as reprehensible receives a formal
notice from lhe local Klan calling
attention to his alleged derelic-
tions, and demanding that he re.
move himself to another county
Failure to take action on this
warning is followed by an official
visit from the Klan. midnight
abduction to the country, and
seventy-five lashes on the bare
skin. The power that the Ku Klux
Klan has come tn have in Texas
is one of the chief issues in the
States politics
(Honvrirht l922,1