New Britain herald., 1922-10-20
CHURCH CONDEMNS
 MASKED SOCIETIES
Administrative Committee Had Ku Klux KIan in Mind

Washington, Oct. 20.-Condemna. tory resolutions aimed at masked and secret bodies have been passed by tho administrative committee Of the Fed eral Council of Churches. While the, mentioned no organization by name the Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert, one of the two general secretaries. declar. ed that members of the administra. tive committee had the Ku klux Klan in mind in particular.
 In making the resolution public MT. Cavert said This action was taken as result of statements made from time to time that the Ku KluX klan and other masked and secret bodies are acting in behalf of the Protestant churches of the United States. While the ku klux Klan is not mentioned by name in the state ment, members of the administrative committee had 1t in mind in parti- cuar.
 Methods Are Wrong.
 "The motives of the Ku klux klan and similar organizations may be of the highest, but members of the ad- ministrative committee believe their methods are not only wrong but also dangerous from every standpoint. Ac- tion by the committee is significant when it is realized that 80 great com munions with more than 2o,0oo,0oo members are affiliated with the fed eral council" The resolution is as | follows:
 The administrative committee of | nf !, G Churches of Christ in America records its strong conviction that the recent rise of organizations whose members are masked, oath bound and unknown.an whose activ ities have the effect of arousing re- ligious prejudice and racial antipath- ess is fraught with grave consequences to the Church and to society at large. 1 Any organization whose activities tend to set class against class or race against race is consistent neither with the ideals of the churches nor with | true patriotism, however vigorous or sincere may be it's professions of re- ligon and Americanism.
 Evils Not Rcmedied By Private
 Action
 Evils of lawessness and immoral ity, however serious, can never be remedied by secret, private and un- authorized action. They must be handled by the State and by the rec ognzed forces of education. For groups of individuals wearing masks and concealing their identity to pass judgment on men and women and to carry out humiliating measures of their own devising, is subversive of every principle of civilized govern ment. and undermines respect for the established agencies of law and order.
 Fall Into Evils Of Mob Rule | Any body Of men, unidentified and banded together to achieve in a partisan spirit the purposes of sec tional, political, racial or sectarian group, is almost certain to fall into the very evils of mob rule against which the spirit of Christian demo- cracy and Americanism makes vigor- ous and constant protest Even if they resort to no unworthy deeds themselves, their practice of carrying on their plans in disguise or under cover of darkness encourages others to do likewise, and so affords the op- portunity for all manner of lawless- ness to be carried on with immunity from arrest or punishment. However true it is that in some communities religious organizations .:eell q control over municipal administration which is undemocratc and highly undesir- able, yet for another body of men, secret and oathbound, to undertake to get control is equally intoerable, even if they seek with all sincerity to wrest it from the control of other groups.
 ''The administrative committee of the federal council of the churches is opposed to any movement which overrides the processes of law and order, and which tends 10 compllCate and make more difficult the work of cooperation between the various poli- tical, racial and religious groups in the republic. No such movements have the right to speak in the name of Professionalism, and the churches are urged to exert every influence to oha tbait