The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1923-12-27
SEES
FEUDAL WARE ARE
IN KLAN STRIFE
Edward Young Clarke Urges
President Coolidge to
Take Hand,


WASHINGTON. Dec. 27.-Warfare
which viii make the mountain feuds
of Kentucky look like play will break
out between factions of the Ku-Klux
Klan unless present conditions are re-
moved. Edward Young Clarke, for
merly imperial wizard Of the Klan,
predicted today.
Clarke arrived in Washington to
make a personal appeal TO President
Coolidge to take the lead in a move
TO clean up the Klan or stamp it out
entirely
After an ope nletter from Clarke
had been left at the White House by
Edward Fuller. his representative,
Clarke declared he was through with
the Klan; that a reign Of lawlessness
almost beyond belief" is attributable
70 klan strength In Texas. Louisiana,
Arkansas and oklahoma; that in
Ohio Michigan and parts OF Illinots
the klan is becoming "a master politi-
cal machine"
Gun Licenses Dangerous
In Pennsylvania and Indiana L.
censes TO carry guns have been and
are being obtained by Klansmen un-
der an old law with relation to the
protection Of cattle and other ami
mails" Clarke said.
I am informed within the last
few days about $50 such commits
sions were issued at one time In In
diana and Ohio"
He IS making himself a target,
Clarke said out OF a feeling It is his
duty TO make war on a condition
and a process of development through
which the Klan IS passing and which,
unless checked. will mean either the
destruction Of the Klan or the develop
ment of an organization to the point
where IL will be a real menace to the
Nation.
THE Klan today, on the inside. is
a seething mass Of animosity, strife
and hatred and unless something is
done TO change the situation there
will be practical feudal warfare The
far-famed mountai nfeuds Of Ken
lucky were but play in comparison to
the bitterness and hatred now exist
ing between the two factions and
bloOdshed is as certain to come as
night follows day"
Good men in the Klan are afraid
to speak out, he said. Legislators,
Senators and Congressman "are being
whipped into line" and for this rea-
son, he said, ''it has become necessary
for me to declare myself or prove un-
true to the allegiance Of my country"
Clarke is head Of the faction which
m -
Evans administration.
The open letter presented by Fuller
was a violent attack on the present
control of the Ku-Klux Klan.
Is Real Menace
AS now operated, Clarke's letter
said, the Klan IS "a real menace to
law and order" individual rights and
Democratic political government.
He said the thing which alarms
me most in connection with the or
ganization is the apparent trend of
thought inside the ranks Of the mem
bershir toward disregard for law and
order and the tendency of the mem
hership to assume local, State and ma
:ional political dictatorship and in my
judgement when any powerful secret
organization assumes either of the
above attitudes it Immediately be-
comes a real menace to free Govern
ment and the rights, privileges and
liberties guaranteed under the Con-
stitution.
L have received from widely scat
tered sections Of the country direct
and authoritative information the
Klansis widely developing nationally
as a cheap political machine and in
sections where it is strongest brazenly
and openly superseding the authority
of the courts through character assas-
sination, intimidation and actual phys
ical violence"