The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1923-09-21
UNION
and The KHAN

New York.-The American Civil La
berries Union is calling the free speech
bluff of the Ku KluX Klan. In let
ter to Imperial Wizard H. w. Evans
regarding the charge that Khan free
dom was violated at Carnegie, P, Aug.
25, director Robert w. Dunn of the
union says:
eve are interested to know in what
way we can be of service to the Ku
Klux Khan in defending its rights of
'peaceable assembly, free speech and
free movement Nevertheless, we
cannot forget the following facts, re-
corded in our files, which lead US to
doubt the sincerity and genuineness of
your sudden concern for free speech"
The Cicil Liberties union then calls
the wizards attention to the present
state of martial law in Tulsa, Okla,
and the brutal outrages" attributed
to Klansmen that have just been made
public there. 1t enumerates the vari-
Gus violations of civil rights commit
| ted by the Ku KluX Khan during the
/ last year.
an january of this year a railroad
worker in Harrison, Ark, town run
| by a Citizens Committee of klans-
men, was lynched because he refused
| to confess to sabotage, of which he
was not guilty. Recently two other
strikers were sentenced to seven years
each in the penitentiary because
Klansmen had threatened them with
the same fate if they failed to plead
guilty. The Klan in Harrison recently
lynched a man named Lean. Frequent
letters from the district inform US that
'peaceable assembly, as we'll as every
other right, is still denied to all but
citizens
Interference with the right of labor
unions to organize workers has been
one of the principal activities of the
Khan. In January of this year, j. F..
Marsh, a speaker for the Farm Labor
Union of AtOka, Okla, was severely
beaten by your members and ordered
to stop his work for the farmers A
few months later in Bald Knob, Okla.
delegates Of the Industrial Workers
) union were menaced and searched by
; mob of Klansmen and driven out Of
: town.
= Religious hatred, scarcely consist
: ent with your recent defense of free
speech, caused K1ansmen of New
York to burn churches and admit THEN
vent by threats the passage of the
Walker bill. School teachers have beer
dismissed and left without positions
in West Virginia and Georgia because
Of their Catholic faith, and attempts
are constantly being made to limit
the freedom of children to attend sec
f tartan schools, as witness the Tecenf
e legislation in Oregon, fostered by the
S Invisible Empire.
e ''The denial of any rights whatever
: to Negroes is, in itself, sufficient con
d demnation Of the khan, without tn,
e added incentive, especially in TeXa
:, and Mississippi, of ioggings, lynch
j ings and burnings at the stake b.
which your organization and thos
: inspired by your tactics work to over
l. ride the laws, and limit their applica
e ton to the select body known as white
s Protestant, gentle Americans.
s an view of these facts, which ar
only typical of dozens we might pre-
# sent" the Civil Liberties union
o communication to Wizard Evans cor
e cludes, at is to say the least, sUrpris
a ing to see your uncOnvincing cOncer
n for civil liberty. However, we believ
IS heartily in free speech for khan as we
as anti-klan, and we offer you our as
e sistance in maintaining that right"