The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-09-14

boy, New Jersey and Steubenville,
Ohio, as the result of mob violence
during the past month are either
mourning their dead or nursing their
wounded.
Klansmen in company with all
other law-abiding Americans, are
wondering why. -.
In these three towns the Constitu-
tional right of peaceable public as
semblage, the right of free speech,
the right to openly advocate the
decent and better things in life ap-
parently are mere theories to be
combatted by the black jack, bomb
and automatic pistol.
Some powerful influence, some
malign, submerged and secretive pow
er is at work, so it seems, to crush
the greatest movement for patriot
ism, Professionalism and law observ-
ance which has swept this country in
century. Its present and startling
method is organized mob violence.
Out In the Open
Propaganda has failed, bribery has
failed, lies, SANDER and newspaper
slime has failed and now anti-Klan
fanatics are out in the open with
knife, torch and revolver.
Because men dare gather to praise
God, to sing the national anthem,
to clasp hands in the sacred cause of
reverence to the flag of their country
and their national ideals, they are
beaten, slain and spit upon.
To don the white robe, regalia of a
great Protestant American order, in
some parts of the United States dur
ing the past few weeks seems to have
become a summons to sudden death
at the hands of hidden assassins.
A peaceable meeting of Klansmen
in certain sectarian-controlled cities
in America means a riot call.
Since the quaint old trades guilds
trudged beneath their banners along
the cobblestoned streets of medic
val Europe secret societies have been
granted the public and indisputable
right to parade.
Every fraternal order in this coun-
try, since America was gloriously
founded, has by right of Constitution
been permitted the unhindered priv
ilege of peaceable assemblage.
All but the Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan in this enlightened year
of our Lord, 1923.
Frenzied crowds don't shoot Shrin-
ers because they march in Oriental
and peculiar garb. They don't kill
Knights of Pythias because they meet
secretly and quietly in their own fra
ternal halls.
But Klansmen are being killed and
beaten on the public streets and
mobbed and pummelled in. their own
private meeting places.
Organized Violence
No curiosity seeking crowd of
American men, women and children
is stirred to resentful violence by
the appearance of white-robed figures
carrying the American flag, led by
the blazing emblem of their religious
belief and singing the same hymns
with which years ago their mothers
moulded music into their childhood
But in several crowds of recent date
watching Klan parades the elements
of violence have been there, carefully
posted on the side lines by the pow
erful forces which have determined to
stamp flat this true American move
ment which menaces their schemes to
control and rule America and set its
laws aside at will.
A gunman lurking up an alley be-
side a Catholic church, at Carnegie
put Klansman Abbott in his grave.
Local leaders of certain religious So
cieties are said to have been at the
front of the Perth Amboy mob which
disgraced this New Jersey town last
week by forcing their way into a
peaceable Klan meeting, beating up
members and bounding them across
the roof tops of adjoining buildings