Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-09-12

AOlln.
Masked government, masked
politics and masked justice have
no place in Georgia." the Macor
Telegraph says in an editorial
which we reprint in full as fol
lows;
The Ku Klux Khan, and any
other organization that has it's
being in this state, must be
erected on the basis of the state
and national constitution and
the traditions of a free people.
A mans home is his castle in
Georgia. To invade that home,
one must be empowered by
mandate from the whole people
through their constituted au-
thorities. This state can never
afford on any excuse to allow to
be struck down this tradition
and institution won by the blood
of the people. 1t is too great
a compromise to do so to bring
a bootlegger to justice-or even
a man who is said to treat his
wife badly. And if the Ku Klux
is built on the basis of violat-
ing the sovereignty of a mans
dwelling, then it is a European
organization, a Russian concep-
ton fundamentally, and be-
longs to have no existence be-
meath the protecting folds of the
stars and bars of these United
States.
1t beheoves the Ku Klux Khan
to prove that it is not revolt
against the American Constitu-
ton. 1t should make plain, if it
can, that it is not an attempt
to re-interpret America in terms
of methods wholly foreign to
the ways and intentions of the
original Americans and to the
spirit of the real American of
today.
Masked government, masked
politics and masked justice have
no place in Georgia. The
shades of the night are not nee
essary to the functioning of So
ciety in this state. The origin
al Ku Klux was thought to be a
thing of dire necessity to save
the honor and flower of the
South; but no such necessity nor
occasion exists today. Even the
original Khan sowed seeds that
required years to get rid of,
and even at this late day the
seeds planted to protect the
flowers are springing up as
weeds that are endangering the
foundations of society.
Nowhere in the historical rec
ords Of Oglethorpe can it be
found that he resorted to meth
DDS of the night in founding
Georgia.
1t was not the idea of Bob
Toombs, Alexander Stephens,
Ben Hill or Henry Grady that
our government should be fnr
visible; that the community
should be ruled from an office
building or private residence
instead of from the city hall,
the court house. the state CAPT
tol and the national.
AS a matter of pure and sim
pie logic and protection, if not
love and pride, the necessary
and progressive traditions of a
great people should not be
Haunted and trampled under
foot by a Russianistic scheme
that writes "Americanism"
across its banner. If the Ku
Klux Khan is not this, in view
of recent findings and state
ments in the public press, it be-
hooves the Klan to bend its ev-
cry energy to prove its right to
life and existence.
The cellar-court plan of
Bertha Krupp should not be
transplanted anywhere in Geor-
gia, from her wiregrass pine
lands in the South that breathe
the very air of unrestricted free
dom, to her mountain communi-
ties of pure-blooded Anglo-Sax-
on people in the north.
The star-chamber method of
trial, in secret and without the
defendant being allowed to de-
fend, is too un-American ever to
be transferred from the imper-
ialistic cess-pools of Europe to
the light of the new day that
the patriots of Georgia and the
other thirteen original states
have made to dawn and become
precious reality.
The woodland execution
ground, set about by thickets
and stars, the owls and hood
ed disguised company-this be-
longs to a day in the past, to
the dark spots of the Middle
Ages that men and women of
courage, sacrifice and persist
ence have put behind them for
the sake of. their children and
their children's' children, though
they could not themselves live
to see the clear skies and pacific
waters.
The very psychology of the
suggestion and idea of "Ku
kluX' is the taking of matters
into ones own hands. If the
modern-day organization did not
wish to suggest or imply that,
why did it adopt such an entitle-
ment? The American govern
ment, the Georgia code of law,