The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-02-29
OKLAHOMA PEOPLE
ARE NOT OPPOSED
TO XII KLUx KHAN
Blake Making Futile Effort
To Get $4,000 Anti"
Names on Petition
mo REAL OPPOSITION
Immunity Of Un.American Dis.
proves Wild Charges Against
American Order

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA, Feb. 25.
There is not to be found $4,000
persons in the entire state of Okla
homa who wish to record themselves
as opposed to the Ku Klux Khan.
There are approximately two and
quarter million people in this
state.
Of this two and a quarter million
the Khan has not even 10000 ill
wisherS no, nor yet 10000.
For three long months Alrich
Blake, with the assistance of the ma
chinery of the anti-Klan association,
has been securing Oklahoma in
desperate and futile attempt to pro-
cure the necessary $4,000 signatures
to his initiative petition for a law
to unmask the Khan membership.
Two conclusions may be drawn
from the complete and ultimate
fiasco Of Blake's campaign against
the klan.
The first is, that the people of Ok
lahoma are in sympathy with the
Ku Klux Khan and its principles,
and do not wish to see the organiza-
tion damaged or handicapped in it's
work of uplift by an enforced publ
cation of its membership.
The second is, that a great major
ity Of the non-Klan population was
not increased with the infamma-
tory abuse of Blake and Walton
against the organization, and, there
fore, unconcerned as to who the
members are.
Perhaps both conclusions combine
to explain Blake's failure.
However, the result of the canvass
is an irrefutable proof that there is
no organized or articulate public OPP
position to the Ku Klux Khan in Ok
lahoma today.
1t is anticipated that Blake will
now come forward with an "alibi"
that voters were fearsome of Khan
intimidation" and therefore hesitant
about signing their names to the
petition.
That explanation will be scarcely
convincing, since he himself, the
Klan's arch enemy, has been free to
bemean and SANDER the order from
one end of the state to another,
without let or hindrance. In a num-
Der Of counties where the local Off
cials were Klansmen, public build
ings and court rooms were thrown
open to him for his anti-Klan meet
ings.
If conditions in Oklahoma had
really been what Jack Walton and
Blake and the Allen controlled press
of the state and nation have been
trying to delude US into believing,
Arich Blake would have been fog
ged tarred and feathered, or posi-
bly, assasinated before he had can
vassed two weeks.
SO now, with Blake's "war on the
Klan" safely over without any casu-
allies, doubters outside the state may
know at last with certainty that the
conspiracy against the Ku Klux Khan
in Oklahoma was bottomed upon the
most astounding and monstrous lie
ever foisted upon the people of an
enlightened nation!
Blake's fight is over. He was a
valiant campaigner and we admire
his pluck, if not his good sense and
sound judgment.
But it was losing fight from the
beginning. One cannot long breast
the current of progress and make
Roadway. Blake, it is to be hoped
has learned that, if nothing else.
1t is a we'll known fact that Aid
rich Blake attempted to obtain
membership in the Klan at Muskogee
at the inception of the Khan in Ok
lahoma, but the Khan wanted none
of him nor his kind. Forthwith "Sir"
Aldrich started his campaign of
abuse and villifcation of the organi-
zation, and, as stated, his latest ven
ture has been a dismal failure.
The Khan had no objections to
Blake's public fight upon the order.
His was the right to make that fight
and circulate his petition-the right
of a free American citizen, the right
which Klansmen, bound by their
fealty to the constitution and the