The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-25
DAWES FORCES !. COOLIDCE'S ON KHAN ISSUE Makes It Difficult For President To Maintain
 His Silence STATE CANDIDATES
 TO FEEL EFFECTS Likely To Suffer As Re- suit Of Bringing Ku
 KIux Into Drive
By RAYMOND CHAPTER y Leased Wire To Tho Age-Hersld)

(By Leased Wire To Tho Age-Herald)
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 24.-I Whether to trounce the Ku Klux Klan as Davis and La Toilette have done is about the toughest problem Coolidge has tusseled with since he be- came President, because his decision means so much to the political, and therefore the personal, fortunes of many fellow republicans who hap pen to be candidates for office this year.
 Looked at purely from the angle of political expediency, there are pow erful considerations in favor of both denunciation and silence. Coolidge'sI coure may Ss mean. the success or the failure of the republican national and state tickets in states like Indiana, Oklahoma and Missouri. Iti will be q tremendous factor in states like New York and New Jersey and may even cause an upset in staid old nAdAHcf WuACu AS aOW III stnGi 4tst4t O1 a state campaign.
 Any course Coolidge follows will hurt him and the ticket in some sections and help in others.
 Two Big RSverses
 The two big reverses which the Klani has net within the month tIIe 1ons-s inat tion Df Jn Cs " iI0n as ss
 
 A0li8 azid ffs. softs ucsa iia dal for governor in Tsxas -llaye conviNehd many eastern politicians that the spell of the Klan is broken.
 But whether this is true or not. any candidate who offends the Klan is inc viting the hostility of large group of voters. Republicans undoubtedly would have been better pleased had thel question never been raised They are inclined to regard the Davis challenge as a political trick designed to put the President in hole.
 It is hardly to be expected thatl democrats and La Toilette independ- ents will be content with the answerl made by, Dawes at Augusta. C0olidgel is certain to be heckled until he bfeaksI his silence. M
 Dawes Forces Hand
 In a way, Dawes haaa foreed sthe Presidents hand. for 1t is now more difficult for Coolidge, to remain silent when even his own finniRg mate has followed the lead sof Davis and La Fol- lette. And Coolidge, if he says anything, must conform to the. vieM expressed by his partner on the ticket It would be unthinkable for him and Dawes to be out of harmony on this question.
 nr,N h.,aa s1f he An ,vnsl state situations that Coolidge must take into consideration
 In Texas. the republicans will choose gubernatorial candidate next week to run against Mrs. Ferguson, the anti Klan democrat. There will be a bitter fight between National Committeeman R. B. Creager, anti-Klan republican, and those who will want to put up a candidate sympathetic to the secret order so that the Klan opposition to Mrs. Ferguson will have some logical place to go.
 Klan For Republican
 In Oklahoma, the democratic sena- torial candidate. Jaack Walton, is rum ming on an anti-Klan ticket. Pine, the republican senatorial candidate, is Klan endorse. With their narrow mar gin in the Senate, the republicans have no seats to throw away. A Klan denunciation by Coolidge would be rep resented by Oklahoma democrats as a repudiation of the republican candidate, and Walton would gain much benefit from it.
 In Kansas, Paulen, the republican nominee for governor, was said to have had Klan support.
 In Missouri, normally evenly bal anced, there is a tremendous foreign and negro vote which will be reluctant to support a ticket it believes is friend ly toward the Klan.
 In Indiana, the republican organiza- tion is regarded as Klan controlled, yet the negro vote is supposed by poliu clans to be large enough to swing the state either way and a Klan denuncia- ton would win them back, but it would put more ammunition in the hands of the democratic candidates, who al- ready have a lot because of the convic ton of McCray, former republican governor, for misuse of state money.
 In Maine, Pattangall, the demOcrtic candidate for governor, Is running on an anti-KIan platform. l
 In New York and :Sew Jersey, the problem Is simpler for the Klan element is not 80 strong and the size of the for eign vote overshadows 1t in importance. 1 Here Coolidge has everything to gain | and little to lose by attacking the KlRn, T
 These are soma of the invalued pol itlcal aspects of the problem, But those who know Coolidge do not believe that | he will decide the question solely on those considerations. He will also 'con- slider the questions of moral principle | involved. whether the Klan is an insti- I tuition for good or evil, and fhether President of the United States can justly prescribe an organization which ! includes thousands of patriotic citizens. l
 Prevailing opinion here is that Cool l ldge will answer Davis. and that he | will record himself against the Klan i in principle while acknowledging the | good motives of many of its members l But a glance at the political problems | involved indicates the amount of eOn- hicting pressure with which Coolidge l must deal in reaching a decision,