The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-03-07
W MX KHAN MAY SUCCEED IN RULING AMERICA SAYS STANLEY FROST

-determine for themselves. This is
important in showing the limits of
the Khan leaders power.
In general, however, in nearly nine
ty per cent of the cases | have been
able to check, the Khan apparently
has cast a practically solid vote.
This is increasingly true, and the
Grand Dragon of Oklahoma told me
| that by next fall the entire member
ship would be educ Gated, and "ready
and able to make proper use of in
formation given them" DR.. Evans
adds that the Klan usually casts
more than its own vote.
We have found by experience" he
remarked, that when a Khan issue
is raised or when the Khan becomes
active in a political campaign, the
actual pro-Klan vote will be much
larger than the numerical strength
Of the Khan itself, and sometimes
many times as large" 1t should be
| added that the Khan officials declare
that the Khan itself has never been
allowed to become an issue, or a
klansman to run as such, unless an
attack had been made on it. | have
not found case in which this was
not true.
This very considerable ability of
the Khan to use almost full strength
in local and state elections, however,
must be discounted when we come to
consider national race. In the local
elections party loyalty is compare
lively weak. How far the Khan edu-
cation would be able to swing the
votes of members in the partisan
heat of national election is a very
different question, and there has
been no demonstration on which an
answer might be based. Politicians
and observers disagree on that. 1t
seems fair to say that most of them
declare the Khan can safely be ignor-
ed in national politics, but few of
them act that way!
When it comes to the actual pow
er of the Khan in political action
the fact that it is not a party, does
not want full control or offices, and
therefore does not need an actual
plurality of votes, gives it great ad-
vantages toward the results it does
demand. 1t leaves room for deals;
for politicians to submit and yet
save their faces. And a minority,
willing to swing to either party a
solid block of votes, is in a far bet
ter position to get those results than
even a party majority would be. The
Anti-Saloon League has given the
most convincing proof of this. Such
body can threaten both parties,
quite likely secure pledges or dictate
nominations on both sides, and be Sc
cure of victory whichever wins. If
either party or candidate balks, it
can usually swing enough votes to
beat him.
The political law on which this
minority power-the power of any
minority-is based is the very A B c
Of American politics, yet so often
forgotten that may be pardoned for
recalling it. 1t is that control of
one half Of the movable or floating
vote I'm any electorate gives pOliti-
cal control. For example, in most
elections the two great parties are
fairly evenly balanced, party loyalty
holding something like 40 per cent of
the voters to each. The election
then will be decided among the re-
naming twenty per cent, and any
one who controls one vote more than
half of them can throw victory
whichever way he pleases. The man
who wins must take his orders both
before and after election.
The actual figures vary, of course,
but the fact always is that victory
does not depend on winning a ma
jority of the voters, but majority
of those who are not party-bound.
Hence it is that any small and COM
pact minority is usually able to get
what it wants. The Klan's strength
is that it has gathered such a min
ority.
But the Klan's weakness is in the
one exception to this rule; rather in
it's corollary. This is that the min.
ority power fails as soon as there Is
formed another group, equally large,
and determined to vote against the
first group. If the two balance, both
can be ignored. In practice this
seldom happens. Pro-Germans, for ex-
ample, were long able to act as a
unit, while the rest of us were divid-
ed over tariff, conservation, or some
other matter. In local politics the
"liquor vote"-and today the "boot-
leg vote"-can win easily in any
c ampaign which divides the elector-
ate on any other issue. Our politics
has thus become full of minority |
groups for which there is no offset: |
racial, religious, business, farming, |
labor or whatnot, each without any
corresponding group of "antis." Poll
ticians and office holders cater to
them all; they must for If one is
lost there is nothing to take it's
place.
In case of the Khan, however, this |
law of opposition groups works with |
full force. The Khan automatically |
raises up its opponents; more accur-
ately it is an opposition group itself;
it's chief object being to strike at |
certain of the groups already active,
so that it's balancing blocs are ready |
made. Many politicians therefore |
believe that they can win by defying |
the Khan and rallying all these
groups behind them. As this is writ
Il: l.