Phoenix tribune., 1924-08-30
LA Toilette COMES
OUT Strong AGAINST
THE KU KLUX KLAN
Mr.. Robert P. Scripps,
New York City.

New YORK City.
Dear Mr.. Scripps:
Your letter of August 1st received.
You ask where l stand on the Ku
Klux Klan. Similar inquiries have
come to me from others. take the
liberty of making my answer to you
public. This will inform all those
interested in knowing my attitude on
this question.
But first and before all else, 1 am
bound to say that in my view the one
dominant, all embracing issue in this
campaign, is to break the combined
power of the private monopoly sys-
tenn over the political and economic
life of the American people.
This power controls every import
ant branch of industry mining,
manufacturing and transportation. 1t
controls markets and credits and die
tates the price of every product neces-
sary to feed, clothe, warm and shelter
the human family. To control that
which sustains life to control life it
self. This is economic slavery. Free
government cannot long exist side by
side with economic despotism.
To this issue, in so far as l am able,
Il shall hold the attention of the voters
of this country. From this position
l shall not be turned aside.
Hence l deem it most unfortunate
that questions involving religious
opinion and other questions unrelated
to the vital issues of the restoration
of government to the people, have
been raised in this as in other critical
years of our national history. Such
controversies feed upon and inflame
prejudice and passion to the exclus-
ion Of issues involving the very life
of government itself.
This brings me to say in response to
your inquiry as to my stand on the
Ku Klux Klan that I have met this
question in various forms during my
public life.
Anyone familiar with my record,
especially in my own state, knows
that have always stood without res
ervation against any discrimination
between races, classes and creeds.
hold that every citizen is entitled to
the full exercise of his constitutional
rights.
1 am unalterably opposed to the
evident purposes Of the secret organ
ization known as the Ku Klux Klan
as disclosed by its public acts.
1t cannot long survive.
Relying upon the sound judgment
and good sense of our people, it is my
opinion that such movement is fore
doomed. 1t has within its own body
the seeds of it's death.
Abraham Lincoln, nearly seventy
years ago set forth his views on this
question in letter to his friend, Mr..
Joshua F. Speed, dated Springfield,
Illinois, August "a, 1865:
"* = = You inquire where stand.
That is disputed point. l think l
am Wing; but others say there are
no Wings, and that l am an Aboli,
ZIONIST.
II am not Know-Nothing; that is
certain. How could l be? How can
any one who abhors the oppression
of Negroes be in favor of degrading
classes of white people? Oul
progress in degeneracy appears to me
to be pretty rapid. AS a nation we
began by declaring that all men are
created equal We now practically
read it all men are created equal ex-
cept Negroes When the Know
Nothings get control, it will read all
men are created equal except Negroes
and foreigners and Catholics When
it comes to this, shall prefer emf
grating to some country where they
make no pretense of loving liberty
to Russia, for instance, where despot-
ism can be taken pure, and without
the base alloy of hypocrisy,
"Your friend forever,
"a. LINCOLN"
With this statement from Abraham
Lincoln l would join also passage
from a letter written by Thomas
Jefferson to Edward Dowse in 1903
81 never will, by vote or act, bow