The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-02-29


having information of this Kind
should disseminate Il. But a Klans-
man Is always free to act as he
pleases on such information"
The first move Of a Khan when II
starts to clean up town seems to be
among its own members. Ii makes
them behave; several have complain.
ed to me that since Joining they
were no longer allowed to drink! The
Khan has rules OF conduct and a sys.
TEN of trial and punishment inside
itself which are most effective. NOr
are the crimes II Furnishes Onl.
those against fellow members. There
Is little doubt that the level Of con.
duet Is raised among men who join
The second move is against out
siders, usually against men or wom-
en- who have offended against the
Klan's moral ideas. These are rather
strict being set by the same literal
minded, church-going class of de-
cent people who have given US pro
| hibition, demand strict observance
of the Sabbath, and have no SYM
pathy for any sexual indulgences. Of.
| ten the victims are Catholics, Jews
and aliens, but l have learned of nc
case in which there was not some de-
finite charge of misconduct against
them, as we'll as the general fact of
their faith or race.
Bootleggers seem to be the favor
tie objects of attack; the Khan cru
SADIE against them at Herrin, ILL.,, has
been widely advertised and has been
initiated in hundreds of towns. / find
that in some dozen places from
which | have information the price
of liquor-the best gauge of law en-
| forcement-has risen from two tC
| five hundred per cent since the Khan
took hold. Dope peddlers came ir
for attention, social vice is censored
grating officials are taken care of
places of amusement regulated, un-
| fair business dealing punished. But
there is also much effort put into
| regulating personal conduct. ! have
stories of Khan influence being
brought to bear on men who main
tanned illicit relations with women
who failed to support their families
drank or gambled too heavily, or in
general acted scandalously."
With most of these a warming
backed by their own fear of the
Khan, brings prompt reformation
When this fails pressure is applied
running through ostracism and boy
colt up to measures which drive the
culprit into exile in extreme cases
The whole procedure can be illus
trated by a single case, which is ty,
pical in that even the victim himself
does not know certainly that his en-
envy is the Khan. 1t occurred a few
weeks ago in an eastern state in one
of those communities where the orr
ginal inhabitants have inbred, fall.
en- rather low, and dropped much
pretense of morality. The reformers
seem to be newcomers, backed by a
few of the better breed of old resi-
dents.
In the town which is the center
o fthis community a young man who
is steady hard working and fairly
trustworthy, was living with motor
iously vicious woman. He was call
ed to the phone one evening and adj
vised to leave her The speaker ar
gued at some length, explained that
the example was bad, made the pro
per bringing up Of children harder
and so forth. A week was allowed foi
action. At the end of that time g
second brief warning was given that
he would regret it if he was not rio
of the woman in three days.
He kept her. On the fourth day
he lost his job. for plausible reasons,
The next day his landlord demanded
an exhorbitant raise in rent, for
plausible reasons. He found that
supplies were cut off. The milkmar
disappeared. The butchers Wagon
failed to stop, and when he went to
the stores he could get little atten-
ton. At some he was fatty told that
his trade was not wanted. BY the end
of the week only one man would sell
him food and this grocer-who had
defied a telephone warning-was
brought into line within the next
week by the loss of nearly 70 per
cent Of his trade.
The fght-if it can be called that
was over inside of two weeks. The
young man moved to a hovel some
miles into the country, where
friends were at hand. AS this is
written he is still out of work, liv-
ing precariously on his friends char
ity. Such further orders as have
come over the telephones of that
town have been instantly obeyed.
AS an example of the use of the
boycott in punishment, let me sub
init list read at meeting of the
Khan in northern Ohio. 1t is writ
ten from memory and incomplete
but nearly enough exact to do for
illustration. The speaker made no
recommendation of action. He said,
in effect:
II wish to tell you some of the
things your fellow townsmen have
done, The Elite Clothing Store sells
half-cotton goods as pure wool. Ar
thur Fredericks, a doctor, is a dope
user John Polaris, restaurant
keeper, has been trafficking in wom-
en-. Micheal O'Flynn's soft drink par
Tor sells white mule. Walter Peters
got a slice Of that paving contract
graft. Jim Brady, the cigar store
man, has a starving wife in Omaha,
and has been making love to some
girls here. Benjamin Strauss, the
drygoods man, underpays his girls,
and besides eXpects too much of