The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-10-14
KLAN faint IS
Seen AT MEET
OF LAFOLLETTE
Fiery Cross Preacher
Speaks at Detroit
BY OWEN STIRLING
Especial Correspondence

DE XVI u MlCns 10y WALL
The two famous men in De-
troit that night were Sen. Robt.
N. LaFolIette and the Rev. Viii
liam L. Stidger. And many we're
surprised when it happened.
More than 1000 were jammed
in the Arena Gardens, at from
so cents to a dollar a head, to
see LaFollette and his son,
Robert, Jr., go back to '76.
Judge Edward ]. Jeffries, of
recorders court here, was ring
master. The speakers all rang
the cracked bell.
Here's Trick Pastor.
Then chairman Jeffries introduced
the audience to someone he said was
Of Importance. The Someone he
said, was on the platform at that mo-
ment, Everyone wondered who it
was. Then:
Il refer to the Rev. stidger," JEFF
fries shouted, pointing at the trick
preacher of the Church of the Golden
Cross" And he added at the top of
his lungs, 4 want you to know him."
There was applause.
Stidger is the pastor of st. Marks
NJ. E. Church, on Jefferson avenue,
Detroit, and is member of the state
committee of the progressive repub-
lican party, the party Of the Ku Klux
Khan in Michigan. On top of his
church an electrically illuminated
cross revolves over the traffic jam
med avenue. Inside the church at
the services the worshippers, under
his direction, whistle the hymns. The
church is suddenly plunged in dark
ness and another electric cross blazes
forth in the front of the auditorium,
like a Khan cross. A spot light is
turned on Stidger as he breaches.
The Khan in Politics
Stidger's assistant pastor was Rev.
Caulkins. But Caulkins resigned to
become campaign manager for Char
les Bowles, the dark horse candidate
for mayor in the Detroit primaries.
Bowles' phenomenal run, landing him
in third place, was due to the Ku
KIux Khan. Bowles was so close to
the second nominee he will be a
sticker candidate for mayor Nov. 4.
The typical Khan faces were cons
picuous in the LaFollette audience
here. In some parties Of the audit
orium they predominated, sitting side
by side with union men whom office
seeking union officials have succeed
ed in turning away from farmer
labor party into LaFollette's march
Of the marionettes.
LaFolletto himself on the platform,
reading his speech from manuscript,
was a broken old man. His eyes
we're so dim he mis-read words. His
hands trembled. His foot went down
weakly and at the wrong moment
when he tried feebly to emphasize a
point.
He spoke of being elected and
inaugurated next November and next
March.
How do you know you will be-"
someone shouted.
Fails to Hold Audience
LaFollette, pausing, could only
answer. Il feel it in my bones"
$50 do we; so do We" echoed
others in feeble polyphomy.
And the speech went on. The last
third of it was inaudible. more than
half way back in the hall, because of
the steady tramping of men and
women leaving the auditotium for
affairs more interesting. The meet
ing more than anything else was a me-
mortal meeting to George Washington
Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson
and James Madison, such as school
masters used to organize in the little
red school houses. when our grand
fathers went to school,
II is generally agreed here that this
tour is probably Sen. LaFollette's last
public appearance. of an energetic or
even active character. And many
think the campaign may incapacitate
him altogether much as Eugene V.
Debs' last tour caused his collapse.
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