Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-09-06

vote for me; and another was Adam
P. Leighton Of Portland. I saw Mr..
Leighton last night and he told me
he would sue the Bangor Commercial
If they published his name in such a
list.
Il want to take two minutes to
show you that there Is a Khan issue
in Maine and that 1 did not bring it,
said Mr.. Pattangall.
Concerning the Khan he spoke in
part as follows:
rs the Khan an issue? have
been accused throughout this cam
paign of having injected it into the
politics of the state. In the first
place, F. Eugene Farnsworth came
to Portland a year and a half ago
a man who did not own a dollars
worth of property in this state. who
paid no taxes, and yet a man who
had the audacity to tell the voters
that he would name the next COVER
nor of Maine.
Following the filing of Brewster's
nomination papers. the Maine klans-
man, the local organ of the Khan,
and the Fellowship Forum, the ma
tional organ and other klan papers,
appeared with notices to their read
ers that Senator Brewster was the
Khan candidate for governor and
deserved their support.
1.-The governor of Maine and the
leading Republican newspaper Of
Maine stated the real issue long be-
fore 1 did. 1t was on February II,
1924. that Governor Percival T. Bax-
ter made speech before the Lin
coin club in Portland which was la
ter reprinted in a pamphlet signed
by the governor on which was the
great seal of the State Of Maine. I
will quote to you from this docu-
ment which 1 show you at this time.
The most uncertain element in
Maine politics today is the ku Klux
Khan. whose members claim to be
100 percent American and who open
~ state they will control the next
legislature and elect their own gov
ernor. Its program is we'll defined
and its leaders aggressive
And they say that l brought the
issue into Maine politics!
The following day, February 10,
the Portland Press Herald published
an editorial in which it agreed with
Governor Baxter in regard to the
Khan issue, and said in part:
IF candidate supported by the
Khan is nominated, then the issue in
teh September election will be be-
tween the candidate nominated by
klan influence and Democratic
candidate nominated by anti-Klan
influence. Party lines will be over
looked. The great issues upon which
the nation will divide in the Novem.
Der election will have no bearing
on the state election
AT a meeting over in Skowhe-
gan the other day at which sixteen
masked brothers sat on the plat
form, a clergyman of that town said
that the Khan stood for the Golden
Rule. the starry flag, and supported
1he public schools. If that is all it
stood for, we could have little OBJ
lection to it. All good people be-
lieve in the Golden Rule: we all be-
lieve that we should do to others
as We would have them do to us.
We all reverence the Flag and
everybody believes in the support of
the public schools. You don't have
to wear mask to. believe in the
Golden Rule, to reverence the flag
or to support the public schools.
don't. do YOU?
"Tha; my friends, is not the real
object Of the Khan. What the Khan
really stands for may be stated in a
single sentence. 1t divides all peo-
pie into classes. those who are 100
per cent American and those who
are something less. On the one side
are the native born, white Protest.
ants. On the other foreign born,
Catholics. Jews and Negroes.
The real principle of the Khan Is
to prohibit all foreign born citizens.
all Roman Catholics. all Jews and
all Negroes from civil preferment in
"vHf< tntn ~.,,v
of the Khan many people would be
prevented from giving valuable pub
lie service.
II have here a poster. which I
took the liberty of taking from a
post in Knox county, advertising a
meeting of the Khan for a lecture
on the subject of True American
ism. Down at the bottom in bold
type are the words: for men only
for native born gentle Americans
ut is a queer idea of American
ism, that can only be taught to men
and which prohibits women and
children from learning anything
about it.
"My friends. If you cannot think
ahead. think back seven years. You
can surely do that. Seven years ago,
we modified an army of four mil
lion men. Two million of these boys
we sent across the ocean to fight
for preservation of the liberty of the
world. Today in the battle ceme-
teries of France many of those boys
sleep side by side, Jewish boys and
Negro boys. Protestant boys and
Catholic boys. who fought shoulder
to shoulder for the preservation of
Democracy.
What, / ask you. my friends. would
YOU say If some klansman went to
those wartime cemeteries and point
ing to the graves of those boys said
You are not as good as we are; you
are not 100 per cent. Americans
1--WE can all remember in those war
time DAYS when the women of this
country. Protestant and Catholic, Jew
ish and Gentle. gathered around ia
bles to do Red Cross work. They did
not ask them what their religion was
or if they were native born or Protest
ant
MY friends. you can't have a doc
trine in time Of peace that won't work
in time of war. When the sun is shin
ing, the sky is clear and the wind is
fair. and it is all very well to say to
these men You are not 100 per cent.
Americans But let war come. and
war may come. There was high mo-
! ment at the close of the Great War
when 1t seemed that peace might be
| assured for time. at least. but that
dream has been shattered and now all
Europe is an armed camp. But you do
| not have to look to Europe. my friends.
| for on the other side of the Pacific sits
Japan, the proudest and most sensitive
| nation in the world. ready to fling back
| into the face Of the United States Sem
ate the gratuitous insult that was
| given her against the protest OF Pres