The Minnesota fiery cross. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1924-19??, 1924-03-07

soihS' Inc leaders are OF more bal
anced type than at first, are being
sobered by power, and the better class
membership that has recently joined
is taking control.
As to an invisible government"
that seems sheer nonsense. The Khan
is reform movement, working large
ly through politics, using the usual
political methods. Any group con-
troll of government is a menace, but
we have survived a good many of
them, some of which were invisible
and the Khan is not the worst of the
lot. Our system provides the means
by which any group can be ousted IL
II gets too strong or overbearing, and
the Khan itself is proof of this, since
1t is a reaction against other groups
which have had much power and used
it unwisely. Its political program
may be wrong, but it is negative. II
1t does stop immigration, for exam
pie, and we find that we need more
aliens, the lack can very easily be
righted.
Beside all this, the Khan can hard
ly live long in anything much like it's
present form. 1t is a protest move
ment, reform drive, and as such is
almost certain to be killed by either
success or failure. 1t has, beside.
within itself the elements of sure de-
cay, grounds for dissension, for jeal-
ousies, for division. Moreover it is
too high pitched; no body Of men
can long hold the camp meeting fer
vor which the Khan now boasts with
out complete reaction. 1t may be
changed in ways which will give it
longer life, but that is possibility
outside the scope of this report.
1t seems clear, too that the Khan
is doing much good along with the
harm. Its local reforms are likely
to be as temporary as the fervor and
preJudices it has aroused, but they
can at least be set off against those
evils. And it's services in stirring up
thought and focusing attention on
the evils which now threaten Ameri-
canism, are very great. This might
lead to solutions, even il the Khan
does not find them or bring them it
self.
The most serious menace and evil
which really lies in the Khan move
ment is quite different from any of
these. 1t is that the Khan may pre-
vent needed reforms. There is bitter
need of some drastic action to stop
the flood of unassimilable immigra-
ton, to Americanize the alien groups
which are hostile to Americanism, to
meet and defeat the influences which
are definitely trying to pervert and
degrade American thought and pur-
pose. The danger is that the Khan,
by attacking these real problems by
wrong methods and wrong solutions,
may discredit all proper attempts to
solve them, and open the way for a
period of alien and un-American
domination that will wreck forever
the national purposes and opportuni-
ties built up at sucn cost.
have been asked by several peo-
pie whether there is behind the Khan
some mighty, Machiavellian brain,
controlling the movement and direct
ing it to hidden and possibly Satanic
ends. ! have seen no sign of any
thing like this. The leaders with
whom I talked speak as those having
authority in themselves, and there is
certainly no Machiavellian brain
among them. On the other hand,
they were apparently overwhelmed
with their own success, vastly sobered
by it, troubled as to what to do with
it, fearful of leading, but driven on
by the force they have raised.
Finally, it seems almost impossible
that the Khan can be destroyed at
present. The momentum is too
great, the demand for some action Of
the kind it promises too intense.
The leaders are leading only in the
sense that they are out in front;
they as we'll as the ranks, are in the
grip of their ideas and cannot stop.
The Khan has grown from few thou
sands to a few millions in the face
Of ridicule, prosecution, persecution,
and weakness. Now it is rich, pow
erful and feared-I can conceive of
nothing likely to be effective against
it until it begins to break down from
the inside. The only possibility is
meeting the problems and evils which
give it strength, and this method
the most bitter of its enemies are the
least inclined to follow.
The movement can, however, be
guided, the dangers lessened, its real
ly valuable possibilities put to bet
ter use. The leaders themselves are
almost pitifully anxious for guidance,
they are seeking it everywhere and
Offering large pay to some Of the best
brains in the country to tell them
what to do-what they can do-with
their power. They are suspicious,
too, having already had such expert
ence with much wrong advice of all
kinds. But counsel they believe to
be disinterested, patriotic and fair,
they will welcome.
1t is to this, it seems to me, that
those who fear the Khan movement
should now turn their energies.
There is undoubted danger for them
in such an effort, for the opprobri-
UNI which followed the Know-Noth-
ings may very easily attach to any
who give aid or comfort to the Khan.
But there is nothing else in sight
that promises to have any value
whatever in dealing with the move
ment.
May add word Of thanks to
the many Outlook readers who have
written to give facts, advice, criti-
cism, and sometimes commentator.
All their letters have been helpful,
narticularly the criticism and / re-