The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-17
LEGION, CHURCH
USURP PLACE OF
xxx. TERRORISM
Patrioteers Do Work of
Hooded Order Now

The American Legion has replaced
the Ku Klux Khan as "the most ae-
tive agency in intolerance an repres-
sion" in the United States, according
TO report just issued by the Amer
lean Civil Liberties Union, with head
quarters in New York City.
This statement is based on reports
from AZ states, in 81 of which re-
pressive tactics by the Legion are
cited and also on the fact that "many
Of the attacks on freedom Of speech
during the year have been traced to
propaganda emanating from the war
department the American Legion and
other patrioteering societies." accord
ing to the report.
X. X. X. Kroaks.
The Ku Klux Khan is losing its in
fluence in practically every section,
and in general the civil liberty stu
alton throughout the country continues
to improve, the report states. Lynch
ings, and interference with public
meetings are the exceptions to the
general condition, acts of mob vio-
lence, and prosecutions involving
civil liberties unless conditions at
tendant on industrial conflicts are
considered, have vastly decreased. The
report quotes comparative table of
these four fundamental violations Of
civil rights as follows: OF prosecu-
tons involving civil liberty issues,
there were 50 in 1926, compared with
1852 in 1925; instances of mob vio-
lence are recorded as 81 for 1926,
compared with 40 for 1925; there
were "a lynchings in 1926, compared
with Is in 1926; and % meetings
were stopped in'1926, compared with
% in 1926.
Congress Protests Lynching.
The increase in lynchings is attri-
buted by the report to the failure of
congress to take action on anti-lynch-
ing legislation. The number of pro-
secutions noted in 1926 does not in
clude those arising from the many
industrial disputes, which were in
NiAnCQ III Tic lU%c LIZ uAGcs
The Legion and the patrioteering
societies came in for another rap
when the report discusses the educa-
tional situation. "These groups" it
states, together with the bible cru
saders and other fundamentals or
carnations are held responsible also
for the iuroads on freedom of teach
ing. Suppression Of student publica-
lions. dismissals of teachers and stu
dents for expression of opinion, en-
forced military drill, compulsory bible
reading laws and "salute-the-flag
regulations, and one new anti-evolu-
ton law. in Mississippi mark the
course of their campaign of repres-
sion and intolerance in 1926
Pennsylvania First.
Civil liberty issues were prominent
in industrial conflict in the Passaic
textile strike, the Indiana Coal strike,
the Rhode Island textile strike and
the New York City fur and garment
strikes. Prosecution of'workers I'M
er state criminal syndicalism and
sedition laws however has practically
ceased. Pennsylvania has taken the
lead over California, according to the
report, in the number Of prosecutions
for opinion and expression.
The most important free-speech
fight Of the year, as recorded in the
report was the New York City school
boards ban against the American
Civil Liberties Union, which revealed
the existence Of a BLACKLIST against
individuals whose opinions do not con-
form to those Of board members.