The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-11
KIux Secret Service
Branch Got Goods on
Officials, Says Witness.
RIOT LAID TO EVANS
Liar Shout in Pittsburgh
Courtroom Brings EieC-
ton of Spectator.
BY ROSS DOWNING
United Press staff Correspondent

PITTSBURGH, April 11.-Eforts
of the Ku-KluX Klan to exert po-
litical pressure throughout the
United States were touched on by
several witnesses today in the Fed
eral Court trial to GUST the organi-
zation from Pennsylvania.
]. r. Ramsey of Dayton, Ohio,
who told of the activities OF the
Klan might riders" at Tuesdays
session, testified it was the duty of
a secret service branch of the Klan
in Ohio to obtain information, good
and bad, concerning all manner of
public officials.
This information was to be used
to control the officials in case the
Klan approached them for recogni-
ton and was refused, Ramsey said.
He said he had been a member
of the secret service branch.
Judge w. II. S. Thompson ruled
against this line Of testimony as
too broad for the limits Of the case.
Evans Ordered Riot
Hiram w. Evans, imperial wiz
ard of the Klan, ordered the
Carnegie (Pa) riot in 1923, at which
time one Klansman was killed and
many injured, Norman Hogue of
SwiSSvale, Pa, testified.
Hogue. former member of the
order in Pennsylvania, said Evans
told Samuel Rich, then grand
dragon, that Rich must march IN
the Klan parade at Carnegie and
that he has no authority to stop the
rioting.
William G. Holman, Pittsburgh
churchman, today was elected from
the courtroom where the Klan trial
is being staged.
Holman leaped to his feet in the
rear of the courtroom and shouted
You're a liar" at one of the wit
neSses, Dr.. Charles S. Hunter of
Verona, former head of the Unity
lodge of the Klan.
An instance Of the Klan's politi-
cal ambitious came from Sterret L.
Clark, averred member Of Victory
Klan No. 80 Of Hazelwood, Pa.
Tells of Dragons Speech
Clarke said he heard a speech of
Herbert C. Shaw, grand dragon of
Pennsylvania. on Oct. 6, 1926, in
which Shaw said that the Klan was
against William S. Ware for United
States Senator and that its officials
intended to flood the State with
pamphlets telling what Ware was"
Shaw gained admission to the
Eucharistic convention of the
Roman Catholic Church at Chicago
by posing as a priest, Clarke said,
Shaw warned the Klanslnen that
if Al Smith were to be elected Presi-
dent that the Secretary of State and
other members Of his Cabinet would
be Catholics, according to Clarke s
report of the address.
The might riders" of Ohio Klans
concealed stores of ammunition and
dynamite in caves and barns, Ram
sey declared.
Klan women carried riot sticks at
a demonstration in Williamsburg. Pa,
at which thousands of women
marched with the men, Mrs. Mamie
H. Bittner of Homestead, testified.
Details Oklahoma Outrage
Terrorism in Oklahoma, spon-
sored by members of the Klan were
detailed by Frank s. Lanham, of
Sand Springs, Okla.
Lanham, cyclops of the order in
Sand Springs, during the governor
ship of Jack Walton, told how the
might riders" a branch Of the
Klan had captured two Jewish
statesmen of New York and flogged
them in the outskirts of Tulsa.
"They were forced to whip one
another, Lanham said.