Evening star., 1936-06-14
The Lure of Secret So.
cieties i'm United States.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

".
Being a secret society, no one knows
how extensive the membership of the
Black Legion may be or in how manv
communities it is organized. The out
standing fact, however, is that such an
organization does exist within the United
States but not of the United States.
within local communities but not of
them. The secret orders existence is
apart from the political and social or
ganizations of the communities. They
are excluded.
The desire of mankind to organize
secret societies is wellnigh universal
and is older than history. A philosoph-
ical psychologist could write a moving
essay on this impulse. 1t exists in the
child in point of years and in the child
in point of historical evolution. A part
of the play of children has always been
secret organizations with mystic pass
words and countersigns, and before the
dawn of civilization primitive peoples
had the same urge.
The Black Legion is but a manifesto
ton of this ancient social principle.
Various types of secret organizations
have existed with widely different pur-
poses. The high school and college
fraternity may be regarded as wholly
social, while the order of Freemasons is
largely religious, with added social and
eleemosynary features.
The Black Legion appears to resemble
the Ku Klux Klan rather more than any
other American organization of secret
nature. The original Klan was organ
lied in the reconstruction days at the
close of the Civil War in an effort to
bring order out Of the chaotic political
and social conditions which the dis
turbed times had created. AS they were
taking the law into their own hands
and also because of the desirabiIity of
veSting their actions in an air of mys-
terry, they appeared disguised in striking
costumes, their features covered in
hoods. That these secret night riders
performed a valuable service is recog-
nized by historians. That some serious
offenses were committed by some of
them, under the cloak of the orders
secrecy, has to be admitted.
Mention also should be made of the
Vigilantes, especially those who operated
in San Francisco in the hectic period
following the discovery of gold They
were not a secret order in quite the
same sense and they did not invariably
-
however, in that their operations were
swift and without warning. 1t is espe-
cially interesting to recall that the last
operation of Vigilantes took place in
New Orleans in 1891. Vigilance Com
mittee took from the Jail a group Of
Italians believed guilty of murder ard
understood to be members of the famous
secret order, the Malta, and lynched
them.
The Maf1a came into existence In SiciI'
at the time of the Napoleonic wars ar
became a secret society of the utmo
danger The members were opposed to
the police and to all measures for the
enforcement of public order. The
preyed upon land owners, merchants and
any other likely victims. An attempt
was made to establish the order in the
United States, and this led to the action
at New Orleans. The Malta had mur-
dered Chief of Police HennesSy.
Another Italian secret society was the
Camorra, which first became known
about 1920 in Naples. The members were
criminals who worked singly and in
gangs. The order had a secret language
politics, the Camorra became dominant
for period, terrorizing the whole coun-
try. Princes and persons of high station
became members, often, it is said, be-
cause they were forced to to escape
attack. 1t has been reported that tndi-'
vidualS have been forced, in much the
same manner, to join the Black Legion
in this country. The Camorra was
f1Y1o cf1 ~ A.TA kI,A
Malta continued to exist in secret until
the Fascist regime took charge, fol-
lowing the World War. 1t is probable
that there are still skeleton organiza
tions which maintain the deepest Sc
crecy as to their existence and which
hope to re-establish themselves after
change in political conditions in Italy,
Africa is notable for the number of
its secret societies among the natives.
Not only in the Kongo, but in other
sections Of the Dark Continent, secret
orders have been in existence from the
earliest times. They usually have some g.
religious connection, but not always.
For example, the Human Leopard Soci-
ety-as the name is translated into Eng
lish-is an organization of cannibals.
There seems to be and to have been no
people immune from the impulse to
organize secret societies. Although
there we're never more than 10000
Indians in North America at any one
time, with, therefore, no problem of
crowding or domination of congested
regions, they had their secret societies.
The secret society with the largest
membership in the world is Chinese.
1t is the Hung, or Triad, Society, and
has been in existence for 1,500 years.
This organization was founded in AID.
1856 by Buddhist patriarch named Eon.
1t appears that, originally, the chief pur-
pose of the organization was to spread
the Buddhist doctrine. 1t changed from
being primarily a religious to a semi
political organization because of the
effort of Chinese EnperorS to stamp it
out When a secret order is well estab-
lished, and especially when its member
ship conceives that a religious side is
present, as well as social or political
interests, eradication becames practi-
cally impossible.
The effect of the persecution of the
Triad Society was to intensity its secrecy
with mystic rites of great solemnity.
Authorities say that there is fascinat-
ing analogy between the Buddhist-Tao-
ist rites employed by the Triad and those
described in the Egyptian Book of the
Dead Moreover, it is stated, there is
a close connection between both the
Chinese and the Egyptian rituals and
portions of the ritual of Occidental Free