The ancient order of worship consisted in the presentation of the dead body of a victim, whose carcass was placed upon an altar and consumed by fire, as the expiatory substitute for man. The new, or Christian, order of worship calls for some-thing alive. Neither God nor man wishes a dead thing. Among the activities of men there is no room for a corpse, literal or figurative. Life demands Service and Service calls for Life. He who would serve, must be alive, and all truly living men must serve. It is the price of existence, the toll for being alive. It is worth living to serve. Life and Service go hand in hand.
Service calls for sacrifice, but it must be of the living kind, and not the sacrifice of a dead body. A lifeless carcass can avail nothing when placed on the altar, however pious the act may be. Klansmen believe in that kind of sacrifice which calls for a living body placed on the altar of Service, utilized by man and dedicated to God. By this kind of Service the Klansman lives. This is his aim, his purpose, his ambition, in life.
Nor is this ambition confined to those of his kind, alone. He stands with other Klansmen ; he stands for the Race. Toward other Klansmen he is the soul of honor, possessing unfeigned love, showing kindness, giving preference rather than selfishly demanding for himself. Regarding his personal affairs, the Klansman is dutiful in business, rejoicing because of his hope, patient amid the trials of life, and hospitable, withal. To those without, he is non-retaliative, honest, peaceable, and even willing to return good for evil, thereby proving his superior worth. In his service to men, his method is to overcome Evil with Good.
The Klansman has policy that lies far beyond his initation into the membership of a Klan. To him, initation is but unlistment for service. It is the service that counts with him. This lofty desire of the Klansman to serve, comes from the sense of duty, from the recognition of obligation. He feels charged with the ambition to be an active constructionist rather than a passive law-abiding figurehead. He thirsts for duty; he
It is said of Him Who walked among us lowly mortals as the Son of God : He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for the many. He, therefore, Who is the Klansman's Exemplar, sets the example to all Klansmen. To minister, and not to be ministered unto, is the only worthy excuse for existence. We are the heirs of the ages. All that has gone before is ours, being poured into our laps from the cornucopia of the bounteous past. The years gone before are ours. The worthy men of these by-gone years, are ours. Their great and valiant deeds are ours. Their principles and their ideals are ours. Such heritages, more valuable than crowns of gold, are handed down to us who are the sons of such worthy fathers. The memory of these great and noble men, these defenders of the faith, can best be kept green by our safeguarding the ideals and the principles which these fore-fathers bequeathed us. And how can this be done? How, better, than by our living these ideals and these principles, by our making them a part of our being, as vitally as bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh?
Too long, be it admitted, has the attention of the average American been diverted to material gain, to the over-looking of the spiritual. Thoughts, ideals, principles, these belong to the realm of the spiritual. They are not as wood or stone; as gold or silver. They cannot be weighed on the scales nor measured by tangible device. Being of the spiritual, they will exist forever, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen, they are the eternal. These undying bequests from our venerated fathers are to be incorporated by us, their sons, thus having them to live again in our bodies, as in a resurrection body. Sired by fearless pioneers, inherting the asprations of the undaunted, the ambitions of the idealists, the honor of the chivalrous, the reverence of the faithful, the Klansman possesses a position to be coveted by angels.
To set forth clearly the aims and principles of Klankraft and to discuss the future program of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan a meeting of the Grand Dragons and Great Titans of the Klan was held at Asheville, North Carolina in July, 1923.
Addresses delivered by these officials of the Klans in various realms of the Invisible Empire together with other articles previously compiled by the Imperial Wizard and other Klansmen are herewith presented in book form by order of Klansman Brown Harwood, Imperial Klazik.
This book explains the principles, purposes and operation of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan fully and in every detail. It is virtually a text-book on Klankraft and is dedicated to the Klansmen of America.
It is gratifying indeed to see assembled here you Klansmen from all parts of the nation, who, because of your peculiar fitness, have been called to perform a specific service for your country and your fellow men. You have been selected to fill an important place in the affairs of the Invisible Empire on account of the talents which you possess. Since God has bestowed upon you these talents, there rests upon you a great responsibility which will measure the full statue of a real man. It is your duty as a Klansman to be faithful to this great trust, and I am confident none will be recreant to duty's demands.
The proceedings of this meeting, the first of its kind ever held, will be inscribed on the pages of the history of Klancraft as one of the great milestones of progress, of constructive work and consecration to those high ideals and lofty purposes which must be kept ever paramount if we hope to continue to add to our forces those great, noble, outstanding leaders in every community throughout the land.
Never before in the history of our great movement have the hearts and souls of manly men been thrilled with such great emotion for our righteous cause as has resulted from explaining to the freemen of America the chivalric, patriotic and ennobling principles of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Deep in spirituality, powerful in Protestant patriotism, it has made an irresistable appeal to men everywhere. The clarion call to
To the perpetuation of a program along these progressive lines, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are committed, and you men, executives of the Organized Realms of the Invisible Empire, are charged with the responsibility of operating your respective Realms and Provinces, educating the Klansmen therein and directing their efforts to a successful realization of our ideals.
Time will never be when the enemies of our cause cease firing their batteries into our ranks. Only by a determined,steadfast effort on our part, harmoniously working together,standing by our regularly constituted authorities, fostering the best interests of our noble cause, continuity of thought, uniformity of action and a willingness to serve and sacrifice for the right will we be able to stop their onslaughts. The pages of history fail to record any great movement for righteousness but what has been subjected to the merciless attacks of those agencies which its principles opposed. In the attacks which have been made against us we are not alone. But, if our cause is worth while, if our principles are right, if the objectives for which we strive are worthy, have our martyrs and the pernicious persecution prompted by those insidious forces to which we are unalterably opposed may gall and chafe our spirits, right will prevail eventually.
That we may hold the respect and confidence of the Christian people of every community, it behooves every executive, as well as every Klansman, to make the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan the big civic asset in every Klanton in America, Be not unmindful of the fact that public opinion will be crystalized by your actions and your activities. Since this is true, it should put on guard every man upon whom has been conferred the sublime honor of the fellowship of Klansmen that he do nothing nor permit anything will subject his fellow-Klansmen or himself to criticism. There will be no failure of Klankraft, though Klansmen may fail in their responsibility.
Wherever Klansmen abound, wonderful opportunities for service exist. Service calls for sacrifice, but it must be of the living kind. Klansmen believe in that kind of sacrifice which calls for a living body placed on the altar of service, utilized by man and dedicated to God. By this kind of service a Klansman lives. This is his aim, his purpose, his ambition in life. Through the connections which Klansmen hold in every civic and fraternal organization in our land additional avenues open up through which the pulsating hearts of Klansmen may care for the needy, aid those in distress and co-ordinate their efforts in making of our America the America it should be.
If we falter or fail, we are not worthy of the honors bestowed by Klankraft. But Klansmen will not fail. Klansmen have not failed and must not. The rich, red, blood of American patriots and mourned martyrs runs through your veins, and no man who has taken the obligation you have taken will hesitate to meet, to the best of his ability any situation which may arise. Deeply rooted in the heart of every Klansman is an honest, earnest desire to be of service to his fellow men on a noble and commanding scale.
The potential strength of our movement is unlimited. In every hamlet in America reside men, good and true, who are eligible to membership in this organization, ready to align themselves with us when they are educated to our sublime and noble principles. Much territory remains untouched, populated by real Americans where the gospel truth of Klankraft has never been heard. There is where you disciples of Klankraft have your golden opportunity for service. Will you as an earnest of your fealty to this movement go out and dispense the doctrine of pure Americanism, patriotism and loyalty to God, country and home, as exemplified by Klankraft? Your efforts will show your consecration, extend immeasureably the beneficent spirit of Klankraft and re-awaken in the hearts of Americans of today the spirit of our forefathers who have given into our keeping the priceless heritage of American institutions by their unwavering devotion and unselfish sacrifice for principles of right. Shall we prove unworthy of this heritage? We are the heirs of the ages. All that has gone before is ours, poured into our laps from the cornucopia of the bounteous past. The years gone before are ours. The worthy men of these bygone years are ours. Their valiant deeds are
Ten million Klansmen in America is the goal set by your Imperial Wizard, and you Klansmen are not going to disappoint him, but by your united efforts and harmonious co-operation and action, all working together with an eye single to the advancement of the noble cause which we espouse are going to crystallize into a concrete reality the expressed desire of our Imperial Wizard.
The discussions which will follow and the ideas which will be advanced, we expect to use to educate the citizenship of the Invisible Empire and I feel justified in saying that the papers which have been prepared so thoughtfully by you men will give to the citizenry of our land the very essence of Klancraft and when printed, will serve as an authentic textbook on Klankraft, its functions and its operations.
My fellow Klansmen, in conclusion, I want to leave this one thought indelibly impressed upon your hearts and minds:
Every undertaking, however large or great it may become, has somewhere its beginning. Today we are holding the first conference of Grand Dragons and Great Titans and it is rather a momentous occasion. I doubt whether the first real conference of leaders of a movement was ever held as late in the life of a movement as this meeting here today. When you think that you represent here many more than a million Klansmen that you represent maybe five thousand or more different or separate organizations each with its separate interpretation of the Holy doctrine, you realize that it must be an auspicious beginning.
The wants of the Klansman, his needs and his service requirements are the principal responsibilities of the Exalted Cyclops of the Klans. In a Province representing the principal responsibilities are you Titans and going up the line, the needs of the provinces of the nation represent the duties and responsibilities of the Grand Dragon and finally you come to your Imperial headquarters for final and complete one hundred per-cent service to the Klansmen of the nation, a service that will cause them to leave their imprint on this civilization.
You have heard much of a program of activity for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. You have heard of one with the boundaries marked out, "Where do we go from here?" You cannot put into effect any set program for there are different needs in the various localities. Your program must embrace the needs of the people it must serve. I have been listening and watching in order to be able to interpret to you a real program for the Klan. The thing I am going to do as your Imperial Wizard and the thing I am going to ask your Imperial Officers to do, all of us as your servants, is to administer to the needs of your locality and if we all do that to the utmost of our ability and teach Klansmen along that line and carry to them their responsibilities to God and Country, we need not worry about the effect on this nation.
I am not smitten with the idea of making Atlanta the invisible capital of the world. I had rather make the invisible capital of the world the serving heart of the individual Klansman
The present vital need of the Klan is for you men here to carry back to the Klans and Klansmen the idea of co-ordination and let them know something that I know better than anybody else on earth, -- that the Klan is now and has been in the pas functioning almost entirely as a unit. Consider the Klan in your locality and what is its condition. Take it where you are and you know that there is nothing wrong with the Klan there. You are hearing a great deal about lack of co-operation in the Klan here and there. Just take your local conditions and you have the average condition throughout the nation. You know where you stand on the Constitution and Laws. That is exactly the national condition. Quit getting your Klan doctrine from the newspapers. They are naturally antagonistic, and I can tell you why. Other organizations like this have been builded by advertising and they have had to pay for it. We have been given fifty million dollars worth of free advertising by the newspapers. They have not yet been able to find out what the Klan is and where it is going. The Klan is of vital interest to the American public and the papers are anxious to tell them all about it and have not had the opportunity. There is not and has not been any information so sought after as news about the Klan. I can go to Chicago and every one of the papers will have men out to see me. I have talked in Washington to a room full of newspaper men at one time. I have never failed to have them there and newspaper men tell me the Klan is a matter of greatest public interest. Just as long as our doctrine is the pure and Holy doctrine, the newspapers wont be able to grasp what it is, -- just as long as they are hunting for the bug under the chip you will have them fooled for there is no bug under the chip.
Now the reason I want you to pass the word down the line to produce co-ordination. You can see here that the Klans are practically a unit. Just go home and tell your boys. They gave their tell dollars as donation to a cause for which they agreed to serve and sacrifice. Now you tell those boys when you go home where our institution is and that there is real co-ordination. I went down to Texas and I happened to hit the hottest spot in the United States because every newspaper in that section had carried news of the "disruption" of the Klan. I saw that day the representatives of forty six Klans in that Fifth Province. They were almost all represented and with a unanimous vote they announced that they were all right and always had been. One organization said they would have no further dealings with Atlanta until certain demands were granted. I said that this would be entirely mutual and if they wanted to withdraw from us, we would withdraw from them. They determined to hold a meeting the next Friday night and decide. I told them that if they decided to withdraw that we would be perfectly willing to make it mutual. They did meet and they decided that they wanted to be a Klan mighty bad. They had never thought of where they were going from there. If we had just wanted to say,'give us your charter' they would have been on the outside looking in with nowhere to go and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan would have gone right on. This Klan would not have represented one eighth of the increase in membership in the nation for a single week,it did not mean anything and when they found out they got back on the wagon. It was a local condition and a local row between the local authorities down there.
You have been told through the press and otherwise that the State of Kansas is "off the wagon." They had a meeting in Kansas yesterday and I will just read what they say:
Kansas State meeting held today represented by men from ninety five percent of the Organizations of Kansas went on record by resolution as unanimously endorsing oath constitution and laws as adopted in November Nine-teen Twenty Two and the National Administration."
The principal lesson from this is, all this much heralded dissention in Kansas did not exist. I am going to Kansas next month and talk to Klansmen in ten acre lots.
After we get our institution co-ordinated, the next thing we want to do is impress America with what our educational program is and what it means and the real necessity for an educational program.
The greatest duty of America today is to build up our educational system. That is our fundamental duty and as long as we spend ninety five percent of our taxes for the wars of the past and future and five percent for educational advancement your governmental progress will be seriously hampered. You take fifty percent of the taxes they take from you and put it back into a program of education and enlightenment and it will not be twenty years until the percentage of illiteracy in America will be far less than in any other place on earth.
We should build the minds of our children along the line of patriotism and the highest of ideals and when we are old they will be able to take care of themselves. We have the opportunity so let us begin to impress our people at home. You go home and begin to talk education to your people and pretty soon your Congressman begins to hear the murmuring. If you will make it known at home and give him something concrete to work upon your representative at Washington will awaken to the paramount needs of America and get busy on a constructive program for better education.
Your greatest need today is for governmental authorities to get a new view point. You know the Secretary of War wants to get all the support he can for War measures; the Secretary of the Navy wants all support he can get for the Navy Department, and the Secretary of the Interior would like to save the forests, the Secretary of Agriculture wants to aid the grain farmer of the west and the cotton farmer of the south and that would scatter a lot of your money into bureauocracies. You must see that some sentiment is created for education. It is going to take real governmental co-operation to do it and raise America from being an illiterate nation to the best educated nation on earth. Any lesser program would be unworthy of a Holy Cause so far blessed with the support of Almighty God.
Now some of the other things that go hand in hand with education ought to come in with your national program and
Foreigners come here because the living conditions where they come from were not as good as they were here. The foreigner did not come here to regenerate America. In order to be genuine Americans men and women must be born in America and they must, from the date of their birth up to the time they arrive at the years of maturity and begin to think for themselves and for America, live in a patriotic country. So you must base your hopes for the future on native born white citizens.
Just as our Christian civilization has accomplished so much with the individual minds and hearts, Christian men and women could be directed to the problems of their Christian sons and daughters and could no longer be held in subservience to the hierarchial priest-hood. As soon as ignorance began to give way to education and enlightenment, liberty began to awaken and the world started to go somewhere protecting individual rights and national rights. We now have an organization here in America that is trying to Americanize America. A large organization all moving to a common point without any selfishness in their heart, but wanting to go somewhere and to do something for their people.
For one hundred and forty years America has been a haven for the halt, the maimed and the blind, for the broken in mind, body, fortune and soul, to come over here where nature has spread her bounteous gifts, where life is easy, health is good and conditions ideal. But the time has come when the millions who have been broken in the old world and
Let us fix it so American citizens will have to be born into the heritage and will have superiority by law. You own this countryit is yours. If you propose to allow anyone to take it away from you, it can mean nothing to you.
I just want to touch on one more thing then I am through. We have lots of foreigners in herethe Irish-American, the German-American, and the Jew, they are all here. We have been assimilating them and we have a little colic now. We have adopted a plan to get rid of all but one.
The Jews organized a Klan nearly forty centuries ago. You remember Moses organized them to get to the land of promise. They are still working. They know what it means to stand shoulder to shoulder, and not forget to put all he had on the Jewish altar. There have been ten tribes lost and nobody knew where they went. Christ absorbed them. The Christian civilization has absorbed them into Christian civilization the world over. They forget they were Jews when they moved into England and Germany and other countries, they took up the duties and responsibilities of the countries in which they lived and I am proposing to you that there will be two more lost tribes. We are organizing a Klan so large,so much bigger than their Klan, and if we will just do to them what I am talking to you about,if we can fix it so the Jew will boast of being an American instead of a Jew he will be gone.
They are going to quit setting up Jewland in America. Their doctrine of setting up separate entity in our country is dangerous business.
Give them the idea of Christian civilization,give them the high tide of Christian civilization and they will absorb Jesus Christthey will absorb Christ's doctrine because it has won every human on earth except the Jew. If you will only do that you will not only benefit those people themselves who stand out as people without a flag or a country, but the whole world will be benefited, and we will know what happens to them.
Now the program has one last thing I want to advance to you. We have not been appointed by an Almighty God or by an Imperial Wizard, to go out meddling in other peoples business. Our duty is to get behind the constituted officers of the law as every one of you have sworn to do. Let's get a national law enforcement programlet's fix it so people will have to go to the penitentiary for violating law. You cannot enforce laws in the form of a super-government trying to force your will or your government on the law of the land. The first time one of your Klansmen violates the law, thus breaking his obligation, thus doing a thing in direct conflict for which we stand, let us administer on him as Klansmen for breaking his obligation. Let us get them outside the Klan and let the judge and the jury and the penitentiary take care of them. When we do that, this thing will fade like the morning dew.
The Wizard is not responsible for any violation. I am going to tell you now, you go home and do your duty and the first time you have a bunch of Klansmen that break a law do not get behind them. Put your influence behind the constituted officers of the law and let us support a law enforcement pro-gram and go with the law and act through the law and thus, once and for all and eternally end this fallacious accusation that we are a super-government because we are trying to teach constructive law enforcement and obedience to the law. Take co-ordination, immigration, education, law enforcement, as the national program behind which you are to labor and serve and sacrifice.
You have just heard the Wizard outline a program, in which he has told you "Where we go from here." It is not surprising that in this program he calls your attention to four great fundamentals: co-ordination, education, immigration and law enforcement.
The accomplishment of that program of the Wizard by the Klan will be an answer to the question of our poet who asked: "Lives there a man with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native Land?" For when all Klansmen of the Invisible Empire are co-ordinated and work in unison and harmony to see that this Nation is the best educated Nation on the globewhen all Klansmen see that the ideals on which this Government was founded by our forefathers are not undermined and discredited through the influence of foreigners immigrating to these shoreswhen the laws of the land are respected first by all Klansmen of the Nation and by and through their active, patriotic endeavors are enforced throughout the landthen may it be said that the Wizard has answered the poet and that in truth and for a fact there does not in all America live a man who never hath proudly said, "this is my own, my native land." This program gives the Klan a great patriotic purpose, a definitely good objective. Of all things about which Klansmen should be learning, thinking and acting, these things of which the Wizard has spoken are certainly now demanding the attention of God-fearing, native-born, white men of America.
All Klansmen should learn and know that the freedom to enjoy, under our Government, the blessings of what we call "inalienable rights," such as free speech, a free press and the freedom of religious opinion and worshipare our inheritance through sacrifice and only through the sacrifice of our Revolutionary sires, purchased with the blood of those heroes when they won the war of American Independence.
That Klansmen may know there is work for them to do, that they may be inspired to perform their full duty as citizens, I think it not amiss that there should be kept alive in their memories the historical facts which portray the condition of the subjects, or citizens, of the Old World from which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors emigrated.
I think it well that Klansmen should not forget that page of the world's history which tells of the despotism of the Bourbons on the continent and of the tyranny of English kings. Every government of that time was based on the theory that the people lived and served for the benefit of the rulers, who were their kings and masters.
Speaking of these times, Herbert Spencer says:
"There were scarcely any bounds to governmental interference ; agriculture, manufactures, trades were regulated in detail ; religious beliefs and observances were imposed; and rulers said by whom alone furs might be sold, silver used, books issued, pigeons kept, etc."
One of our modern statesmen, in tracing the story of the Anglo-Saxon struggle for supremacy in the worldthe struggle to found a civilization based on popular liberty and free institutions, has said:
"The shadow of the despotisms of Tudor and Bourbon, of Hapsburg and Hohenzollern, fell like a pall upon the civilized world, hope was blighted, industry paralyzed, sacred temples transformed into chambers of horrors, and `sweet religion made a rhapsody of words.'
"Men fled from an intolerable oppression they were unable either to endure or to resist and the eastern shores of the new continent were dotted by colonies of exiles scattered from the Florida keys to the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
"Those free institutions once common to all Teutonic people, while obliterated by Bourbon despotism on the continent, were only obscured by the tyranny of English Kings. The Saxon churl, having lost his liberties, did not forget them. Magna Charta, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States are the essential instruments for the establishment and maintenance of inherent and inalienable rights.
"As barbarians `the basis of their society,' says Greene, `was the freeman,' and after fifteen hundred years they make the sovereignty of the citizens the cardinal principle of all government. To this principle is due that high sense of personal honor, that deep sense of personal obligation, that superb resourcefulness, and that marked and unique individuality hitherto unknown among the children of men.
"It was to preserve this birthright that the colonists welcomed persecution and exile, the solitude and the perils of the wilderness, famine and pestilence, penury and death.
"At last, wearied by a century of struggle against purblind British despotism, they proclaimed and established their absolute and eternal independence.
"Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton, Madison and Monroe and their immortal confreres were the evolution and the epitome of the ardent aspirations of a century of untold sacrifice and endless endeavor to gain and to hold the priceless boon of liberty. They stand pre-eminent in all the tides of time as the very apostles of freedom. They erected in the Western World and for a newborn Nation the most faultless and, I hope, enduring temple ever dedicated to the liberties of man-kind. Without parallel in the institutions of the past, it is the incomparable model for the emulation of the free peoples of the future.
"Towering, even among his immortal confreres, like some lone mountain peak above its foothills stood the political seer of the ages. The Sage of Monticello, with the audacity of genius, took a mere man, a simple citizen endowed with inherent and inalienable rights, clothed him with all power and authority, crowned him with the ballot, and organized society was formed by having this citizen confer certain authority upon officers of the law, his servants not his masters, commissioned for a fixed time to discharge specific duties necessary to protect and secure him in the possession of property and the enjoyment of life and liberty. These Commonwealths, for the sake of mutual protection, `formed a more perfect union,' and the aggregate of the powers expressly delegated by the States formed the Federal Government.
But the fountain, the source, of all authority was the citizen."
History has no parallel for this achievement in government. Klansmen should never forget from what lands these men came. And from what race they sprang. They were North Europeans of the Anglo-Saxon stock, and we of the Anglo-Saxon blood are proud of the record of our race.
Thus we see, "It is our blood that wrested America from the wilderness and the savage ; won its freedom and built up its civilization."
Yet, at this very time it is strenuously asserted that America is not an Anglo-Saxon country.
Until forty or fifty years ago our immigrants were almost wholly of the same race or stocks as the colonistsNorth Europeansbut in the past ten years it has been revealed that a large proportion of these later immigrants are from "eastern and southern Europe and the Levantine fringe of Asia," who do not weld into our ideas and institutions or become a part of our national life. On the contrary they remain largely alien in spirit. They do not assimilate. They become "American citizens but not Americans."
At the time of the 1920 census, of our population fifteen million belonged to this element. Here is the source of some of the protest that America is not an Anglo-Saxon country. And here is a problem facing America about which Klansmen should be learning and thinking, for the time will soon come when they must act.
If it be possible let Klansmen stand in the forefront of the citizenry in the nation for the fusing of our newer racial elements into our national life. Let us see that ignorance and illiteracy are banished from the land. Let us be the zealous champions of our free public schoolsthe fortresses of the nation's strength, the best protectors of the liberties of the people.
In the future as in the pastthe hope and destiny of the nation rests in white supremacy. It will preserve the doctrines of popular liberty which lie at the foundation of our government, these ideals which are enshrined in the constitution of the republic and our free institutions.
And now Klansmen : Of all men we know that only as we follow in the pathway of the principles of our Anglo-Saxon fathers and express in our life the spirit and genius of their ideals may we hope to maintain the supremacy of the race, and to perpetuate our inheritance of liberty.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," and I know that every Klansman is against anybody, or anything that is uncongenial to the spirit of true Americanism. And I know every Klansman will agree that: "No man is a patriotic
The patriot preaches unselfish devotion to Country, and practices it every hour of his life. He believes that right makes might, and that no correct rule of human conduct ever owed its origin or existence in selfish or sordid personal inter-est. He who lifts himself above the fog of personal promotion, advancement and aggrandizement, and lives his life in the clear blue air of devotion to his country and its government, is a real citizen, upon whose shoulders must be borne the bur-dens of good government and in whose mind must be solved, the complex, and sometimes confusing questions which will determine the good or evil consequences which coming generations will enjoy or suffer.
We are prone to the mistake of bemoaning the departure of patriotic fervor. Better had we assert the true condition into which the twin evils of the influence of an increasing foreign population and the forgetfulness caused by immersion in commercial pursuits have plunged us, and seek and find if we can, and we can if we will, the remedy.
We grieve because we can no longer find the spirit the fathers had. It is the loftier view and the truer one, that the same spirit is yet here, sometimes sleeping, but ready at the call of duty to awake. Sometimes contaminated by the million men or more who live between the two oceans, who have no concern for our constitution, no respect for our laws, and no reverence for the flag under whose folds we have found protection, and whose presence has for more than one hundred years marked the outposts of manly endeavor and the onward march of a convincing and compelling Christian civilization.
The original thirteen States, one of which now charms us
The responsibilities and duties of citizenship, properly understood and effectively functioning, must be assumed both in public and private life. In the first are included our duty to the Government and its laws. To sustain and support it in time of peace, as in time of war; to recognize that the same heroic courage is needed to enter the lists of upstanding civic controversy, as is demanded of the same and other men who bare their breasts to the storm of death which hovers over the battle field. In many sections of our country, we find not only men who would destroy the government itself, but many men who make the specious claim that those laws whose enactment they did not advocate, and whose wisdom they now question, are not entitled to their observance. No country can long endure whose people only respect those laws which they like and claim the privilege of violating those which they disapprove, and if those who claim that privilege prevail, but a short period can elapse until no law on any subject will command the respect of any considerable part of our citizenship.
Paraphrasing the words of that ideal American, Abraham Lincoln, this country cannot continue half law-enforcing and half law-breaking. It will be essentially all one or all the other. If all or largely all the latter, the institutions of our government are shattered, its. foundations undermined, its destiny arrested, and this the first great experiment in a government by the people, will throughout all time be catalogued as a dream of dreamers. But it will not be all or largely all a nation of law-breakers. If those who sleep will but awake, the man who violates the Eighteenth Amendment will be as infamous as the man who steals. The man who is not in his heart loyal to his country will be known and esteemed as the outcast and the leper that he is, and will be spurned and barred from social converse, employment and association by all honest men.
Our responsibility begins when we firmly resolve and keep the resolution, to hold no communion with those who are disloyal;
Let us know that our responsibility does not end with casting a ballot. The organization which we here represent is not a political organization, but it teaches a pure and undying patriotism toward our Country, and no citizen is a patriot unless he votes, and no voter is a patriot unless he votes for good men, and no good man is yet a patriot until he performs his whole duty at the ballot box, in jury room and at his own fireside.
I have spoken of a man's duties and responsibilities in public life. Those of private life are no less exacting. That those who come after usthe children who now prattle at our feet, may grow into better men than we have been, that their devotion to our Country may be more unselfish than ours has been, that a better generation of men and women may follow after r us, to strengthen our government and adorn its future history is our dream, our hope, our inspiration. In this broad field lies the work of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan,to be Patriots to be mento so live that we may leave behind us foot prints that other men will not be ashamed to followto so build the structure of our homes that other men will gladly pattern after and emulate us.
These words fittingly describe the motives which prompt us to deeds of good citizenship;
states and amalgamated them into L national unit. It turned poverty into wealthdiscordance inThe Constitution of the United States is the greatest contructive government document ever struck off by pen of man. t brought order out of chaos. It developed National cohesive-Less and destroyed the power of dissintegration. It softened state pride and magnified love of country. It took thirteen weak, selfish and quarrelling to unitydistrust into lovelocal pride into patriotism. No greater task ever came to the hands of mortal men than the task that confronted the members of the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia on a spring day in 1787. There was really no government. The Articles of Confederation had proven to be a rope of sand that bound nobody. The Continental Congress would speak but each sovereign state treated its demands and requests with contempt.
The question was on every patriot's lips"Would the country survive the shock of civil discord or would the independence of the states so dearly bought be lost in the consuming selfishness of the several states of the newly formed country?"
The convention was called for the purpose of amending the Articles of Confederation but when the statesmen gathered to perform that task it was soon discovered that what the country needed was a document that would create a national unit and amalgamate the people of the several states into an in-dissoluble union. George Washington was chosen as the president of the convention, whose deliberations lasted from late in April until a day in September when the document was finally passed and signed. So momentous were the issues to be decided, so conflicting were the theories of government of the members of the convention, so precarious was the condition of the country that Benjamin Franklin, at the conclusion of the convention, with a voice trembling with emotion well said, "Mr. Chairman, at the opening of this convention I was in a quandary to know whether the engraving upon the back of your chair was a rising or setting sun. Now at the happy conclusion of the deliberations I can well say, that it is indeed a rising sun whose rays will shine upon generations yet unborn for we are now a national entity."
Two paramount conflicting theories of government were soon made manifest in the convention. One class of men seeing the danger incident to unlimited power through a strong centralized government and having recently witnessed a people disentangling themselves from arbitrary rule were strong for the proposition of leaving the ultimate power with the states. These were the so-called states rights statesmen. On the other hand there was that class who appreciated the weakness of the Articles of Confederation and saw the necessity of developing a power that would be paramount to the rights of the states. This class was known as the Nationalists or Federalists.
The battle waged for months with the result that the present splendid system of government was conceived by the merging and amalgamation of the two conflicting theories.
Probably the greatest credit for the construction of the present constitution is due to James Madison and Alexander Hamilton. They belonged to different schools of political be-lief but so great was their patriotism and so splendid their mental equipment that they were able to conceive the system
The system of checks and balances as set out in the constitution has been pronounced to be the most marvelous system of government ever devised by the brain of man. It was the first really practical experiment in a Republican form of government and the century that has followed has justified the soundness of the opinions of these men who sat in that convention hall. The Republican governments of the world that have survived the wrecks of political upheavals have patterned their governments after this model constitution. Lawyers from the beginning have appreciated and understood the power and beauty of our form of government.
The time has come when the layman, the American layman upon whom rests and will rest the burden of safe-guarding it, must understand and appreciate the delicate adjustment of that splendid piece of machinery called the Constitution of the United States. We are in danger from our friends who would throw a monkey wrench into this machinery in the vain hope that they are making necessary adjustments. Let us fully comprehend its breadth and scopelet us see how it safe-guards our life, liberty, and property from mob rule as well as from the despotic sway of imperialistic individualism.
Let it be understood first of all that the Constitution is an instrument delegating power from the people in whom all power is lodged to particular governmental agencies. When the people in their sovereign capacity grant certain rights to their governing authorities by and through the Constitution, they surrender to that extent their individual rights and privileges. This is absolutely necessary as every man must forego some natural rights and some particular privileges if he is to live in a social state and at peace with his neighbor. But it is, nevertheless, true that a people is best governed who are the least governed. Some people in this modern age, however, have the erroneous notion that the more power that is taken away from the people and placed with the Government gives to them a larger measure of liberty and a greater degree of protection. We are fast running to seed on this theory of government. Our national Congress and our state legislatures
Let us examine some of the workings of the Constitution in connection with the present agitation for a change and re-adjustment of the fundamental law.
Under the Constitution, as it is now framed, it is necessary for a bill to pass both houses of Congress and be signed by their President. Each house acts as a check upon the other and the President a check upon both. There are some very good people who are insisting upon one popular legislative house and t the abolishing of the President's right of veto. They claim that the Senate is too far away from the people, that their term of office is too long and that they block the will of the t people through the expression of the House of Representatives. They also claim that the power of veto gives to one man the power of over-ruling the will of a popular majority. No wiser provision was ever made than the creation of two houses by our constitutional fathers. The opinion of a popular majority is many times erroneous and many times there is grave danger of loose and dangerous legislation when men have been swept into office at the time of a political upheaval. To keep close to the people is a wise admonition and this is done by electing an entire house of representatives, every two years. The people themselves constitute a check on the legislative department by bi-ennial election. But the check, on the other hand, from excesses in legislation is found in the election of senators for terms of six years, one third of this body changing every two years. Then, as an additional check, the President has the right of veto, a right which has always been exercised with caution and generally for the best interests of the people.
Again, some people would change the Constitution so as to give the President full power to make treaties. Others would make the Senate the treaty-making body. Under the Constitution, the President makes treaties by and with the con-sent of the Senate. Dealing with foreign nations is an executive
Some people would change the Constitution by having the resident elected by popular vote. "The will of the majority" is a catchy slogan. The Constitution now provides for the election of a President by an electoral college, made up of lectors from the several states according to the number of Representatives and senators from such states and elected by the people. Our fore-fathers planned even more wisely than they knew. Under such a plan it would be possible for a President to be elected by the people of New York, Massachusetts, .and New Jersey alone. Great as these states are, nevertheless, the foreign influence is so great that the tradition of the United States in selecting an American president might easily be upset. I prefer the present system by which the men and Women of the developing South, the men and women of the expanding West, and the men and women of the rich Mississippi Valley can have a practical voice in the selection of their thief executive. With all of its teeming millions, the states above mentioned have fewer native-born American citizens in proportion to the total population than any other section of the country. The time is coming when the Americans of the West, South, and Middle West must Americanize the East and t can't be done by putting the supreme power in the hands of a foreign-made section of our country.
Some people would make the legislative department of our government supreme and destroy the power of the judicial department to declare null and void votes of congress contrary to the provisions of the constitution. Such a provision would absolutely destroy the efficacy of a written constitution. The judicial department is one of the splendid checks in our system of government. If the legislative department exceeds its Power as granted by the constitution and passes measures not authorized under its express or implied power, the judicial branch of government under its constitutional rights declares
Now, again is heard the cry over the land"Let the people rule and not the Supreme Court." If the people enact a law through their representatives no power should destroy that law. If congress is supreme and above the constitution, then is the argument persuasive, but if there is a government of delegated power and the constitution is the paramount law, then there must be some branch of government independent of the legislative branch to determine when that department exceeds its authority. That power is rightly lodged in the judicial branch whose function under the constitution is to interpret the law. But a year or two ago we witnessed the spectacle of men debating whether it would be wise to submit judicial decisions to the vote of the people to determine whether those decisions were correct or otherwise. Such theories absolutely destroy the thought of government as enunciated by our fathers in the document which we are discussing.
Again some people are debating the advisability of changing the constitution so that Federal judges can be elected by the people for short terms of office. Under the constitution Federal judges are appointed by the President by and with the concurrence of the Senate and the term of office is for life or good behavior. The constitution provides that judges can be impeached, the house of representatives preferring the
Complaint is now often made that Federal judges are arbitrary and being appointed for life they owe allegiance to no one. This criticism is sometimes justified for Federal judges in some instances have been known to act in an arbitrary manner. However, the remedy is found in the above noted provision, if the representatives of the people do their full duty and perform the functions granted to them under the constitution.
A judge, if he is true to his obligation, is sometimes required in interpreting and applying the law to render decisions which are not in accord with the popular demand. If a judge's tenure of office is contingent upon his deciding cases according to popular fancies and not according to law then courts of justice would soon become a mockery and sham. We need and must have an independent judiciary free from the influences of popular clamor and with courage sufficient to decide every case according to the law no matter how distasteful that decision may be to the public at large. This is a government of law and not a government by mob and we should keep our judicial officers free from that kind of an influence. A successful judge should have no fear of his future and should be separated from the political clamor of the day. I think our constitution makers were wise in making Federal judges appointive and making their tenure of office for life or good behavior and that any present variation from that provision would tend to weaken the conservativeness, independence and the stability of the judicial arm of our government.
Some people contend that the appointive power of the president should be abridged. Under the constitution he appoints all executive subordinates as well as all judicial officers, ambassadors, etc. The argument is made that it enables the party in power to build a political machine. This argument is justified in part but when would that power be lodged to obviate that difficulty. To make all these officers selective would be a practical impossibility. To put the appointive power in congress would make it possible to build a machine of more gigantic proportions with no check on its arbitrary use and in a body where its exercise would have an important influence
The constitution is the greatest system of checks and balances ever devised.
The executive department is checked against the legislative department by means of the veto power.
The legislative department is checked against the executive by means of the confirmative power of the senate in all appointments.
The house of representatives is checked against the senate in the necessity of the concurrence of both houses before a law can be enacted.
The judicial branch is checked against the legislative department in its power to declare acts of congress unconstitutional.
The legislative department is checked against the executive in its power to impeach.
The legislative department is checked against the judicial in its power to impeach.
Congress is checked by the people by the election of representatives every two years.
The people are checked by a judicial power which would declare void any enactment of their representatives even though it was over-whelmingly demanded when such enactment is contrary to the fundamental law.
Yes, let the people rule, but let them rule through their accredited representatives within the limitations set out in the constitution. It is a great document, it has withstood the shock of more than a century of conflict. Under its humane and wise provisions we have grown from a handful of people upon the Atlantic seaboard unto what constitutes a nation of one hundred ten million, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf of Mexico to the green fields of Canada. We have developed from an infant nation to a world power whose influence has brought a larger freedom and a greater democracy to the kingdoms of the world.
Let us leave the constitution alone. It has been weighed in the balance and not found wanting. Our duty and responsibility is not so much to form a new Utopian document but to support and sustain the present Utopian document which has in it the provisions when properly enforced to Americanize America and to republicanize the world. The enemies of the constitution are within our gates. Communism, I. W.W.ism and anarchy are striking constantly at this fundamental document. The conservation of America and the preservation of the constitution depends upon men and women who love our institution, who are impregnated with the spirit of '76 and who have been baptised under the stars and stripes. Without disparaging to any extent the men and women of foreign birth Who have come to these shores to build their own fortunes and to adopt a new country, yet we native sons must understand that the primary obligation is ours and that if a government of the people, for the people and by the people is to survive one hundred per cent. American citizens must stand to and abide by this document, the greatest experiment of the ages in free government.
God grant our people wisdom to see and courage to perform their duty.
It is the purpose of this address to treat somewhat in detail the subject "Harmony between the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan," and to consider the subject in the broad aspect, of a mode of establishing a government, or as we call it, an "Invisible Empire ;" distributing the powers of sovereignty between the seat of government as one separate entity, and the several subordinate governmental departments, prescribing the mode of exercising those powers, and securing to the citizens of the Invisible Empire, the enjoyment of his civil and political rights, so to speak.
This includes the rules that have been developed as to the formation, adoption, amendment and interpretation of constitutions, and the various provisions defining and limiting the powers of government, and regulating the relations between the several departments and between the citizens and the government.
It also includes a comparison of the government of the United States, with its seat of government at the Capitol in Washington, and the government of the Invisible Empire with its seat of government at the Imperial Palace in Atlanta. This is not altogether a metaphor, but something real. It is bringing home the realization of the reality of this thought to our laity as well as the alien. This is a matter of propaganda and education exclusively.
We must let the world know that the Invisible Empire is constituted and exists with as much verity as the United States of America are constituted and exist.
Our National Government has its basic law, and constitution. The Invisible Empire likewise, has its basic law and constitution. The Constitution of the United States is familiarly known to every citizen of the United States, and the duty devolves upon us as citizens of the United States to acquaint the alien with its constitutional provisions. And not only the alien, but some socalled citizens as well, who are not thoroughly familiar with its constitutional provisions. Analogous to this, in the Invisible Empire, every citizen of the Invisible Empire should know its constitutional provisions, and like-wise, a duty devolves upon each and every ctizen of the Invisible Empire to familiarize himself with its constitution and by- laws, and acquaint the alien with its provisions, as well as those citizens of the Invisible Empire, who have not familiarized themselves with the constitutional provisions of the Empire.
Every great Nation came into existence upon the ordaining and establishing of a Constitution, our United States of America more particularly. So too, every great society or corporation was thus created and constituted. To those of us who know, we alone appreciate that the Constitution of the Invisible Empire is just as wonderful a document as the Constitution of the United States of America.
Now a Constitution is a system of fundamental laws or principles for the government of a Nation, society, corporation or other aggregation of individuals, either written or unwritten. In the United States the word "Constitution" as applied to the organization of the Federal and State government, always implies a writing, and it is understood in the further restricted sense of an enactment by the direct action of the People, providing for the form of government and designing the powers of the several departments, thus creating a fundamental law which is absolute and unalterable, except by the authority from which it eminates. Likewise, in the Invisible Empire the word "Constitution" as applied to our organization always implies a writing, and it is understood as above out-lined. The purpose of the constitution of the United States and of the constitution of the Invisible Empire is to prescribe the permanent framework of a system of government, and as-sign to the different departments their respective powers and duties. It is recognized that the framers of a constitution could not anticipate conditions which might arise thereafter in the Progress of the Nation or Empire, and could not establish all the law, which from time to time might be necessary to con-form to changing conditions. A Constitution as a rule there-fore, does not deal in details, but enunciates the general principles and general directions which are intended to apply to all new facts that may come into being, and which may be brought within these general principles or directions.
So, our Constitution of the United States of America is dedicated to the forming of a more perfect Union, establishment of justice, insurance of domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promotion of the general welfare, and securing the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. What could be more wonderful? Nothing could be more wonderful, unless it would be the Constitution of the Invisible Empire, dedicated, ordained and established to insure unity of organizations ; to guarantee an effective form of government to perpetuate our great institution through patriotic and fraternal achievements ; to continue and make vital its piritual purposes, laudible objects and lofty ideals promote Patriotism toward our civil government honorable peace among men and Nations, protection for and happiness in
Could any people dedicate themselves to a sublimer nobler purpose?
Compare the preamble of the Constitution of the Invisible Empire, as just above cited to you, with the preamble of the Constitution of the United States. Do the two harmonize? Can they both be yoked together and operate concurrently?
The Constitution of the United States was not formed merely to guard the States against danger arising from foreign nations but mainly to secure union and harmony at home, and safety against injustice from one another. It was designed for the common and equal benefit of all the United States. So was the Constitution of the Invisible Empire designed for the common and equal benefit of all the citizens of the Invisible Empire, and to secure union and harmony within the Empire. Both the Constitution of the United States and of the Invisible Empire were adopted as free and voluntary acts for the protection of its citizens.
Our Federal Constitution has certain mandatory and directory provisions. It provides for the distribution of the powers of government, and the fundamental rights and privileges and immunities of citizenship. And every one of these three provisions you will find in the Constitution governing the Invisible Empire. There is no apparent repugnancy between the two when all provisions are harmonized and construed together as a whole. They blend perfectly.
The chief argument against the Klan today is that it stirs up class hatred and makes class and racial distinctions between certain citizens with different religious views, and prescribes certain proscriptions or limitations upon its membership. This argument is put forth by persons not well read on the subject, or persons who come within the limitations or proscriptions thus prescribed, and therefore have some personal animus or
But the argument is put forth, that if in reality we stand for the things we advocate, we should not restrict our membership. And the person that puts forth this argument, often-times will go on and say that the United States places no limitations upon its citizens, that this is the land of the free, etc.
You will note by even a casual comparison of the Constitution of the Invisible Empire, and the Constitution of the United States, that the powers of each in many respects are identical. Under the Constitution of the United States this government has the right to make certain proscriptions as to aliens. Under our Constitution we make certain proscriptions as to aliens. The United States government makes certain requirements as to citizenship. The Invisible Empire makes certain requirements as to citizenship. All persons or subjects within the borders of these the United States of America, under the construction of our organic instrument or Constitution, are guaranteed the protection of the laws enjoyed by naturalized citizens in the pursuit of happiness, or of their life, liberty and property. The alien that comes within our borders is guaranteed these rights and this protection. Yet, because of the very fact that he is not a naturalized citizen of these United States he is deprived of certain rights, privileges and benefits accorded our citizenry. But just because these persons are aliens within our borders does not mean that we do not live and let live. We associate with them and school them and educate them, and try to make them one of us, with
Yet for reasons best known to the framers of our Constitution and Congress acting under the power granted to it in that behalf, certain limitations have been placed upon immigration. Certain classes have been denied admission into the United States on the grounds of public policy, and for the better protection of our Nation. So too, in the Invisible Empire we have certain limitations as to admission for citizenship. And this is altogether right and proper. It is entirely within law and reason. The validity of this provision has been attacked time and time again in our Supreme Court without success, and our Supreme Court has upheld the right of the Nation to do this very thing. As an illustration take the Japanese Immigration question, or your Jim Crow decisions. Our Federal Government can properly restrict immigration and exclude certain persons or classes deemed undesirable from within its borders. So too, the Invisible Empire can proscribe its membership or citizenship. If this were not so our government would be over-run with undesirables, and instead of being a Nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, become a veritable melting pot for the scum of the earth.
Analogously speaking, the framers of the Constitution of the Invisible Empire, in their wisdom made certain proscriptions whereby they limit membership in our organization or citizen-ship in the Invisible Empire to a certain person. Were this not the case, the personnel of our citizenry would be such that we could not accomplish our ideals. This was done no doubt by the framers of our Constitution for good and sufficient reasons. Those reasons are best known to ourselves alone. The main reason or thought in mind was that by securing men who could meet the qualifications prescribed, it would best serve to perpetuate and effectuate the ideals therein innumerated.
So it is that the Klan has gone along and made very rapid strides. Its progress has been phenominal. Our leaders and the men among us who have given conscientious and studious study to our Constitution and Ideals can readily meet every argument, advanced by the opposition to the existence and operation of the Klan.
I claim that I can prove to any disinterested man who at least understands the law, that the things taught under the Constitution of the Invisible Empire, and the things that the Klan stands for are altogether in harmony with the basic laws of this country and its Constitution. And I will undertake to defend any principle that the Klan teaches, under its Constitution in conjunction with our Federal Constitution.
So it behooves us so to live and act that we exemplify in our everyday walk in life the high ideals to which we have steadfastly set our endeavors, remembering always that Christ is the Klansman's criterion. We must live down the public suspicion that we are murderers, outlaws, kidnappers and night raiders by example and precept, word and deed. Our chief task is to make Americans out of our own flesh and blood.
Let us contribute willingly and whole heartedly all that we can and do it with zeal and zest. Let us forget the idea that if we cannot do things entirely our own way or be just what we want to be, that we wont do things at all or be anything at all.
This is not a one-man organization. No one man can do great things in and of himself. He must have strong, substantial influential, thoughtful sincere men gathered around him. This organization could not be what it is today, were it not for the strong men at its head. Dr. Evans has been unable to do it alone. We all realize there must be a directing head to every successful organization or movement. It is only by and through that directing head can we work successfully, efficiently and with effectiveness. Revert back in your minds to past events in the Klan during the regime of Dr. Evans and see how we have gone along constructive lines and made such marked progress in the face of all the opposition, law suits and stumbling blocks put in our path by disgruntled men of the "I am" type. In the Realm of Illinois I cannot succeed without the co-operation of the substantial men surrounding
There is need for some individual initiative and responsibility in this work. And it is a mistaken notion that somehow the Government of the Invisible Empire can wield a magic wand, as it were, and produce results, and achieve the fulfillment of our ideals.
The very purpose of our meeting is to devise ways and means as directing heads of the several Realms, of assuming some of the responsibilities that have heretofore laid on the shoulders of the government of the Invisible Empire. We must liken our government, the Invisible Empire, as administered at the Imperial Palace in Atlanta, unto our Federal Government with its capital or directing head at Washington, and the various Realms to the State Governments. It behooves us as State Representatives of the Federal Government, so to speak, not to do much loose thinking and try to put the State Government or the Realm Government above Federal Government or the Imperial Palace. There could be no more complete negation of Realm rights. That would be abdication. Let us give this subject sober thought.
We, as a Realm, owe it to the Imperial Government of the Invisible Empire to work out our Constitution as the several States of the Union owe it to the Federal Government to work out its Constitution. This will thwart secession, eliminate dissention, and create unison of purpose and harmony throughout the whole Invisible Empire.
In attempting to offer a brief interpretation of the Constitution and Laws of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, I am conscious that I can only deal with certain general phases and cannot quote from nor refer to the document itself in any considerable detail. I must take for granted that its text is familiar to us all.
In the first place I desire to call your attention to the kind and character of men who, under our constitution, qualified for membership in the organization of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. No secret order ; no society ; no church ; no political organization so restricts its membership. In no other name and under no other standard can men in large numbers be gathered together anywhere in the civilized world where it can be said of them that they are of one race one nationality; one faith ; one glorious patriotic purpose, bound together by one obligation and consecrated to a common cause. In no other organization in the United States of America do men assemble or can be assembled in large numbers who are all native born, white, gentile, protestant, American citizens. Our Constitution in limiting its membership to this class of men stands out as a document unique, and as a thing apart from all other constitutions, articles of agreement or compacts among men in the whole world. Not only is our constitution unique in the matter of the kind and character of men which it brings together and binds in oath bound brother-hood, but it is unique with respect to the objects, plans and purposes for which its membership is united.
Let it be admitted here that our Constitution, like all other constitutions, is the embodiment of ideals and principles as well as practical rules of action and operation and just as no government, state, church, society, or other organization ever rises above or even fully attains the high standard and lofty plane upon which it is pitched by its charter and constitution, so the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan may in actual practice and
"To promote patriotism toward our civil government"ours is by no means the only organization chartered for such a purpose, but no other organization to which my attention has ever been called is so vitally concerned in this one purpose, nor organized with such minute care for the accomplishment thereof. "Honorable peace among men and nations; protection for and happiness in the homes of our people, the protection of womanhood, the development of manhood, the promotion of brotherhood and love among ourselves ; and liberty, justice and fraternity among all nations." We are dedicated to all the generous practices embraced in the term fraternalism; we are consecrated to the noble practice of disseminating the gospel we call Klankraft, embracing as it does the reverential acknowledgment of the supremacy of Almighty God, the recognition of His goodness and providence through our Lord Jesus Christ, the recognition of our relation to the government of the United States of America, the supremacy of its constitution, the union of states thereunder and the constitutional laws thereof. We are committed to an undying devotion to the sublime principles of a pure American-ism and the valiant defense of its ideals and institutions, we are committed to the doctrine of a positive distinction between the races of mankind as decreed by the Creator, and pledged to an undying purpose to maintain white supremacy and to oppose any compromise thereof.
Such are some of the outstanding purposes of our order as set forth in the constitution.
Permit me now to call attention to the nature and character as well as the form of government set up by our constitution.
From different parts of the country, at various times has come criticism of our form of government as set forth in our Constitution, the criticism being that our government is undemocratic. In my opinion this is due to lack of understanding
"Section 2. The Imperial Klonvocation shall be composed of all Imperial Officers, the Grand Dragon and an elected delegate (Klepeer) from each organized Realm ; the Great Titan and an elected delegate from each Province ; and the Exalted Cyclops from Klans that are in good standing."
The distribution of the vote according to membership in the various Realms, as well as the provision for representation of unorganized Realms, is fully set out in the article and section mentioned. Thus, a careful study of this part of our constitution will show that our government is thoroughly representative and democratic in its principle and in its practice. The form and character of our government is, however, both in theory and in practice, military, and in a sense autocratic. We ourselves have made it so.
Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution is very explicit on this point. Our Imperial Wizard is Commander-in-chief, and he is supreme within certain restrictions of the Constitution, and his decisions, decrees, edicts, mandates, rulings and instructions are of full authority and must be unquestionably recognized and respected by each and every citizen of the Invisible Empire.
The military feature runs all through our plan of operation, and the autocratic form of government lies in the fact of the authority and power vested in our Imperial Wizard, and also in the method of his election. See in this connection Article 9, Section 1 ; where provision is made for the election of the Wizard by the Grand Dragons. Some slight criticism of this article has once or twice been suggested on the ground that the Imperial WizardSupreme Chief Executive of the Orderunder the provisions of the said article is elected by the Grand Dragons, who are themselves subjects of his own appointment,
When our Savior used the parable of the steward, who, when called to an accounting went out among his fellow stewards and by reducing their indebtedness to their common master made friends of them against the day of his discharge, did not in any sense justify the acts done by the steward, but did use it as an illustration, teaching his disciples a valuable lesson in political economy.
Some of the most iniquitous devices of the devil himself are operated upon plans that develop the highest efficiency and the greatest degree of effectiveness, but this does not mean that the devil owns the plans. If the living Christ, a Klans-man's criterion of character, could commend to his disciples methods employed by his arch enemy, why should not we, in good faith, adopt the methods which have proven their efficacy through twenty centuries of history, although we denounce the ends and purposes to which they have been diverted.
There is another reason why our government must be military in character. Our organization is more than a secret order ; it is a movement ; in a sense, it is a Crusade. Military discipline must be maintained in our organization because we,
At the close of the "War Between the States," the Confederate States were practically without governments, those which they had established after their withdrawal from the Union having been overthrown. The great question before the Country was what to do with the Southern States. They had been declared insurgents, and therefore it was contended that their relation to the United States Government was that of a "conquered territory." It was President's Lincoln's plan to accomplish the restoration of the seceeding states with as little delay as possible, and he had outlined a policy to that end, maintaining that they had never really been out of the Union but only "out of practical relations with the Government." After Lincoln's death, President Johnson undertook to carry out the purposes of his predecessor and in May 1865 issued a proclamation of pardon to practically all those engaged in the war. Following the action of the President, most of the Southern States called conventions and repealed their ordinances of secession, accepting the act of President Johnson in good faith.
By the autumn of 1865 every Southern State except Texas Was reorganized and had ratified the Thirteenth amendment.
Under the leadership of the "carpetbagger's," who like vultures had swept out of the North to prey upon the vitals of the prostrate South, the ignorant negro rode into power, and the black heel was placed upon the neck of the proudest race the sun ever shone upon. Under the rule of the carpetbagger and the scalawag the negro ran riot. Every indignity was offered the people of the South, and they were forced to stand idle while their wives and daughters were openly insulted, without hope of redress. Then, when hope had almost fled and destruction seemed inevitable, the pure `Anglo-Saxon blood' in the South rose in its might and the Ku Klux Klan was born.
During the month of May in the year 1866, six young Con-federate soldiers living in the city of Pulaski, Tenn., formed an organiaztion for social purposes. This society named itself "The Kuklos," which comes from the Greek word KluKloi, and from which we get our words "circle" and "cycle." The name meant literally a circle or a band. In later days, perhaps for the purpose of making the organization more mysterious, it was called the Ku Klux and word Klan was added. Aside from the evident intent to incite curiosity and interest by the selection
No authentic history of this wonderful organization has ever been written, and now over half a century after it has ceased to exist, there is no positive or definite information concerning it or the works which it wrought. The passage of years has thinned the ghostly ranks of the weird brotherhood, a mystery the Ku Klux Klan was born, a mystery it lived and died, and mystery shall forever haunt its grave.
No man was solicited to join. Every applicant came voluntarily and was admitted to membership after subscribing to the oath of secrecy, free from any outside pressure. The Klan grew with amazing rapidity, and in a short time spread as far north as the Potomac River, and as far south as the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. New dens or lodges were established in every part of the country. This rise and expansion of the "invisible empire" occured between June 1866 and April 1867. There is nothing in history to parallel it. More than half a million men, defeated in war, reduced almost to Pauperism, rose upon the ruins of their homes and organized themselves into an invincible and invisible army and won the greatest victory of Anglo-Saxon civilization.
In 1867 'a convention composed of representatives of the Klan throughout the Confederate States met at Nashville, Tenn. The first declaration made by the Klan in convention was one of loyalty to the Union, as follows: "We recognize our relations to the United States, the supremacy of the Constitution and Constitutional laws thereof, and the Union of the States thereunder."This forever refutes the charge that these men were plotting treason.
The Nashville Convention also defined and set forth the objects and purposes of the Klan as follows:
1. "To protect the weak, the innocent and the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs and outrages of the lawless, the violent and the brutal ; to relieve the injured and the oppressed, to succor the suffering and especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers.
2. "To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and all laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the states and people from all invasion from any source whatever.
3. "To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to protect the people from unlawful seizure and from trial, except by their peers in conformity to the laws of the land."
The Klan had become such a powerful machine that the members realized the vital necessity of having a leader, and General Nathan Bedford Forrest, of Memphis, Tenn., the Con-federate cavalry leader, was elected as Grand Wizard, the obligation being given him in Room 10, at the old Maxwell House at Nashville, by Capt. Jno. W. Morton, who had been Forrest's Chief of Artillery during the war.
Associated with General Forrest were many of the most prominent leaders of the Confederacy. General Albert Pike was Chief Judiciary Officer and Advisor. General Jno. Gordon was Grand Dragon of Georgia, General Jno. H. Forney was Grand Dragon of Alabama, General Wade Hampton Grand Dragon of South Carolina, while General George W. Gordon of Tennessee wrote the ritual and took an active part in the deliberations of the Klan.
Under the leadership of General Forrest, the Klan swept the South like a whirlwind, restoring order out of chaos, and saving the civilization of the South from utter destruction.
The entire South was an invisible Empire under a Grand Wizard. Each State was a Realm under a Grand Dragon; several counties formed a Dominion under a Grand Titan; each county was a Province under a Grand Giant ; the smallest division being a Den under a Grand Cyclops. The Klan was twice reorganized, in 1867 and in 1868, each time being more centralized, in 1869 the organization was disbanded by order of General Forrest, the Grand Wizard, and the order was dissolved almost in a night, although imitations of the Klan existed for a year or more longer.
Some histories record the fact that the Klan was disbanded as a result of the action of the United States Government, but this is an error. The Klan was in active operation until its leaders decided that the purpose for which it had been formed had been accomplished. The Government made every effort to suppress the Klan, but it was utterly powerless to cope with the situation and the Klan was not disbanded until orders were given by the Grand Wizard.
The ghostly legions have long since disappeared, their purpose accomplished and a civilization saved. The Dragons and Giants, the Goblins and Hydras, the Cyclops and Furies, and the Night Hawks and Ghouls, have crossed over the river to rest in the shade of the trees with their immortal commander, secure in the knowledge that they have settled for all time the question of White Supremacy, and that through them a Nation has been re-born.
They will live in song and story, and as the years roll by the whole world will pay them tribute, for to the eternal glory of the Southern people, although the United States Government offered fabulous rewards for the men who would betray the secrets of the order, and although the women of the South made the robes of the Klan and knew of this offer, there was never a traitor.
What is the definition of Klankraft, and how to disseminate it, is a subject rather broad and one that is difficult to handle briefly.
Klankraft in my opinion is the motive power embodying the divine and cardinal principles necessary for the resurrection of that real, genuine Americanism of which our forefathers undoubtedly had the vision when they drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
It is the spirit of pure patriotism toward this, our glorious country, and the preservation of American ideals and institutions, it is the exemplification of the noble ideals of chivalry, wherein the chastity of our women, the protection of our
Then again, Klankraft is the art of inculcating into the heart and soul of man a reverence for Deity, for our country, our homes, and each other through inspiration and education.
How can we disseminate it? By the careful selection of real men who are known to have the true spirit of the Klan at heart, who are worshippers at the shrine and the motto of our order: "Non Silba Sed Anthar," who will, after careful study and deliberation, adopt a definite program which will embrace the spiritual, educational, political, vocational and practical phases of Klankraft in their entirety, and who will then proceed to promulgate these principles in strict accordance to the program as decided and agreed upon.
The spiritual phase is most important, and although there has been a tendency to accept it as a matter of fact, never has there been a time since the conception of this great institution that this cardinal principle has received the emphasis and concerted action on the part of the Imperial authorities, their organizers, officers of realms and their subordinates, in inoculating the germ of desire on the part of Klansmen who have joined our ranks and who are necessarily protestants in be-lief, but who are not affiliated with any church, to at once align themselves as real, live, working members of some protestant church, thereby setting forth concrete evidence to the alien world that we as Klansmen are united in our religious belief and that we are in reality demonstrating the practical utility of the great doctrine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, as a vital force in the lives and affairs of men.
But how can this be accomplished? First : by making a supreme effort to interest all protestant ministers who can qualify, in our organization, with the ultimate view of taking
We should work constantly with the ministers of protestant churches with a view of having at least once or twice a year great mass meetings, wherein all protestant churches, will for the time be combined together as one church, laying aside their differences in denominational beliefs and gathering together with but one purpose in view, the worshop of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are many ways and means to enlighten and encourage Klansmen along these lines and it should be the impelling duty of every officer of our organization to devote a great deal of thought and material action in Promulgating the spiritual phase of our order.
The educational phase, as a matter of fact, embraces all of the tenets of Klankraft, and is the key to the ultimate success of our organization. It is unnecessary to visualize for you in detail just to what extent it can be properly disseminated, but I will endeavor to point out to you what I consider some of the fundamentals. First : the promulgation of constructive,
The use of public as well as inside speakers is extremely important, as they will always reach a great mass of the public who seldom devote very much time to reading, and in thought. Hence the law of information acquired from "lip to ear" manifests itself very forcibly in the promulgation of the principles of Klankraft.
The political phase of Klankraft embodies two distinct departments and yet in reality co-ordinate into one, in the final analysis of the subject. The love and reverence which every true native born American has for his flag, his government and his home, will in a measure dictate to him what he should do in his small way of directing his influence and his birth-right in the proper selection of men to handle the affairs of
Vocational Klannishness is paramount to the ultimate success of our order. All other sects practice it in one way or another, and in many instances to the entire exclusion of the Protestant world, and it is apparent that the protestant world has failed to realize the significance of this practice. It is our duty as Klansmen, for self-preservation, if for no other reason, to practice vocational klannishness and I am firmly of the opinion that the time is coming, and not far distant, when we shall be compelled to follow this phase of Klankraft religiously. Otherwise, we shall feel the yoke of utter dissension in our own ranks brought about through our inability to compete in a commercial way with great corporations owned and con-trolled by men who do not hold their allegiance to one flag and government. Therefore, the seeds of vocational klannishness should be sworn at every opportunity in all meetings of Klansmen, and in carefully worded press terms. Klansmen should be taught that it is their sacred duty as Klansmen to always favor a Klansman in the commercial world, whether it be in buying, selling, advertising, employment, political, social or in any way wherein a Klansman is affected.
The practical phase of Klankraft divides itself into three distinct departments : namely, organization, administration and operation. You are all well acquainted with the plan of organization of Klankraft, the method of administration and
Therefore, Klansmen, call up the powers of determination and will, harness them to the wagon of endeavor, and you shall have nothing to fear, for under these conditions nothing can Prevail against you for you are bound to reach the haven for Which you steer, the port to which the wind of pluck and determination will bring your craft after a safe voyage, no matter how stormy or how much you have been buffeted by fate, Remember, Klansmen, the great object of life is to build dnd grow, that there is progress from the cradle to the grave and as an atom of the universe you must go on and on to success, not failure. Don't indulge in aimless reverie, but have a definite aim and always keep it in the light of attainment, never, no never, permitting the shadow of doubt or uncertainty to fall across your path.
Too long has the world thought of spiritual matters in material terms. Too long have temporal considerations overshadowed the things of the spirit, and eternal verities been subordinated to the affairs of time!
The warning of the Master that a misinterpretation of His teachings would bring a sword rather than peace, has fallen upon deaf ears, and the result has been the combined woes of the world.
The most stupendous monument to this fact is the history of the Great War, when the great nations of the earth were arrayed against each other in a conflict so deadly, and under conditions and methods so appalling, as to cause wonder to the heathen as to what a "religion of peace" might mean! In the name of civilization, and under the banners of Christian peoples, cannon thundered forth in forgetfulness of the first Principles of the Christian faith ; shot and shell proclaiming Indifference to the very foundation stone of all religion"love one another."
Accretions of humanly conceived orthodox tenets, and crystallized creeds, have been the cause of bitter contention, and fruitless strife. Divisions among Christians have been honored
Scornfully has the militant creedist gone up and down the earth loudly inveighing against the mote in his brother's eye, and consigning to everlasting perdition all those differing from him in orthodox interpretation.
"The "fists" and "isms" have rent the fabric of Christian love and fellowship and through selfishness and materialism, the raiment of Him who died upon the Cross has again been parted, and the sublime lesson of that Sacrifice been denied.
Yet on every hand are problems so stupendous, issues so vital to Protestant Christianity and its survival, that now, in this belated wakening of Protestant consciousness, comes the appalling revelation of wasted years, lost opportunities, and marvelous possibilities forever past.
In this reconstruction period following the world conflict, with humanity torn from its moorings, and chaos threatening to engulf civilization, suddenly a light glows in the east, and its form is that of a Fiery Cross ! Then, as the people watch, the rays grow brighter, and illumine the figures of men in spotless raiment typical of the Cause they serve. And, breath-less, the watchers ask :"Who are these who are arrayed in white robes, and whence come they ?" And the voices of those who have waited for the dawn make answer :"These are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And, lo! Hope is born again in the hearts of God's people; sorrow gives place to gladness ; and hymns of thanksgiving ascend to Him Whose seal is set upon these, His instruments of salvation.
So, into the midst of a sin-racked, despairing world, have come with marching feet, and uplifted banners, The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Make way for them, ye disciples of Tyranny and Oppression. Stand aside, all ye who follow after vain gods. Tremble, ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord has suddenly come to His temple, and who shall abide the day of His coming?
Since the time of Martin Luther never was there such a Reformation,never such a spiritual renaissance. Nations
So, from the maelstrom of doubt and despair has been born a force for righteousness and the advancement of His Kingdom, binding men in new bonds of Christian fellowship and brotherly love, whose strength is that of tempered steel. A force which "hath broken down the middle walls of partition," and fused the representatives of differing Protestant creeds into one great body of loyalty to a common purposean "out-standing force which has caused men to forget their differences, and to remember only that they are brothers, and beyond and above that brotherhood, the Fatherhood of God.
"And now therefore are ye no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and the household of God. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone."that glorious Christ, the Klansman's criterion of character.
The officers of a Klan are elected according to their efficiency. In all cases these men are expected to be leaders in their respective communities. It is the intention and aim of the organization to elect only those men who are already imbued with the idea of law enforcement, and who thoroughly believe that every law, both State and Federal, should be rigidly enforced. It sometimes happens, but not frequently, that Klans in the selection of their officers make mistakes, but when this is discovered, these officers who are not thoroughly in accord with the principles of the Klan and its ideals, are replaced with others. It is the purpose of the national organization, as well as the various local Klans under that national organization, to have as its leaders those men who believe not only in the Christian religion, white supremacy, the enthronement of virtuous womanhood, the propagation of
The officers of a Klan, in addition to their belief in the enforcement of law, are usually men selected for their high Christian character, their high morality and their belief in the idea that the morals of a community shape its destiny. They are pledged to a man to stand against immorality in all its forms, and to let it be known in their respective communities that the organization to which they belong stands behind them in upholding the morals of the communities in which they reside. These men of necessity believe, first in the religion of Jesus Christ and all that term means, without, however, any fight against any other denomination or creed.
They recognize that each individual in this nation has a perfect right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, without interference from any agency what-ever. Other good people may have different ideas about religion and the manner in which they worship, and with them the officers of the Klan raise no question with reference to their rights in this respect. They are, and the organization is, primarily for the Christian religion, but are not against and raise no fight against the religion of their neighbor. The great hubbub that has been raised in the press of this country to the effect that the officers of the Klan and the organization itself is one formed for the purpose of fighting the Catholic and the Jew is untrue. The Jew and the Catholic have their organizations, and they have a constitutional right to their beliefs, and the Klan and its Officers raise no question with reference to this constitutional right. The officers of the Klan and the organization, however, take the position that it has a perfect right from every standpoint, moral, legal or otherwise to stand together for the purpose of maintaining the Christian religion
With this idea in view, let us consider for a moment the responsibility of the officers of a Klan with reference to law enforcement. In the first place, as suggested in the above out-line, the local officers of a Klan must first believe that the laws of the country as they exist in the statute books should be rigidly enforced. Any officer of a Klan who winks at law violation is unworthy of the high office conferred upon him, and if these facts become known to his constituency, that officer is immediately removed.
Those that think just a little bit for themselves have come to know within the past few years that an idea is rampant in this country that a part of the people may with impunity violate a law, when they think it is well for it to be enforced in other jurisdictions. Those who are acquainted with real facts know that the Bolshevik, the Anarchist, the Soviet, together with a bunch of weak-kneed so-called citizens, are using propaganda of the most subtle kind to lead, at least a Part of the people, to believe that law enforcement is a matter to be left to the individual conscience of the individual citizen. It is a well known fact that some of the professors in some colleges and universities of this nation are preaching doctrines that are detrimental to American ideals, and this propaganda skillfully handled by minds, bound purely on mischief, has had and is now having some effect upon that class who refuse to do their own thinking, but are satisfied to accept this vile and pernicious doctrine handed out to them by those whose motives are ulterior, and who are not really and truly loyal to their state or to their nation.
It is the purpose and should be the aim of every officer of a local Klan to take it upon himself to see that any kind of propaganda that belittles this government, that belittles the President of the United States, be he Republican or Democrat, or that calls in question constituted authority from any source, should be fought in his respective community. It is not incumbent upon the officer of a local Klan to make himself obnoxious to those with whom he comes in contact, but it is his duty, and
A part of the press of the country would lead the unsuspecting, who are on the outside of the Klan, to think that the organization is builded for the prime purpose of taking the enforcement of the law into the hands of Klan members, and thereby deprive the courts of the country of their right to en-force these laws. A greater misrepresentation has never been made to the American people. The Klan as an organization, and each individual member thereof, not only pledges himself under oath to abide by the laws of his country, but that he will assist in the enforcement thereof through regular and constituted authorities.
For the purpose of making myself understood, permit me to recite an example that might be flung to the whole world in refutation of this unscrupulous and untruthful charge:
In my own city, many miles South of the Mason and Dixon line, a negro who ravishes white women has been usually hung by a mob, and in some instances in the past they have been burned at the stake. About a year ago a series of murders occurred in and around my home city, amounting to six or seven, and two of the victims were young white women. Finally a negro was arrested on these several charges and finally made a written confession that he was the perpetrator of these brutal and inhuman murders, and that he did ravish each of the white women victims before he actually murdered them. This confession was corroborated by ample evidence and fully established in court. When it became known that this fiend had confessed, the Governor of the State immediately got in communication with the Sheriff of the County and other peace officers and suggested to them that he immediately send the state constabulary for the purpose of preventing a mob from wreaking its vengence upon this negro brute. The Sheriff told the Governor that was useless for him to send the militia be-cause in the county there were several thousand Klansmen, who had pledged themselves to the Sheriff, to see to it that this fiend should receive a fair and impartial trial at the hands of a fair and impartial jury. This negro remained in jail for
It is a known fact by every officer of the Klan, and especially in the more congested districts, that the boot-legger, the thief, the robber, the wife-beater, the vagabond, the "jelly-bean," the murderer and the rapist, as well as the adulterer, is an eternal enemy of the Klan. This class in every community shows its violence in more ways than one, because they have come to know that the Klan through its officers are opposed to this class of citizens, and consequently they undertake to Wreak their vengence, not upon any individual member of the organization, but upon the organization itself.
In my home county where, heretofore, the boot-legger has had an almost open field in the propagation of his nefarious business, he has now met with extreme opposition by the pre-Sent officers of the county. These officers have the united Support of every Klansman in the county, and that being true, these several Klansmen, when an infraction of the law is brought to their notice, immediately take the same up with
In one case, of which I happen to have personal knowledge, a man, a quasi respectable citizen, who operated a still on his premises, sold the beverage to any who had the price, and escaped prosecution in the courts. This particular individual became so flagrant in the violation of the law, that it was an open secret that he was conducting, running and operating a still and selling whiskey on his premises. One faithful Klansman took it upon himself to get first-hand information; this information was given to the district attorney, and this particular boot-legger is now under sentence to the state penitentiary for violation of the state law with reference to the sale of intoxicating liquors. This instance is cited for the purpose of showing that individual Klansmen as well as the officers of the Klan work harmoniously in undertaking to assist and to help the local officers in the enforcement of every law.
As said in the beginning, the officers of a Klan are usually men of strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill; men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; men who possess opinions and a will; men who have honor ; men who will not lie. This is the class that represent or should represent as officers of the Klans of this nation, and as long as the local organizations will elect tall men, suncrowned, who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking, the laws of their respective communities will be enforced. These men are wholly saturated with the belief and have the one ideal of living in a community where the law is supreme, and that the man or men who under-take to break that law must pay the penalty, as provided in the statutes of that particular state.
The men who are elected to an office in a Klan are men who serve, not for selfish booty, but real men, courageous, who
Those Klansmen who seriously have the future of the organization at heart undertake to live and conduct themselves in a manner that cannot bring reproach upon their good names. The Klansmen of the nation are not living for themselves. They are a band of hand-picked men, Protestant men, who expect to hand down to posterity an organization unsullied, one that has done more to open the eyes of the American people to the real dangers that exist in this country, than any other that has come into existence since the Declaration of Independence or the adoption of the bill of rights.
The Klan as an organization is building for itself a structure in the hearts of each individual Klansman. Each Klansman is striving to so build that those who come after him will appreciate the fact that he builded well.
In the life of our great nation today is a rapidly growing factornamely, The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan;and resting upon this organization as a whole, is a responsibility and an obligation hitherto without precedent in the history of our countryan obligation written with an unseen hand, deep In the heart of every individual klansmanThe True Patriothe whose all is devoted to his God, his country, his home, and his fellowmen.
From the murky waters of Europe, Asia, and Africa, that flood our beautiful land from shore to shore a band of patriots have raised their heads and have seen that this country of ours is not a nation of Americans, but a conglomerate mass
Does anyone ask why is there a Klan in America today? Let me tell you this, Klansmen. The reason there is a Klan in America today is to make America safe for Americans! This then is what THE KLAN, and there is only one Klan, means to our nation. And right here let me emphasize this truththat the strength of unity and completeness lies in the fact that here is only one Klanone Klan, one nation, one and indivisible. We must condemn the utterances and activities of the evil forces within who at this time are seeking to tear down this our patriotic organization. Fellow patriots, if we have the courage of our forefathers let us rise to the occasion now and protect our great organization from destruction
A Klansman's obligation to his God is three-fold: FirstThe true Klansman is a God-fearing man remembering always that the living Christ is a Klansman's criterion of character, and honor his most precious possession. It is a Klansman's obligation to God to keep his character unclouded and his honor unstained.
Second : As Klansmen we recognize and accept the Bible as the express will of God, our Creator. Its teachings are our laws. For ages it has been the light of our white civilization. Without the doctrines of Jesus Christ the white race would degenerate to the level of the mongrel races of the world, and white civilization like that of Greece and Rome, would become a myth. Then let us keep the Bible an open book of service, our guide of conduct both in our private and our Public life,to be passed on to posterity.
Klansmen,It is our obligation to God that we place the Open Bible in the Public Schools of America.
Third: Every honest-to-God Klansman should be a backer of some American Protestant church. And in the material support of that church we can afford to take example of both Jew and Catholic. Shall we, as Klansmen, allow these foreign churches with their alarming vitality, like weeds in a garden, to choke out the less vigorous Protestant churches of America, or shall we, like true Klansmen, by making the Protestant
A Klansman's supreme obligation as a patriot is to his country, and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan stand ready to make patriotism the prime duty of every citizen. In America that duty is sacred. Duty to country is a duty to God. Our first axiom of patriotism is clean politics in America. This means that the day of political parties in America is over; it means the expulsion of the professional political boss from public office. In the future the sole qualification for election to office will be true Americanism.
It is a Klansman's obligation to his country to compel all who abide under our flag to be Americans in soul as well as in name and then let the standard of their value be their American citizenship. America has too long been the melting pot of the world and its dregs have not dissolved. The surest process of assimilation is Americanization of the children in the public schools. Let us teach them that our flag means more than any other flag, proclaiming to the world a free people, the freest government on the face of the earth. Let us imbue them with a reverence for our constitution, and constitutional laws. Let us give them to know that liberty does not mean lawless license. It is out of the question to attempt to inculcate the unassimilated with these principles of Americanization in the parochial schools. Klansmen, do you realize that in many of the largest cities of this country the parochial schools outnumber our own American public schools?
Another part of a Klansman's obligation to his country is to lead public opinion in the right direction, for public opinion is the force that moves the wheels of government for good or for evil. What excuse is there for the American citizen who allows public opinion to be swayed by every wind of foreign sentiment from abroad? Free speech was never meant to be an instrument of alien propaganda. Real American citizens must regain control of the press and motion pictures, and see to it that the American public opinion is never more misled.
To his home a Klansman owes an obligation as binding as any other. Just as the public school is the citadel of American liberty, so is the American home the keystone of our government. All the forces of evil which attack the American home strike at the life of the nation, for when the home is broken, all pretext of government vanishes. These forces would drive a wedge into the Constitution and that wedge is the issue of light wines and beer. When the American People crushed out the saloon with the Eighteenth Amendment, one of the greatest evils that threatened our homes was conquered forever. It is our duty to see that this issue is unsuccessful and that the wedge is not driven into our constitution. There is only one way to protect our homes and our nation and that is to enforce the law without fear or favor.
Our patriotic duty to our fellow men completes the obligation of a Klansman. The utmost vigilance is required to see that the American Principle of equality is fulfilled to all men, for this is indispensable to true democratic government. The vote is the instrument by which each man exercises his equality. When the vote is given those who are not entitled to it, its value to the real American citizen is depreciated and his equality is encroached upon. I hope to see the day when every foreigner must live in this country 21 years before he or she becomes a voter. We have to do it, why not they? Klansmen let us see to it that the seeds of inequality do not ripen into ruin.
Think then of our manifold obligation and picture if you will in every community a valued group of leaders devoted to the religious, moral, social, commercial, and political uplift of this our American nation, and you have the purpose of our organization in spirit and in truth.
A Klansman's obligation is to preserve, protect, and defend our American principles. We cannot waste effort in tearing down. The Ku Klux Klan is pro-American, not Anti-Catholic or Anti-Jew. With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all peoples.
The proper education of a Klansman is, to my mind, one of the great issues confronting the organization today and is one of the greatest assets conceivable if given along the proper lines, remembering always that men have not forgotten the principles that inspired those who signed the Declaration of Independance, which has ripened this into the greatest nation upon the earth and that patriotism is not just the expression of a sentiment.
Klansmen must be educated that "Non Silba Sed Anthar" is not merely four words printed upon paper, but must be considered by them as the very essence of Klankraft that we are not bound together to destroy but to build, that the whole world today is looking for honest men, men in whom the courage of everlasting life runs still deep and strong.
Idealism and enthusiasm are imperative to the head of every organization and every leader must realize that a fountain can rise no higher than its source, hence every ounce of enthusiasm must be radiated to every member that they in turn may see the vision and remember that God's promises are kept, and that their duty is not only the reverence of America's traditions but also the protection of the principles for which we are all fighting.
Klansmen must be brought to realize the great honor that is theirs with the title of Klansman, and to know that they are a living part of an organization that is destined to save our nation, to cast aside the sneers of radicals and to remember the meaning of Klankraft and its principles, to practice and not abuse Klannishness, to labor in harmony with every member of his Klan, and to remain at all times loyal to its officers.
We must all realize that Education pays big dividends, that the abnormal growth of the organization, is responsible, in a measure, for the lack of understanding by some of the real principles. We must now turn to the task of educating the members that the Ku Klux Klan is a modern institution, organized primarily for service to our country. It is a patriotic
Nothing is more important to the perpetuation of the Klan than general enlightenment. Klansmen must know why they are members, they must be given duties to perform, they must be given some thing to do at all times, they must know that some vital part of the organization is dependant upon the successful completion of the task assigned to him.
The Education of a Klansman cannot be accomplished in a few days, subject by subject must be taken up and discussed at length, the attitude of the Klan on public matters must be explained until every one is perfectly satisfied, for wisdom for a few is a dangerous thing and every member must be educated in order to have an enthusiastic and successful Klan.
Klansmen must understand that the Ku Klux Klan is not anti anything, the Klan from its first inception has denied its intention to destroy anyone, or anything and that policy has not been changed.
Every principle of Klancraft demands that every man who loves his home and his country must labor under the cross of Christ and recognize the fact of a ruling providence in the affairs of the Klan. They must realize that if America is to remain the nation that our forefathers gave us they must hold fast to the Bible, keep its teachings in their heart and Practice them in their lives.
Many Klansmen have come into the organization without the knowledge of the high principles and lofty ideals and all are amazed at the magnitude of the program when they under-stand the great nation-wide good to be accomplished, and this complete understanding can only come with a thorough education in Klan matters, and unless this education is forthcoming it cannot be expected that any Klansman can hope to fulfill his obligation.
One thought that stands predominant and which is an education in itself, which should be a guiding star to all Klansmen, which should be brought before every Klonklave, and which
An actively functioning Klan is the greatest asset of which any American city, town or village can boast today.
The Klan in its civic operations should prove itself a veritable driving power for the good and should typify the ideals of the God-fearing, home-loving citizens who reside in every American community.
There is not a Klan in the United States which should sit idle with the excuse that there is nothing for its membership to do. Klansmen in every American settlement, be it great manufacturing metropolis in the North or humble Southern hamlet need only look around them and they can see on every side tasks worthy of their self-sacrifice and devotion.
This does not mean that it is the duty of the Klan to pry into other peoples business, to meddle with private affairs with which they have nothing to do. It means that the work of the Klan in every community should be for the public weal. The efforts of every Klan should be to make their city a better place in which to live and in which the coming generations of Americans shall be raised.
The opportunities for a Klansman to serve his fellow citizens are countless. Keeping a watchful eye on the public school system for instance.
I have before me a newspaper article concerning the work of the Klan in effecting the passage of a large bond issue for the public schools in a great city in the state of Alabama. The city was sadly in need of new schools yet a certain element boldly fought the bonds caring nothing for the welfare of the boys and girls who in a generation will control the destinies of the municipality.
And then the Klan swung into the fight. They spoke for the bond issue showing how imperative it was to make education
As a result the bond issue carried by a good majority and city officials through the columns of reluctant newspapers praised the Klan for its splendid work.
It is actions such as this which make the Klan a civic asset.
Already the leaven of the Klan is making itself felt in many American cities. In municipalities which in past years have been either honeycombed with administrative graft or whose treasuries have been depleted by political extravagance slowly but surely the campaign of the Klan for good government has made itself felt. Incompetents have been ousted from office through the force of public opinion generated by the Klan. Men of high ideals, loyal Americans, devoted citizens have been Prevailed upon to accept governmental honors at a sacrifice to themselves. Better government has come to many towns and cities, and is coming to many more, thanks to the activity of the Klan.
Mind you, by this it is not to be understood that the Klan is in politics. It is neither Democratic nor Republican. It favors the man not the party. The Klan teaches that the rights of American citizenship should be exercised to the fullest degree by all loyal Americans so that foreign and un-American influences shall not control the destinies and sap the loyalty of this nation. And one of the primary rights of citizenship is fulfilled at the ballot box. The Klan in every city stands adamantly for good government.
The Klan teaches also that American citizens should not shirk other duties incumbent upon them and imbues its membership with true civic pride. Since the Klan has come to America there is less jury dodging on the part of American citizens. The Klansman is taught that the call to jury service is as sacred as a call to arms in defense of his beloved America. For years the judiciary of the United States has lamented the evasion of jury service by loyal but thoughtless Americans. The exeuses and evasions of good men have permitted professional jurors to acquit criminals in many cases where powerful out-side influences were active in their behalf. Now with Klansmen refusing to make technical excuses to avoid service criminals
The Klan is also a civic asset in the cause of law enforcement. Klansmen are sworn not only to obey the laws themselves but also to aid the constituted authorities in enforcing them. Many a bootlegger and illicit narcotic dealer, many a trafficker in the shame of womanhood, many a vagrant loafer and thief has met his downfall directly owing to information lodged with the proper authorities by Klansmen. Klansmen by thus aiding the officers of the law are making their home cities happier, safer, brighter and cleaner places in which American women and children may live. Should officers of the law be loath to do their duty, Klansmen, working on public sentiment, are able to make them take action.
Another civic betterment directly attributable to the Klan is a general and nation wide revival of militant Protestantism. While a man may be a Klansman without attending any church yet Klansmen are taught that they become much better Klansmen if they attend divine services regularly with their wives and families and support the Sunday Schools of their city. As a result church attendance has noticeably increased, especially amongst the male citizenship, in communities where the Klan is flourishing and is a growing power for the good.
The Klan is composed of no one creed of the Protestant faith. Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists and many other branches of the Protestant church rub elbows at its meetings, form lasting friendship and gain a strong admiration for each other as they work in a common and holy cause. As the result of this co-mingling in many cities the Protestant congregations have united on occasion in great Union Protestant services held alternately at various churches. This means that a forward stride has been made for a United Protestantism which will present a solid front to those who would engender ill feeling
There are scores, yes hundreds, of other ways in which the Klan is proving itself of value to the cities and towns where loyal Americans are banded together in America's cause.
All over the country the Klans are unselfishly giving their funds to construct Protestant institutions. In Louisiana a girls home is being built, a childrens home is being constructed in Oregon, great Klan hospitals are being built in Texas, Arkansas and Kansas. In my own city a $75,000 home for orphan babies has been built by the Klan. Surely these great institutions are a benefit not only to the city boasting them but to the nation as well.
Almost every Klan in the country performs countless deeds of helpful nature in behalf of fellow citizens regardless of race, color or creed. Never has a request for aid from any worthy Person or enterprise fallen on deaf ears when presented to any Klan. The enemies of the Klan say that the news of donations to ministers, Protestant institutions and worthy enterprises and individuals which sometimes find their way into the public press are actions merely for advertisement. I tell you that not one hundredth of the charitable work of the Klan is ever advertised. The Klans of America give away a million dollars a year to better conditions in their various communities about which nothing is ever said and nothing is ever known outside of the Klavern walls. This is a conservative estimate.
Summing up in brief the value of the Klan to the American community it may be brought to mind that this order is composed of only the tried, loyal and true American citizenship Sworn to uphold the highest ideals. With such a membership and with such aims the Klan cannot fail to be of vast benefit to the citizenship as a whole.
I regard the regulation of immigration as one of the most perplexing and important questions confronting the American
The time has now come when the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan should take the leadership in this great fight, to prevent America from becoming the melting pot or dumping ground of the world for the millions of heterogeneous elements who are seeking admission to our shores.
In my opinion a law should be enacted restricting immigration to the United States for a period of at least ten years, while we take an inventory of the human assets and liabilities within our borders, do a bit of house cleaning and set our domestic affairs in better order. We have already enough social and economic problems to study in connection with the 14,000,000 foreign born now in the United States.
America is just awakening to the fact that it is not a nation but a mixture of nationalities, and if this country is to be populated and governed by a class of people who are so different in character, thought and ideals, the inevitable result will be a nation of nationalities chattering all the tongues of Babel.
The immigrants who come to this country form communities by themselves and congregate in the great cities. Paupers, diseased and criminals predominate among those who land upon American soil. They have a very low standard of morals, they are unable to speak our language and a great majority of them are unable to read and write their own language. They come from countries where they have been accustomed to a lower standard of wages and living and therefore, compete with American labor which is already overcrowded.
We must insist that a law be enacted prohibiting the printing of any newspaper or magazine not printed in the English language, and to require all aliens within our borders to speak English within a limited period of time.
There are 14,000,000 foreign born in the United States, of whom more than 7,000,000 have never taken out naturalization papers, and who can neither speak nor read our language. We have aliens living in America who have never been naturalized and who never expect to become citizens, editing newspapers
Unless we safeguard ourselves against the further influx of undesirables there will no longer be an America for Americans. If foreign-language newspapers may be taken as reflecting the Sentiments of the foreign born within our gates our non-Anglo-Saxon citizens are far more interested in forcing their own customs and institutions upon us than in helping us build a superstructure to fit the foundation upon which America rests.
An Italian journal published in New York City recently said editorially: "We not only need organization but also a rapid increase in births among Italians here." A Jersey City Polish newspaper exclaims: "We pride ourselves on having a Polish Judge here and there." The son of a naturalized Jew at a recent congressional hearing on immigration made an appeal against the use of English as, the official language of the United States, and urged that Yiddish should be placed on an equal footing.
Of the 805,000 admitted to the United States in 1921 more than half, 432,000, were Jews, Italians, Armenians, Greeks, Japanese, Chinese, and Finns, races which generation after generation maintain their own churches, customs, languages, schools, and social affiliations almost as intact as if they had remained in their native countries.
I am afraid that we fail to realize how stupendous, though noiseless, is the pressure of this immigration avalanche. We have heard the great noise made about the Zionist movement, and might be led to think that a large Jewish migration to Palestine was in progress. But the records show that last Year 53,524 Hebrew aliens came to the United States, while 18 left this country for Palestine, where there are only 50,000 Jews all told.
Immigrants have been pouring into the United States at an enormous rate. Statistics show that the great influx of aliens that came to the United States for a period of twelve years, beginning with 1903 and ending with 1914, was something over 10,000,000.
America is saturated with aliens, and some of our great States will soon be populated entirely by aliens, unless a law is enacted restricting immigration to the United States for a period of years. There are today thirteen States with a majority of the population of alien origin. Thirteen other States have more than 35 per cent of their population foreign born. Some of our great cities are in even a worse condition than those States.
The Japanese question is another great menace that confronts the American people today. And the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan can do no greater service than to take up the fight with those loyal citizens of California, in their effort to prevent their State from becoming a little Japan.
There are more than 100,000 Japanese in California, who today own and control one-eighth of the entire acreage of irrigated lands in that State.
Two-thirds of the entire Japanese population of continental United States is located in California ; that is to say, twice as many Japanese are found in California as in the other forty-seven states combined. They maintain a government of their own, subject to the dictates of a foreign power, and acting in the interests of that power and adverse to those of this country.
Something must be done to protect the great West. The remedy calls for an absolute exclusion act of all Japanese who may seek to come here in any capacity for permanent residence. This will prevent an element in our population, which, is not only undesirable, but dangerous to American interests.
America has within her borders many of the so-called hyphenated Americans. They call themselves Hungarian-Americans, French-Americans, Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, Russian-Americans, Polish-Americans and German-Americans. Such a class of people do not deserve the respect of any decent, loyal, patriotic, red-blooded, pure and unadulterated American citizen. There is but one kind of American. One who would
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan should adopt a definite Policy and program for combating the influence of individuals or organizations who are endeavoring to open the gates of our ports for the admission of aliens. Therefore, the Imperial Wizard should appoint an Imperial Immigration and Naturalization Commission to make a thorough study and outline a program. Such a Commission should make an analysis of the Immigration and Naturalization questions, and submit a report to the Imperial Wizard, for his approval, with a definite policy to handle this complex question.
Our Government departments have acquired sufficient information to guide this country aright, if it were assembled, analyzed and made available to the public.
America is largely governed by public opinion and the sources of that opinion concerning the problems of immigration are of vital importance. To deal with so complex a national situation and so profound an international situation requires the public to be intelligently informed before we can have a united public opinion. This can be acquired only by a great movement, such as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Which is willing to gather this information and to see that the public is properly and correctly informed of the true facts. This information distributed to the Klansmen and the public of this nation will multiply discussions throughout America and this commission should be in a position to keep our Imperial Officers advised concerning immigration affairs.
The present 3 per cent admission law on the basis of the 1910 census is the first attempt of Congress to restrict Immigration. It was passed just at the time when a flood of destitute, restless wanderers and adventurers had an eye on the
Under the existence of the 3 per cent law the northern races who alone amalgamate with us, do not send more than half as many as the law would admit, while all southern European nations exhaust their quotas and howl for more.
The Secretary of Labor, in his annual report for 1922, states that even with existing restriction laws the United States is still the greatest immigrant-receiving nation on earth. With this in view, the time has now come for the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to begin its work, because the 3 per cent law expires June 30, 1924. When Congress meets again in December, we will be in the midst of a national campaign, and the various hyphenated foreign organizations will be uppermost in the minds of certain politicians. It behooves us that Americans be on guard to guard our gates, for one may well say with Aldrich, the patriot poet:
There is no tale so charming, no fiction so strange, no epic so sublime as the story of our country.
Things are great or small, high or low, good or bad in comparison with other things, and therefore in order to prove what I have just said it is necessary that I should call attention to a few facts of American history.
May 5th, 1496, is one of the most important dates in the human record for it was on this date that Henry VII, King
Fourteen hundred and ninety one years before Christ, Moses led the hosts of old Israel numbering six hundred thousand through the divided waters of the Red sea, and started on the long exodus to a land flowing with milk and honey. By a pillar of fire and of cloud this mighty host was guided by the Divine Hand of Jehovah. And yet in the zenith of their might and power and the heyday of their glory five hundred years there-after under their wisest King all Israel did not number five million souls.
Compare this mighty beginning to the settlement of James-town, Virginia, by one hundred and five discontented colonists in 1607. It took two hundred and fifty years on this continent to establish the dominion of Great Britain from Labrador Where John Cabot in 1498 planted the Flag of old England and the arms of Henry VII to the sunny waters where Ponce de Leon looking shoreward called upon his Spanish cavaliers to gaze upon the "Land of Flowers."
And in 1760 a census of America showed a population in all the thirteen English Colonies of only 1,695,000 souls, three hundred and ten thousand of whom were black African slaves. At that time, Virginia, the most populous of the Colonies, had a population of 250,000, Pennsylvania of 200,000, Massachusetts of 200,000, the great State of New York of only 85,000 and the great state of Georgia only about 5,000 including the' slaves.
Fourteen years later came the American Revolution. The Colonists were torn for seven years by War and havoc and dissention and strife. In that struggle eighty percent of our soldiers were of the descent of "bonnie England," seven percent of old Scotland, whilst Germany, Ireland and France supplied the rest, all being of the blood of the Nordic white man. For six years thereafter the Colonists struggled on through discord and dissention until the adoption of our Federal Constitution by sixty-two delegates at Philadelphia in 1787 when our United States of America was born from the womb of time. Tis the habit of the human mind to conjure up some terrestial paradise in the fading memory of the past ; some grand Utopia where the strong did not oppress the weak, or the rich the poor, a happy land where the wicked ceased from troubling and the weary were at rest, but the record fails to disclose that any such a place ever existed as Campbell has well said
Our country, my Klansmen, did not begin as either Utopia or paradise. Only one hundred and thirty five years ago our government was born in sore travail and sorrow, and of war dissention and strife. Were I to attempt to prove the philosophy of Socrates that every condition in all nature springs from its opposite, that joy springs from sorrow, and sorrow from joy, that peace springs from war, and war from peace that evil brings good and that good brings evil, that life
The ancient Assyrian Empire lasted for seventeen hundred Years, and our heritage from it is nothing but a heap of ruins; the ancient Egyptian empire covered a period of over two thousand years and our heritage from it is pryramids and hieroglyphics ; the rich Lydian empire reckoned its age in centuries and our only heritage from it is the trousers we wear for men first wore trousers in Sardis, the Paris of the ancient world.
Moses lived over one thousand years before the Babylonian captivity and Nehemiah four hundred and fifty years before Christ, and yet aside from the sacred writings, our heritage from the Jews is very little. Old China with its boasted life of thirty thousand years gave us gunpowder and the mariner's compass. The Arab bequeaths our system of notation, the Phoenician the alphabet, but what will be the bequest of America?
In the reign of King George III Thomas Parr died at the remarkable age of one hundred and forty two years. Think it of ! The life of a single human being six years longer than the life of this mighty nation? Mark you, so bitter was the strife in the beginning here that a resolution was passed in our Constitutional Convention of 1787 to keep secret its proceedings and debates for fifty years. Need I dwell upon the causes and the dissentions in America that terminated in the greatest Civil War of the ages and yet since that war, in fifty years, we will bequeath to posterity more than all other nations of history.
Behold now the miracles of all miracles, the youngest and the mightiest Nation which might be likened to Pallas who sprang full panoplied from the brain of Jupiter. We have produced the greatest geologists that have ever delved the depths or learned the story of the rocks ; we have producted the greatest astronomers who have read the stars with the mightiest telescopes that ever swept the skies ; we will give to posterity the cotton gin, the telegraph, the telephone, the electric light, the railroad, the steamboat, the automobile, the submarine, the aeroplane, and hundreds of other things that go to uplift humanity and prop the complex structure and glittering dome
Our country has produced the greatest statesmen and we will bequeath to posterity a higher and nobler conception of government freed from the tyrannies and superstitions of the past.
In the realm of medicine we have produced the greatest physicians and will bequeath to posterity the true conception of pathology. No more is disease looked upon as the work of demons; no longer do we conceive it to be the work of witch-craft.
In the realm of religion we will bequeath to posterity a higher and truer conception of the teachings of Christ, of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. It is contended by some that men are not as religious as they used to be. This is a mistake. Atheism was more common in the eighteenth century than it is now and the mocker and the unbeliever has existed in all generations.
In the realm of education we will bequeath that great distinctive feature of American civilization, the free school.
I might go for hours to enumerate what our heritage is and what our bequest will be, but enough has been said to illustrate my contention that in all realms of human endeavor, we have advanced more and done more in the last fifty years than the whole world did in the preceding five thousand years. And what is the reason? Because we have learned well a great principle enunciated by the Emporer, Marcus Aurelius, that men were made for the sake of each other and should help each other, and work together. We need each other. No nation that ever existed had so many fraternities and brotherhoods as ours and these are banding all America to act together and work together for common ends.
But we may expect reverses and misfortunes, for as Zoroaster has said Light and Darkness are the world's eternal way We live in the eternal being and becoming, the eternal round of change, the eternal rhythm of life and death. God and God alone is unchanging.
With Tennyson, I doubt not that through the ages one eternal purpose runs though all things seen are transitory and temporal. 'Tis the things not seen that are eternal.
Our civilization, rebounding from the benighted bigotry of the Dark or Middle Ages must beware the pitfalls of atheism Which proclaims that our Universe is but a chaos in which man is doomed to flounder forever, the sport of chance and conflicting forces. A civilization lives and dies with its Gods. If Chaos be the god of a Nation then Chaos and Black Night Will reign. But blessed is the people whose God is the Lord; that eternal unchanging power not seen, that is higher than heaven's unmeasured height and deeper than hell's black abyss; that binds the Universe with a common law and yet notes the fall of the sparrow and hears the young ravens when they cry.
We have not solved the riddle of the universe. We are only Just beginning to see how much more wonderful is the real universe with its three billion suns, with its systems and constellations and worlds, flying through space at the speed of from eighteen to a hundred miles per second than was the fanciful universe depicted in the childhood of our race. We know now of a verity that truth is stranger than fiction and that nature has caprices that art dares not imitate. We need not expect health always, nor wealth always nor peace always or joy always for it is not life's way. As a Southern poet has so aptly said:
My Klansmen, the Past has taught us its lessons. We must do our duty in the present, that we may look to the future with hope.
We are dealing here with ways and means of providing safeguards and helps for the American Boy in particular, but for the boys of the world in general, for, if we succeed in our Purpose of making the average American Boy what he ought to be,-godlike in character,-his influence for righteousness in world affairs of the immediate future will sway the destiny f mankind. Our boys are the masters of posterity we must win them for this glorious course.
In America we have many fraternal orders for the benefit of men and women. These have wrought nobly in the development of the fabric of Americanism. Though the boy's welfare is supremely important, since he is the leader of tomorrow The ruler of posterity, he has been too much neglected and a lesser effort, instead of the greatest possible activity, has been made generally in his behalf. The Y. M. C. A., the Boy Scouts of America, the De Molay and various church organizations have done much, indeed, but have fallen far short of the wholesale achievement and permanent service which the growing needs of the boy require. This fact cannot be disputed, while we have in every State a so-called reform school and houses of industry for the homeless and wayward sons of deficient or delinquent parents. These institutions, in which each boy is a separate problem, are established to teach self-respect, self-reliance, and all the things which a son should learn at home, church and public school. Lacking these advantages, the State is trying, usually with crude and antiquated methods, to teach the erring young mind the practical advantage of living upon the plane of the law-abiding citizen, to prevent boys who are the victims of a serious wrong start in life from becoming criminals. So, thousands Of boys are herded in "reform" schools, where the worst teach the best all that they know of sin and crime. These places today, for the most part, are mere training-schools in where the wayward boy learns bad habits and wrong ideas through constant association with vicious companions. This is a general complaint throughout the land. We should remedy the conditions which produce bad boys and bad men,
The principal causes of delinquency and degeneracy among the boys are, divorce, poverty, and the godless home.
Thousands of small boys are sent to the "reform" school because they have no home, often becoming lifelong dependents in character before they are old enough to think straight, or to make their own living. The lack of provision for these innocents is a crying shame and disgrace throughout the nation. The Klans of Oregon, I am happy to report, recently' voted in the Klorero to donate approximately fifty thousand dollars for the building of a children's farm home, thus helping substantially in a splendid cause. Many homeless small boys in Oregon have been sent to the reform school, not because of any delinquency, but because there was no other place to send them. The lack of provision for these innocents is going to be corrected in Oregon, but this is a national problem and must be met as such.
In the case of the average lad who goes wrong at an early age, the authorities should deal, in a disciplinary way, with the careless father and gadabout mother, rather than with the boy. The greatest conceivable achievement is to develop all that is good in the average boy ; to promote by wholesale upon a national scale, godlike character in the rising generation of boys.
Our public schools can give far greater help, with proper improvements,help beyond calculation, in the reclamation of deficient boys, and in the mental and spiritual development of the normal ones. Scientific mental tests, now being established , show startling facts concerning the relation of intelligency to misdemeanor. The scientists declare that when the accuracy of such tests is demonstrated, and removed from the trial stage, the present methods of treating sin and crime will be revolutionized completely.
Few boys who are committed to a reform school possess the ability to think straight. They require kindly, sympathetic
In the solution of this great problem, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan can help, enormously. This is a co-operative, spiritual movement for the betterment of all Americans, and for the boys of our Nation in particular. We can make the Klan a mighty educational force, demonstrating that
Let us, then, never blame environment, for conditions can be changed by the powers of the mind in each individual case. The great need is for men and boys to think straight, and to harmonize their lives with the natural and spiritual laws. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." This aphorism embraces the whole of man's being. It reaches every condition and all circumstances of life. Every act springs from the hidden seed of thought. Every habit is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits.
About twenty years ago the Imperial Valley of Southern California, now a veritable garden of Eden, was a bare waste of sand and silt, without vegetation of any kind. An engineer saw the possibilities of the rich sediment which had been deposited there through the ages and irrigation from the Colorado river was the result. The agricultural miracle was developed speedily, but with it came the weeds, the tares and the thistles. It required a major effort of science to overcome these pests and to conquer the insects and other destroyers which threatened the life and prosperity of the great Valley. Science was triumphant and today the Imperial Valley is the breadbasket of Southern California. As with plants, so it is with the human species, also afflicted with "weeds" and pests, which poison and starve the springs of the mind and dwarf the godlike qualities before they get a chance to unfold. The mightiest efforts of science today should be exerted in behalf
"If one endure in purity of thought, joy follows him as his own shadowsure."
Wrong thinking develops negative qualities and conditions disease, sin, shame, failure and death.
The crying needs of the American boy, the sacred duty of every Klansman to protect and help them, are self-apparent to all and require no argument. It remains now for us to undertake the constructive task of providing a practical safe-guard and dependable help for our boys, and through them, for all the boys in America and the world. If we provide this service for boys, the benefits and blessings will be shared by the girls, for obvious reasons. It will be a double blessing, developing into greater and manifold blessings throughout the future.
It is with confidence in the sound common-sense of the Klan executives, in their humanity and wisdom, that I seriously and solemnly propose the organization, without delay, of a great Klan Auxiliary exclusively for the benefit of our Protestant boys. Many titles for such an order will be suggested. To begin with, let us consider the Junior Order of the Ku Klux Klan, Knights of the Invisible Empire.
This auxiliary, which can be made the medium for vast and enduring good, should admit lads ranging in age from twelve to eighteen years. It can provide the training which all boys need through those critical and trying years of boyhood; bridging the gap of five or six in their lives, until they are eligible to the adult Klan.
Think of the noble things that can be done for the boys through such an auxiliary, for the ones who need most the constructive and kindly service which I have in mind. They will be constrained to learn for themselves the secrets of life, the laws of thought and being which are involved in the development of noble and godlike character.
The main object of the boys' auxiliary should be the serious work of character building through right thinking, by ways and means of klannishness which will appeal most strongly
This idea of a boys' auxiliary is yet in the realm of thought, but it long has appealed to me so strongly, after contemplation of the growing needs of our youth and of the manifold blessings that surely would accrue to all concerned in the movement, that I cannot conceive of a negative decision on this Proposal
The Klan idea will appeal with resistless force to the imagination and the heart of the average Protestant boy, to whom the Klansman, let us hope, is a true herothe incarnation of all manly virtues, a knight "without fear and without re-proach." The Klan boys' auxiliary, therefore, speedily would become the greatest order for boys, numerically and other-wise, in all America or the world. The first million members would be easy to enroll, and the millions to follow could be selected as rapidly as facilities would allow. They are by every reason entitled to have an auxiliary to the Klan. We seriously neglect and wrong them by failure to provide it. It would not matter whether the boy's father or mother is connected with the Klan movement. If not, the boy in his Klan could soon interest them and win for his benefactor their highest esteem. The membership should be composed of boys born of Protestant parents, and at the graduating age of eighteen, the lad would come into the senior Klan. The auxiliary should be easy of ingress for the poor boy, and every Klansman in prosperous circumstances should win for himself the blessing of donating memberships for as many poor boys as his means would allow. The glory of a Klansman is to serve, and this would provide an unexampled opportunity.
Think of the service which a million enthusiastic boys could give in all kinds of civic betterment work! They would be at all times the eyes and ears of the great Klan, its shield and buckler on many occasions, and they could co-operate in many ways with the Women of the Ku Klux Klan and with other constructive Protestant orders.
Through this auxiliary our boys can be taught that man is made or unmade by himself ; that in the armory of thought he forges the weapons with which he develops or destroys himself. He will learn that usefulness is the only true test of manhood; that wealth without honor is dross and disgrace; that all honest toil is honorable; that mental or physical idleness is a crime; that the universe is governed by a supreme being of infinite love, and that success in life is impossible without obedience to the natural and spiritual laws, without harmony with God. Through this auxiliary he will learn how to build for himself the "heavenly mansions" of joy and strength and peace. He will learn how to make right choice and a true application of thought in his everyday affairs. He will learn that he himself is the master of thoughtthe greatest force in the world,the moulder of character, the maker and shaper of conditions, environment and destiny. Through the inspiring influence of such an auxiliary, every boy can become Lord of his own thoughts, holding the golden key to every situation that may develop in his life.
Every boy, once aroused by the right motives, can be developed into a being of power, intelligence and love; and, if neglected, or abused, he can be debased to the level of the beasts and become an outcast before he attains his majority. Every boy's heart or soul is a treasure-house beyond price, holding gifts far more precious than the greatest mines of gold or diamonds. The Klan auxiliary which we consider today would mine and develop the soul of the boy, acquainting him with every truth connected with his being. He would learn that he is the maker of his own character, the moulder of his own life, the builder of his own destiny, and that if he would control and alter his thoughts, tracing their effect upon him-self, and upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utiliizing his experience in everyday life, he would obtain that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. The auxiliary through which we could assure the boy such manifold benefits would become at once a veritable temple of knowledge and a radiant center of constructive good. Incidentally, as part of the educational benefits of the Klan auxiliary, it could establish and maintain, co-operatively, a
Surely this is a cause that will awaken the right spirit in every man of worth and in every boy who understands the Primary facts of life ! It is a movement in absolute harmony with the true spirit of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and with evangelical Protestantism. It will arouse the noblest motives in the consciousness of the Klansmen, and it will win for us the cohesion and public support now so greatly lacking. everybody is ready to help make better boys, if shown the Way to do it, and the Klan auxiliary is the right way. It will be easy to arouse the Klannish spirit among the boys, for they are natural-born Klansmen, all of them. We can say to them, as to ourselves:
The Boys' auxiliary will practice ways and means of con-straining every boy to think straight and right, and to under-stand himself and others. Consider the immediate effect of such thought upon the boy's health and body. Clean thoughts make clean habits. The average boy's mind is like a plate of putty, in which impressions easily are made. It is easy to direct and persuade him to think right, once he has assumed the right mental attitude. The next step is to link his thought and his wish with purpose, not allowing him to drift upon the ocean of life. Most boys are victims to the vice of aimlessness throughout the years of adolescence, continuing without set purpose, like a rudderless ship, far into the period of early manhood. By linking clean and constructive thought with noble purpose, early in life, they will be able to steer clear of catastrophe and destruction, and this should be the suggestive work of the great auxiliary to the Klan. By this means the reform schools ultimately can be emptied and closed and the crop of criminals can be reduced to an unheard-of minimum. Every boy can be inspired to have a definite central purpose in life, so that he will not fall a prey to temptation and weakness. The Klan can provide a centralizing point for the boy's thoughts, and in many ways invoke his best mental efforts. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Thus we can help our boys to conquer doubt and fear,the great enemies of knowledge and success, and he who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. Thought, allied fearlessly to purpose, becomes creative force; he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations ; he who does this because the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers, which are a part of the Infinite Mind.
In numberless ways, the boys' auxiliary can be made a tower of strength to the Klan and the Protestant Cause. It remains only for us to authorize, visualize and establish the movement, providing intelligently the machinery of organization MY idea is that the provisional work should be done without delay under the direct supervision of the Grand Dragon in each Realm, and that a national convention, with boys as delegates, should be called to meet at Denver, Colo., at the end of the first six-months after the start of the organization. By that
I insist that it is the highest duty of Klansmen, and the finest phase of Klankraft, to do everything that is right and Practicable for the betterment of the boys, and through them, ennoble and bless the entire manhood and boyhood of our Nation and of all the world.
The very mentioning of the word "Woman" always arrests the attention of every true man at once. Whatever else the human heart may forget in the rough experiences of life, it cannot forget it's mother.
Of all human appellations, the tenderest, the most endearing, inspiring, and enobling are mother, sister, sweetheart, wife and daughter.
Some of the noblest lines in all the best literature are tributes which great men of the world have paid to their mothers and wives.
It is said that ancient Greece and Rome boasted of fond mothers, who nobly trained their sons to the service of their country.
Napoleon Bonaparte, as he looked into the secret of his impending Waterloo, said, "The great need of France is not men, but mothers."
The strange wierd Mohammed said, "An ounce of mother 'is worth a pound of clergy."
Is it too common-place to quote the familiar tribute of the Immortal Lincoln to his mother, "All that I am, all that I hope to be, I owe to my sainted mother." Was it not John
When the eloquent S. S. Prentiss was elected to Congress, Mrs. Judge Prebble said to him, "I have been very anxious to meet your mother since your election to Congress in order to congratulate her on having such a son." But he bowed very low and said, "Madam, you should congratulate the son on having such a mother."
Can we ever forget the tribute President Garfield paid to his mother at his inauguration? When he had taken the oath of office, and was proclaimed President of the United States, he turned to his grand old mother, who was sitting near him, planted a kiss upon her lips, and said that all the honor was due her?
Throughout the old Testament, and all history, great women now and then have forced themselves into prominence, despite the ignorance, prejudice, and superstition which relegated them to the realm of the unnoticed.
But it remained for Him, who turned the world upside down, to discover woman, and start her on the upward road, which has culminated in her present day emancipation in America.
Much has been said about what Christianity has done for women, many books have been written, on this enchanting theme, but it remains for some great pen to fully tell the story of what women have done for Christianity. Through the elevation and inspiration which Christianity has given women, they have functioned for the benefits of society in all the realms of life.
Because of the Mariolatry of the Roman Catholic Church, the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus, has almost been a for-bidden theme in Protestant pulpits. But under the present process of ridding America of Catholic ideas, the true evaluation of the mother of our Lord will take place.
The women of the new Testament form a circle of representative women, and are prophetic of the evolution of sentiment and judgment which we witness today. The process of working of the leaven has been slow but sure.
What Jesus said to Dorcas, Christianity has been saying to women ever since"What hast thou in thy hand?" This quiet modest well-to-do widow said, "I have a needle in my hand," and He said, "What will you do with it?" She said, "I will consecrate it to Jesus." And from the shining example of this modest widow of Joppa has come forth all the women's societies, guilds and clubs, down through history.
Jesus is saying today "Woman, what hast thou in thy hand?"
No longer will man say that in the hand of woman rests the necessity of rocking a cradle only. She has within her hand the power to rule the world.
But I must leave this inviting field, and fix your minds on American women.
In the cabin of the Mayflower, the compact of self-government set forth was as much an interpretation of those noble Women as it was the forty-one men who signed it.
The American woman has had as much to do with the shaping of the destiny of America, as the American man. The same desires, which burned in the hearts of the Pilgrim fathers for a place to worship God without interference, burned in the hearts of the Pilgrim mothers. The burden of rearing children and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in a free and independent country was upon the heart of the mother, more than it was upon the heart of the father. They were not only help-meets, but help-mates to their husbands. Their holy hands helped to build out of these forrests, homes, churches and schools.
In times of peace, she has shared the glow and glory of the rlre-side. In times of war she "stayed by the stuff." A noble woman is the embodiment of loyalty and love. She will stand
In the pioneer days of American history, the Pilgrim mothers not only endured the hardships of the Pilgrim fathers, but what was a greater burden, they had to endure the Pilgrim fathers. American women are the uncrowned partners of American men.
In modern times they have taken their places in the thick of the fight, and ministered to the bodies and spirits of the soldiers in the trenches.
The time has come when women can no more be limited to home activities. They must, and will, take their places in the broad activities of national life.
In literature, in art, in music, and in the varied professions, women who have elected to excel in any of these lines have demonstrated their ability to stand shoulder to shoulder with men.
The exercise of women's rights in the affairs of State is inevitable. The women's day is here. The right to vote carries with it the obligation to vote. The power of the ballot noW granted to women is a challenge to our real one hundred per cent. American women to join the men of the nation in laying the axe of the ballot at the root of every American tree, which does not bring forth American fruit.
Ponder these statistics ; in 1920 there were 54,421,823 men and women in this country entitled to vote in the Presidental election. Only 26,705,246 voted. When you reflect that we punish crime by disfranchising people, somebody is guilty of the crime of disfranchising themselves. Who is asleep at the post?
There are many great organizations among women ; local, state, and national in their scope; but it remained for the Women of the Ku Klux Klan to set up and set forth the only organization known to women, in which only one hundred per-cent. American Protestant white women can function.
Gentlemen, out of a heart filled and thrilled with tenderest recollections of a mother's solicitude, and love, and out of the constant inspiration of a wife's undying affections, I have
The press of the country has, more than any one agency, increased the membership of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan to what it is today. From the press the Klan has received gratis, and is still receiving daily, advertisement that is worth millions in cold cash.
Never have the newspapers seeking to do men or a movement an evil turn so completely, and to their own astonishment, done a good one. Never in history have shrewd newspaper writers and editors so materially misjudged the effect of scientific publicity, overshot their mark, and where they sought to destroy merely build-up and where they tried to annihilate create a firmer foundation.
In the whole history of newspaper campaigns never was the effect of one so badly misjudged, by men who ought to know better, than was the attack upon the Klan launched by the New York World and the Hearst newspapers.
The great presses in a hundred daily newspaper offices thundered viciously as they ground out their tirades and discharged their verbal broadsides against the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. In every city and in every hamlet of America men, women and children read of this great fraternal order about which under normal circumstances they would have heard but little and to whose principles they would have other-Wise given scant consideration or attention. Traitors to the Klan became penny a liners. Klan copy was hard to get. When facts gave out then fiction had to serve. The Klan oath was published broadcast by the million copies and carried its patriotic appeal to the average red blooded American. Oceans of ink, car loads of news print, hours of time were devoted to an excoriation of an order about which the writers knew little but which had, thanks to the newspapers themselves, become the biggest story since the war.
Now every newspaper man knows that various newspapers "make" their own stories. In every newspaper office are bright and alert young men looking for anything unusual which they think may spur the cloyed and jaded news palate of the public.
A millionaire oil man was killed by his mistress in a little Oklahoma town. A sordid enough crime, dirty in its details, but news was slack just then and the great Chicago Tribune jumped on this and "made" the story. They hired special trains, employed expert detectives and turned loose star re-porters to trace the murderess. Not because they had any wish to see justice done but merely because it was "hot stuff" and their own exclusive story. Other newspapers followed suit. They had to, in order to hold their readers and keep pace with the strenuous competition. So unhappy little Clara Hammond for weeks took up the front pages of every newspapers in the country merely because the Chicago Tribune had decreed that her wretched story was human interest stuff and a good exclusive reading.
Similarly the New York World looking around for a sensation determined to squelch the Klan, pin a feather in its journalistic bonnet and incidentally crow over the rest of the newspaper world "We did it. We killed a bear."
There were two ways open to attack the Klan from a newspaper stand point, really three of them. The first was open and vehement attack, the second ridicule and the third utter disregard.
The first was, the best way to get subscribers from among Klansmen and anti-Klansmen alike, because you know that many a Klansman reads the anti-Klan sheets just to see what they are going to say next about their order and the leaders of it. The second course, ridicule, would perhaps have proved the more deadly. The third course would have been more harmful still but dignified silence gets a newspaper nowhere. Newspapers are not altruistic institutions. The voracious maw of a sensation seeking public must be filled with choice thrillers else the counting house downstairs will suffer. And the business office is the solar plexus of the modern day sheet, the most vulnerable spot for a knock out.
So the World determined to eliminate the Klan by the direct action route. Into the journalistic sewers they dived. Printed stolen letters. Bribed traitors. Yelled treason to high heaven. Turned loose a flood of abuse which in its very volume was terrifying not alone to Klansmen but to Protestant Americans as well. In order to do a good job the World syndicated their Klan expose. Sold it where they could to papers in all parts of the country. Practically gave the stuff away when they could not get their own price.
The yellow hounds of Hearst joined their yapping to the chorus and from coast to coast the favorite indoor pastime for hack writers and special assignment men was "kussing" the Klan.
When the smoke cleared away and the poison gas had risen sufficiently for the World and Hearst to judge the effect of their tremendous broadside they got the surprise of their lives. They had overdone the thing. They had made the Klan appear in the light of a martyr in the eyes of an American public which in every battle or contest demands fair play. Protestant Gentile Americans had smelt a rat. They wondered what was back of all this opposition led by newspapers notoriously controlled by Jewish and Catholic influences. They started to investigate and concluded when all was said and done that the Klan was an American institution after all and that it had come out of the fire unscathed. On the very blanks for application printed as horrible examples of Klan activities in the newspaper exposes and torn from their printed columns came requests for membership to Atlanta. Thousands of loyal men eager for their countries good and set firm against un-American influences joined this great order of ours. To their utter astonishment the newspapers found that they had made us instead of breaking us. That their vicious advertisement had given us an impetus which cannot be gainsaid. That they were hoist with their own petard. And the sad part about it to them was that what was written stayed writ and could not be erased. What they had done could not be undone.
Too late many of them essayed the second course, that of ridicule. They tried to kid us about bed sheets and pillow cases. They jollied us about queer sounding titles. They
Just at present the press of the nation seems to have no fixed plan of campaign against the Klan. Individual Jews or Catholics owning and controlling newspapers of course continue their rancorous attacks more locally than nationally. Many newspapers however have got sick and tired of beating their wings against an invisible force and fighting a phantom foe. Some editors honestly admit that they were wrong in their first adverse impression of the Klan.
Down in the Southwest a great newspaper which printed the World Klan expose, and later lost half a dozen elections fighting the Klan, has gracefully retired from the arena weakened by the loss of 50,000 subscribers which it is attempting to win back by means of every circulation getting dodge known to experts in this line. This newspaper which a year ago would not knowingly give a Klansman a job is now eager to get them believing that their presence on their pay roll will help counter-act the faux pas of their editors.
In other states, too, the daily press in spots evidences an attitude of "laying off" the Klan. Circulation has been impaired where Klansmen are numerous and in particular have the dailies with great circulations in the rural districts felt the pinch in this respect. The Klan has of course never boycotted any newspapers whatever they may have said or how-ever vicious they may have been. It has just been that the individual Klansmen has got tired of reading at his breakfast or supper table newspapers which consistently brand him either as a knave or a fool. At first it was interesting, but "too much is enough."
It is my belief that the time is ripe for a closer co-operation between newspapers the country over and the Klan. Even on out and out anti Klan newspapers men will be found, many in responsible positions, who believe in the things that the Klan stands for. These men I believe should be given an opportunity
I cannot close without referring to Klan weeklies of this country. Lacking articulate expression through the columns of the daily press loyal Klansmen in all parts of the country have started weekly papers or magazines devoted to the principles of the Klan. Mostly these papers were started on a shoe string by some man who is devoting his time and energy and in many instances risking his worldly possessions in an effort to make a Klan paper go and give the Klan a medium of expressing itself to the public. There are about forty such publications now existent. A few of them, I am afraid, fail to accomplish much good. They fall into the error of being vicious and place the Klan in the same attitude as its enemies since they are regarded as the mouthpiece of the order. One or two of these papers in some instances have filled their columns with vulgar personal abuse of Jews and Catholics generally
I am submitting a brief outline of how to operate a model realm, touching on the various subjects but not going into full detail as to their mode of operation.
In the beginning I want to impress the idea that the Grand Dragon of a Realm is, in reality, a Wizard of his Realm, because it is to him that all Klansmen in his realm must look to for guidance. And this naturally leads to the one sequence namely ; the pulse of the Realm beats in the office of the Grand Dragon, and as moves the Grand Dragon it so follows, like the night the day, so move the Klansmen of his Realm.
I am not going to discuss the duty of the Great Titan, but want to impress a very important factor in appointing or naming Great Titans. He is the representative of the Grand Dragon for his respective Province and should be a Klansman in whom you can place explicit confidence and who will at all times keep within the due bounds of his office but always ready and willing to either counsel with the Grand Dragon or to carry out his orders. He should not be a Klansman who, after a period of service, will believe that he is more important than
A complete accounting system should be carried on in the office of the Grand Dragon in order that he may not only be in position to account for all funds at any time, but that he will have a permanent record of the financial transactions of his Realm. A few accounting classifications, follow:
1. Cash account covering Imperial Taxes. This should be balanced with the ledger account carried with each Klan showing the Klectokon and Imperial Tax as covered under the quarterly reports.
2. There should be a cash account on robe orders. But it is not necessary to carry a detailed ledger account of this item.
3. Cash account for supplies. This should be balanced with an itemized ledger account with each Klan.
4. If the Grand Dragon is handling propagation work he should carry a King Kleagle's cash account to be balanced with itemized ledger accounts for each of his organizers.
5. Cash account for each Province covering provincial taxes to be balanced by an itemized ledger account with each Klan as shown by their quarterly reports. The Province fund should be carried in a separate account. I recommend that the checks be signed by the Grand Dragon and countersigned by the Great Titan. This lets the Klansmen of the Province know that they control the funds of their province.
6. Cash account covering funds received from the Imperial Palace due the office of the Grand Dragon covering Imperial Taxes. Against this account should be carried salary of the Grand Dragon and all operating expenses of his office.
7. Cash account covering Grand Dragon consignment account on supplies. This account covers supplies received by the office of the Grand Dragon from the Imperial Palace and is credited with remittances for supplies sold.
There should be issued semi-monthly bulletins from the office of the Grand Dragon, preferably on the first and fifteenth day of each month. These bulletins should carry matters of information and instructions for the Klansmen through-out the Realm. Likewise these bulletins should have included with them, Imperial proclamations, decrees, edicts, and other matters coming from the Imperial Palace. These bulletins should be neatly gotten up and thoroughly impressed upon the minds of all Kligrapps that they should be read at the meeting following receipt of the same. General constructive programs can be carried out in these bulletins, because in reality they are the official mouthpiece of the Grand Dragon where-by he can speak to all the Klansmen of his Realm.
It is through these bulletins that you mold the minds and fix the sentiment of the Klansmen throughout your Realm because there are so many important matters arising that your klansmen are eagerly awaiting to learn the facts and it is here that you give them all the same explanation and create the one and same thought.
Every realm should have an official organ or publication which should be published either weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly. This publication, although not necessarily owned or published by the Grand Dragon, should be under his entire control and complete censorship. He should edit every article that is placed in this publication. Therefore, before he allows this publication to become the official State organ, he should take such legal steps as to place it under his domination and control, consequently he should be very careful in selecting such a publication. The official publication is a means whereby the Grand Dragon can speak to all the Klansmen of his Realm but in addition thereto, it helps to mould the minds and sentiment of the public at large, as you will find there are thousands who are not Klansmen but are eagerly waiting for the paper
This is a very important matter and one that should ever be borne in mind. You should establish a rule that all letters or communications shall be answered on the day on which they are received. This creates in the minds of your Klansmen a strong point of co-operation, because they are continually writing for information or assistance and to get an immediate reply lets them know that you have them at heart and that You are answering the call of a Klansmen. It is one way that you let Klansmen in your Realm know that you are on the job and looking after their affairs.
These are the Klansmen to whom you owe a world of credit. They are your personal representatives ; their duties are to visit Klans, instruct them in Kloranic work and to aid and advise them generally in all matters on which they need assistance. It is through these representatives that you carry your own spirit to the very heart of the Klan itself and they learn to know and love you even though they never have seen you.
Klansmen throughout your realm should be encouraged in holding public events as often as possible. Although staged by a particular Klan you should see that all surrounding Klans come and join in on this occasion as it allows neighboring Klansmen to become acquainted and moulds a warmer fellow-ship among your Klansmen. It is advisable to have your service men present and aid in making the arrangements for these public events. The Grand Dragon himself should make It a point to be present on these public occasions unless providence prevents.
In conclusion let me say that because you are Grand Dragon of a realm and although your honorable title places you on high, do not feel that you are sitting on a throne too high to
How to operate a model Province, being the subject assigned to me, my first effort is to endeavor to interpret a correct definition of the subject, which is, to my mind: How to best accomplish the ideal, most effective results in accord with reason.
There being no model Province, the first thing confronting us is the task of creating one. This will require:
First : A comprehensive knowledge of the provincial territory; the preliminary work should include an exhaustive, ac-curate survey, to determine:
(a) Population, (b) Races, (c) Occupation, (d) Religions
(e) Political Party Allegiance.
Second : A careful study of the number and location of Klans, to see if:
(a) Some should be consolidated, (b) Some should be divided,
(c) If convenience and efficiency are being best served.
Third : Institute a campaign of education, in the ideals and purposes of the order:
(a) Primary emphasis -should be laid upon the importance of being true to the Christian ideals which we profess--clean speech, clean living, fair dealing, etc.
(b) The place of sacrifice and service in practical Klankraft, which of course, originates in the Klavern, and which we must promulgate to the alien world in our daily contact with it, making vital in the community the slogan, we serve and sacrifice for the right,Non Silba Sed Anthar.
Fourth : Inculcate the right ideals of Klan activities:
(a) Expel from the order any individual who persists in advocating or participates in any form of lawlessness.
(b) Discourage or forbid all forms of cheap publicity. It lowers our order in the eyes of the alien world and gives our enemies ample material for holding us up to public ridicule.
(c) Give instructions in regard to the most practical forms of political activity by appointing a political committee, of members who are well qualified to advise, not from a party standpoint, but rather who will advocate honest political policies, these policies being promulgated, of course, through the Titan's office. We may talk of ours as being a non-political organization but there is no use dodging the issueKlansmen must of necessity go into politics sensibly. This to be done by carrying on an intensive education in patriotism, love of country, and its free institutions, creating a sincere desire and untiring effort on the part of every member to perpetuate all of our free institutions.
(d) Give instructions in ways and means of co-operation in law enforcement. This of course, can only be accomplished where the Klansmen do their duty as law-abiding citizens in serving as jurors and witnesses.
(e) Give instructions in methods of moulding public opinion.
(f) Have strict regulations to prevent the selfish use of the Klan by individuals.
(g) Develop a plan for inter-Klan activity by forming county or district committees to promulgate Klan ideals in and out of the Klavern, and to devise methods to care for local, civic, religious, political and educational needs.
Fifth : Administration. Impress the members with the necessity of giving careful consideration to the election of men who can best serve as officers in local Klans.
(a) Do not permit the affairs of any Klan to lagin such eases a personal visitation by the ranking province officer, or a courteous follow up system of correspondence, will in every instance revive the lagging spirits of the Klan.
(b) Consider carefully plans for closer relations between local Klans, the State and National Offices. Nothing will secure
(c) Develop a three hundred and sixty five day in the year compaign for increasing membership, with petitions of honor-able, true, native born, American citizensto which should be added special efforts from time to time in the holding of semi-public naturalizationsand the giving of worth while prizes to members securing the greatest number of petitions in a given time. Members should be impressed however, with the fact that a membership contest does not contemplate merely the number of petitions, but the quality of the applicants.
(d) Do not permit organizers in the province whose conception of our movement is "God give us men at ten dollars per," or men who will post date a check for the amount.
(e) Do not permit any speaker to go before a Klan who is not qualified intellectually and morally to speak upon the ideals of the order. This means local Klans should be discouraged insofar as possible from engaging speakers at random.
Fifth : Have a goal, and know where you are trying to go.
(a) Seek to unify all antagonistic forces within the Klan, and in the Provincethat is, labor and capital, Democrats and Republicans, by a continued insistence on the practice of social and vocational klannishness. Our estimate of each other as Klansmen is not formed by the texture of garment worn, nor by the position held in the social, educational, political or financial spheres of the world's society, but in the qualities of the heart and mind and soul. The practice of vocational Klannishness is a welder of community interests, and the practice of this fundamental of our order cannot be too strongly stressed.
(b) Stimulate by all means the spirit of co-operation bY exemplifying your sincere desire to co-operate.
(c) Develop by all means that larger Klan consciousness, so that every Klansman in the most remote corner of your Province will think in terms of our nation wide task, by giving direct information in bulletins of the worth while things being accomplished by Klansmen throughout the Realm , of the Invisible Empire.
A brief summary of the powers and perogatives of the Grand Dragon, to properly understand his peculiar relation to the order, is necessary to an intelligent appraisement of them.
The Grand Dragon is named, or removed by the Imperial Wizard, but his duties are prescribed by the Constitution and Laws of the Order. He nominates the Grand Officers of his Realm and other officers elected by the Klorero and ratifies its acts. He outlines the boundaries of the Provinces of his Realm. He is the presiding officer of the Realm Klorero. He should convene the Great Titans of the Realm at regular periods to discuss the condition of the Order within the Realm. He designates the location of the new Klans organized within its jurisdiction. He may grant dispensation to ballot a candidate under certain conditions. The by-laws of all Klans within his realm must be approved by him before they become effective. He may re-open, for cause, a suspended or revoked charter and he may extend, on proper showing, the time of forfeiture or sus-Pension of the charter of a Klan. He shall receive and pass upon all appeals from decisions of lower jurisdictions. He nominates the Grand Tribunal to review charges and must notify Klans in his jurisdiction of all banishments from the Invisible Empire. Finally, he is responsible for the well-being of the Invisible Empire, and all Klansmen within his realm.
From this it can be seen that his duties are extremely responsible and arduous if properly performed, and his opportunities for good or evil manifold.
Granting ability and honesty of purpose in a Grand Dragon there are duties far above the mere executive routine by which a Grand Dragon may prove himself worthy of the high honor and confidence reposed in him.
The purposes of our great order require the manifestations of patriotism, humanity, justice and charity combined with an unswerving loyalty to the Constitution of the United States and to American ideals in their true sense, together with an effort looking to the upholding of all Constitutional law and authority derived therefrom. Protection and happiness in the homes of our people through the maintenance of white supremacy
What nobler vision or mission would any man have? What golden opportunities will unfold themselves to the man of purpose and earnest seriousness ? What a rich treasure store to be found in the trials, hopes and achievements of our fore-fathers in building the structure of our government to uplift mankind spiritually, morally and mentally, and in teaching our people to revere, cherish, uphold and perpetuate these ideals?
When duty beckons he must stand firmly opposed to the lowering of the Caucasian American standards through the taint of blood by racial amalgation with inferior races and the limitations of our liberty of speech, thought, and creed through the machinations of the age old enemy of human rights and freedom.
With courage he must resolve to ever lead the combat against those who ceaselessly strive through treachery and guile to destroy the heritage of America for their own greedy purposes, calmly and unafraid. He must bear the brunt of vicious attacks from hidden foes striking at the purposes and ideals of the organization. He should with infinite patience smooth out any fancied wrongs and slights among Klansmen and speedily stamp out disloyalty whenever and wherever it raises its traitorous head. He should keep the scales balanced between man and measures without yielding to one or the other. He should be the guide and friend to all within the order in as far as it is humanly possible to do so. He should never clothe himself with that pomp or power which arrogates to itself superiority, yet he should ever keep in mind the dignity of his high office and protect its responsibilities. His ears should ever be open to the needs of worthy Klansmen, but
The duties, powers and perogatives of a Grand Dragon are so closely inter-woven with the fiber and well-being of the organization that it is exceptionally necessary that only efficient and trust-worthy men be selected for this responsibility; men whose loyalty is unquestionable, men with vision, who will labor and not grow weary ; men of courage, yet of caution, men of patience, yet of quick decision, based on clarity of view and justness, who having examined all angles of a matter and determined its rights shall pursue the right with an inflexibility of purpose ever holding the good of the order as his first objective. His powers and responsibilities are both great, let him therefore, so the and act that when he has run his course he may say before all men in truthfulness, "I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith."
The writer realizing fully his personal limitations in accordance with the conditions outlined above has sought to outline briefly an ideal condition from his viewpoint which would reflect the greatest credit, through men selected as Grand Dragons, to the Organization.
"United we stand ; divided we fall." The success of every organization is determined by its members; a chain is no stronger than its weakest link. The successful army attributes success to the confidence, harmony and co-operation in its organization. Every officer in the army is a soldier but every soldier in the army is not an officer. To be a good general is a great compliment to an officer but to be a great soldier is the highest tribute to a general.
Intelligence, always intelligence is necessary to successful organization. Laws, leadership, discipline, work are essential factors. Christ the Klansman's Kriterion is the perfect example.
The cross, once the symbol of darkness and ignomy, is changed on Calvary to the symbol of light and honor. Fire, the symbol of purification, through sacrifice attracts good and loyal men ; the Fiery Cross our sacred emblem is the lifting up of a Personality who said, "And I if I be lifted up will draw men unto me." Klansmen acknowledge this drawing power and dedicating themselves to our Cause are consecrated in the light of the Holy Fire, ever devoted and bound by indissoluble bonds, "Not for self but for others."
Co-ordinated effort is only possible where there is co-ordination of aims and purpose; equality of purpose will develop a three fold faith essential to coordinated effort :-
(1). FAITH IN GOD. We must have an absolute faith in God, believing "God is" and He is for us, if God is for us, who can prevail against us? "The little foxes spoil the vines" and little things by irritation and worry tend to detract, clouding our vision, robbing us of our best effort and depriving God of an opportunity to prove himself to us by rewarding our faith. WE MUST HAVE FAITH IN GOD.
(2). FAITH IN OURSELVES. We again have the perfect example in Christ. "He was despised and rejected of men." He suffered the extreme through the ingratitude of men. He was betrayed but not once did Christ lose faith in Himself. All the world could not deter Him or cause Him to swerve in His purpose; Christ had faith in Himself and inspired the world's faith in Christ.
"Like begets like." If we are uncertain about ourselves we can expect others to be uncertain about us. God and I are a majority, this thought makes the ego impossible, self reliance, confidence in ourselves with faith to accomplish God's will and realize His purpose will enable us to prove God while God is proving and using us; we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by having FAITH IN OURSELVES.
(3). FAITH IN EACH OTHER. In certain places "Christ failed to do many mighty works because of their unbelief." Coordinated effort between Imperial and Realm officials is certain and sure when we believe in each other. We live in a period when it is so easy to distrust and doubt. Nations distrust each other, the best people in the world are losing faith in one another, homes are divided and broken up, church leaders are apologizing for the Truth and losing faith in Christian fundamentals ; where graciousness, appreciation and encouragement existed we are met with sarcasm, ridicule and condemnation, the phrase of the street we hear it on every side "What does he get out of it ?" Why should we doubt or distrust each other as we do? "A house divided against itself cannot stand," can we trust each other? Will we trust each other? God help us to have FAITH IN EACH OTHER.
Co-ordinated effort between Imperial and Realm officials, the natural sequence of a sincere consecration and devotion to the sacred principles of Klancraft, inspiring Faith in God, Faith in Ourselves, Faith in Each Other will accomplish more than legislation or edicts. It will make us better Klansmen, stronger in our Principles, enabling us to serve ourselves bet-ter by serving each other best. Equality of service in a united leadership will make an harmonious, united and successful membership. The Cause calls for sacrificial service on our Part,
Out where the west begins and men are real men from dire necessity for existence, Klankraft has a meaning as a rule far above that in congested centers. It frequently requires a day or hours for a Klansman to reach his Klavern, yet these noble men are there, absorbing all the knowledge and experience Possible for application in their daily lives.
Where towns are scarce and cities miles and miles apart, we find the real Klansman, studying to improve himself and how to help Klankraft as he works to maintain his family and him-self. Through our western country there is a Klansman's constant effort to see that members of the Kraft are kept employed and when the call for assistance comes, they are always ready with their mite and give freely and cheerfully.
We are so far away from headquarters with only the meager opportunity to obtain definite knowledge of what is going on aside from the often improper statements that are made in the alien press, that the majority of our western Klansmen upon coming in contact with those supposed to know, apologize for their lack of knowledge of the situation but always wind up with expressing their confidence in their leaders and their earnest hope for the ultimate success of the cause so dear to their hearts.
To their Imperial Officers they give an unbiased and unreserved support being truly militant in thought and action. The thought is often expressed that if our Imperial Officers would move the Imperial Palace "out where the west begins" that the natural tendency of the country would iron out manY of the difficulties and save them many anxious hours.
We feel that every Klansman should obey the law and by thus doing our duties, lessen the burden upon others and further we feel that as this organization is one for all and all for one, that any Klansman who does not live up to the law, should be banished from the Invisible Empire without fear or favor.
At the present time in the Realm of Wyoming we are organizing a Finance Corporation whose primary purpose will be to assist Klansmen in the hour of need and further to assist them in building their homes and business. We are also working toward building a Klan Temple, so that the Klans of the Realm will have a permanent home. I understand that the construction of Klan Temples is being worked out over the majority of the most densely populated western territory.
Most of our territory has been hard hit with the reduction in prices of both produce and labor and the re-adjustment of the nation, yet these Klansmen only ask for a little extension of time and an opportunity to pay their debts, struggling along with forces against them, within and without.
We are doing our best to direct civic activities along the right channel and have succeeded beyond our fondest hope in placing loyal American citizens in many of the public offices and they are cleaning out the dens of iniquity and lessening the manufacture of the moonshine liquor which destroys the integrity of the human race.
Hundreds of men on account of their environment, who have thought little of religion heretofore, are turning strongly to Christianity, living cleaner lives and becoming better citizens. A concerted action is being put forth to have the children attend Sunday School and to organize clean sports and entertainments. Many young Klansmen who before they joined that were in the habit of spending all their income, many times before it was earned, have changed their tactics and today are the proud possessors of a bank account and have their debts all paid.
One beautiful example of the effect of Klankraft is the action of boys in their effort to assist their fathers, not only in their every day duties but their constant effort to keep the play-grounds clean, observing the rules and also the general neighborhood welfare. The respect shown their mothers and the girls by assisting them in their daily work.
It is not an uncommon thing to hear a woman say "wonder what has come over John lately ; he has given up moonshine and gambling and goes about looking for better things that never interested him before." On more than one occasion requests have been made by wives to get their husbands into the Klan.
Our women are interested in Americanism and clean living yet there are no patriotic women's societies of any consequence in the west except on the Pacific coast. The example set in general by our Klansmen has a far reaching effect and men who are not always in accord with our ideals, especially those in public office are taking notice of the change coming over the neighborhood in general.
There is a constant effort being put forth to assist our eastern Klansmen when they see fit to move out with us, that they may find the best employment and a constant desire to see them build better homes and receive more of life's benefits.
About the only excuse that the so called "big man" can
In addition to the Roman Catholicism, in the Realm of Utah and scattered over the west in general, we have another enemy, which is more subtile and far more cunning in carrying out his efforts against this organization.
They have excellent schools, well conducted but build their church in the same yard with the school and where this is not possible use the schoolhouse itself for religious purpose, teaching the Latter Day Saints religion constantly in the class room, ever keeping in mind the power that is exerted on American youths, yet avoiding all external appearance of being un-American.
The Mormons are unlike the Catholics in marriage, seeking rather than avoiding, the inter-marriage of their women with Protestant men, thereby hoping for conversions and the concentration of capital into their strongholds. Let us study this situation and make a decision just what is the best method to pursue.
The history of Mormon political activity has always been along the line of showing favors where something was to be obtained for their personal benefit. The first marked recorded instance of this action occurred at Navoo, Ill., back in 1841 when the Prophet Joseph Smith and Dr. Bennett a smooth politician, secured the Charter for the city of Navoo and the Navoo Legion, giving them military control greater than in any part of the state as though they were a separate part of the state of Illinois.
They set at naught the laws of the land when the same conflict with their teachings even going so far as to practice polygamy and other things that are equally distastful to the majority of American citizens. Claiming they have a right to do so because the head of their church, according to their belief, is in direct communication with God.
A case is now on trial in the state of Utah to test the law with regard to whether a candidate who has been elected to office through ecclesiastical influence can hold the office to which he
Upon no one subject is the public less informed or more in error concerning our position than that of religious tolerance.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have for their position the absolutely American one of entire tolerance of all religious faiths, and the complete independence of religion from State control.
The right to worship God according to the dictates of one's own conscience is necessarily one of the fundamental principles of human liberty. In the protection of this right in all its purity to the people of any country it is absolutely necessary that the state be permitted no interference in matters of religion.
Troubles which past civilizations have encountered have been almost without exception of a religious nature, and the dividing line between religious authority and governmental authority has been the rock upon which these civilizations have been wrecked and relegated to history.
In protecting to all the people of this country their right to absolute freedom of worship we find ourselves in the anomalous position of requiring religious devotees to abstain from religious meddling in matters of state for their own protection.
It is an axiomatic fact that if the state has no right to interfere in matters of religion, and is separate and distinct there-from, religions and religious differences and causes must not be injected into matters of state.
The forces of Protestantism in America, are singularly free from men who endeavor to use their church influences in matters of state or politics. The great Protestant Churches stamp with stern disapproval all efforts to embroil them in political
Our organization has been viciously attacked by the Roman Catholic hierarchy because of its stand for the separation of Church and State. The individual Klansman recognizes the right of the individual Catholic to worship God, pope, or idol, as he sees fit, but the claim of the pope that he is God's divinely appointed, supreme representative on earth, complicates the Roman Catholic situation throughout this country.
The age old chimera of the supremacy and the dominance of the pope over states no longer has force, not even in Catholic Italy, but the continued adherence to this doctrine indicates that the Roman Catholic hierarchy is ever struggling for political dominance through religious activity.
Jesus Christ answered this question of Church and State when he enunciated his well-known doctrine of "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
It is a significant fact that in matters of politics the Roman Catholic Church stands peculiarly united.
There is no fair-minded person in all America who will not acknowledge this fact, and this makes necessary our attitude supporting Christ's principle of rendering to the State allegiance first in matters of state and unto God allegiance always in matters of religion.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan hold that if the doctrine of the Catholic Church is that the pope is God's divinely appointed representative on earth, and has the right of control over states, that doctrine is dangerous to this or any other free country.
We believe this to be the real doctrine of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Their actions down through the ages, their written pronouncements and spoken words, ever have been in line with this belief of ours. We hold that the Roman Catholic, if he honestly believes the pope to be God's divinely appointed agent over all the earth, over all governments and peoples on earth, would hold first allegiance to the pope and then allegiance to America. If we believed as they do, that
We would advance this doctrine for the believer in the superiority of the pope over the State that he take no part in the affairs of a Government which he is not prepared to support to the uttermost.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan do not believe that persons of Roman Catholic faith necessarily are unpatriotic, or in any way inferior to people of other beliefs, but we do hold that a system of Church government which claims dominance over state governments is dangerous to the state.
It is a significant fact, borne out by the pages of history, that the effort of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the past to dominate state affairs has led to more wars and more unhappiness throughout Christendom than any and all other causes for seven hundred years. In this country it is ideas and votes, rather than sword, battle-axe or gun, with which we fight.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan make this solemn pronouncement that until such time as the Roman Catholic hierarchy announces Christ's doctrine of supremacy of State over Church in governmental affairs, we shall steadfastly oppose the political interference of Roman Catholic organizations in political matters in America. If this is to bring upon us the heavy weight of Catholic persecution it is a cross which we will bear.
We must enunciate and steadfastly strive to inculcate the wonderful principles, simple and sublime, which are contained in our American Constitution, and from which all the liberty-loving people of the world have found their inspiration.
America was changed from a wilderness without people to the greatest country on earth with more than a hundred mil-lion inhabitants, by men of dependable character and sterling
In a country founded by men like this, upon principles which forever ought to secure for them the blessings of pure liberty, we are called upon to battle for the perpetuity of our sacred institutions.
Why is America the greatest nation on earth? It is because every loyal citizen holds himself accountable to Almighty God for his actions, and holds himself amenable in every particular for service to the United States of America.
We cannot allow any world-wide system of religious teaching, highly organized and entirely secret, to gain control of the free channels of government in America. The free public school system of America is the singular God-given instrument with which the forces of superstition, ignorance and fanaticism have been beaten to their knees and any man of any sect, anywhere, who lends his voice, his money, or his influence to the suppression or hindrance of this great educational system is an enemy to this country and ought not to be permitted to preach a doctrine subversive of its principles.
We have had too much tolerance in America for things that are destructive and ideas that are pernicious. For citizens of this country we should hold no hatred, malice or ill-will, but for ideas that are destructive of our sacred liberties we should hold abhorrence, and should sternly take our stand against their promulgation, and should take such steps as will protect the people from these hurtful theories and false principles. If this be religious intolerance, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan bids the thinking public of America make the most of it. I have this to say, I do not know the religious affiliation of the President of this great nation today, but if he were a Roman Catholic we would have to regret the intrusion of the Roman Catholic organizations into matters of state in every corner of our land. A block vote in America is a dangerous thing, and that is the trend of the times today.
A large number among the vast horde of immigrants who have reached our shores in the last thirty years have been Catholics. Another large percentage of this horde have been Jews. In Protestant America we must have time to teach
When America ceases to be a country inhabited by Americans and becomes the polyglot center of the universe, our co-mingled populations will have no fixed ideas as to what human liberty means, nor the responsibility which freedom entails upon the people who enjoy it, and our free institutions will collapse.
From every angle our country and its institutions are in danger, and no danger is greater or more destructive than the infiltration of peoples and ideas which are not American.
Too long, from a place of fancied security, we have watched the growth of a liberalism which bids fair within a decade to become license, and when a population, feeling no responsibility for fundamental principles, gets a wrong perspective, countries lose their liberty, civilization pass, and the sea of time again has upon its shores the wreck of human endeavors.
For the Roman Catholic as a man we are sorry, for the Roman Catholic hierarchy as a semi-political religious organization we have an antipathy bred into us from the loins of our forefathers, the men who conquered the wilderness and built a nation, and set ablaze the beacon fires of liberty that all the world might see by that light the true road to happiness.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan pledge themselves now and forever to stand between our country and any agency, anywhere, which seeks to lay its hands upon our Holy American institutions.
Numerous requests have come to the Imperial Officers of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for a definition of the attitude of that organization toward the Jewish race in America. There seems to be a prevalent impression in some sections that the Klan is hostile to the Jew. This impression was not generated
The Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has been compelled to contend, on its own soil, for the right to live, and for the right to occupy its inheritance from the day of its birth to the present hour. Composed of native-born, white, Protestant, Christian Americans, the Order has been challenged to show cause why it should be permitted to organize and exist for patriotic, fraternal and benevolent purposes. Every class of American citizens, without regard to racial or religious distinctions, has been permitted to assemble for peaceable purposes, and to organize into societies with worthy motives, and for laudable objects. All such societies have been safeguarded by the principles embodied in the constitution of the United States, but when the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claiming nativity under the flag, speaking the English language; with one hand on the Bible and the other on the Constitution, under the cross and the flagconsecrated themselves to the white man's civilization, to his country and to his creed, the Jew, the Roman Catholic and the negro combined and made war upon the Organization.
It is passing strange that the Jew in America should be mobilized with the hostile forces against the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He should find in the genius of this organization a guarantee of his own security. There are no rights or privileges asserted by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for themselves as native-born, white Protestant Christians that are not vouchsafed by that assertion to the Jew in his racial, social and religious life. Idealistic Americanism is the purpose in which members of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are dedicated. Any manwhether native or alien by birth ; Gentile or Jew by faith ; white or black by racewho so commits himself in allegiance to his country that nothing is reserved
From these patriots, such as compose the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Jew has been tendered the hospitality in America that has not been accorded him elsewhere upon the face of the earth. He should keep in mind the freedom and protection which have been vouchsafed his race by the white, Gentile Christians who founded the republic and fashioned its framework in the equality of human rights.
Just now the Jew is setting up extraordinary claims to having discovered America, and of having been among the early settlers, of Castilian extraction, upon these shores. If this claim should be conceded as fact, the Jew should remember that his expedition across an uncharted ocean was not in the spirit of exploration or of adventure, but that he was fleeing from the inquisition of the Roman Hierarchy. Granting that the Jew, under the proud banner of Aragon and Castile, came among the first to America, his contribution to the world's great democracy ended with the discovery of the new continent. He explored none of its forests he navigated none of its streams he cultivated none of its soil; he developed none of its mines ; he grew none of its products ; he penetrated none of its unknown spaces; he cleared none of its jungles, and he colonized his race nowhere. It was only after the white, Gentile Christian had won the American continent by conflict and sacrifice that the Jew began to view America as his Mecca, or more properly speaking, as his latterday land "flowing with milk and honey." The Declaration of Independence by Jefferson ; the Bill of Rights, by Madison, and the Constitution, by Madison and Jay, had been long organized into "agreements of the people, by the people and for the people" before the Jew began to flow to this country in great tides of immigration. He fled to America from the inquisition of Spain, from the massacres of Germany and of Poland, and from the Pogroms of Russia.
He claims to have discovered and settled America in the Fifteenth Century, but it was not until the latter part of the Nineteenth Century that he began to migrate in large numbers to this country, and to congest its centres of populationalready overcrowded. In 1880 there were probably two hundred
Since then three millions and more have comequite enough for today, and for fifty years beyond. Until these millions are distributed, Poland, Roumania and Russia must find other ports of entry for their semitic subjects. The native-born, white, Protestant Christian American has all the foreign population of Europe and of Asia that he can digest or assimilate, or even entertain. For nearly two centuries our doors have been wide open. We have invited the world to come in; but our restricted immigration law is a proclamation to the world that we are not receiving for at least a decade or two.
Consider for a moment the cordiality which has been ac-corded the Jew by the American nation. He brought his racial, his religious and his social distinctiveness to America, and he maintains all of these characteristics and peculiarities without restriction or even question as to his rights. The Jew has established his Temple and his Synagogue, and has worshipped God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and with none to molest him, or to make him afraid. He has maintained his racial integrity, with none to gainsay his right to keep
The Jew has engaged in the small trades in America. His economic value to society is that of the middle-man. There is no enterprise or industry of the inventive, creative or initiative sort that the Jew can claim as his distinctive contribution to the public welfare in America. He has not, by skill of artisan, afforded anything to American idealism, or by vision of artist added anything to American construction. He has given the American people no impulsion to simpler and nobler life. The Jew has not increased the sum of American wealth. In the handicrafts, he has not been a builder of houses, or bridges. and of highways, but a maker of wearing apparel from wool and cotton and silkand he produced and refined none of the raw materials. As a distributor, he has been a peddlera small dealera profit-gatherer between the man who produced and the man who consumed. In finance, he has been the money-lender, the pawn broker, who, from the emergencies and tragedies of the poor, derived his gains.
The Jew has maintained his social order without invasion by the white American Christian. He has married among his own, and only in rare and exceptional instances has the Jew inter-married with the Gentile, and then the Orthodox Jew has suffered the terrible penalty of banishment from the Jewish circle, creed and society. Even where Jewish children have been taught in American Schools with Christian children, the descendants of Abraham have denied their children the right of inter-marriage with the Gentile. The Jew has been careful of his own. He has protected the sanctity of his home with a fidelity that all men respect and admire. He has known for generations what our Western civilization has been slow to learn, and that is : The amalgamation of two dissimilar races produces the inferior qualities of both. No man can become a real American citizen, according to the standards of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, until he regards the chastity of woman as a sacred trust, and sanctity of the home as an inviolable obligation.
In his business relations, the Jew has co-operated almost entirely with his race, and it is unusual when a partnership is formed between the Jew and the Gentile. The Jew is largely restricted to his race in business affairs. He associates him-self in joint or combined enterprises with his kith and kin, and he keeps his enterprises not only within racial bounds, but also closed by ties of blood. In other words, a business that is established by the Jew, as a rule, is kept by the Jew and transmitted to his progeny.
This is especially true as recently indicated by an article in one of the current periodicals discussing the Jew's relation to American finance. The writer of the article says that the Jew of wealth has usually no influential or directorate position in the great financial institutions of the nation. He is a private banker. His money is combined with that of other Jews, and then the members of the Jewish firm marry and intermarry so as to keep the institution and its wealth not only within Jewish hands, but also within the Jewish family.
If one may be permitted to apply to the Jew a term of the Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he is "Klannish" and has maintained and demonstrated practical "Klannishness" to all other peoples. There is an old, old story of the recovery of the Jew from one of the tragedies of his history. He was emerging from the oppression of his conquerors ; was seeking to rebuild his nation upon ashes and ruins ; was striving to reclaim his civilization from the wreckage of the despoilers, and one of his great seers wrote : "They helped every-one his neighbor, and everyone said to his Brother, "Be of good courage." There is no finer statement of fraternalism or patriotism in human history. It is a declaration by the Jew himself of an ideal plan of co-operation in a great service that the Klan is undertaking to exemplify in American life.
Those words might very well be carved upon the portals of the Imperial Palace. They might be used as a motto, and hung upon the walls of every Klavern. The arduous task of saving the white man's civilization, of maintaining democratic institutions, of repairing the broken ideals of American life, why should not every Klansman help his neighbor, and say to his brother, "be of good courage?"
Only this is true : The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, believing that the white man's civilization is cemented with the
The chapter opens with a dedication of life to a service of sacrifice, and from that consecration the Klansman is so "transformed with a new mind" that egotism dies, and esteem and considerateness of others become dominant.
He speaks of the unity of the human body, and the diversity of members, and of giftsbut all unified in service to others. There is love without pretense, an abhorrence of evil, a clinging to good, all of which may be summed up in the statement that Klansmen are to be kindly in affection, one toward another, and means that the fine virtue of courtesy shall mark all the conduct of this order in its associations with men. It is a heart force, bubbling and welling up from a fountain of love and flowing out in the good old-fashioned ministry of kindness. From such service, the Klansman becomes diligent and fervent, hopeful and patient and prayerful. He goes out into a minis-try to the poor ; he opens his doors and receives the stranger and the wayfarer in hospitality. He blesses the men who stand upon the circumference of life, hating and cursing him, and returns good for evil. He "walks with kings, nor loses the common touch," neither does he seek the men of high estate nor makes effort to consort with them, but reaches down to the humble, the obscure and the forgotten and proclaims that Klansmen "the world o'er shall brothers be and a' that."
A detailed exposition of the objects, aims and purposes of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has been compiled by the Exalted Cyclops of Monroe Klan Number 4, Realm of Louisiana.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, as now organized, is a patriotic, benevolent, fraternal order, the chief aims of which are to bring the different branches of the Protestant church into a closer relationship, one with another; to inculcate a purer patriotism in its members ; to uphold the constitution and laws of the United States and the separate states thereof ; to maintain, perfect and perpetuate the free public schools and to preserve the United States as a Protestant Christian nation.
To be eligible to membership in this all-American order, one must have been born in the United States, of white parentage, be over 18 years of age and of the Protestant Christian faith.
The principles upon which the order is founded are taken from the Twelfth chapter of Romans. It is not claimed or intended that the Klan be a church, or that it take the place of the church, but it is intended that the Klan be a powerful adjunct to the Protestant Church. No man can be a good Klansman and not be a better citizen and a more consistent Christian by the experience.
Patriotism and Christianity are preeminently the moving principles of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Flag, the Constitution and the Holy Bible are the key-stone of Klan principles.
The Klan stands for law and order, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of conscience, for the free public school, separation of church and state, white supremacy and Protestant Christianity. It is the sworn duty of a Klansman to uphold the law and assist the regularly constituted authorities, at all times, in the discharge of their legal duties, "To protect the home, the chastity of womanhood, and to exemplify a pure patriotism to. rd our glorious country."
Klansmen are opposed to all manner of mobs, and to mob violence in every form, to violent labor agitations and the destruction of public and private property without due process of law. Klansmen contend that all disputes between citizens, which cannot be adjusted by the parties directly interested, should be and must be settled through the regular established courts of the country.
Klansmen are opposed to Bolshevism, Sovietism, Anarchism, Communism and every other "ism" or cult: that has for its
Klansmen contend, and defy any man to disprove their contentions, that the Protestant Christian citizens of this country have as much right to organize an all-Protestant society as the Roman Catholics and Jews have to organize their all-Catholic and all-Jewish societies. Klansmen are not "against" the Catholics or "against" the Jews, but are "for" Protestant Christianity first, last and all the time.
The Roman Catholic excludes himself from membership in the Klan by owing allegiance to a foreigner or foreign institution. Klansmen contend that no person owing allegiance to any foreigner, foreign government, person, prince or potentate, ecclesiastical or otherwise, can be a one hundred percent American and are therefore not eligible for membership in the organization.
The Jew excludes himself from membership in the Klan by refusing to accept the Christian religion. He is essentially an alien, non-assimilative and clanish to a degree. From the earliest history of the race, the Jew has considered material success an unmistakable mark of Divine approval, consequently his code of business ethics does not always harmonize with Christian ideas or Christian principles.
Klansmen commend the clannishness of the Jew, knowing that it is one of the main reasons for his universal success. God bless him, he takes care of his own and sees that no Jew goes without assistance in time of need.
Klansmen are sworn to practice Klanishness toward Klansmen, not only in their commercial, material and social relations, but in their moral and spiritual relations as well.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan has no fight to make upon the Negro. He is recognized as an inferior race and Klansmen are sworn to protect him, his rights and property and assist him in the elevation of his moral and spiritual being and in the preservation of the purity of his race.
The Klan has no fight to make upon any man because of his race, place of birth, religion or political affiliations.
The constitution of the United States guarantees to every man the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience of not to worship Him at all, and the Klan stands eternally upon the constitution.
The Klan does not attempt to regulate the private morals, family affairs, political or religious beliefs of any man.
This being a true statement of the principles and purposes of the Ku Klux Klan, the question naturally arises : Why this relentless war now being waged upon the Order?
It does not require the wisdom of a sage, or the reasoning power of a philosopher to answer the question.
The activity and determination of the Klan to see the laws of this country respected and enforced has arrayed every crook and every law breaker, down to the least and lowest, against the Klan. Every bootlegger, moonshiner, jake-seller, libertine, prostitute and black-leg gambler feels that the life of their vicious business depends upon the putting of the Klan out of business. Closely allied with this motley crew and going hand in hand with them, in their efforts to suppress the Klan, we have Roman Catholics, Jews, a certain class of Negro preachers, some politicians and a few honest, but misguided Gentiles.
I am loath to believe that every American-born Catholic is content to affiliate with the vicious bunch now opposing the Klan, and it is well known that there are many Jews, down in their hearts, not opposed to the order. But the great body of Roman Catholics and Jews have sworn, to never cease their nefarious propaganda until the Ku Klux Klan are put out of business. It is useless to say that they are losing much needed sleep and spending many thousands of dollars to accomplish their purpose. The Klan is here, and here it will remain until the last son of a Protestant surrenders his manhood, and is content to see America Catholicized, mongrelized and circumcised.
One great "bug-a-boo" put forth by the enemies of the Klan is the mask. They vehemently tell us "there is no objection to the Klan if you discard the mask." This is the biggest subterfuge ever put forth by a hypocrite to mislead an honest man. It is not the mask that worries the enemies of the
The use of the mask, except within the lodge-room, at public initiations or in public parades by special permission, is strictly forbidden by the rules of the order.
There is another feature of the Klan organization which is disturbing the cherished dreams of Roman Catholics every-where, and to the Protestant mind this is the most appealing feature of the Ku Klux Klan. The Catholics see in the Klan the possibility of bringing together the different branches of the Protestant Church, of co-operating and co-ordinating the Protestant effort to forestall Rome in her drive to make America Catholic. As long as Protestantism is divided and pulling against itself the Roman church is happy. That church is united and headed straight for the goal. Their watch-word is "Make America Catholic" and unless Protestantism is aroused and united the Catholics will succeed.
The enemies of the Klan are forcing a tremendous fight. The lines are drawn, and are being drawn tighter and tighter, day by day. The time is at hand when no self-respecting American Protestant can hold himself aloof. You must either join the Klan and throw your influence on the side of decency, Christianity and law enforcement, or join the law breakers, negro preachers, Roman Catholics and Jews.
No self-respecting man can any longer be neutral. If you believe in the preservation of American ideals, the enforcement of law, the ascendancy of the white race, the separation of church and state, the perpetuation of the free public schools, and the Christian religion, join the Klan. Otherwise, line up with crooks, law breakers, moral reprobates, non-Christians and those who do not owe their first allegiance to the United States.
To reiterate, the Klan has no fight to make upon the individual Catholic or upon the Catholic church, as a church, but most
The Roman Catholic church is opposed to the free public school and is bending its every energy to circumvent its influence, if not abolish the system altogether. That church con-tends that the education of the children of this nation should be directed by the church and when a Catholic says Church, he means the Roman Catholic Church, and will recognize no other.
The preservation of American ideals and the Christian religion depends upon the early creation in the children of this nation of a reverence for and an undying faith in God's holy word. That this reverence and faith may be indelibly stamped upon the minds of the children, the Bible must be read and explained to them daily during their early school years.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan believe that the free public schools should be the vehicle for this Bible reading and instruction and that no atheist, infidel, skeptic, or non-believer should be allowed to teach in the public schools. The Klan does not contend for sectarian instruction in the Bible, but asks that it be read and explained from the broad viewpoint of its divine origin and inspiration.
Some weak-kneed Protestants and "jelly-bean" Americans are willing to forego this Bible reading in the public school, surrender their religious convictions and, if necessary, deny Jesus Christ, to avoid offending the Roman Catholics and Jews and maintain harmony in the community.
If such harmony, obtained at such a sacrifice, is more desirable than a real living Christianity, then Jesus Christ is a myth and the Bible a fable.
A large percentage of the foreign immigrants pouring into this country, during the past few years, have been Roman Catholics and a big percent of these immigrants are from the
The policy of the Klan is to stop this stream of undesirables and thus prevent the glutting of the American labor market, and the Romanizing and mongrelizing of the citizenship of the United States. There are two great influences in this country opposed to checking this stream of European "riff-raff" and in favor of letting down the bars and flooding this country with the very scum of the earth. These influences are the Roman Catholic church and the big employers of pauper labor.
Our first and most important duty is to correct the impression made common by a subsidized pressthat the Klan is a mob organization. We can do this only by living in our daily lives the principles as set forth in the Twelfth chapter of Romans. We must show, by word and deed, that a Klansman is not only a one hundred percent American, but an honest, law abiding Christian gentleman and a real "he-man."
We must show to the world that Protestant Christianity has a better formula for building honest God-fearing men than has the Roman Catholics and Jews, or else we have no right, moral or civil, to direct or dominate the affairs of this great Democratic nation. Neither fuss nor force will get you any-where with the serious, right thinking citizenship of America. The Protestants must be able to "deliver the goods" or go down, as they should go down, in ignominious defeat. The affairs of this nation cannot be successfully directed by Ignorance and bluff and every good Protestant and Klansman is opposed to capitalizing prejudice for political success, or playing upon ignorance for personal gain.
We must realize that the safety, peace and dignity of this country depends upon you and I. We cannot shirk our individual duties, either as Klansmen, citizens or members of the Christian church. We must wake up to the fact that under this republican form of government every right and privilege carries with it a duty and that no one hundred percent American can shirk that duty and be a good Klansman, a good citizen or a consistent Christian.
We often boast that this is a Protestant nation. If this boast is to mean anything, the Protestant Christians of the United States must assert themselves. They must unite in one concerted effort to save America or the time is rapidly approaching when we can no longer claim the United States as a Protestant Christian Nation. The Protestants must co-operate and co-ordinate their efforts, not only along social and religious lines, but in politics and business as well. There is no time left to "haggle" over methods or unimportant details, we must get together now or forfeit the precious heritage transmitted to us by our forefathers.
We cannot preserve this nation as a Protestant Christian democracy by placing the enemies of Protestantism and those who deny Jesus Christ in control. This Protestant nation must be preserved and it can be done only by seeing that none but Protestant Americans are placed on guard.
The object of the Ku Klux Klan is not to violate the law but to uphold the lawnot to oppress or persecute mankind but to uplift mankind; not to create strife or racial prejudice among men but to cultivate brotherly kindness among men, not to crush the down-trodden but to protect the weak, assist the needy and preserve the ideals and government of the United States.
"God give us men, sun-crowned and strong, with their heads above the fog." Give us men whose hearts beat true to the principles of personal decency and whose souls are filled with the love of Jesus Christ. Remove from our makeup the bane of human selfishness and broaden our usefulness to God and man.
Jesus Christ is the Klansman's criterion of character and to him we look for light, love and life.
The Ku Klux Klan has been variously defined. Some persons regard the organization as only another ritualistic Order, whose chief mission is to stage wierd ceremonials in order to mystify the uninitiated public. There are others who think of it as made up of a peculiar class of individuals who delight to conduct sheeted parades and to play ghostly pranks, designed to terrify the superstitious, to frighten the ignorant, and to awe
The Klan is more than a fraternal Order. It has something more to justify its existence than a ritual and ceremonies that are no more fantastic than are to be found in other organizations. In all fraternal order rituals are found something of the wierd, and all fraternal order ceremonies are marked by the fantastic. In the genius of the Klan is to be found some-thing more than ritual, and ceremonial and symbolism. In the Klan is to be found a movement in which is crystalized devotion to principle and eagerness to make those principles effective in American life. The men who have come into the Klan with pure purpose are men who have consecrated them-selves to the task to which the Klan is dedicated,that of making fundamental American principles real and operative in America. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan is a movement seeking to save America for Americans and to make Americans for America. The Order offers no apology for its existence, but it does argue its need because as a movement it is devoting itself to definite and necessary American tasks.
It is working tirelessly to arouse a spirit of real patriotism in America. The American people have shown their ability to meet great crises. In times of war they have shown them-selves fearless and invincible. In seasons of distress they have shown themselves open hearted and open handed. They have demonstrated their ability to overcome reverses and to cope with panics. But they have not yet begun to make real the ideals bequeathed them by the founders of this Republic. They have not yet begun to cherish their institutions and to prize their country above every other country in all the earth. The Englishman's boast is England ; the Frenchman's glory is France but Americans have not yet learned to say exultingly, "I am an American." The Klan is a movement devoting itself to the needed task of developing a genuine spirit of exultant American patriotism.
The Klan is seeking by precept and example to develop a high order of American citizenship. It is great to be an American citizen. It would be disgraceful for an American to become a subject of any power, or prince or potentate. Klankraft teaches that true American citizenship not only confers privileges and guarantees liberties, but that it also involves responsibilities that the intelligent citizenship will endeavor to meet. There must be the honest exercise of suffrage for the country's best interest, without regard to the partisan clamorings of professional politicians. There must be the vigorous demand of upright citizens for the enforcement of law. There must be absolute repudiation of officials who fail to perform their sworn duty as officers of the law. There must be created respect for and obedience to the law. Right-minded citizens must learn their responsibility in the matter of jury duty. Wrong elements have too long been in control of the ballot-box, filled the various offices, and packed the juries. It is now time for the high-class citizenship of the country to assert itself and take charge of all the affairs of our country. The Klan is the voice in the wilderness calling upon all right-thinking, right-living Americans to repent and to show their repentance by meeting their responsibilities as good American citizens.
The Klan is fulfilling a needed mission in urging upon Americans the duty of preserving America's precious race heritage. This country was founded by the finest elements of the white race. This Government was established by the same superior types of the white race. They passed it on to posterity to be maintained by white men as a white man's country for white men. They bequeathed to their descendents the responsibility of preserving the integrity of the race by keeping pure the blood of the white man's race. The Klan's contention that the white race in America must and shall be preserved pure from all blood-taint and kept supreme in all affairs of this white man's country, has invoked indignant denunciation from puling politicians and infectious, cancerous elements that are seeking to destroy America by malignant amalgamation. But there can be no controverting the fact that by amalgamation of bloods the people of America will be mongrelized ; and that by political amalgamation the Government of the United States will be mongrelized. The Klan
The Klan movement is needed as a militant Protestant organization. The Klan is not engaged in warfare upon any religious sect, unless that sect is disposed to interpret the Klan's positive Protestant program as a declaration of war. Even then, the Klan will continue persistently to maintain without fear and without cessation the principles of genuine Protestantism. Theologians may continue to split tenuous hairs ; pulpit dilettantes may go on pronouncing their pretty little essays ; sweet-scented sentimentalists may list their puling denunciations of the Klan ; mongrelizing minions may mouth their vapid vaporings about the bigotry of men who dare stand for principles in which they believe; shrinking, timorous, paling souls may deprecate the temerity of men who are bold to proclaim their Protestant Knighthood ; BUTthe Klansmen of the nation, unafraid and undeterred, strong in their faith in God, cherishing an open Bible, loyal to the Klansman's Christ, firmly believing in the principles taught by Him, rejecting all traditions and opinions of men contrary to His teachings, will continue to contend to establish these principles in Protestant America. In the midst of so much uncertainty, the Klan is needed to sound continuously its certain Protestant note in this Protestant country. And no ecclesiastic can silence us. Selah !
We, THE ORDER of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, reverentially acknowledge the majesty and supremacy of the Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of the same.
WE RECOGNIZE our relation to the Government of the United States of America, the Supremacy of its Constitution, the Union of States thereunder, and the Constitutional Laws thereof, and we shall be ever devoted to the sublime principles of a pure Americanism and valiant in the defense of its ideals and institutions.
WE AVOW THE distinction between the races of man-kind as same has been decreed by the Creator, and shall ever be true in the faithful maintenance of White Supremacy and will strenuously oppose any compromise thereof in any and all things.
WE APPRECIATE the intrinsic value of a real practical fraternal relationship among men of kindred thought, purpose and ideals and the infinite benefits accruable therefrom, and shall faithfully devote ourselves to the practice of an honorable Klanishness that the life and living of each may be a constant blessing to others.
I am a Searchlight on a high tower.
I run my relentless eye to and fro throughout the land; my piercing glance penetrates the brooding places of Iniquity. I plant my eyes and ears in the whispering corridors of Crime.
Wherever men gather furtively together, there am I, an austere and invisible Presence. I am the Recording Angel's proxy.
When I invade the fetid dens of Infamy there 'is a sudden scampering and squeaking as of rats forsaking a doomed ship.
I am the haunting dread of the depraved and the hated Nemesis of the vicious.
When the Law is weak, then I am strong. When Justice stands impotent and dumb, then do I speak with majesty and power. I am an outstretched arm to Society's unrequited victimthe swift avenger of Innocence despoiled.
My Voice is as the sound of many waters. Sometimes it rises in mighty wrath until it muffles the thunders of Niagara. Sometimes it sinks to the still, sad music of consolation and sympathy. Always and ever I speak for the sanctity of the home, for a stainless Flag, and for the preservation of these benign institutions of the free.
Corrupt politicians, plotters, despoilers of the State, seek to quench my light and still my voice.
I am a bulwark and bell-tower to Democracy. Within my realm Dives relinquishes his millions and Lazarus his rags. The poor man here is as rich as the richest, and the rich man as poor as the pauper. I know but one distinction, and that is unsullied manhood.
I am the burning beacon in the uplifted hand of Liberty. I am the Sword and Buckler of that mighty, invisible Emperor of a free peopleJustice.
My symbols are the Fiery cross and the scintillating, stainless Flag.
The foe of Vice, the friend of Innocence, the rod and staff of Law, I am
THE KU KLUX KLAN!