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 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 iH 
 SECRETS EXPOSED 
 
 Attitude toward Jews, Catholics, For- 
 eigners and Masons. Fraudulent 
 Methods Used. Atrocities 
 Committed in Name 
 of Order. 
 
 EZRA A. COOK, Publisher 
 
 (Incorporated) 
 
 26 E. Van Buren St. CHICAGO
 
 COPYRIGHT APPLIED 
 FOR 1922
 
 Stack 
 
 HS 
 330 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 The Old Ku Klux Klan A 5 
 
 The New Ku Klux Klan ...., 21 
 
 How the Modern Ku Klux Klan Was Organized 25 
 
 How the Ku Klux Klan Gets Members 29 
 
 Oath of the Ku Klux Klan 32 
 
 The Old Pledge of Loyalty ,.,.., 38 
 
 Modern Kleagles Pledge of Loyalty 39 
 
 How the Dollars Roll In 40 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and the Jews ,.. 43 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and the Catholics 46 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and the Masons 55 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and the Negroes 58 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan and Women 60 
 
 Atrocities Committed in the Name of the Order. . 62
 
 KU KLUX KLAN SECRETS 
 EXPOSED 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE OLD KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 To the old Ku-Klux Klan which rode through the south 
 in the days following the civil war the new Ku-Klux Klan 
 is a relative only in name. 
 
 It is not tied by blood. It holds the same position to its 
 southern aristocratic forbear as an imposter in social life 
 does to some illustrious gentleman of the same name of 
 whom he claims to be a descendant. 
 
 The old Ku-Klux Klan was a historical development. 
 The new is a man's contrivance. The old Ku-Klux Klan 
 movement was an outcome of conditions that prevailed in 
 the southern states after the war. The present Klan, ap- 
 parently, is an outcome of a group of men's desire to make 
 money. 
 
 Widespread, spontaneous, popular, the movement of 1866 
 grew out of a disordered society, not as a "movement" at 
 all at first, but as a scheme for having fun, a source of 
 amusement among a group of young, full-blooded southern 
 men to puzzle outsiders. Its use as a weapon against the 
 stranger in the old south came later. 
 
 The "stranger" was the northern carpetbagger. To the 
 south he was the pestilence that follows war. He was the 
 blunderer who entered the land whose social customs were 
 unknown to him, in a year when the fabric by those social 
 customs was in need of mending.
 
 6 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 NO RELIGIOUS TEST 
 
 When southern society seized the Ku-Klux Klan as an 
 instrument with which to resist there were only two 
 classes, carpet-bagger and unruly negro, against which it 
 operated. To join the ranks of the white-robed horsemen, 
 there were no qualifications of religion. The Klan made 
 no mention of Jew or Catholic. Its purpose was to re- 
 store order, not to fan prejudice, and therein lies the dif- 
 ference between the old Klan and the present Klan which 
 makes the latter a maverick. 
 
 The first unit of the horseback riding knights was 
 founded in the village of Pulaski, Tenn., with the same mo- 
 tive for its organization as the old-time college hazing so- 
 ciety. Its members were young men who had come back 
 from the war, poor, exhausted, discouraged, and bored 
 with the tameness of a country town. 
 
 HOW IT STARTED 
 
 According to the story which has lived south of the 
 Mason and Dixon line since those post-bellum days, a 
 group of youths cooling their heels in a law office one May 
 evening in 1866 organized a society for a good time. If 
 anyone had suggested to them at that time that five 
 years later a committee of congress would devote thirteen 
 volumes to a history of their "movement" and pass a law 
 to suppress it, or that before the child of their wits was 
 fully grown it would have developed into a terrorizing 
 "hobgoblin" sheeted for lawlessness, they would have 
 thought it a jest. 
 
 When their mere joke had become a grim joke, neighbors 
 who feared it found in its name "Ku-Klux" the suggestion 
 of a clicking rifle. But the name itself was proposed by 
 its charter members in Tennessee as a derivative of the 
 Greek word "Kuklos," meaning a circle. From "Kuklos" 
 to "Ku-Klux" was an easy transition. The "Klan" fol- 
 lowed because these youthful students of Greek had an ear 
 for the alliterative.
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 7 
 
 From the Pulaski law office the society migrated to a 
 haunted house on the outskirts of the village. Its members 
 found their first source of amusement in initiation rites. 
 They named their chief officer a Grand Cyclops and their 
 vice president a Grand Magi. Other officers were the 
 Grand Turk, or marshal ; a Grand Exchequer or treasurer, 
 and two Lictors. 
 
 WORE WHITE MASKS 
 
 The only germ in their constitution from which the "Im- 
 perial Wizard" Simmons of the twentieth century Klan 
 could breed his present organization was the promise of 
 absolute secrecy. For his copying years later, the first 
 Klan also contrived a disguise. It consisted of a white, 
 mask, a tall cardboard hat, a gown or robe, and for the 
 night riding excursions, a cover for the horses' bodies and 
 mufflers for their feet. 
 
 Only after the Pulaski organization had entertained it- 
 self for many nights did the phenomenon present itself 
 which was to make the Klan a weapon in the progress of 
 post-war reconstruction. It was the discovery that the 
 African negro was twice as fearful of mysticism and mys- 
 tery as the white man. It taught the white men of Tennes- 
 see and neighboring states that they had a means of their 
 own of preventing what they considered political misman- 
 agement and social insolence in the control by northerners 
 and f reedmen of the state government. 
 
 BECOMES MILITARY ORGANIZATION 
 
 The Pulaski riders made themselves popular. Young 
 men of neighboring towns organized brother Klans. When 
 southern society found itself a Humpty Dumpty fallen 
 from the wall, it grasped the Pulaski idea as the means for 
 pulling itself up again. The Klan became a military or- 
 ganization, with the purpose of keeping order among the
 
 8 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 negroes by intimidating them. Mysticism in the order 
 grew. Humor grew with it, and by the time the states of 
 the north discovered that the south had an organization 
 which was in purpose a society of regulators, the young 
 southern war veterans were donning their white robes and 
 cardboard hats with a human skull and two thigh bones 
 as the symbols of allegiance. 
 
 The oath which the grand cyclops administered has been 
 preserved in southern diaries and documents. It was 
 taken in a solemn manner as the knights were grouped 
 amid the bones. The oath follows. 
 
 "We (or I, as the case might be) do solemnly swear before 
 Almighty God and these witnesses, and looking upon these 
 human bones, that I will obey and carry into effect every order 
 made by any cyclops or assistant cyclops, and if I fail strictly 
 to conform and execute every order made, as above required 
 of me, unless I am prevented from some cause which shall be 
 no fault of mine, or if I shall give any information to any 
 person or persons except members of this order, that the 
 doom of all traitors shall be meted out to me, and that my 
 bones may become as naked and dry as the bones I am looking 
 upon. And I take this oath voluntarily, without any mental 
 reservation or evasion whatever, for the causes set out in said 
 order, so help me God." 
 
 Ku-Klux horsemen who rode white-sheeted through the 
 south in the nights of 1866 regarded themselves as up- 
 holders of sectional patriotism. 
 
 They considered themselves the spiritual descendants of 
 the New Englanders who threw the English tea overboard 
 into Boston harbor nearly 100 years before. Their pro- 
 tests, and the acts of intimidation by which they enforced 
 their protests were against the white "carpetbagger" from 
 the north, the negro freedman to whom liberty meant ar- 
 rogant office-holding, and the "scalawag," by which terms 
 they designated those deserters from the southern aristoc- 
 racy who had joined the ranks of the northern stranger. 
 
 The second stage came within a year after the secret 
 body had its birth, when the band of burlesquers became 
 band of regulators. 

 
 KU KLUX KLAN 9 
 
 To the south, the reconstruction acts which congress 
 passed in 1867 were pernicious. The one-time white con- 
 federate soldier believed that the congressional legislation 
 made official mismanagement permanent. He saw negroes 
 organized into the militia. He saw his former slaves vot- 
 ing twice and thrice at elections where he himself had to 
 pass, literally, under bayonets to reach the polls. He dis- 
 liked the freedman's bureau, which substituted northern 
 alien machinery for the old patriarchal relation between 
 white employer and black employe. He heard drunken 
 negroes at his gates in the night. He saw the "carpet- 
 bagger" urging upon the freedman civic rights which he 
 knew the latter was not educated enough to perform. 
 
 FIRST OBJECTS POLITICAL 
 
 These were the prejudices against which the original 
 Ku-Klux Klan threw itself. They were surface indications 
 of an historical development. They had nothing to do with 
 the racial and religious biases which the present Klan at- 
 tempted to propagate. To the present Klan, the old Klan, 
 in its first stage, was unrelated. In its second stage it was 
 related only in its methods of terrorism and its removal 
 of justice from the courts to the masques until its own 
 leaders were powerless to check it. 
 
 The Klan early fell a victim to the abuses inseparable 
 from secrecy. It happened that Tennessee, the birthplace 
 of the hooded institution, was also the first southern state 
 to find itself turned upside down in reconstruction. "Dem 
 Ku-Kluxes," as the negro called the mysterious union, be- 
 came a band of regulators. Their first official convention 
 was held in Nashville early in 1867. 
 
 The Klan, which, until then, had been bound together 
 only by the deference which priority rights gave to the 
 grand cyclops of the parental Pulaski "den," was organized 
 into the "Invisible Empire of the South." It was ruled by 
 a grand wizard of the whole empire, a grand dragon of 
 each realm, or state, a grand titan of each dominion, or
 
 10 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 county, a grand cyclops of each den, and staff officers with 
 names as equally suggestive of Arabian Nights. 
 
 LAWS DEFINE OBJECTS 
 
 For the first time its laws defined serious objects. First 
 was the duty of protecting people, presumably white south- 
 erners, from indignities and wrongs; second was the duty 
 of succoring the suffering, particularly among the families 
 of dead confederate soldiers ; finally was the oath to defend 
 "the constitution of the United States and all laws passed 
 in conformity thereto," and of the states also, to aid in 
 executing all constitutional laws, and to protect the people 
 from unlawful seizures and from trial otherwise than by 
 jury. 
 
 It is these purposes which Imperial Wizard Simmons of 
 the modern clan pretends to perpetuate, plus persecutions 
 of Jews, Catholics and negroes, while denying charges of 
 terrorizing outbreaks. 
 
 The Nashville convention chose Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, 
 the confederate cavalry leader, as its supreme ruler. He 
 is known to have increased the membership of the hooded 
 horsemen in the old south to 550,000. Among his aids 
 were Generals John B. Gordon, A. H. Colquitt, G. T. An- 
 derson, A. B. Lawton, W. J. Hardee, John C. Brown, 
 George W. Gordon and Albert Pike. The latter became one 
 of the foremost authorities of Masonry. 
 
 Terrorism spread, until during the political campaign 
 which preceded the 1868 presidential election, 2,000 per- 
 sons were killed and injured in Louisiana by Ku-Klux 
 Klansmen, who rode at night, disguised as freebooters, and 
 according to James G. Elaine, defeated candidate for the 
 presidency at a later date, hesitated at no cruelty. 
 
 In the north, in the years immediately after the civil 
 war, the original Ku-Klux Klan was called a conspiracy. 
 
 In the south, where society was being ground in the mills 
 of reconstruction, the Klan started its midnight rovings as 
 an instrument of moral force. But within three years its
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 11 
 
 period of usefulness, as the white southerner saw it useful, 
 was over. 
 
 Its founders had played with it as with an exciting bon- 
 fire. During the months, however, when former confed- 
 erate soldiers used it to frighten away northern officehold- 
 ers with oppressive tactics, it had leaped in size until when 
 the moment came for smothering it out its leaders dis- 
 covered it beyond control. 
 
 Not until the full fire department of federal and state 
 law had been called out did the Invisible Empire cease to 
 operate. 
 
 TENNESSEE ACTS AGAINST IT 
 
 By 1872 the white-robed knights of midnight, whose 
 purpose to enforce law had in itself yielded to lawlessness, 
 were for the most part disappeared. But so, in one state 
 after another, had the northern carpetbagger and the 
 southern scalawag. 
 
 Tennessee, where the Klan was founded, was the first 
 to take legislative action against it. In September, 1868, 
 its legislature passed a statute making membership in the 
 Klan punishable by a fine of $500 and imprisonment for 
 not less than five years. 
 
 As a result, in February, 1869, Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, 
 former cavalry officer of the confederate army, who was 
 grand wizard of the order, officially proclaimed the Ku- 
 Klux Klan and Invisible Empire dissolved and disbanded 
 forever. 
 
 But members of the adventurous law-assuming organ- 
 ization were reluctant to yield their mysterious power. 
 
 The wizard's order went into effect. Klan property was 
 burned. 
 
 NEW BANDS SPRING UP 
 
 neighborhood groups only, some of them bands of ruffians 
 But immediately in southern states, as far west as Ar- 
 kansas, there sprang up disguised bands, some of them
 
 12 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 who traveled in the night to win personal ends, still others 
 new orders founded in imitation of the Ku-Klux and using 
 similar methods. 
 
 Of the last, the Knights of the White Camellia was the 
 largest. In some private notebooks of the south its mem- 
 bership was said to be even larger than the parent Klan. 
 
 From New Orleans early in 1868, it spread across to 
 Texas and back to the Carolinas. Racial supremacy was 
 its purpose. 
 
 Only white men 18 years or older were invited to the 
 secrets of its initiation, and in their oath they promised 
 not only to be obedient and secret, but to "maintain and 
 defend the social and political superiority of the white race 
 on this continent." 
 
 Initiates were enjoined, notwithstanding, to show fair- 
 ness to the negroes and to concede to them in the fullest 
 measure "those rights which we recognize as theirs." 
 
 "PALE FACES" AND OTHERS 
 
 Other bands of nightriders responded to the names of 
 "Pale Faces," "White Leaguers," the "White Brotherhood" 
 and the "Constitutional Union Guards." 
 
 Surviving members are hazy as to their aims and meth- 
 ods, the character of their membership, their members, and 
 the connection between them. 
 
 Federal recognition that the Invisible Empire, whether 
 it was the original Klan or not, was everywhere a real em- 
 pir came in the spring of 1871, when a senate committee 
 presented majority and minority reports on the result of 
 its investigations of the white man's will to rule against 
 the freedmen's militia in the south. 
 
 The majority report found that the Ku-Klux Klan was a 
 criminal conspiracy of a distinctly political nature against 
 the laws and against the colored citizens. 
 
 The minority found that Ku-Klux disorder and violence 
 was due to misgovernment and an exploitation of the state? 
 below the Mason and Dixon line by radicals.
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 13 
 
 CONGRESS ACTS AGAINST KLAN 
 
 The first Ku-Klux bill was passed in April, 1871, "to en- 
 force the fourteenth amendment." Power of the president 
 to use troops to put down the white-hooded riders was 
 hinted at. 
 
 In the next month the second Ku-Klux bill was passed to 
 enforce "the right of citizens in the United States to vote." 
 
 In 1872 federal troops were sent into the south to back 
 up his anti-Ku-Klux proclamation. By the end of 1872 the 
 "conspiracy" was thought to be overthrown. 
 
 At various times individuals in the south and elsewhere 
 have tried to put breath into the Klan's dead body. 
 
 It was left for "Grand Wizard" Simmons of Atlanta to 
 accomplish it. His new organization, he explains, is im- 
 bued with the Ku-Klux "spirit." 
 
 "That this spirit may live always to warm the hearts of 
 many men," he says, "is the paramount ideal of the Knights 
 of the Ku-Klux Klan." 
 
 President Grant answered : "Thou shalt not" to the Ku- 
 Klux Klan in 1871. He backed up his word with armed 
 troops. 
 
 During the whole of one session of congress senators and 
 representatives serving in Washington in the years just 
 after the civil war occupied themselves in stripping the 
 masques off the southern night-riders. 
 
 Into the country south of the Mason and Dixon line they 
 dispatched congressional investigators, whose duty it was 
 to enter the "portals of the invisible empire" and discover 
 what was hiding behind them. When they reported that 
 the Ku-Klux Klan, decked out in the uniform of ghosts, 
 was waging midnight warfare on the negro and carpet- 
 bagger congress passed legislation which suppressed the 
 order. 
 
 PUTS ROBES OUT OF FASHION 
 
 the committee recorded the results of their investigation 
 Action was quick. Almost before the government print- 
 ing presses had finished turning out ten volumes in which
 
 14 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 the white robes and hoods of the Ku-Kluxes had gone out 
 of fashion in the old south. 
 
 President Grant in 1871 was without precedent. His 
 law enforcers, just getting acquainted with the amendment 
 which freed the slaves, were without a statute to deal with 
 the armed clique which proposed to keep the negro down 
 in the day by frightening him in the night. The emergency 
 bill which congress passed at that period empowers the 
 regular army or the navy to put down any unlawful com- 
 bination which is doing domestic violence. 
 
 When congress met for its forty-second session in 1871, 
 the cross bones and skull and coffin with which the Ku-Klux 
 were marking their threats had become the symbols of 
 terrorism in the south. So grave was the situation that 
 speakers on the floor of the house, when the session opened, 
 classed the conspiracy of the Klan "less formidable, but not 
 less dangerous to American liberty" than the just-ended 
 war of the rebellion. They charged that as well as binding 
 its members to execute crimes against its opponents in the 
 social-political life of the south, it protected them against 
 conviction and punishment by perjury on the witness stand 
 and in the jury box. Representatives asked why, of all 
 offenders, not one had been convicted. 
 
 PRESIDENT URGES ACTION 
 
 On March 23, 1871, President Grant sent a message to 
 both houses in which he recommended that all other busi- 
 ness be postponed until the Klan was made subservient to 
 the flag. 
 
 "A condition of affairs now exists in some of the states 
 of the Union rendering life and property insecure and the 
 carrying of the mails and the collection of revenue danger- 
 ous," his message said. "The proof that such a condition 
 of affairs exists in some localities is now before the senate. 
 That the power to correct these evils is beyond the control 
 of the senate authorities I do not doubt ; that the power of 
 the executive of the United States, acting within the limits
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 15 
 
 of existing laws is sufficient for present emergencies, is not 
 clear. Therefore, I urgently recommend such legislation 
 as in the judgment of congress shall effectually secure, life, 
 liberty and property and the enforcement of law in all 
 parts of the United States. It may be expedient to provide 
 that such law as shall be passed in pursuance of this recom- 
 mendation shall expire at the end of the next session of 
 congress. There is no other subject on which I would rec- 
 ommend legislation during the present session." 
 
 "FORCE BILL AT DISPOSAL" 
 
 The law which was at the disposal of President Hard- 
 ing was popularly known as "the Force bill." Under con- 
 gressional passage it was entitled "An act to enforce the 
 Fourteenth amendment of the constitution of the United 
 States and for other purposes." President Grant approved 
 it April 20, 1871. 
 
 It is aimed at two or more persons who conspire to use 
 force and intimidation "outside the law." It forbids them 
 to go in disguise along a public highway or upon the prem- 
 ises of another person for the purpose, either directly or 
 indirectly, of depriving that person of equal privileges 
 under the law. Punishment for the offense may be impris- 
 onment from six months to six years, a fine not less than 
 $500, nor more than $5,000, or both. 
 
 The act took particular action against the practice of the 
 Klanists of protecting each other in court. It provides 
 that every man called for service on a jury in a Klan case 
 shall take oath in open court that he is not a member of 
 nor has ever aided or advised any such "unlawful, com- 
 bination or conspiracy." 
 
 DISGUISE IS BARRED 
 
 That individual was declared a violator of the law who 
 shall "go in disguise upon the public highway or upon the
 
 16 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 premises of another for the purpose, either directly or in- 
 directly, of depriving any person or class of persons of the 
 equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or im- 
 munities under the laws, or by force, intimidation or threat 
 to prevent any citizen lawfully entitled to vote from giving 
 his support or advocacy in a lawful manner toward the 
 election of any lawfully qualified person for office." 
 
 The act states further: "That in all cases where insur- 
 rection, domestic violence, unlawful combinations or con- 
 spiracies in any state shall so obstruct or hinder the execu- 
 tion of the laws thereof, and of the United States, as to 
 deprive any portion or class of the people of any rights, 
 privileges or immunities or protection, and the constituted 
 authorities of such state shall either be unable to protect, 
 or shall fail in or refuse protection, it shall be unlawful for 
 the president, and it shall be his duty, to take such meas- 
 ures by the employment of the militia or the land and naval 
 forces of the United States for the suppression of such in- 
 surrection." 
 
 "KU-KLUX" PILLS RECORDS 
 
 Pages of the Congressional Globe, as the present Con- 
 gressional Record was then called, were filled during the 
 months before the passage of this act with the word "Ku- 
 Klux." 
 
 The verb "Kukluxed" became in the mouths of senators 
 and representatives arguing over the bill a synonym for 
 "intimidated." Friends of the nightriders termed them 
 "modern knights of the Round Table," and "conservators 
 of law and order." Opponents on the floor of the house 
 advocated a policy of "amnesty for every rebel, hanging 
 for every Ku-Klux." 
 
 Black and white victims of the gun-toting ghosts were 
 brought from Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and 
 other states where the Klan rode to recount before the con- 
 gressional committee the details of their persecutions. 
 Their accounts as the government documents preserve
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 17 
 
 them might well have been a primer, it has been said, for 
 the acts of later Lenines and Trotzkys. 
 
 REPORT OF OFFENSES VARIES 
 
 The report of the congressional committee is a recital 
 varying from mirth to murder. In one county the victim 
 of the hooded Klan might be an itinerant minister who had 
 offended by teaching a negro mammy to pray. Next door 
 a Ku-Klux sign, with a coffin painted in blood, might be 
 hung over the dead body of a "bad" negro whose freedom 
 had made him officious. 
 
 One negro was whipped for stealing a beef. Another 
 was tarred and feathered because his daughter ran away 
 from the white man who had employed her. 
 
 Colored cooks were beaten for talking saucily to their 
 southern mistresses. Northern white women were threat- 
 ened for hiring colored cooks. 
 
 IGNORES NOTE, DIES 
 
 When a negro ignored a note carrying the Ku-Klux skull 
 and cross bones and voted "republican" instead of "con- 
 servative," his body, ornamented with skull and bones in 
 blood, might be found the next morning in the middle of 
 the road lifeless. 
 
 The congressional minutes report a bold, public display 
 of the Klan's official orders. They might appear in a whisk 
 of the wind on the post office window. They might be 
 pinned on a tree or pole or building. On one occasion, 
 when a member of the Klan was on trial in a county court, 
 a band of white masquers, riding through the courtyard on 
 horse, dropped a note addressed to the court, grand jury 
 and sheriff. 
 
 "Go slow," it commanded. At the bottom was a drawing 
 of a coffin and on each side a rope. The signature was "K. 
 K. K."
 
 18 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 Ku-Klux rule in the south half a century ago was an at- 
 tempt to govern by masque. 
 
 Secret covenants arrived at by a sheeted brotherhood, 
 veiled signs, orders written in blood and posted at mid- 
 night on the victim's door by such means did the Klan 
 substitute the masque for the ballot. 
 
 Congressional investigating committees who stripped the 
 night-riding organization of secrecy during the adminis- 
 tration of President Grant, were entertained during a ses- 
 sion of congress by tales of lares and lemures howling at 
 night in fields or on crossroads, bad luck omens for the 
 negroes. 
 
 UNDER MARTIAL LAW 
 
 In organization the Klan was military, and its town, 
 county and state rule, as recorded in the Congressional 
 Globe, operated as under martial law. 
 
 As the revolt of the white southerner to colored and 
 northern domination reared itself into giant-size, towns 
 under Klan domination came to take their rule and law 
 from the K. K. K. note, flapping in the wind on a tree or 
 fencepost, with the coffin on its signature, urging that it 
 be obeyed. 
 
 WARN CARPET BAGGERS 
 
 In South Carolina, according to the report of the federal 
 committee, townsfolk journeyed to the postoffice, not to get 
 their mail, but to read the daily Ku-Klux bulletin. One 
 such, reprinted in the ten-volume report of the committee 
 which examined southern outrages, was a warning against 
 further "carpet bagger" administration. It is as follows: 
 
 Headquarters, Ninth Division, S. C. 
 Special Orders, No. 3, K. K. K. 
 
 Ignorance is the curse of God. 
 
 For that reason we are determined that members of the
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 19 
 
 legislature, the school committee and the county commis- 
 sioners of Union county shall no longer officiate. 
 
 Fifteen days' notice from this date is given, and if they, 
 and all, do not at once and forever resign their present in- 
 human, disgraceful and outrageous rule, then retributive 
 justice will as surely be used as night follows day. 
 
 By order of the Grand Chief, 
 
 A. 0., Grand Secretary. 
 
 THREATEN NEGROES FOR FIRES 
 
 Another "special order," this one warning that the col- 
 ored race in general would be punished for all malicious 
 fires in particular, was made public in the Charleston 
 News, Jan. 31, 1871. 
 
 Headquarters, K. K. K. 
 January 22, 1871. 
 
 Resolved: That in all cases of incendiarism, ten of the 
 leading colored people and two white sympathizers shall 
 be executed. 
 
 That if any armed bands of colored people are found 
 hereafter picketing the roads, the officers of the company 
 to which the pickets belong shall be executed. 
 
 Southern speakers on the floor of the house in the de- 
 bates which preceded the passage of the "act to enforce the 
 fourteenth amendment," traced the origin of the Ku-Klux 
 to the Union league, an association in the south composed 
 chiefly of northerners. Charges were also made by states- 
 men once in the confederate army that "Tammany Hall" in 
 New York furnished arms to the Klanists, in order that 
 they might murder southern republicans. 
 
 SUPPRESSED IN 1871 
 
 When the act suppressing the Klan was approved by 
 President Grant on April 20, 1871, it was estimated that 
 the night riders were operating in eleven states of the 
 south. Six months later, in October, President Grant is-
 
 20 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 sued a proclamation calling on members of illegal associa- 
 tions in nine counties in South Carolina to disperse and 
 surrender their arms and disguises in five days. 
 
 Five days afterwards, another proclamation was issued 
 suspending the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus in 
 the counties named. More than 200 persons were arrested 
 within a few days. It is believed that the Ku-Klux Klan 
 was practically overthrown by the middle of the following 
 January.
 
 CHAPTER H 
 THE NEW KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 Must Every Citizen be a Slave of Fear Spread by 
 Masked Night-Riders, or Will He Live under the 
 Protection of the Constitution of the United 
 States? 
 
 Are you a citizen of the United States? If you are it is 
 to your interest to inform yourself about the Ku-Klux 
 Klan. As a citizen you are under the protection of the 
 constitution of the United States. The Ku Klux Klan has 
 set itself above the constitution. It has made laws of its 
 own. Its members have inaugurated a reign of lawless- 
 ness that may drag you out of your bed at midnight and 
 submit you to a coat of tar and feathers through the whims 
 of some neighbor who does not like the country in which 
 you were born, or who objects to your religion, your color, 
 your opinions, your personal habits or anything else about 
 you that does not suit his fancy. 
 
 The constitution guarantees that your house, your per- 
 son and your papers and effects are free from unlawful 
 search and seizure; that you cannot be deprived of life, 
 liberty or property without due process of law, which law 
 must be publicly enforced in God's sunshine by persons 
 legally chosen ; that when you are accused of any delin- 
 quency or crime you shall have a speedy, public trial be- 
 fore a judge and an impartial jury; that you may be a 
 member of any religious denomination or sect with whom 
 you may worship as you please ; that you have the right of 
 free speech; that you cannot be held in involuntary servi- 
 tude except as a punishment for crime, for which you have 
 been found guilty in a legal way ; that you cannot be denied 
 the right to vote on account of your color. 
 
 21
 
 22 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 MASKED MEN DEFY CONSTITUTION 
 
 Masked riders of the night disagree with these guar- 
 antees of freedom. They break into your house under 
 cover of darkness unlawfully seize your person and ride 
 away with you, depriving you of liberty without due proc- 
 ess of law. They accuse you of charges that may or may 
 not be true, without giving you the opportunity of knowing 
 the identity of your accusers, because they are masked. 
 They try you without giving you a chance to defend your- 
 self. They make themselves accuser, judge, jury and ex- 
 ecutioner. They deny that you have the right to worship 
 God as you please. They deny your right to free speech, 
 because they forbid you to criticise what they do. 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan clamps involuntary servitude on its 
 own members by making them take oaths to uphold their 
 leaders, even when they violate the constitution. It aims 
 to place those whom it opposes under its heel. It openly 
 defies the article of the constitution that guarantees race 
 equality, by binding its members to put the black race 
 under the supremacy of the white. 
 
 The American constitution says that if you were born 
 abroad, but have become a naturalized citizen of the United 
 States, you have as many rights here as though you were 
 actually born here. The Ku Klux Klan is against the con- 
 stitution on that point. The Ku Klux Klan wants to make 
 the foreigner a serf. 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan has set itself up as a regulator of 
 morals. Persons against whom there has been neighbor- 
 hood gossip have been tarred and feathered. Thanks to 
 the New York World, court records have been published 
 showing that some of the highest persons in the Ku Klux 
 have been involved in proceedings as disgraceful as those 
 for which tar and feather parties have been organized by 
 the Klan or persons masquerading as Ku Klux. 
 
 MISTREAT WHITES AND BLACKS 
 
 Men and women, white and black have been mistreated 
 by masked men. The number of these attacks grows as the
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 23 
 
 Klan increases in size. At present the Klan has branches 
 in all states of the union except three New Hampshire, 
 Montana and Utah. In each state the law would be en- 
 forced by legal officials against any persons guilty of crime 
 if public spirited citizens would make it their business to 
 assist public officials to round up law breakers. The Klan, 
 however, believes in its own method of punishment against 
 those whom it opposes. It protects its own members and 
 there is no case on record where a Klansman has been out- 
 raged. The Klan has one law for itself and another for its 
 victims. The revelations of scandal among its leaders have 
 not resulted in any movement on the part of its members 
 to "clean house." Its motto seems to be "A Klansman can 
 do no wrong." The lesson to be drawn from the revela- 
 tions is that those in high places in the Klan have played 
 on the gullibility of tens of thousands of otherwise sen- 
 sible Americans. These leaders have become rich by deal- 
 ing in the hocuspocus of mysticism, secret rites and high 
 sounding phrases and by inflaming the passions of dupes 
 by false stories involving religions and races. 
 
 In the south they have preached and conspired against 
 the negroes. This hatred also has been carried into certain 
 sections of large cities of the north where there are large 
 negro populations. In some states they have played upon 
 the feelings of those who might be drawn into the Klan 
 by a crusade against Catholics. They have made use of 
 counterfeit documents in secret bids for membership on 
 this score. In cities like New York and Chicago, where 
 the populations are largely Jewish, they have fanned the 
 flames of religious hatred by propaganda against the Jews. 
 Where foreign-born residents are living in large numbers 
 the Klan has secretly intrigued against them. On the Pa- 
 cific coast this propaganda is made against the Japanese; 
 on the eastern seaboard it has been against persons born in 
 European and Asiatic countries.
 
 24 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 A GOLD MINE FOR PROMOTERS 
 
 Those who have investigated the Klan are convinced that 
 its principal promoters are not inspired by a zeal for the 
 welfare of the United States, but on the other hand they 
 are certain that the promoters are in the Ku Klux Klan 
 business to make money out of it; that they have profited 
 by millions of dollars and that for this filthy money they 
 have spread loose seeds of discontent and disorder that 
 must be raked out of the body politic by the united action 
 of all patriotic organizations and individuals. As far as 
 its chief protagonists are concerned the Ku Klux is a huge 
 money-making hoax a gold mine. The poor dupes who 
 have been "soaked" for regalia and dues will wake up some 
 time and discover how they have been deluded and misled. 
 In the meantime, however, it is the duty of every true 
 American to inform himself about the Klan so that in 
 whatever way may come to his lot he may counteract the 
 terrible consequences of its teachings and practices.
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 
 HOW THE MODERN KU KLUX KLAN WAS OR- 
 GANIZED 
 
 Something about those who sit in judgment on the 
 affairs of the ''Invisible Empire"; their troubles 
 in court. 
 
 William J. Simmons (who carries a bogus title as 
 "colonel") is the "Imperial Wizard" of the "Invisible Em- 
 pire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." He organized the 
 masked men on Thanksgiving night in 1915. Some of the 
 organizers associated with him had belonged to the orig- 
 inal Ku Klux Klan which rampaged in the southern states 
 after the Civil War, killing hundreds of negroes and whites, 
 and which was put out of business by President U. S. Grant 
 after the states had failed to do so. 
 
 Simmons and thirty-four others secured a charter from 
 the state of Georgia on December 4, 1915. It is signed by 
 Philip Cook, who was then secretary of state of that com- 
 monwealth. Later, on July 1, 1916, a special charter was 
 issued by the Supreme court of Fulton county, Ga. The 
 granting of the charters followed the organization of the 
 Klan which occurred with midnight ceremonies on the top 
 of Stone mountain, near Atlanta, Thanksgiving night. 
 
 THAT COLD WINTER NIGHT 
 
 In referring to the first ceremonies, Simmons has writ- 
 ten as follows in the official records of the Ku Klux: 
 
 "On Thanksgiving night, 1915, men were seen emerging 
 from the shadows and gathering round the spring at the 
 base of Stone mountain, the world's greatest rock, near 
 
 25
 
 26 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., and from thence repaired to the mountain 
 top, and there under a blazing fiery cross they took the oath 
 of allegiance to the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku 
 Klux Klan. 
 
 "And thus on the mountain top that night at the mid- 
 night hour, while men braved the surging blasts of wild 
 wintry mountain winds and endured a temperature far be- 
 low freezing, bathed in the sacred glow of the fiery cross, 
 the Invisible Empire was called from its slumber of half 
 a century to take up a new task and fulfill a new mission 
 for humanity's good, and to call back to mortal habitation 
 the good angel of practical fraternity among men." 
 
 It will be noticed that Simmons refers to "a temperature 
 far below freezing." The official weather reports of the 
 region for that night show that the temperature was thirty 
 degrees above the freezing point. 
 
 Simmons had a fraternal order in mind when he organ- 
 ized the Ku Klux. He had been an itinerant Methodist 
 preacher and organizer for the Modern Woodmen of the 
 World and had not met with success in either capacity. He 
 was a good talker but lacked the "punch" to put things 
 over. The Ku Klux Klan did not prosper under his direc- 
 tion. Then he met Edward Y. Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Tyler. Clarke and Mrs. Tyler were the owners of the 
 Southern Publicity Association of Atlanta. During the 
 war they had been publicity agents for various "drives," 
 managed for the Y. M. C. A., such Y. W. C. A., the Salva- 
 tion Army and such enterprises. Clarke saw the value of 
 the publicity that could be coined from the old name of 
 the Ku Klux Klan and entered into an arrangement with 
 Simmons to promote the Klan. He agreed to give Simmons 
 $100 a week if Simmons would follow his directions. Sim- 
 mons was to brush up on delivering speeches and writing 
 articles for The Searchlight, a magazine which Clarke 
 founded as the official organ of the Ku Klux. 
 
 From this joining of forces Simmons, Clarke and Mrs. 
 Tyler have become rich. The Klan has extended its mem- 
 bership to all except three states and it claims that 500,000 
 to 700,000 Klansmen are in its ranks. Clarke is the "Im-
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 27 
 
 perial Kleagle," or boss salesman of memberships. Mrs. 
 Tyler is Grand Chief of Staff in charge of the woman's 
 division of the Klan. 
 
 WHAT POLICE RECORDS SHOW 
 
 Investigation of the police and court records of Atlanta 
 disclosed that Clarke and Mrs. Tyler were arrested in their 
 night clothes in a house that Mrs. Tyler owned at No. 185 
 South Pryor street, Atlanta. This occurred in October, 
 1919. Clarke gave the name of "Jim Slaton" and Mrs. 
 Tyler gave the name of "Mrs. Elizabeth Carroll." 
 
 The cases were on the book of the Recorder's court as 
 City of Atlanta versus E. Y. Clarke and City of Atlanta 
 versus Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, page 305 of the docket of 1919, 
 case numbers 17,005 and 17,006. The police were put on 
 the trail of Clarke and Mrs. Tyler by Clarke's wife. 
 
 In addition to the charge of disorderly conduct, a charge 
 of possessing whisky illegally was placed against Mrs. 
 Tyler and Clarke. This was an amazing charge against 
 Clarke because he had been known as one of the leaders of 
 the anti-saloon movement in Georgia. The whisky charge 
 was dropped when J. Q. Jett, son-in-law of Mrs. Tyler, 
 claimed ownership of the whisky and was fined $25. 
 
 The Klan is supposed to stand for respect of women and 
 children. The records of the Atlanta courts still contain 
 charges against Clarke that he deserted and abandoned 
 his wife and child. He never has denied the charges. Mrs. 
 Clarke went to work to support herself and her little son. 
 A suit for divorce was filed in October, 1919, by Mrs. 
 Clarke, who charged that her husband had deserted her 
 three years previously. After his arrest with Mrs. Tyler 
 Clarke agreed to pay his wife $75 a month. Since Clarke 
 has become prosperous in the Ku Klux Klan he has bought 
 his wife a $10,000 house.
 
 28 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 RECORDS ARE STOLEN 
 
 When newspaper men began to investigate Mrs. Tyler 
 and Clarke, they discovered that the official records of the 
 Atlanta police department and the Recorder's office had 
 been mutilated. Somebody had stolen the pages from the 
 books containing the records of the cases. Members of 
 the Ku Klux Klan are numbered among the police and offi- 
 cial attaches of the city and newspaper comment indicates 
 that they helped smother the case in behalf of their leaders. 
 
 SCANDAL OP "CHAPLAIN" RIDLEY 
 
 Another leader of the Ku Klux Klan is "Rev." Caleb A. 
 Ridley, who is the "Imperial Chaplain" of the order. He 
 is a right-hand assistant of Mrs. Tyler and helps her to 
 edit The Searchlight. 
 
 Ridley also has had an experience in the recorder's court. 
 He was arrested on complaint of the husband of Mrs. J. B. 
 Hamilton, who lives on Cooper street, Atlanta, not a great 
 distance from the Central Baptist church, where Ridley 
 preaches. Recorder Johnson dismissed the case against 
 Ridley. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton testified that Ridley used to walk past her 
 house when she sat on the porch and smile up at her. One 
 day, without being invited and with no encouragement 
 from her, he walked up on the porch and sat next to her 
 on a swing. She said he chatted with her about church 
 questions, although she was not a member of his church. 
 Then he placed his arm around her, tried to embrace her 
 and said something that she thought was not proper. 
 
 One witness testified that he had seen Ridley go on the 
 porch and sit on the swing. He had seen Mrs. Hamilton 
 push Ridley away from her. 
 
 Ridley was supported by his flock. Several women tes- 
 tified in behalf of his character. He said he visited Mrs. 
 Hamilton because she looked lonely.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 HOW THE KU KLUX KLAN GETS MEMBERS 
 
 First Approached by Mysterious Notes, the Can- 
 didate is Soaked for a "Donation" and Money for 
 His Robes. 
 
 The man who is invited to join the Ku Klux Klan is 
 kidded into the belief that he is one of the chosen of God's 
 beings and that he is being honored because his presence 
 in the ranks is an honor to himself as well as to the Klan. 
 A kleagle is a common salesman. He has charge of a small 
 district. He works under a king kleagle, who has charge 
 of a state. He is the state salesmanager. A cyclops is in 
 charge of the king kleagles and the kleagles in several 
 states. 
 
 Here is the way one group of kleagles work. They are 
 given the name of a person who is eligible. One kleagle is 
 assigned to catch him. The kleagle sends the sucker the 
 following message : 
 
 "Sir (or Brother) -Six thousand men who are preparing 
 for eventualities have their eyes on you. You are being 
 weighed in the balance ! 
 
 "The Call is coming! Are you able and qualified to 
 respond? 
 
 "Discuss this matter with no one." 
 
 "Yu-Bu-Tu" 
 
 A few days later this card is sent: 
 
 "Sir You have heard from us because we believe in 
 you. We are for you and Need you ! 
 
 "The impenetrable Veil of Mystery is drawing aside. 
 Soon you will appear exactly as you are. 
 
 "Are you a Real Man? 
 
 29
 
 30 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 "Lift your eyes to the Fiery Cross and falter not, but go 
 forward to the Light. 
 
 "Discuss this matter with no one. 
 
 "Yu-Bu-Tu" 
 
 After another short wait this third message is sent : 
 
 "Sir: 
 
 "You have been weighed in the balance and found Not 
 wanting ! 
 
 "Strong Men Brave Men R-e-a-1 Men. We need such 
 Men. We know you are one. 
 
 "The Goblins of the Invisible Empire will shortly issue 
 their Call. Be discreet, preserve silence and bide its 
 coming. 
 
 "Discuss this matter with no one. 
 
 "Yu-Bu-Tu" 
 
 By this time the candidate is supposed to be in a mood 
 to fall, and the kleagle calls on him personally. 
 
 QUESTIONS FOB THE CANDIDATE 
 
 The kleagle presents the prospective initiate with the 
 following list of questions to be answered : 
 
 (Note the questions marked with stars. They are used 
 to bar out Jews, Catholics, negroes and foreign born.) 
 
 1. Is the motive prompting your inquiry serious? 
 
 2. What is you age? 
 
 3. What is your occupation? 
 
 4. Where where you born? 
 
 5. How long have you resided in your present locality? 
 
 6. Are you married, single or widower? 
 
 * 7. Were your parents born in the United States of 
 
 America ? 
 
 * 8. Are you a gentile or Jew? 
 
 * 9. Are you of the white race or of a colored race? 
 
 10. What educational advantages have you? 
 
 11. Color of eyes? Hair? Weight? Height? 
 
 *12. Do you believe in the principles of Pure Amer- 
 icanism?
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 31 
 
 *13. Do you believe in white supremacy? 
 14. What is your politics? 
 *15. What is your religious faith? 
 *16. Of what church are you a member (if any) ? 
 *17. Of what religious faith are your parents? 
 
 18. What secret, fraternal orders are you a member of 
 (if any) ? 
 
 19. Do you honestly believe in the practice of Real 
 fraternity? 
 
 *20. Do you owe any kind of allegiance to any foreign na- 
 tion, government, institution, sect, people, ruler or 
 person ? 
 
 I most solemnly assert and affirm that each question 
 above is truthfully answered by me and- in my own hand- 
 writing and that below is my real signature. 
 
 Signed 
 
 Inquirer. 
 
 Business Address , 
 
 Telephone No , 
 
 Date 19 
 
 Residence Address . 
 
 Telephone No. 
 
 N. B. If space above is not sufficient to answer ques- 
 tions, then make your answer on the other side of this 
 sheet. Number the answer to correspond with the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 If the candidate answers the question satisfactorily, he 
 must pay his initiation fees, called "donation" and provide 
 money to pay for his mask, robe, etc. This will be ex- 
 plained later. With his money affairs settled, he is ready 
 for the initiation, together with whatever other candidates 
 there are in the vicinity. The initiation services are held 
 at midnight, with a flaming cross, an American flag, a 
 sword or dagger, and a Bible as the chief outward signs 
 of the order. There is also a bottle of water on the "altar."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 OATH OF KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 Those who join the order must pledge blind al- 
 legiance to Constitution. They do not see. 
 
 Blind and unconditional obedience to the "constitution, 
 laws, regulations usages and requirements" of the Ku Klux 
 Klan, even to the extent of indorsing the principle of secret 
 mob violence, is accepted by every person who takes the 
 oath of Grand Wizard Simmons' Invisible Empire. 
 
 That every Klansman, under penalty of death, also 
 agres to carry out the mandates, degrees, edicts, rulings 
 and "instructions" of Emperor Simmons also is shown in 
 a reproduction of the oath as supplied by Klan organizers 
 and officials. 
 
 The first section of this oath that carries veiled hints of 
 violence to back it binds the members to unconditional 
 obedience to a constitution he has never seen. Not only 
 that but it binds him to obey any laws that may be enacted 
 in the future, whether or not he approves of them. When 
 he takes this obligation he gives a lease on his life to 
 Simmons. 
 
 SWEARS TO ABSOLUTE SECRECY 
 
 Absolute secrecy even in the face of death is his second 
 obligation and he promises that he "will pay promptly all 
 just and legal demands made upon me to defray the ex- 
 penses of my Klan when same are due or called for." 
 
 Then, with his left hand over his heart and his right 
 hand raised to heaven and with the promise that "this oath 
 I will seal with my blood," the candidate takes oath that he 
 
 32
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 33 
 
 "will most zealously and valiantly shield and preserve by 
 any and all JUSTIFIABLE means and methods (not legal 
 means and methods) the sacred constitutional rights and 
 privileges of free public schools, free speech, free press, 
 separation of church and state, liberty, white supremacy, 
 just laws and the pursuit of happiness, against any en- 
 croachment of any nature by any person or persons, polit- 
 ical party or parties, religious sect or people, native, nat- 
 uralized or foreign, of any race, color, creed, lineage or 
 tongue whatsoever." 
 
 MYSTERY IN AUTHORITY 
 
 Who defines the permissible limits of zeal and valor is 
 not stated. Neither is it stated who decides when schools 
 are free, speech and press free, nor when church and state 
 are sufficiently separated. It is not stated whether it is 
 the individual Klansman, the local Klan, the supreme coun- 
 cil or the Imperial Wizard. 
 
 It has been revealed, however, that this phase of the 
 Klan movement has been much fathered by the sales crew 
 selling subscriptions at $10 each under the direction of 
 Wizard Simmons and Imperial Kleagle Clarke. 
 
 The exact text of the oath of allegiance administered to 
 new members of the Ku Klux Klan is given herewith. The 
 asterisks are printed to take place of the Ku Klux Klan and 
 also the officers of the order. These places are left blank 
 in the printed oath because it is carried by Klan officials 
 and might be lost, revealing their secret. 
 
 The oath: 
 
 You will place your left hand over your heart and raise 
 your right hand to heaven. 
 
 SEC. I. OBEDIENCE 
 
 (You will say) "I" (Pronounce your full name 
 
 and repeat after me) "In the presence of God and Man 
 most solemnly pledge, promise and swear u-
 
 34 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 conditionally that I will faithfully obey the con- 
 stitution and laws and will willingly conform to 
 
 all regulations, usages and requirements of the 
 
 * * * * which do now exist or which may be 
 
 hereafter enacted and will render at all times 
 
 loyal respect and steadfast support to the Imperial 
 
 Authority of same and will heartily heed all offi- 
 cial mandates decrees edicts rulings and 
 
 instructions of the I* W* thereof. I will yield 
 
 prompt response to all summonses I having 
 
 knowledge of same Providence alone preventing. 
 
 SEC. n. SECRECY 
 
 "I most solemnly swear that I will forever 
 
 keep sacredly secret the signs, words and grip 
 
 and any and all other matters and knowledge of 
 
 the * * * * regarding which a most rigid se- 
 crecy must be maintained which may at any time 
 
 be communicated to me and will never divulge 
 
 same nor even cause the same to be divulged to 
 
 any person in the whole world unless I know positive- 
 ly that such person is a member of this Order 
 
 in good and regular standing and not even then 
 
 unless it be for the best interest of this Order. 
 
 "I most sacredly vow and most positively swear 
 
 that I will not yield to bribe flattery threats 
 
 passion punishment persecution per- 
 
 suasion nor any enticements whatever coming 
 
 from or offered by any person or persons male 
 
 or female for the purpose of obtaining from me 
 
 a secret or secret information of the * * * * 
 
 I will die rather than divulge same so help me 
 
 God AMEN !" 
 
 You will drop your hands. 
 
 GENTLEMEN (or SIR) : 
 
 You will wait in patience and peace until you are in-
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 35 
 
 formed of the decision of the E* C* and his * in klonklave 
 assembled 
 
 You will place your left hand over your heart and raise 
 your right hand to heaven. 
 
 SEC. m. FIDELITY 
 
 (You will say) "I" (pronounce your full name 
 
 and repeat after me) "Before God and in the presence 
 
 of these mysterious *smen on my sacred honor 
 
 do most solemnly and sincerely pledge promise 
 
 and swear that I will diligently guard and faithfully 
 
 foster every interest of the * * * * and will 
 
 maintain its social cast and dignity. 
 
 "I swear that I will not recommend any person for 
 
 membership in this Order whose mind is unsound 
 
 or whose reputation I know to be bad or whose 
 
 character is doubtful or whose loyalty to our country 
 
 is in any way questionable. 
 
 "I swear that I will pay promptly all just and legal 
 
 demands made upon me to defray the expenses 
 
 of my * and this Order when same are due or called 
 
 for 
 
 "I swear that I will protect the property of the 
 
 * * * * of any nature whatsoever and if any 
 
 should be intrusted to my keeping I will properly keep 
 
 or rightly use same and will freely and promptly 
 
 surrender same on official demand or if ever I 
 
 am banished from or voluntarily discontinue my 
 
 membership in this Order. 
 
 "I swear that I will most determinedly maintain 
 
 peace and harmony in all the deliberations of the 
 
 gatherings or assemblies of the I* E* and of any 
 
 subordinate jurisdiction or * thereof. 
 
 "I swear that I will most strenuously discourage 
 
 selfishness and selfish political ambition on the 
 
 part of myself or any *sman.
 
 36 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 "I swear that I will never allow personal friendship 
 
 blood or family relationship nor personal 
 
 political or professional prejudice malice nor ill- 
 will to influence me in casting my vote for the 
 
 election or rejection of an applicant for member- 
 ship in this Order God being my helper 
 
 AMEN I" 
 
 You will drop your hands. 
 
 You will place your left hand over your heart and raise 
 your right hand to heaven. 
 
 SEC. IV. *ISHNESS 
 
 (You will say) "I" (Pronounce your full name 
 
 and repeat after me) "Most solemnly pledge, promise 
 
 and swear that I will never slander defraud 
 
 receive or in any manner wrong the * * * * 
 
 a *sman nor a *sman's family nor will I 
 
 suffer the same to be done if I can prevent it. 
 
 "I swear that I will be faithful in defending and 
 
 protecting the home reputation and phys- 
 ical and business interest of a *sman and that 
 
 of a *sman's family. 
 
 "I swear that I will at any time without hesitating 
 
 go to the assistance or rescue of a *sman in any 
 
 way at his call I will answer I will be truly *ish 
 
 toward *smen in all things honorable. 
 
 "I swear that I will not allow any animosity 
 
 friction nor ill-will to arise and remain between 
 
 myself and a *sman but will be constant in my efforts 
 
 to promote real *ishness among the members of 
 
 this Order. 
 
 "I swear that I will keep secure to myself a secret 
 
 of a *sman when same is committed to me in the 
 
 sacred bond of *smanship the crime of violating THIS 
 
 solemn oath treason against the United States of 
 
 America rape and malicious murder alone 
 
 excepted. 
 
 "I most solemnly assert and affirm that to the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States of America and any
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 87 
 
 State thereof of which I may become a resident 
 
 I sacredly swear an unqualified allegiance above 
 
 any other and every kind of government in the whole 
 
 world I here and now pledge my life my 
 
 property my vote and my sacred honor to 
 
 uphold its flag its Constitution and Constitution- 
 al laws and will protect defend and enforce 
 
 same unto death. 
 
 "I swear that I will most zealously and valiantly 
 
 shield and preserve by any and all justifi- 
 able means and methods the sacred constitutional 
 
 rights and privileges of free public schools 
 
 free speech free press separation of church and 
 
 state liberty white supremacy just laws 
 
 and the pursuit of happiness against any en- 
 croachment of any nature by any person or per- 
 sons political party or parties religious sect or 
 
 people native, naturalized or foreign of any race 
 
 color creed lineage or tongue whatsoever. 
 
 "All to which I have sworn by THIS oath I will seal 
 
 with my blood be Thou my witness Almighty 
 
 God AMEN!" 
 
 You will drop your hands.
 
 OLD PLEDGE OF LOYALTY 
 
 APPELLATION 
 
 This Organization shall be styled and denom- 
 inated, The Order of the (then follows three 
 stars; no other name given). 
 
 CREED 
 
 We, the Order of the * * *, reverentially ac- 
 knowledge the majesty and supremacy of the 
 Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and 
 providence of the same. And we recognize our 
 relation to the United States Government, the 
 supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional 
 Laws thereof, and the Union of States thereunder. 
 
 OBJECTS OF THE ORDER 
 
 This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, 
 Mercy, and Patriotism; embodying in its genius 
 and its principles all that is chivalric in conduct, 
 noble in sentiment, generous in manhood, and pa- 
 triotic in purpose; its peculiar object being, 
 
 First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and 
 the defenseless, from the indignities, wrongs, and 
 outrages, of the lawless, the violent, and the bru- 
 tal; to relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor 
 the suffering and unfortunate, and especially the 
 widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers. 
 
 Second: To protect and defend the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States, and all laws passed in 
 conformity thereto, and to protect the States and 
 the people thereof from all invasion from any 
 source whatever. 
 
 Third : 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. 
 
 Note the vast difference between this and the following page. One, 
 the pledge to all that is right and uplifting the other to a single 
 autocrat. The above was formed for the protection and enforcement 
 of law the Kleagle's pledge, merely a vow to do anything that the 
 Imperial Wizard Simmons might see fit. 
 
 38
 
 MODERN KLEAGLE'S PLEDGE OF LOYALTY 
 
 I, the undersigned, in order to be a regular appointed 
 KlEagle of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku 
 Klux Klan (Incorporated), do freely and voluntarily 
 promise, pledge and fully guarantee a lofty respect, 
 whole-hearted loyalty and an unwavering devotion at 
 all times and under any and all circumstances and con- 
 ditions from this day and date forward to William 
 Joseph Simmons as Imperial Wizard and Emperor of 
 the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 
 (Incorporated) . I shall work in all respects in perfect 
 harmony with him and under his authority and direc- 
 tions, in all his plans for the extension and government 
 of the Society, and under his directions, with any and 
 all of my officially superior officers duly appointed by 
 him. 
 
 I shall at any and all times be faithful and true in 
 all things, and most especially in preventing and sup- 
 pressing any factions, cisms or conspiracies against 
 him or his plans and purposes or the peace and har- 
 mony of the Society which may arise or attempt to 
 arise. I shall discourage and strenuously oppose any 
 degree of disloyalty or disrespect on the part of myself 
 or any klansman, any where and at any time or place, 
 towards him as the founder and as the supreme chief 
 governing head of the Society above named. 
 
 This pledge, promise and guarantee I make is a con- 
 dition precedent to my appointment stated above, and 
 the continuity of my appointment as a KlEagle, and i 
 is fully agreed that any deviation by me from this 
 pledge will instantly automatically cancel and com- 
 pletely void my appointment together with all its pre- 
 rogatives, my membership in the Society, and I shall 
 forfeit all remunerations which may be then due me. 
 
 I make this solemn pledge on my Oath of Allegiance 
 and on my integrity and honor as a man and as a 
 klansman, with serious purpose to keep same inviolate. 
 
 Done in the city of , State of 
 
 on this the 
 
 day of A. D. 19... 
 
 Signed 
 
 Address 
 
 Witness : 
 
 Address 
 
 This is the oath taken by Kleagles in the Ku Klux Klan. It binds 
 the Kleagle to "Imperial Wizard" Simmons personally in an almost 
 slavish fashion. The oath is taken as a pledge of loyalty to Simmons 
 and not to the order. 
 
 89
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 HOW THE DOLLARS ROLL IN 
 
 The Klan Claims to Have 500,000 to 700,000 Mem- 
 bers. Plan to get College Boys. 
 
 The Ku Klux Klan claims to have 500,000 to 700,000 
 members. As a matter of fact it is generally believed that 
 that number is a hot air figure. It offers a basis for some 
 interesting figures on the money that has changed hands, 
 however. 
 
 Every person initiated must pay $10 as an initiation fee. 
 Kleagles who have left the order say that the "initiation" 
 fee is called a "donation" so that the Klan can escape pay- 
 ing income tax to the government, because dues in clubs 
 and societies are taxable. 
 
 Of the $10, the kleagle who enrolls the member gets $4. 
 The king kleagle, or state salesmanager, gets $1. The 
 cyclops, or division manager, gets 50 cents. Clarke, the 
 Imperial Kleagle, gets $3 and the office of Imperial Wizard 
 Simmons gets $1.50. On this basis of 700,000 members, 
 Clarke has collected more than $2,000,000. So far as 
 known no public accounting ever has been made. 
 
 In addition the person initiated pays $6.50 for a mask, 
 or helmet, and a robe. This he must purchase from the 
 Gate City Manufacturing Company of Atlanta, owned by 
 Clarke. Clarke's fortune grows every time a new member 
 is taken in. If the Klansmen rides a horse in ceremonies 
 he must buy a robe for $14 also from Clarke's company. 
 
 WATER AT $10 A QUART 
 
 Another source of revenue to Clarke is the water used 
 in initiations. It comes from the Chattahoochee river 
 (Indian for "muddy water") near Atlanta. It is sent 
 
 40
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 41 
 
 around the country as special Ku Klux Klan liquid without 
 which an initiation cannot be held. It costs $10 a quart, 
 money to be paid to Clarke. 
 
 Simmons and Clarke live in costly houses on Peachtree 
 road, outside of Atlanta. It is explained that their homes 
 were presented to them by the Klan. It also is explained 
 that some of the money of the Klan goes to Lanier univer- 
 sity, near Atlanta, where young students are to be trained 
 to spread the Ku Klux Klan to every village of the country. 
 
 AFTER THE COLLEGE BOYS 
 
 In addition to the general membership, Simmons started 
 a plan to get college boys into the Ku Klux Klan at $1 a 
 head and with a charge of $5 for masks and regalia. The 
 watchword for the college boys was to be "Kuno." Sim- 
 mons, according to kleagles who deserted him, explained 
 that he got the college idea from the German militarism 
 system, which started to train boys for the army when 
 they were in school. Simmons wrote this inspiration to 
 attract college boys : 
 
 "Klannishners is your creed and faith; therefore, let no 
 angel, man or devil break you from its glorious anchorage. 
 Then when the end of your initiation shall have been 
 reached in this life and you have been summoned to take 
 your place as an inhabitant of the Invisible Empire, as you 
 pass through the veil you can say to the world in tones of 
 truth triumphant: "I have kept the Faith!" Thus pre- 
 serving your honor by a faithful allegiance your life shall 
 not have been lived in vain." 
 
 THE BOOK OP "KLORAN" 
 
 The ceremony of initiation is contained in a copyrighted 
 book called the Kloran written by Imperial Wizard Sim- 
 mons. The Bible is opened at the 12th Chapter of Romans. 
 
 These songs are sung :
 
 42 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 We meet in cordial greetings 
 
 In this our sacred cave 
 To pledge anew our compact 
 
 With hearts sincere and brave; 
 A band of faithful Klansmen 
 
 Knights of the K. K. K. 
 We all will stand together 
 
 Forever and for aye. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Home, home, country and home; 
 
 Klansmen, we'll live and die 
 For our country and home. 
 
 Her honor, love and justice 
 
 Must actuate us all, 
 Before our sturdy phalanx 
 
 All hate and strife shall fall. 
 In union we'll labor 
 
 Wherever we may roam, 
 To shield a Klansman's welfare, 
 
 His country, name and home. 
 
 KLEXOLOGY 
 
 ( Tune America ) 
 "God of Eternity, 
 
 Guide, guard our great country, 
 Our homes and store. 
 
 Keep our great state to Thee; 
 Its people right and free 
 
 In us Thy glory be 
 Forevermore."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 KU KLUX KLAN AND THE JEWS 
 
 "Drive them out of the United States" are the 
 words that are used to enlist Jew-haters into the 
 ranks. 
 
 In spite of the fact that ever since the beginning of the 
 American colonies, in the war of the revolution and in other 
 national crises, great Jews have helped to make the United 
 States what it is today, the Ku Klux Klan recruits mis- 
 guided members on the representation that it has found a 
 scheme to drive the Jews out of the country. Anti-Jewish 
 propaganda is used particularly in large cities and in 
 smaller communities where racial and religious flames may 
 be fanned in order to win members and money for the 
 Ku Klux. 
 
 The Searchlight, the official paper of the Klan, teems 
 with anti-Jewish literature. Secret documents and stories 
 are passed around privately among the organizers and used 
 in gaining recruits. 
 
 "Chaplain" Ridley is one of the most rabid of the cam- 
 paigners against the Jews. He never lets an opportunity 
 go by to ridicule Jews and stir up prejudice. 
 
 In the first place, Jews are barred from the Ku Klux 
 Klan. In a questionnaire that must be filled in by those who 
 are initiated these questions are asked : 
 
 "Are you a gentile or a jew? What is your religious 
 faith? Of what church are you a member (if any) ? Of 
 what religious faith are your parents?" 
 
 CHAPLAIN ATTACKS JEWS 
 
 "Chaplain" Ridley in The Searchlight, writes : 
 
 "I cannot help being what I am racially. I am not a Jew, 
 
 43
 
 44 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 nor a negro nor a foreigner. I am an Anglo-Saxon white 
 man, so ordained by the hand and will of God, and so con- 
 stituted and trained that I cannot conscientiously take 
 either my politics or my religion from some secluded ass 
 on the other side of the world. 
 
 "Now, if somebody else happens to be a Jew, I can't help 
 it any more than he can. Or if he happens to be black, I 
 can't help that, either. If he were born under a foreign 
 flag, I couldn't help it but there is one thing I can do. I 
 can object to his un-American propaganda being preached 
 in my home or practiced in the solemn assembly of real 
 Americans." 
 
 The Searchlight constantly mixes Jews and negroes in 
 ridiculous "movements." For instance, one writer in the 
 issue of July 30, 1921, declares that his investigations have 
 demonstrated that Jewish plotters are stirring up the 
 negroes to make a race war so that the government will 
 be destroyed. 
 
 The writer goes on: 
 
 "For the same reason, the Jew is interested in over- 
 throwing Christian Russia. But remember, he does not 
 intend to stop at Russia. Through his Third Internationale 
 of Moscow he is working to overthrow all the Gentile Gov- 
 ernments of the world. I am enclosing an editorial clipped 
 from The New York World of Saturday, July 23. You will 
 keep in mind that The World is Jew-owned, as is every 
 other newspaper in New York City except the Tribune. 
 * * * In all my twenty-five years traveling about over 
 this continent I have never met a disloyal American who 
 failed to be either foreign-born or a Semite. With the best 
 wishes for the success of the Ku Klux Klan." 
 
 HOW TO THROW JEWS OUT 
 
 In the instructions to kleagles, who sell memberships in 
 the Klan, the anti-Jewish feeling in some communities is 
 appealed to in this manner: 
 
 "The Jew patronizes only the Jew unless it is impossible 
 to do so. Therefore, we klansmen, the only real Amer-
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 45 
 
 icans, must, by the same methods, protect ourselves, and 
 practice by actual application the teachings of klannish- 
 ness. With this policy faithfully adhered to, it will not 
 be long before the Jew will be forced out of business by 
 our practice of his own business methods, for when the 
 time comes when klansmen trade only with klansmen then 
 the days of the Jews' success in business will be numbered 
 and the Invisible Empire can drive them from the shores 
 of our own America." 
 
 Another favorite way to create interest in the anti-Jew- 
 ish movement is to represent that Imperial Kleagle Clarke 
 has in hand the organization of a nation-wide Jewish so- 
 ciety to oppose the Sons of Israel. This society is to be 
 created by Jews who are in the pay of Kleagle Clarke and 
 who are really traitors to their own co-religionists. Spies 
 working in the ranks of the Sons of Israel will keep the Ku 
 Klux Klan informed of what the Sons of Israel are doing 
 and finally a clash between the two organizations is to be 
 engineered, to the destruction of both. Of course this is 
 the wildest sort of propaganda, but it demonstrates how 
 the agents play with fire in order to get members. 
 
 "SEARCHLIGHT" AND THE JEWS 
 
 Among the articles in The Searchlight there are those 
 headed, "A Message from Jerusalem Esau the Wanderer 
 must Pay for His Pottage the Mightiest Weapons for the 
 Jews are Pounds and Pence." 
 
 "Doesn't Think Much of the Jews." 
 
 "Jewish Rabbi Gets Rabid." 
 
 A paragraph from "Doesn't Think Much of the Jews," 
 published Feb. 12, 1921, contains this passage: 
 
 "Their religion is to control wealth and thereby control 
 all nations. And you cannot deny but they are doing so 
 under false names. Jews are entering into every Govern- 
 ment, every nation on earth except China and Japan, where 
 their heavenly God received little recognition. They spread 
 their ingenious religion that strangled the ignorant and 
 credulous by causing dissension to their advantage."
 
 CHAPTER 
 KU KLUX KLAN AND THE CATHOLICS 
 
 Misrepresentation of Oath of Knights of Colum- 
 bus is Used to excite Religious Hatred in order to 
 get money. 
 
 Just as the organizers of the Ku Klux Klan misrepresent 
 the Jews in order to get members and money for their 
 order, they go to great lengths to create prejudice against 
 Catholics. In some communities anti-Catholic arguments 
 are thought to be those that will bring the most members 
 into the fold. Fake documents and false statements on 
 printed cards that can be slyly passed from hand to hand 
 are used for this purpose. Anti-Catholic lies that can be 
 hurled at Klansmen at meetings to inspire them to get in 
 more members and increase the incomes of the "imperial 
 wizard," the kleagles and other officers are spread around. 
 
 One of these documents is a card entitled "Do You 
 Know?" A kleagle of the Klan asked the King Kleagle of 
 his state for some literature that he could employ to stir 
 up interest in the Klan. In a short time the kleagle re- 
 ceived the literature from the Gate City Manufacturing 
 Company of Atlanta, Ga., a company promoted by "Im- 
 perial Kleagle" Clarke. The supply of literature contained 
 100 copies of a card bearing the heading "Do You Know?" 
 
 Another document that is sent broadcast to foment re- 
 ligious unrest and hatred is a fake oath ascribed to the 
 Knights of Columbus, which is composed of Catholics and 
 which has published the oath that its members take. Be- 
 fore reading the fake oath, it will be well to examine the 
 real oath. 
 
 46
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 47 
 
 REAL K. OF C. OATH 
 
 The bona fide oath that is taken by men initiated into the 
 Knights of Columbus, and which, it has been proven, is the 
 correct oath follows: 
 
 "I swear to support the Constitution of the United 
 States. I pledge myself, as a Catholic citizen and Knight 
 of Columbus, to enlighten myself fully upon my duties as 
 a citizen and to conscientiously perform such duties entire- 
 ty in the interest of my country and regardless of all per- 
 sonal consequences. I pledge myself to do all in my power 
 to preserve the integrity and purity of the ballot, and to 
 promote reverence and respect for law and order. I prom- 
 ise to practice my religion openly and consistently, but 
 without ostentation, and to so conduct myself in public af- 
 fairs, and in the exercise of public virtue as to reflect noth- 
 ing but credit upon our Holy Church, to the end that she 
 may flourish and our country prosper to the greater honor 
 and glory of God." 
 
 BOGUS E. OF C. OATH 
 
 We can now appreciate the animus behind the bfcgus 
 oath that is ascribed to the Knights of Columbus by the Ku 
 Klux Klan. This fraudulent oath, as used by the recruit- 
 ing organization of kleagles of Ku Klux follows: 
 
 "I, , now in the presence of Almighty 
 
 God, the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed St. John the Bap- 
 tist, the Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and all the 
 saints, sacred host of Heaven, and to you, my Ghostly 
 Father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 
 founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, in the pontification of Paul 
 the III, and continued to the present, do by the womb of 
 the Virgin, the matrix of God, and the rod of Jesus Christ, 
 declare and swear that His Holiness the Pope is Christ's 
 vicegerent and is the true and only head of the Catholic or 
 Universal Church throughout the earth ; and that by virtue 
 of the keys of binding and loosing given His Holiness by
 
 48 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 my Saviour, Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose her- 
 etical Kings, Princes, states, Commonwealths and Govern- 
 ments and they may be safely destroyed. Therefore to the 
 utmost of my power I will defend this doctrine and His 
 Holiness's right and custom against all usurpers of the her- 
 etical or Protestant authority whatever, especially the 
 Lutheran Church of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden 
 and Norway, and the now pretended authority and 
 Churches of England and Scotland, and the branches of 
 same now established in Ireland and on the Continent of 
 America and elsewhere, and all adherents in regard that 
 they may be usurped and heretical opposing the sacred 
 Mother Church of Rome. 
 
 "I do now denounce and disown any allegiance as due 
 to any heretical King, Prince, or state, named Protestant 
 or liberals, or obedience to any of their laws, Magistrates, 
 or officers. 
 
 "I do further declare that the doctrine of the Churches 
 of England and Scotland, of the Calvinists, Huguenots and 
 others of the name of Protestants or Masons to be damn- 
 able, and they themselves to be damned who will not for- 
 sake the same. 
 
 "I do further declare that I will help, assist and advise 
 all or any of His Holiness' agents, in any place where I 
 should be, in Switzerland, Holland, Ireland or America, or 
 in any other kingdom or territory I shall come to, and do 
 my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or Masonic 
 doctrines and to destroy all their pretended powers, legal 
 or otherwise. 
 
 MORE OF IT 
 
 "I do further promise and declare that, notwithstanding 
 that I am dispensed with to assume any religion heretical 
 for the propaganda of the Mother Church's interest, to 
 keep secret and private all her agents' counsels from time 
 to time, as they instruct me, and not divulge, directly or 
 indirectly, by word, writing or circumstances whatever,
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 49 
 
 but to execute all that should be proposed, given in charge 
 or discovered unto me by you, my Ghostly Father, or any 
 of this sacred order. 
 
 "I do further promise and declare that I will have no 
 opinion or will of my own or any mental reservation what- 
 soever, even as a corpse or cadaver (perinde ac cadaver) , 
 but will unhesitatingly obey each and every command that 
 I may receive from my superiors in the militia of the Pope 
 and of Jesus Christ. 
 
 "That I will go to any part of the world whithersoever 
 I may be sent, to the frozen regions north, jungles of India, 
 to the centers of civilization of Europe or to the wild 
 haunts of the barbarous savages of America without mur- 
 muring or repining, and will be submissive in all things 
 whatsoever is communicated to me. 
 
 AND STILL MORE 
 
 "I do further promise and declare that I will, when op- 
 portunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly 
 and openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Masons, 
 as I am directed to do, to extirpate them from the face of 
 the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, sex or 
 condition, and that I will hang, burn, waste, boil, flay, 
 strangle, and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up 
 the stomachs and wombs of their women and crash their 
 infants' heads against the walls in order to annihilate their 
 execrable race. That when the same cannot be done open- 
 ly, I will secretly use the poisonous cup, strangulation cord, 
 the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of 
 the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the persons, what- 
 ever may be their condition in life, either public or private, 
 as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agents 
 of the Pope or superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy 
 Father of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 "In confirmation of which I hereby dedicate my life, soul 
 and all corporate powers, and with the dagger which I now 
 receive I will subscribe my name written in my blood in
 
 50 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 testimony thereof; and should I prove false or weaken in 
 my determination, may my brethren and follow soldiers 
 of the militia of the Pope cut off my hands and feet and my 
 throat from ear to ear, my belly opened and sulphur burned 
 therein with all the punishment that can be inflicted upon 
 me on earth and my soul shall be tortured by demons in 
 eternal hell forever. 
 
 NEARING THE END NOW 
 
 "That I will in voting always vote for a K. of C. in pref- 
 erence to a Protestant, especially a Mason, and that I will 
 leave my party so to do; that if two Catholics are on the 
 ticket I will satisfy myself which is the better supporter 
 of Mother Church and vote accordingly. 
 
 "That I will not deal with or employ a Protestant if in 
 my power to deal with or employ a Catholic. That I will 
 place Catholic girls in Protestant families, that a weekly 
 report may be made of the inner movements of the heretics. 
 
 "That I will provide myself with arms and ammunition 
 that I may be in readiness when the word is passed or I 
 am commanded to defend the church, either as an individ- 
 ual or with the militia of the Pope. 
 
 "All of which I, , do swear by the blessed 
 
 Trinity and blessed sacrament which I am now to receive 
 to perform and on my part to keep this, my oath. 
 
 "In testimony whereof, I take this most holy and blessed 
 sacrament of the Eucharist and witness the same further 
 with my name written with the point of this dagger dipped 
 in my own blood and seal it in the face of this holy sacra- 
 ment." (Excerpts from "Contested election case of Eu- 
 gene C. Bonniwell against Thomas S. Butler," as appears 
 
 in the Congressional Record House, Feb. 15, 1913, at 
 
 pages 3215, &c., and ordered printed therein "by unani- 
 mous consent." Attached thereto and printed (on page 
 3216) as a part of said report as above.) 
 
 The above spurious oath, and others like it, have been 
 found to be fraudulent, both by the courts and by an in-
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 51 
 
 vestigation made by Masonic bodies. The above oath made 
 its appearance according to a book published by Maurice 
 Francis Egan, for eleven years United States Minister to 
 Denmark, and John B. Kennedy, in 1912. Messrs. Egan 
 and Kennedy explain it as follows : 
 
 "It was filed by Mr. Eugene C. Bonniwell of Pennsyl- 
 vania in his charge against Thomas S. Butler before the 
 Committee of Elections No. 1, in Congress, when Mr. Bon- 
 niwell stated that it had been used against him as a Fourth 
 Degree Knight of Columbus in an election contest. Mr. 
 Bulter, in his defense, stated that he had refrained from 
 condemning the 'oath,' until election day, although he did 
 not believe it to be genuine, because he feared to give it 
 notoriety. 
 
 "Far from being disconcerted by the airing of this de- 
 lectable document in Congress, those profiting by its cir- 
 culation seized upon its inclusion in the Congressional 
 Record to give it an air of authority by printing on future 
 copies the annotation 'Copied from the Congressional Rec- 
 ord, &c.,' not pausing, however, to explain the circum- 
 stances under which it was allowed to appear in that offi- 
 cial journal." 
 
 EDITORS ARE CONVICTED 
 
 A. M. Morrison and Garfield E. Morrison, editors of the 
 Morning Journal of Mankato, Minn., charged E. M. Law- 
 less, editor of the Waterville, Minn., Sentinel with having 
 taken the bogus oath. Lawless took the case to court and 
 the two Morrisons were convicted. The foreman of the 
 jury was a Methodist minister. 
 
 In 1914 the bogus oath came to light in California. The 
 Knights of Columbus asked a committee of two, 32nd and 
 33rd degree, Masons, Past or Past Grand Masters of Ma- 
 sonry of that state, to make an investigation of all the 
 rituals, pledges and oaths used by the Knights of Colum- 
 bus. The Masonic committee gave out a report saying that 
 they had made such an investigation. They found that the
 
 52 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 ceremonies of the Knights of Columbus were embodied in 
 four degrees "intended to teach and inculcate principles 
 that lie at the foundations of every great religion and every 
 great state." 
 
 WHAT MASONS REPORTED 
 
 Their report continued: 
 
 "Our examination was made primarily to ascertain 
 whether or not a certain alleged oath * * * which has 
 been printed and widely circulated was in fact used by the 
 Order and whether * * * any oath, obligation or pledge 
 was used which was or would be offensive to Protestants 
 or Masons. * * * We find that neither the alleged oath 
 nor any such oath or pledge bearing the remotest resem- 
 blance thereto in matter, manner, spirit or purpose is used 
 or forms a part of the ceremonies of any degree of the 
 Knights of Columbus. The alleged oath is scurrilous, 
 wicked and libelous and must be the invention of an im- 
 pious and venomous mind. * * * There is no propa- 
 ganda proposed or taught against Protestants or Masons 
 or persons not of Catholic faith. * * * \y e can fi n( j 
 nothing in the entire ceremonials of the Order that to our 
 minds could be objected to by any person." 
 
 The Searchlight, official organ of the Ku Klux, contains 
 many articles that misrepresent the Catholics. For in- 
 stance, of Feb. 26, 1921, The Searchlight had an article 
 which was captioned : "Facts Gathered by the Knights of 
 Luther from the Washington Bureau of Statistics": 
 
 CHARGES OF "KNIGHTS OF LUTHER" 
 
 Without one word to support them, the following were 
 printed as "facts": 
 
 "The National Democratic Committee is by majority a 
 Roman Catholic body. It usually has a Roman Catholic 
 President and secretary.
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 53 
 
 "Catholics influenced the national campaign which 
 elected Wilson. 
 
 "The President's private secretary is a Roman Catholic. 
 
 "Over 70 per cent of all appointments made by President 
 Wilson are Catholics. Their influence is so powerful it 
 compels the homage of those in authority. 
 
 "Five States now have Catholic Administrations. 
 
 "Thirty-one States have Roman Catholic Democratic 
 Central Committees. 
 
 "Twenty thousand public schools have one-half Catholic 
 teachers. 
 
 "Over 100,000 public schools now contribute a part or all 
 of the school tax to Catholic Churches and schools. 
 
 "Six hundred public schools use Catholic readers and 
 teach from them the Roman Catholic catechism. 
 
 "Sixty-two per cent, of all offices of the United States, 
 both elective and appointive, are now held by Roman 
 Catholics. 
 
 "New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Buffalo, 
 Cleveland, Toledo, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Francisco 
 and Boston now have 75 per cent. Catholic teachers in their 
 public schools. 
 
 "In all the cities and towns of the United States of 
 10,000 or more inhabitants an average of over 90 per cent, 
 of the police force are Roman Catholics. 
 
 Roman Catholics are in the majority of the City Council 
 of 10,000 cities and towns of the United States." 
 
 MORE OF THE SAME STUFF 
 
 The Searchlight continues: 
 
 "We will now look at the results of Catholic teaching on 
 vice and virtue. The history of assassins of heads of Gov- 
 ernments in the past is a history of murderous Roman 
 Catholics. In 90 per cent, of the cases where criminals are 
 executed for crimes committed, the victims of the execu- 
 tion have a priest at their elbow to administer the last 
 sacrament.
 
 54 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 "The man who shot Roosevelt was a Roman Catholic. 
 
 "The man who shot President Garfield was a Roman 
 Catholic. 
 
 "The man who shot President Lincoln was a Roman 
 Catholic. 
 
 "The plot that took the life of Lincoln emanated from 
 Roman Catholic influence in the house of a Roman Catholic. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln said, 'I do not pretend to be a prophet 
 but, though not a prophet, I see a very dark cloud on our 
 horizon, and that cloud is coming from Rome. It is filled 
 with tears and blood. The true motive power is secreted 
 behind the walls of the Vatican, the colleges and schools 
 of the Jesuits, the convents of the nuns, and the confes- 
 sional boxes of Rome,' and such opinions cost the Nation 
 his life. 
 
 "Over 65 per cent, of prison convicts of all grades and 
 of all kinds of prisoners are Roman Catholics, while less 
 than 5 per cent, are graduates of our public schools. 
 
 "These statements are astounding when we remember 
 that only about 12 Vi per cent, of the entire population of 
 the United States are Roman Catholics, while the other 
 per cent, are not."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 KU KLUX KLAN AND THE MASONS 
 
 Iowa and Missouri Jurisdiction Grand Masters 
 Issue Public Denunciations Against the Klan. 
 
 Promoters of the Ku Klux Klan brag that most of its 
 members are Masons. Whether this is true no one on the 
 outside can tell. It is known, however, that the kleagles 
 or salesmen, who solicit members in a community try to 
 play upon the Masonic spirit to help along their game. 
 That this is done with the disapproval of the leading Ma- 
 sonic bodies of the country is shown by the action of the 
 grand commanders of the Iowa and Missouri jurisdictions. 
 They have issued public denunciations of the operations 
 and purposes of the Klan, especially that feature that re- 
 sorts to the masking of members when they are taking part 
 in Klan rites. The examples of Iowa and Missouri are 
 being followed by Masons in other states. 
 
 IOWA GRAND MASTER'S STATEMENT 
 
 Amos N. Alberson of Washington, Iowa, grand master 
 of that state, has directed a communication to all Masonic 
 lodges under his jurisdiction as follows : 
 
 "Whereas, It has become known to your grand master 
 that a certain 'Ku Klux Klan' has been and is now organ- 
 izing within this jurisdiction an alleged 'secret and invis- 
 ible empire'; and, 
 
 "Whereas, It is reported that its organizers and agents 
 have stated and intimated to members of our craft that 
 the said 'Ku Klux Klan' is in effect an adjunct of Free- 
 masonry and in accord with its principles and purposes; 
 and, 
 
 65
 
 56 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 "Whereas, Any such statement or intimation is absolute- 
 ly false and untrue, in that Masonry can not and does not 
 approve of or ally itself with any organization or move- 
 ment, secret or public, that proposes to subvert or super- 
 sede the processes of orderly representative government 
 'of the people, for the people, and by the people' ; nor one 
 that appeals to bigotry and endeavors to foster hatred of 
 any nationality, class, religious faith or sect, as such. 
 
 THE SOLEMN CHARGE 
 
 "Therefore, I, Amos N. Alberson, grand master of Ma- 
 sons in Iowa, do solemnly charge each and all of the reg- 
 ular Masons in Iowa, now as heretofore when you were 
 made a Mason, that 'in the state you are to be a quiet and 
 peaceable subject, true to your government and just to 
 your country; you are not to countenance disloyalty or 
 rebellion, but patiently submit to legal authority, and con- 
 form with cheerfulness to the government of the country 
 in which you live.' 
 
 CITES MASONIC OBLIGATION 
 
 "Furthermore, I charge each and all, that as our fathers 
 have framed the truly Masonic principles of liberty and 
 conscience, equality before the law, and fraternity among 
 men into the constitutions of this nation and state, we as 
 Free Masons and citizens of this republic are obligated to 
 perform our full moral and civic duty, to promote and en- 
 force an orderly administration of justice and equity, act- 
 ing openly that it may be known of all men." 
 
 Grand Master Alberson further orders and directs "that 
 this letter to the craft be read aloud at the next meeting, 
 whether regular or special, of each lodge throughout this 
 jurisdiction ; that it shall be made of record, and due notice 
 of the same circulated among the brethrens, that it may 
 come to the knowledge of all Masons in Iowa."
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 67 
 
 MISSOURI'S ACTION ON KLAN 
 
 William F. Johnson, grand master of the Carterlin 
 Grand Lodge of Missouri Ancient -Free and Accepted Ma- 
 sons made this statement at the annual meeting of the 
 grand lodge, which indorsed it: 
 
 "As the impression seems to prevail in some sections, 
 that the Masonic fraternity is directly or indirectly as- 
 sociated with or furthering this secret organization (Ku 
 Klux Klan), and as I have been asked on numerous occa- 
 sions what relations, if any, our fraternity bears to such 
 secret society or order, it is well that the seal of disap- 
 proval be positively placed by this grand lodge upon this 
 secret organization, which assumes to itself the right and 
 authority to administer law and punish crimes. 
 
 "Nothing is more destructive of free government than 
 secret control. The arraying of race against race, color 
 against color, sect against sect is destructive of peace and 
 harmony, which is the great end we, as Free Masons, have 
 in view. We profess and boast that we are true to our 
 government and just to our country. 
 
 IS SUBVERSIVE OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 "We can not, as Free Masons and good citizens, recog- 
 nize the right of any secret society or combination of men 
 to assume unto themselves the right to administer law and 
 to inflict punishment upon their fellow men. Such an as- 
 sumption is subversive of our republican institutions, con- 
 trary to the great principles of Free Masonry, 
 
 "An organization that practices censorship of private 
 conduct behind the midnight anonymity of mask and robe, 
 and enforces its secret decrees with the weapons of whips 
 and tar and feathers must ultimately merit and receive the 
 condemnation of those who believe in courts, open justice 
 and good citizenship."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 KU KLUX KLAN AND THE NEGRO 
 
 Members of the Klan take an oath to Bring about 
 White Supremacy, notwithstanding the Constitu- 
 tion, which guarantees the Negro Equal Rights. 
 
 Under the constitution of the United States, the negro 
 is guaranteed equal rights with all other citizens. When 
 the President of the United States is sworn into office he 
 takes an oath to uphold the constitution and the laws 
 passed under it. Every senator, congressman, governor 
 and other important officer in the United States and in 
 each of the states is sworn to uphold the constitution. 
 
 But the members of the Ku Klux Klan take an oath that 
 puts the constitution at naught. They swear to bring 
 about "white supremacy." Taken in conjunction with the 
 speeches and writings of their leaders, this oath shows 
 that the Klansmen intend to work together to create strife 
 against the negro, to belittle him and his family, his 
 churches, his business, his social societies and other things 
 that are dear to him. The Klan is determined to put the 
 negro out of business in the United States and to drive him 
 back to Africa. 
 
 As is all other main objects the warfare on Jews, Cath- 
 olics and foreign born the Klan intends to follow its own 
 laws in dealing with the negro. The writings of its leaders 
 are very plain on that point. 
 
 In his oath the Klansman swears: 
 
 "I swear that I will most zealously and valiantly shield 
 and preserve by any and all justifiable means and methods 
 White Supremacy 
 
 "All to which I have sworn by this oath. I will seal with 
 my blood by Thou my witness, Almighty God. Amen." 
 
 68
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 69 
 
 Prominent lawyers who have examined this oath declare 
 that it really is an oath upholding mob rule and that any 
 time the Klansman is given orders he will follow his lead- 
 ers in a crusade outside the constitution of the United 
 States that might lead to serious trouble and bloodshed. 
 
 Chaplain Ridley of the Ku Klux Klan has written in The 
 Searchlight on white supremacy as follows: 
 
 "Back in the days of the reconstruction the fathers gath- 
 ered at the call of the low, shrill whistle and rode into im- 
 mortal fame, rescuing a threatened civilization and mak- 
 ing real once more the White Man's Supremacy. Klans- 
 men of to-day, whether they assemble in the mountains of 
 Maine, or *neath the shadows of the great Rockies, or on 
 the plains of the Wonderful West, or amid the trailing 
 vines and wild flowers of Dixie, meet to keep alive the 
 memory of these men and preserve the traditions of those 
 days when the souls of men were tried as if by fire." 
 
 In Texas a white man who testified in behalf of an ac- 
 cused negro he merely told the truth under oath as he 
 knew it was tarred and feathered by masked men. 
 
 The Searchlight has printed column after column of anti- 
 negro stuff, mostly under anonymous names or under the 
 titles of organizations whose addresses are not given. One 
 such resolution adopted by the "Patriotic Societies of At- 
 lanta" condemns Rev. Ashby Jones, a minister, for inviting 
 an honorable negro to an interracial meeting and for ad- 
 dressing the negro as "mister." 
 
 Here are some of the titles of articles in The Searchlight, 
 showing its evident purpose of stirring up racial feelings : 
 
 "Social Equality Put Under Ban." 
 
 "Negroes Must Serve on Chain Gangs Now." 
 
 "Separate Cars for Negroes." 
 
 "White Woman Marries a Negro." 
 
 The Searchlight condemned President Harding for ap- 
 pointing Henry Lincoln Johnson, a negro, as register of 
 deeds.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE KU KLUX KLAN AND WOMEN 
 
 Here is the proclamation issued by Imperial Wizard Sim- 
 mons, making Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler his "grand chief of 
 staff" to have charge of the women's organization to be 
 affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan : 
 
 "To all Genii, Grand Dragons and Hydras of Realms, 
 Grand Goblins and Kleagles of Domains, Grand Titans and 
 Furies of Provinces, Giants, Exalted Cyclops and Terrors 
 of Cantons, and to all citizens of the Invisible Empire, 
 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the name of our valiant 
 and venerated dead, I affectionately greet you : 
 
 "In view of our Nation's need and as an additional force 
 in helping on the great work of conserving, protecting and 
 making effective the great principles of our Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization and American ideals and institutions, the Im- 
 perial Kloncilium, in regular session assembled, after de- 
 liberate care and earnest prayer, decided that there shall 
 be established within the bounds and under the supreme 
 authority and government of the Invisible Empire an or- 
 ganization that will admit the splendid women of our great 
 national commonwealth, who are now citizens with us in 
 directing the affairs of the Nation. Which decision of the 
 Imperial Kloncilium I have officially ratified after serious, 
 careful and devoted consideration of all matters and things 
 involved by this move. 
 
 "In view of the foregoing, I hereby officially declare and 
 proclaim that such organization does now exist in prospect. 
 Plans, methods, ritualism and regulations of same are now 
 in process of formation and will be perfected at an early 
 date and officially announced. 
 
 "I do further proclaim that in order to have the proper 
 assistance in the formation and perfecting of this organ- 
 
 60
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 61 
 
 ization, I have this day and date selected and officially ap- 
 pointed Mary Elizabeth Tyler of Atlanta, Fulton county, 
 Ga., to be my grand chief of staff, to have immediate 
 charge of work pertaining to said woman's organization 
 under my authority and direction. 
 
 "Further information will be duly and officially com- 
 municated from time to time. 
 
 "Done in the Aulic of His Majesty, Imperial Wizard, 
 Emperor of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux 
 Klan, in the Imperial City of Atlanta, Commonwealth of 
 Georgia, United States of America, on this> the ninth day 
 of the ninth month of the year of our Lord, 1921. 
 
 "Duly signed and sealed by His Majesty, 
 
 William Joseph Simmons, 
 
 "Imperial Wizard."
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 
 ATROCITIES COMMITTED IN THE NAME OF KU 
 KLUX KLAN 
 
 Ku Klux Klan Knights of Beaumont, Texas, issue 
 a justification for taking the law into Their own 
 hands. 
 
 Confession that the Ku Klux Klan uses tar and feathers 
 and the lash to punish persons whose actions it condemns 
 is made by the Klansmen of Beaumont, Tex. The Beau- 
 mont Ku Klux Klan organization tarred and feathered Dr. 
 J. S. Paul and R. F. Scott and later acknowledged, under 
 its official seal, that its members did the job. 
 
 "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, No. 7, Beaumont, Texas," 
 admitted taking the law into their own hands in a state- 
 ment dated July 21, 1921. This statement was made to 
 the editors of two newspapers of Beaumont. It sought to 
 justify the "tar and feather party" and gave warning that 
 the "heavy hand of the Ku Klux Klan" was waiting to 
 yank other persons from their beds in case they came into 
 its displeasure. 
 
 SHOW SIMMONS MISREPRESENTS 
 
 Grand Wizard William J. Simmons has declared publicly 
 that the Ku Klux did not indulge in midnight raids on 
 defenseless victims whom it tarred and feathered. He 
 has defended the Ku Klux Klan by ascribing these unlaw- 
 ful actions to imposters who use the regalia of the Ku Klux. 
 The Beaumont incident proves that the Ku Klux not 
 only was responsible for assaults on Dr. Paul and Scott, 
 but that it boasted of its exploits with them, 
 
 62
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 63 
 
 LETTER ADMITS USE OF TAR 
 
 The Paul-Scott "party" occurred on May 8. Its details 
 were telegraphed all over the country. The letter to the 
 two Beaumont newspapers the following July read: 
 
 "Your publication since the organization of the Ku Klux 
 Klan in the city of Beaumont has on various occasions pub- 
 lished information concerning and pertaining to the affairs 
 of this orgaization. We believe, as you do, that a news- 
 paper should serve the best interests of its constituency 
 and that all legitimate news should be given the public 
 through its columns. During the past two months items 
 have appeared in your paper relative to the case of the Ku 
 Klux Klan and its connection with Dr. J. S. Paul. 
 
 "Now, that you and the public may be fully informed of 
 the true facts in the case, the Klan has assembled and here- 
 with hands you an intelligent, true and correct history of 
 the entire matter. The Klan suggests that this summary 
 of facts be published in the columns of your paper not 
 later than Sunday, July 24, 1921, and that it be published 
 verbatim, according to the enclosed copy, typographical 
 errors excepted. 
 
 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." 
 
 PHYSICIAN IS ACCUSED 
 
 The "intelligent, true and correct history of the entire 
 matter" was a lengthy statement. It accused Dr. Paul of 
 being a physician who for years had sold whisky and nar- 
 cotic drugs and had performed illegal operations on women. 
 Because he had political and financial backing grand jury 
 proceedings against him had been squelched. 
 
 About the middle of December, 1920, R. F. Scott, who 
 lived in Deweyville, Texas (Scott was a former member of 
 the United States Marine corps), consulted Dr. Paul and 
 arranged for an illegal operation. The statement declares 
 the girl became seriously ill as a result of malpractice on
 
 64 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 Dr. Paul's part and was taken from her residence to a hos- 
 pital, where a serious operation was performed. 
 
 After this occurrence the girl demanded that Dr. Paul 
 assist her in defraying the extra expense due to his negli- 
 gence, and he offered her $500 to leave Beaumont. This 
 bargain he broke and is accused of having threatened to 
 cause her arrest for attempted blackmail, or with death if 
 she exposed him. 
 
 MORAL LAW ABOVE WRITTEN 
 
 Her predicament was reported to the Klan and the state- 
 ment says her cry was heard by men who respect the 
 "great moral law more than the technicalities of the legal 
 code." 
 
 The statement goes on : 
 
 "The eyes of the unknown had seen and had observed the 
 wrong to be redressed. Dr. Paul was wealthy. His victim 
 was a poor girl. Between the two stood the majesty of the 
 law, draped in technicalities of changes of venue, mistrials, 
 appeals, postponements, eminent counsel skilled in the eso- 
 teric art of protecting crime and interpreting laws in- 
 volved in a mass of legal verbiage, the winding and un- 
 winding of red tape, instead of the sinewy arm of justice, 
 wielding the unerring sword. The law of the Klan is JUS- 
 TICE. 
 
 "Dr. Paul was approached in his office by three men on 
 the night of May 7 and instructed to go with them. He 
 was placed in a waiting automobile and escorted a few 
 miles out of town. The judgment of the Klan was read 
 to him and charges were related to him, none of which he 
 would deny. 
 
 "LASHED, TARRED AND FEATHERED" 
 
 "In a cowardly, whimpering plea, he pleaded that others 
 were as guilty as he. The lash was laid on his back and
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 65 
 
 the tar and feathers applied to his body. He was then in- 
 formed of the will of the Klan that he should leave the city 
 within forty-eight hours. Upon the return of the party to 
 Beaumont, Dr. Paul was discharged from an automobile 
 at the intersection of two of the main streets of the city, 
 that he might be a warning to all of his ilk that decent men 
 and women no longer wanted him in the community. 
 
 "Dr. Paul complied with the instructions of the Klan 
 that he leave the city and returned for a few days to his 
 former home at Lufkin. During this time he was constant- 
 ly under the surveillance of the Klan. Within a few days 
 he had surrounded himself with relatives and hired hench- 
 men of his own tribe and character and returned to 
 Beaumont. 
 
 SCOTT ALSO TARRED AND FEATHERED 
 
 "Scott, who had been constantly watched by the Klan, 
 whose number is legion and whose eye is all-seeing and 
 whose methods of gathering information are not known to 
 the alien world, was apprehended and punished in the same 
 manner Dr. Paul had been dealt with. He was taken to 
 the woods and guarded until nightfall. His captors during 
 this time treated him with kindness and consideration. 
 They provided him with food and fruit to eat and ice water 
 to drink. During the day he was questioned and admitted 
 all the charges the Klan had accused him of. The judg- 
 ment of the Klan was that he was to be given ten lashes 
 across the bare back and that he was to be tarred and 
 feathered. 
 
 EYES OF "UNKNOWN" ON HIM 
 
 "Scott left Beaumont on Monday, July 18, and spent the 
 major portion of the day in Orange parading the streets 
 and proclaimed the diabolical lie that he had been subjected 
 to the tortures of the inquisition. He posed to the gullible
 
 66 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 public and sensational newspapers as a patriot and a hero. 
 All these things the eyes of the unknown have seen and 
 their ears have heard. We can not be deceived and JUS- 
 TICE will no longer be mocked." 
 
 The seal of the Beaumont Klan was attached to the end 
 of the statement. 
 
 Rev. Caleb Ridley, known as the imperial chaplain of the 
 order, acknowledged that the Klan's purpose was to set it- 
 self up as prosecutor, jury, judge and sheriff. 
 
 PASTOR GIVES WARNING 
 
 On Aug. 26, 1921, he issued to the citizens of Dallas coun- 
 ty, Texas, the following warning : 
 
 "To the Citizens of Dallas County, Greetings: This or- 
 ganization has caused to be posted the following proclama- 
 tion: 
 
 "Be it known and hereby proclaimed 
 
 "That this organization is composed of native-born 
 Americans and none other. 
 
 "That its purpose is to uphold the dignity and the au- 
 thority of the law. * * * 
 
 "That this organization * * * recognizes * * * 
 that situations frequently arise where no existing law of- 
 fers a remedy. 
 
 "That this organization does * * * not countenance 
 and will not stand for social parasites remaining in this 
 city. It is equally opposed to the gambler, the trickster, 
 the moral degenerate and the man who lives by his wits 
 and is without visible means of support. 
 
 "The eye of the unknown hath seen and cloth constantly 
 observe all, white or black, who disregard this warning. 
 ^Whatsoever thou sowest that shall you also reap.' Regard- 
 less of official, social or financial position, this warning ap- 
 plies to all living within the jurisdiction of this Klan. 
 
 "This warning will not be repeated. 
 
 " 'Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.' 
 
 "Hereafter all communications from us will bear the of- 
 ficial seal of the Klan. 
 
 "KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN."
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 67 
 
 KU KLUX KLAN SHOOTS SHERIFF 
 
 The attitude of members of the Ku Klux Klan toward 
 officers of the law was demonstrated on October 1, 1921, 
 in Lorena, Tex., when the Ku Klux Klan shot Sheriff Bob 
 Buchanan of McLennan county, when he attempted to stop 
 a parade of Masked Knights. 
 
 Without getting an official permit to hold the parade, the 
 Ku Klux Klan announced that it would be held at 8 :30 p. m. 
 The sheriff notified the community that the parade was 
 against the law and that he would not allow it. The word 
 was carried to the Ku Klux Klan leaders. Messages were 
 sent back and forth, and the Ku Kluxers tried to scare the 
 sheriff into a retreat. He refused to back down, however, 
 and ended the negotiations by telling the Klansmen that 
 they had to obey the law as well as other citizens. 
 
 The sheriff said there was a law against uncertain 
 masked men who refused to divulge their identity. He 
 would agree to the parade if the names of the masked men 
 were furnished to him. This the Klan leaders refused 
 to do. 
 
 The Klansmen held a council of war at which the sheriff 
 was denounced for daring to give them orders. They de- 
 cided to show the people of Lorena that they were bigger 
 than the sheriff or the law that he represented. The chief 
 of the Klansmen gave the order for the parade to start. 
 
 With a posse of citizens and deputies, Sheriff Buchanan 
 met the parade at the intersection of the main streets. 
 Thousands of persons were out to witness the test of 
 strength between the law and the Ku Klux Klan. The 
 sheriff approached a masked Klansman who carried a fiery 
 cross. He attempted to seize the cross. There was a shot. 
 A bullet hit the sheriff in the right arm. A general gun 
 fight followed and ten persons were injured. The Masked 
 Knights hurriedly departed, carrying one of their number 
 who was wounded. 
 
 Sheriff Buchanan is hailed as a hero in Texas by the law- 
 aboding element. The United States needs more public 
 officials like him men with the courage to stand by their 
 oaths of office.
 
 68 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 OTHER OUTRAGES 
 
 Since the Ku Klux Klan was organized night outrages in 
 which masked men are involved have increased to a fre- 
 quency not known in the United States since the years just 
 following the Civil War, when the original Ku Klux Klan 
 was active in the southern states against "carpet baggers" 
 and Negroes. 
 
 A murder was committed on June 9, 1921, at Sea Breeze, 
 Fla., by masked men who said they were Ku Klux Klan. 
 They took Thomas L. Reynolds from his bed and punched 
 and kicked him. Then one of the masked men shot him. 
 He died later. Official investigation failed to involve the 
 Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 WIZARD SIMMONS DENIES 
 
 In the case of Paul and Scott in Beaumont, Tex., an or- 
 ganization claiming to be the Ku Klux Klan admitted under 
 a seal that it was responsible. In many other instances 
 the masked riders have openly boasted that they were Ku 
 Kluxers. In other cases they have worn regalia like that 
 of the Ku Klux. Imperial Wizard Simmons has denied 
 that the Ku Klux is responsible for any outrages. Whether 
 he knows what he is talking about probably will be deter- 
 mined only by a Congressional investigation. 
 
 Meanwhile the people of the country have the big fact 
 on which to form their judgment namely, that since the 
 Ku Klux has extended its membership and influence by in- 
 fluencing hundreds of thousands to get down on their knees 
 and take the oath of "white supremacy," bands of night 
 riders who take the law into their own hands have been 
 carrying on these disgraceful maurading "parties" with a 
 boldness that challenges public attention. 
 
 In Daytona, Fla., H. C. Sparkman, an editor, carried on 
 a campaign against the Ku Klux Klan. On June 12, 1921, 
 Sparkman received by mail a threat warning him that if 
 he did not let the Ku Klux alone the Klan would take up
 
 KU KLUX KLAN 69 
 
 his case and that he might be killed. In Pensacola, Fla., 
 on July 8, 1921, a band of men wearing white robes like 
 those of the Ku Klux Klan in their initiation ceremonies 
 appeared at the store of Chris Lochas, a restaurant keeper, 
 and while the chief of police was looking on gave him a 
 written order to leave town because of certain charges. 
 The warning was signed "K. K. K." 
 
 KU KLUX KLANSMAN KILLED 
 
 In the city of Atlanta, Ga., where the Ku Klux Klan is 
 strongest a killing resulted from a raid by masked men on 
 J. C. Thomas, who had a lunch room at 280V Decatur 
 street. Thomas had received letters threatening him with 
 violence unless he "let alone" a certain woman in his em- 
 ploy. On March 12, 1920, four men got Thomas to enter 
 an automobile and drove him to a spot in a lonely neighbor- 
 hood. There they took him from the car and told him that 
 he was to be punished because he had not observed their 
 warnings. When they started to strike Thomas, he took 
 a knife from his pocket and killed Fred Thompson who was 
 later identified as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. 
 
 The case of killing against Thomas was put before a 
 grand jury but the jury refused to indict him. At the in- 
 quest into the death of Thompson, Homer Pitts was identi- 
 fied as the driver of the car in which Thomas had been kid- 
 napped. Pitts was represented in the proceedings by At- 
 torney W. S. Coburn. In the official list of Ku Kluxers 
 there is a H. R. Pitts who is a kleagle at Fresno, Cal., and 
 a W. S. Coburn who is a grand goblin with headquarters 
 at Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 100 OUTRAGES IN TEXAS 
 
 Texas, where the Ku Klux Klan is strong, has been the 
 scene of nearly 100 unlawful punishments by masked men. 
 In one case the initials "K.K.K." were branded on the fore-
 
 70 KU KLUX KLAN 
 
 head of a negro who was horsewhipped on the charge of 
 having been found in a white woman's room. 
 
 Something the same treatment that was given Dr. Paul 
 was handed out to J. S. Allen, an attorney of Houston, Tex., 
 who on April 10, 1921, was whisked from a downtown 
 street, driven to the country and tarred and feathered. 
 The maeked men then took him back to the city and threw 
 him out of the automobile into a crowd. He was nude ex- 
 cept for his coat of tar and feathers.
 
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