Read Ebook: The Modern Ku Klux Klan by Fry Henry P Henry Peck

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"I further charge that when in your printed literature you claim that your organization is the 'genuine original Klan,' this statement is a fraud historically and a fraud in principle. While you have--without any right whatever--appropriated to yourself the name, regalia, and certain nomenclature of the original Klan, your scheme is radically different in conception, in organization, and in purpose. A careful study, which I have made, of the Prescript of the original Klan and all available history and literature on the subject, reveals the fact that there is little, if anything, in common between the two organizations. Your false pretenses of 'genuineness' are therefore insults to the history, the traditions, and the entire record of the South.

"Everywhere the promoters of your scheme have gone, they have sought to enlist as 'citizens' the white, Gentile, Protestant public officials, especially those having in charge the enforcement of the law. No matter how capable, how efficient, and how conscientious a public official may be, if he chances to be a Jew or a Catholic, you not only do not want him, but your organization is now planning actively to cause all the Jews, Catholics, and foreign-born naturalized Americans in this country to be removed from public life. Aside from vicious politics, and in view of the fact that your oath is an accessory before the fact to mob violence, this tampering and meddling with the law-enforcing machinery of the country--under the alleged plea of 'law and order'--is a direct blow at the entire legal machinery of the United States, a condition that, in its nature, approaches anarchy.

"At a time when peaceful relations are existing between the white and black races, you are disrupting the industrial conditions of the South, by your anti-negro propaganda and causing a state of unrest that can result only in dangerous and mischievous consequences. In your anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish propaganda, your organization is scattering broadcast over this country wicked, malicious, and inflammatory lies about American citizens of those religious beliefs, lies that brand your movement as being far more vicious than the insidious German propaganda in this country prior to our entrance into the recent war. You are publishing, for example, the statement that the Jews are seeking to promote a race war between white people and negroes, and the intimation that the Catholic Church was responsible for the murder of President Abraham Lincoln. In public statements, you and your paid speakers give expression to wordy, sanctimonious and high-sounding platitudes, while secretly your propagandists, in a sneaking and contemptible manner, are spreading poisonous and vicious lies they dare not give voice to in public.

"Your 'Invisible Empire' is furthermore a money-making scheme! You, yourself, an individual of little, if any, means prior to your becoming an 'Emperor' have so far received from 'friends' a ,000 residence completely furnished! Your connection with the organization is either bringing you large sums of money at present, or the promise of the same in the future! You are allowed to appropriate to your own use all of the ten dollars "donated" by any person whose application you personally solicit! All of the rituals and other printed publications of your organization are copyrighted in your name, and it is presumable that you have either received royalties for their use or a cash consideration for their sale! Your organization has recently bought Lanier University, of which you have been made the head, and college presidents are usually paid salaries! While orders for robes at .50 are taken in your name, they are filled by the Gate City Manufacturing Company, at a substantial profit, and the public has not been informed as to the disposition of this huge amount of funds! The Searchlight Publishing Company, headed by your Imperial Kleagle is no doubt a big revenue producer! Your Imperial Kleagle is also the head of the Clarke Realty Company, in whose operations, I have no doubt you are also interested! These varied financial operations indicate to me that spreading religious and racial hatred is a lucrative business for you and your associates.

"Your whole 'Invisible Empire' is a cancer in the body politic! It is like some foul and loathsome thing that grows and flourishes in the dark, away from the sight of honest men and women. It was conceived in avarice, sired in ignorance, and dammed in greed. It is now being nurtured in cunning and false pretense, and fed upon an unholy lust for gold, by means of passion, hatred, and the prejudice of religious and racial fanaticism. And, day by day, with your oily assurance, you say that these devilish devices of discord are being developed in the name of 'pure Americanism'! If this is your idea of America, you haven't the slightest conception of what pure Americanism means!

"There is no place in America for an 'Invisible Empire' of hate and venom; and there is no provision in the laws of this country for an 'Emperor'! The 'Invisible Empire' should be made visible! It should be held up to the light so that honest men can see its ugly structure and analyze its nefarious potentialities, and then, having seen this monstrosity, the people should demand of their legally constituted forces of government that Ku Kluxism and the Ku Klux Klan be outlawed and barred forever from operating in this free Republic.

Yours truly, HENRY P. FRY."

WHAT IS THE "INVISIBLE EMPIRE?"

A study of the physical structure of the "Invisible Empire" necessarily starts with its corporate organization, its officers, its general method of functioning, and its ramifications throughout the United States. Although organized under the pretense that it is a "fraternal order," a close investigation of the system reveals the fact that its activities extend in several directions. Its three principal promoters, William J. Simmons, Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler, are engaged in several lines of business all of which are closely related. The show under the main tent is the "Invisible Empire," Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., allied to which either directly or indirectly is the "Gate City Manufacturing Company," a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Georgia for the manufacture of lodge regalia, etc., the Searchlight Publishing Company, which prints a weekly paper which is recognized by the public as the official organ of Ku Kluxism, and Lanier University, which was acquired in August, 1921, and of which William J. Simmons is the president. There is also the Clarke Realty Company in which E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler are mentioned as incorporators, the operations of which corporation are not known.

The charter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan granted by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, reads as follows:

"GEORGIA, FULTON COUNTY.

TO THE SUPERIOR COURT OF SAID COUNTY:

'KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN'

The casual examination of the above instrument fails to show anything more significant than the fact that it is a simple application for a charter for an ordinary fraternal organization, several of whom, including the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, it specifically names. An analysis, however, of the instrument reveals some interesting things, and raises some questions that may be of service to the public in dealing with Ku Kluxism.

The following copy of the application for charter membership illustrates this point:

"TO HIS MAJESTY, THE IMPERIAL WIZARD, EMPEROR OF THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE, KNIGHTS OF THE KU KLUX KLAN :

I guarantee on my honor to conform strictly to all rules and requirements regulating my "naturalization" and the continuance of my membership, and at all times a strict and loyal obedience to your constitutional authority and the constitution and laws, and all regulations and usages of the fraternity. The required "donation" accompanies this petition.

Endorsers will sign on other side.

This is the standard form for application for "citizenship" and several hundred such applications, properly signed, have come under my personal observation. It is distinctly a request to be "naturalized" as a "citizen" of the "Invisible Empire," Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and not an application for membership in an order known as the "Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" by itself.

It appears from an examination of the records, that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan made but little headway for several years, when it was under the sole management of William J. Simmons. An examination of the Atlanta City Directory reveals the fact that the present "Emperor" was engaged in other lines of activity, largely as a professional organizer. In 1915 he appears listed as "Organizer of the Woodmen of the World"; in 1916, "Imperial Wizard and founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan"; in 1918, the next year a directory was issued, as "State Manager, Heralds of Liberty"; in 1920, as "Lecturer"; and in 1921, again as "Imperial Wizard, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." It was not, apparently, until he joined forces with Edward Young Clarke, that the enterprise was placed on a paying basis. Clarke, it is said, has had wide experience as a professional propagandist, and prior to his taking charge of the Ku Klux movement was employed to raise money for the Anti-Saloon League and the Salvation Army, conducting drives for those bodies. The city directory of Atlanta lists him as follows: 1915, "Secretary, Brooks County Industrial Club"; 1916, Secretary, "Georgia Chamber of Commerce"; 1918, "Secretary, Southeastern Exhibit Association"; 1920-21, "President Southern Publicity Association." Under the direction of Clarke the entire system of field work has been perfected, and as Imperial Kleagle, Clarke is responsible for the success of the movement.

Clarke, whose chief helper and backer was Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, was conducting the Southern Publicity Bureau at the time, and quickly saw the big financial possibilities which lay in the capitalization of the name "Ku Klux." Simmons, who had concocted the scheme of organization which placed the "entire works" into his own hands, lacked the ability to put his ideas into execution. At this point, I should like to take issue with practically every man who had made any attack on the Ku Klux Klan. The general opinion has been that "Simmons is absolutely sincere in what he is doing, but has been in the hands of Clarke and Mrs. Tyler." I have never met Simmons in person, but I have studied his organization in the most minute detail. From my study of the system and the part the man has played in it, I believe that he is a cunning, shrewd adventurer, who, from the start conceived the idea of acquiring both wealth and unlimited power from his secret "Invisible Empire." In all of his public utterances in the newspapers and before Congress he has shown a shiftiness and evasiveness clearly discernible amid a vast mass of wordiness.

In his entire scheme of organization and management, he has so constructed his proposition that he is master of the situation with practically unlimited power. In this particular a good illustration can be found in the contract he made with Clarke whereby the latter became the Chief Sales Manager of the membership peddlers for the whole country. This contract, while it gives Clarke the opportunity of making a vast sum of money, at the same time makes Simmons the absolute dictator of Clarke's movements. The probabilities are that Simmons, realizing that he himself was ignorant of real organization methods, so framed this contract that he could let Clarke out at any time, and take over to himself the functions of the propagation department after he had learned the system.

The contract which brought Clarke and Mrs. Tyler into the organization reads as follows:

"STATE OF GEORGIA, County of Fulton,

"This agreement, made and entered into on this the seventh day of June, A.D. 1920, by and between the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a corporation of said county, acting by its Imperial Wizard , W. J. Simmons, party of the first part, and Edward Young Clarke, of said county, party of the second part.

"Witnesseth, that the said party of the second part hereto having, by virtue of this agreement, been appointed Imperial Kleagle of said first party, and it being desirable that the details of his rights, privileges, powers, duties, responsibilities, and compensation, etc., in addition to that laid down in the constitution and laws of the said corporation be definitely fixed:

"Therefore, it is agreed by the said parties hereto that this contract shall continue so long as it is mutually agreeable; that it shall remain of force and may be canceled by either party hereto without previous notice of any intention to do so.

"It is agreed that said second party may employ, subject to the approval and appointment of the said Imperial Wizard of the corporation aforesaid, and subject to the right and power of said Imperial Wizard to revoke all such appointments, such assistant organizers as he may deem necessary to properly carry out the plans for the propagation and extension of said corporation; provided, that such persons so appointed or employed be members of the said corporation in good and regular standing prior to their appointment, and that they maintain their good standing therein as an essential condition on which their appointment is made.

"It is agreed that in all things the second party shall be subordinate to the said Imperial Wizard , and shall attempt no plans or methods of work without the consent or approval of the said Imperial Wizard.

"It is agreed that the said second party shall receive as in full compensation and expenses of himself and his duly appointed and commissioned subordinate organizers the sum of .00 for each and every new member brought into the said corporation by himself and his assistant subordinate organizers, and in addition to the .00 he shall receive .00 for each new member added to all Klans organized by himself or his subordinate organizers within a period of six months after the date of the charter of all such Klans organized by himself and his subordinate organizers.

"It is agreed that no expense or debts shall be made or incurred by the said Edward Young Clarke or his subordinate organizers, and no obligation entered into with any firm, company, corporation, or person for which the said first party hereto or the said Imperial Wizard shall be bound to make any outlay of or expenditure of money, unless there be a specific approval of the particular item or items of all such expenditures, prior to the incurring of same by the said Imperial Wizard of the said corporation.

"It is agreed that the said second party shall advance, from time to time, as may be necessary the office rent and all other expenses incident to the proper conduct and furnishing of the main office of the aforesaid corporation, and in addition thereto a sum of not less than per week and traveling expenses of the said Imperial Wizard of the aforesaid corporation, reimbursing himself for such expenditures out of the .00 due by him to the aforesaid corporation on account of each member received into the aforesaid corporation by him and his duly appointed and commissioned subordinate organizers.

"Duly executed in duplicate in the city of Atlanta, Ga., on the day and date above written.

As is well known the new Ku Klux Klan, like the old, depends to a great extent upon concealing the identity of the members by the means of long white robes and a white peaked helmet, with hangings in which eye holes have been cut. In the old Klan these robes were made by members of the Klansmen's family, but in the new order of affairs the work of supplying these robes is a monopoly entirely in the hands of the national organization.

During the summer of 1921, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan purchased the handsome, colonial home of H. M. Durant on Peachtree Road, about five miles from Atlanta, at an approximate cost of ,000. The purchase comprises a block of land about four hundred feet square. Extensive improvements, worthy of a real emperor's palace are contemplated for this property, and it will be the headquarters of the "Imperial Palace." The land will be cut up into gardens, small lakes and building sites. It is estimated that ,000 worth of marble alone will be used. A handsome statue of General N. B. Forrest will be erected, and also a statue of "Emperor" William J. Simmons. There will be electric fountains, electric fiery crosses, lakes, boat houses and tennis courts. According to the "Emperor": "There will be no manufacturing handled at the Palace. We now have a paraphernalia plant here turning out six hundred robes a day, in addition to other equipment, and we expect to erect in a short time a building with railroad frontage to be devoted exclusively to manufacturing." It is also planned to take over a large printing plant. If this extensive program is carried out, there will be a huge enterprise with all the combined activities costing not less than ,500,000.

While the organization has been buying land and engaging in real estate transactions, the Imperial Kleagle, as a side line, has also gone into the real estate business. On June 27, 1921, a petition was filed for charter for the "Clarke Realty Company" with Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler as incorporators, with authorized capital stock of ,000 with privilege of increasing it to 0,000. The corporation seeks the right to deal generally in real estate. Just what real estate the "Clarke Realty Company" has bought, sold, leased, rented, or exchanged or acted as brokers for, has not appeared in print.

"Article I, Section 2. The government of this order shall ever be military in character, most especially its management and control; and no legislative enactment or constitutional amendment hereafter forever shall encroach upon, effect or change this essential, fundamental principle of this order--The Invisible Empire.

"Section 2. The government of this order shall be invested primarily in the Imperial Wizard, as Commander-in-chief or Emperor of the Invisible Empire."

Acting in pursuance of the constitution, which provides that the organization is "military in character," the propagation department functions in pretty much the same manner as the army handles its business. The Imperial Kleagle is virtually a Chief of Staff, or more properly an Adjutant General. The country is divided into eight "Domains" comprising certain States, each State being known as a "Realm," which is again divided into districts where the actual field work is done.

The "Domain" is in command of a "Grand Goblin," the "Realm" is under the jurisdiction of a "King Kleagle," while the field organizer, having charge of certain territory, is known as a "Kleagle."

The following is a list of the Domains with their respective Grand Goblins, revised to July 2, 1921:

Unattached, Florida, to be in charge of King Kleagle S. A. Givens, who will report direct to the Imperial Kleagle and whose address is Box 1883, Jacksonville, Fla.

These "Domains" may be likened to divisions of an army, as they are in control of the spread of Ku Kluxism in the sections named, and the "Grand Goblin" reports direct to the "Imperial Kleagle." Each State or "Realm" is like a regiment, and the King Kleagle reports to his immediate chief, the "Grand Goblin," and not to the Atlanta headquarters. The "Kleagle" or field man makes his reports to the "King Kleagle" only. All communications sent to or received by him from the headquarters come through the channels of the "King Kleagle." The system is so thoroughly military that if a member of the organization writes to Atlanta about any matter, the letter is sent through channels to the Kleagle for his action.

The Kleagle is empowered to administer the obligation, organize and instruct Klans, and collect the requisite and necessary "donation" of ten dollars. Out of this sum he retains four dollars per member for his services, and at the end of the week submits a report of his activities, remitting to the King Kleagle the six dollars balance due on each member secured. The King Kleagle retains one dollar a member for his services, and remits five dollars to the Grand Goblin of the Domain to which he is attached. The Grand Goblin is allowed to shave off fifty cents a member and remits .50 to the Imperial Kleagle, who in turn keeps .50 and pays into the treasury of the Imperial Palace the sum of .00 which is all of the original "donation" that actually reaches the organization. The whole system is carefully conducted as a well organized sales system, each official being required to file his returns each week on a form provided for that purpose. The following is a copy of the Kleagle's weekly report form:

KLEAGLE'S WEEKLY REPORT

This report MUST be accurately made out and mailed to the Imperial Kleagle on the last day of the week, approved by him and sent by him to the Imperial Office at the earliest possible date.

To the Imperial Wizard, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan:

The following is my report for the week ending ..........., 192...

Number of Prospective Petitioners Canvassed ......

" " Petitioners Secured and Paid ......

" " "Original Klansmen" secured ......

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