Washington Splurge

It is the custom of the Ku Klux Klan in recent years to make an annual splurge in Washington, D. C., so that mere laymen can gaze on the marching "brothers." This festival on Pennsylvania Avenue has come to be a barometer by which the relative annual potency of the K. K. K. may be judged. In the eyes of "Mr. Average Citizen," who thinks of crowds in terms of the several 100,000 Manhattanites who welcomed Gertrude Ederle and who fought to see the corpse of Rudolph Valentino, the K. K. K. performances of the last two years in Washington have been duds. In 1925, boosterous Klansmen talked of a parade of 100,000; 32,000 marched. Last week, a mere 30,000 arrived, out of an expected 200,000.

The Washington police were prepared for the convocating Klansmen. Every policeman on the force was called on duty. A regiment of Marines guarded the U. S. Treasury Building.

But all the Kleagles and Grand Goblins climbed out of stuffy trains, put on their night-shirtish regalia, paraded peacefully without masks. At their head was Hiram W. Evans, Imperial Wizard, dentist of Dallas, Tex. Shrewd businessman, he smiled, wondered if all those behind him had paid their dues. There were floats: "Miss 100% America" and "Little Red School-house." During the next two days, the mighty Kloncilium met to ponder on next year's schemes, probably to re-elect Imperial Wizard Evans for another four-year term. The Klan program now has four aims:

1) Collection of a fund of $50,000 for construction of a radio station for "true Americans."

2) To defeat the movement of the "Italian Romanists" to make Christopher Columbus's birthday a legal holiday.

3) Renomination and re-election of Representative Albert Johnson of Washington, so he can continue to be Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and fight for restricted immigration laws.

4) To embarrass as far as possible every man in public life who voted or worked for the World Court.

Even the most rabid Klansman must feel at times when he puts moth balls in his uniform after a parade, that perhaps history will sneer at him, at his fiery crosses and his spooky Klonvocations. But, at least, in the encyclopaedias where uncolored statistics can cover a multitude of hokum, he and his several hundred thousand "brothers" will get Justice, find Pride. Perhaps he was disillusioned last week on looking into the three new supplementary volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, wherein able Arthur B. Darling, one of the rising young assistant professors in history at Yale, disposes of the modern Ku Klux Klan in a cool, curt sketch:

"On Thanksgiving night in 1915 William Joseph Simmons, preacher, traveling salesman and experienced promoter of fraternal orders, gathered some friends on Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Ga., before a 'fiery cross' and administered the oath of the 'Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.' A state charter gave corporate rights to his organization. As Imperial Wizard, Simmons could hold office for life and have final authority unless opposed by two-thirds of the Imperial Kloncilium, council of supreme officers and delegates from other states. . . . Simmons met financial difficulties. The order would have languished had not new impetus been given.

"On June 7, 1920, Simmons contracted with E. Y. Clarke to increase the membership. As Imperial Kleagle, he was to receive $8 of the $10 admission fee, and $2 for every member added to a local Klan within six months after its organization. He agreed to pay all expenses of the central office and $75 a week to Simmons. When Clarke's system was perfected, $4 of the original fee went to the local Kleagle, $1 to the King Kleagle or state sales-manager, $0.50 to the Grand Goblin, or head of the local Klan. The remaining $4.50 went to Atlanta. . . .

"The appeal of the Klan came to a people suffering from the hysteria of the World War. Those who had enjoyed power in citizens' committees which forced the purchase of Liberty Bonds, intimated German sympathizers and hounded slackers, saw in the Klan a continued outlet for their patriotism. . . . But far more numerous were those who cherished the racial and religious prejudices of their ancestors....

"In Jan. 1926 it was impossible to say whether the Klan was still growing, or whether, like its predecessor, the Know-Nothing movement, it would prove only another temporary though meteoric organization."