Knacker Knark Knipperdolling

For months congressional stenographers catalogued the names and protestations of klaliffs, kleagles, kladds and kludds. Last week the House UnAmerican Activities Committee decided that it had heard all the testimony that it needed--or could stand--and quietly ended its hearings into the activities of the Ku Klux Klan.

The investigation adduced very little information about the Klan unknown to the Justice Department. Nor did it lead to any convictions or indictments, though Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton, four grand dragons, a kludd and a kladd were cited for contempt of Congress. Yet the inquiry served a useful purpose, if only by giving an opportunity to a sorry klutch of knackers, knarks and Knipperdollings* to document for themselves that "the invisible empire" is moved as much by dollar lust as by racial hatred.

No one expects the Klan to disappear as a result of the House hearings, but the publicity has already dented membership in most of the South (with the exception of North Carolina, where a number of new Klaverns have been formed). It has also engendered internal dissension. Having learned how high on the hog their leaders live, Mississippi Klan chieftains are thinking of breaking away to see if they can do as well in their own organization.

* A knacker slaughters old horses for profit; a knark is a hardhearted, unfeeling fellow; a Knipperdolling is a religious fanatic.

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