Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 15 June 1923 — Page 1

THE L'

THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER IN DELAWARE COUNTY MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT

VOL. 3. NO. 23.

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1923.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE

POLinCAL PREACHERS AND GRATTERS KEEP KLAN ALIVE SAYS JIM FERGUSON.

(By James Ferguson, Former Gov-

ernor ol Texas)

Goose Creek, in Harris County, Texas, is the Her Rouge H>11 Hole of Texas. It is a Standard Oil town and the home of a cowardly Ku Kiux Klan. The outrages that have been committed there during the last two years could not have been covered up so long if some of the big officers of the Humble Oil Company, a stool pigeon of the Standard Oil Company, had not been themselves Ku Klux and using the organization for

their selfish purposes.

The last grand jury before this one reported to Judge Robinson that they couldn’t find out anything about the Goose Creek mobs. But they didn’t! fool Neal Robinson. He is one of the old school Democrats who believes in law and order and ain’t afraid of hell or high water. So he called another grand jury and told them in plain United States that he did not want any more foolishness. The jury believed him and went to j work. They indicted fourteen men i in twenty-six: different cases for; whippings and mob outrages at Goose Creek. The whole gang has been arrested and put under bond. | These fourteen men are now repre

shouting against it? The time has come, buddy, when we have got to | separate the sheep from the goats. Any church that continues to keep a | preacher in it who is a known Ku ; Klux should be at once branded as a i Ku Klux church that ain’t got the! nerve to protect helpless women and !

children.

To start the ball rolling, I here and | now brand the Methodist and Bap* | tist church organizations as Ku Klux j orgainzations, and until they as or- [ ganizations in open church condemn j the Ku Klux I shall continue to so I charge them. There are twenty or J more preachers in each of these j churches in Texas now shouting for the Ku Klux, and I have a right to believe that they are doing it with the full approval and authority from the church. If I ain’t telling the truth on them, they have a mighty good way to make me out a big liar and at the same time do the country

a great public service.

The political preacher seeks to crack the Ku Klux whip over the people of this country, and having no other qualification but ignorance and arrogance, they are plunging this country into a condition of misery

trouble and despair.

My God, people, you know I am telling you the truth! How much

sented by a firm of lawyers com- ^ longer will you slumber? The house posed of two Ku Kluxers. | is afire. Day by day your life and The time should come right quick ! mine is becoming less sacred or safe, when a lawyer who represents the Every day brings the crack of the members of a Ku Klux mob should pistol and the loss of a human soul, be put in the same category with a Every day brings the cry of another lawyer who represents a rapist for, helpless woman or another helpless

money. No lawyer has got any victim.

right to demand any kind of a trial, i Yes, yes, I know it may be unpopufair or unfair, for the member of a lar to fight the big Baptist and Ku Klux mob. A. K. K. mobcrat Methodist church, but when I see gives nobody any kind of a trial, and their preachers holding out their therefore he is not entitled to one, hands for the money of the Ku Klux let alone have a lawyer educated at and surrendering their worship of i the expense of the taxpayers to help God to the hypocrisy of the hooded him defeat the ends of justice. Klan that every day somewhere outMr. Red-blooded American, read rages justice and human life, it the grand jury report where it says: makes me feel that I had rather go “In one' case, after Whipping a to my death in protest than to woman, the mob held prayer, and receive the plaudits of everybody then delivered her back to her home everywhere and hold the biggest badly beaten, and in another place office in the gift of man. left, a man and woman chained yuft* aar TP^T'Rre ‘ dying" out.

It’s not true. If they are growing

gether.”' Yea! this is the culmination of the political preacher fanaticism that has been riding this fair land for the last few years. Yea, it is none other than old Knickerbocker, himself the highest paid Methodist preacher in Texas, that has approved just such practices and out-

rages.

Any beast, laying claim to the name of man, who will beat any kind of a woman and overpower her with force and hide his damnable,

less, it is because we are Whipping J them out. As long as the Ku Klux control our legislature, as long as the Ku Klux control our executive department, as long as the adjutant general’s department is honeycombed with Ku Klux, as long as the Ku ' Klux can elect the sheriff in every big city in Texas, as long as they are trying to exercise the power of the courts, it is no time to say let them

alone. I am not going to let them

cowardly face with a mask is ' a; alone until they let this igovemment thousand times worse than the low- j alone. I am not going to let them est woman that was ever born, and! alone until they pull off the mask any man who will belong to an order j and let us know who is to blame for which has any connection with, by | these Mer Rouge, Goose Creek, Fort approval or silence^ such crimes and j Worth and Dallas outrages. It is outrages is himself a miserable cur beyond my understanding why this and a coward. Yet, beat a woman j government outlaws the I. W. W. and and then hold prayer, | the Communists for their secret Oh, Mr. Preacher Ku Kluxer, is membership and then lets the Ku that your doctrine? If it ain’t, then Klux with secret names and faces why in the Sam Hill don’t you igo to ' terrorize the country.

PAINT ROADS TO ASSIST AUTOISTS NOW BEING URGED Hoosier Auto Association Makes Suggestion To

Avoid Accidents.

ON THE MANY PAYED ROADS OVER STATE

Broad White Stripe Down

Center of Road Naturally Keeps ’Em To Right Advocating the painting of a white

line along the center of all paved highways throughout Indiana as a method of teaching ignorant drivers of vehicles to keep to the right at all times, whether anyone is coming towards you or from your rear, the Hoosier State Auto Association, the state-wide association of automobile owners has Issued a statement in which it is as-

SENATOR SAYS

BONUS WILL PASS 1

NEXTCONGRESS

Sen. H. 0. Bursum, Chairman Pension Committee

Gives His Opinion. WILL WAGE FIGHT FROM NEW ANGLE

That of Legality—Says Government Had Contracted

a “Legal Obligation.”

A KU KLUX POLICE FORCE.

The people of Muncie are wondering how long they will have to stand for a Ku Klux police force. The chief, Van Benbow, is a member of the lawless band of outlaws, cut-throats and assassins who fondly dub themselves “knights of the invisible empire,” and takes his orders from them. Kimbrough, White and Barrett claim that they do not belong to the klan, but this is hard to believe in the light of the fact that the police department is almost one hundred per cent klan. This week, in order to placate the Catholics and with the idea to offset the idea that the klan is not back of the police department, Frank Kraus, a Catholic, was reinstated on the force. Kraus was removed when the Quick administration came in, against the will of Mayor Quick. Kraus had been on the force over nineteen years, had a good record, and would have been entitled to a pension after twenty years’ service. He never should have been removed in the first place and his reinstatement is merely an act of tardy justice. Now that the best citizens of Muncie, without exception, are condemning the klan, what excuse can there be for maintaining a flock of policemen who belong to the outfit and execute the orders of an invisible, secret, super-government? Mayor Quick is the responsible head of the city government. If he so wills it, he can rid all his departments of klansmen. The people want to know why he does not do it. He joined the klan when it first started here but withdreyr and repudiated it as being a lawless and un-American organization. Chief of Police Benbow and Day Captain Ira Coons headed the klan parade a week ago Saturday bight. They marched at the head of a lawless gang who committed hundreds of gross violations of the law. s Captain Arthur Jones was statio ned at the corner of Walnut 1 1 ^ — 1 - '■Hr -arifnckssprj assaults made

on citizens oy imjpux lcu. no nw w rests but criticized those who were assaulted for not taking off their hats and for standing out in public where klan outlaws might be moved to attack them. Muncie was turned over to the ku klux klan and its hoodlums on Saturday, June 2, and no effort was made by the police to preserve law and order. If Mayor Quick is really opposed to such things why does he retain a board of safety which refuses to take cognizance of the lawless acts of policemen who are supposed to be on guard to enforce the law, not break it? Muncie has had a fair touch of the reign of the invisible empire which produced the reign of terror at Morehouse Parish, the murder of Watt Daniel and the rise to fame of “Old Skip,” the Exalted Cyclops of Morehouse Parish. The only thing that was lacking here was the murder of some opponent of the klan. Frank Barclay, a republican member of the city council, is the Old Skip of Delaware Parish. He and seven other members of the council are banded together to do anything the klan wants done. They are opposed to the mayor and block every action he attempts to make. This ku klux gang, surrounding Old Skip Barclay, give the real orders to the board of safety and the police force. The mayor has the power to remove the board of safety and appoint men who will re-organize the police force and drive the klan and its slimy, masked thugs to perdition. When will he wake up?

REED STATION EUX STRONGHOLD IS

PREACHER JONES DESERTS PUIPIT

FOU EASY MARKS! FOR KLUX KROWD

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Fall for Gab of Lame Duck Kail of Klan Kale Too Much

Preachers and Organiz-

ers of Hate.

for Preachers of Lame

Duck Variety.

Church People Portland Sky Pilot Take Piano Back; Spouted At Muncie Found They Had Bought of | Took'a Hand In Disgraceful Catholic—Merchant Who i Affair At Mnucie On Hates the Jews | Night of June 2nd.

The vicinity of Reed’s eight miles west of Muncie,

Station, j Rev. Rome G. Jones, pastor of the is a hot! West Walnut Street Church of

bed of kluxism. The genera: average of intelligence or that particular locality is considerably below par, but they are simply aell waen it comes to one hundred pe r o?nt Americanism, with ninety percent off for

cash.

It "was Reed station preacher who married a widow who owns a small store in another little hamlet, ,aud when he found that he couldn’t beat her out of all her property, deserted her after a married life of a few months. This preacher took part in the first klux parade in Muncie and carried a gun under his n'.ghtv He is not at Reed station any more and | his brother klansmen are said to | have threatened to tar and feather I him if he shows up there again.

Christ, of Portland, is another preacher who has forsaken the pulpit to throw in with the fleshpots

of the Kuklux klan.

Brother Jlones quit his job this week and it is presumed that he will follow the illustrious example of the Rev. J. Walter Gibson of Muncie, arid enter the kuklux klan lecture

field exclusively.

Jones did the wind work for the klan at the Muncie fair grounds a week ago Saturday night, following the parade in which klan sluggers and thugs assaulted and insulted hundreds of citizens of Muncie. One horse preachers of the lame duck variety have found the klan to be a ripe field for exploitation. The ! klan needs all kinds of people in its

Last week a church congregation; organization. Crooks and confidence out that way bought a piano of a; men are i n constant demand to fill Muncie dealer. The piano was haul- j the ranks of organizers, bootleggers ed out to the church and 'when the . an( j booze fighters are chosen to do |! v„ vi,,„ put that!-ilS rough w'ork and preaciiBfs "of the the dealer who sold it was a Catho- j Jones and Gibson type, can always lie, they took the piano back to the j fi n( j employment, at high wages, store and bought one of a klansman. | shooting, the bull at alleged Ameri-

Another small store keeper, near; can i za tjon meetings.

Reed Station is a rabid klansman; After taking part in the Muncie [who puts in most of his time cussing demonstration the Rev. Jones is cat1 Catholics, Jews and negroes. He is i egoried by Muncie people along with especially vindictive toward the the hoodlums for whom he spoke at Jews. They may be God’s chosen the fair grounds. Any man, preachpeople, says he, but, he opines, God e r or bootlegger, who is willing to made a poor choice when he picked acknowledge thdt he belongs to, and out the Jews. believes in, the ku klux klan, after So emphatic is this fellow in his ^ ‘witnessing the revolting spectacle in denunciation of the sons and daugh- \ Muncie on the night of June 2, is not ters of Isreal, that his hearers shud- a good citizen or a good American, dered when he spoke and feared for j Such people are regarded as outthe safety of the Muncie tribe of j laws by decent citizens. The Rev.

Judah. “He’ll just up and put on his mask some night and knock ’em a Je'w curve,” was the confident prediction of his awe struck admirers

and satellites.

But something happened recently

which has taken the gab out of this purveyor of miscellaneous merchandise. One of his patrons entered the store one night, bought a pair of overalls for a dollar and thirty-five cents and after hearing him cuss the

Jews for a hour or so, went home. After arriving home he examined

the overalls for which he had paid the klux Jew baiter a dollar thirtyflive and to his profound astonishment found a price tag on one of the legs marked “Hub Clothing Store,

Muncie, Ind., Price 89 Cents

Indiana White Cap Law Sufficient To Cover Muncie Case

Washington, June 15.—Predicting enactment of a $1,2000,000 adjustment compensation bill by the next congress, Senator Holm O. Bursum, republican of New Mexico, chairman of the senate pension committee, announced the bonus fight in behalf of America’s 4,000,000 world war veterans j

iSSUCU. CL O CCli CKslXXKsAJ. tj *XJL ». ^

serted that several states are already i would be waged from a new angle—

adopting such safety lines with excel-! that of legality.

lent results. , The government, Senator Bursum “It has been found that a broad white said, had contracted a “legal otiligastripe down the center of a concrete tion” by forcing its soldiers to pay or asphalt road just naturally keeps their own insurance, and in forcing the drivers to the right of it,” the auto allotments during the war. He cited association states. “At night this is state compensation acts, affecting especially valuable to motorists who time employment to emphasize

have to pass other cars with bright government’s obligation,

headlights. The drivers can always Furthermore Bursum declared, the see the white line and each knows that bonus hill when passed will he signed if they keep well to the right of it by President Harding. If not, he said, they can pass each other safely. Such there are enough votes to pass it over

a line is also valuable in passing an-,his veto

The Indiana white cap law, enacted a number of years ago when disguised vigul^ntes terrorized southern Indiana, is sufficient, if enforced,

(

to convict every man connected with the klan outrages perpetrated on the

night of June second.

This law provides for imprisonment in states prison for thos3 who participate in nocturnal performances while disguised. Where two or more persons, in disguise, meet on the public highway for the purpose

ing inoffending bystanders who refused to remove their hats to the

klan.

There is plenty of evidence that the conspiracy was carefully worked out. Many of the masked men carried flash lights which they used to search out men who had not removed their hats. This was evi-

dently prearranged,

strangers were directed by masked klansmen to attack certain persons along the line of march. This wa^

also carefully organized.

It is the duty of the prosecutor to investigate and prosecute under this law, but of course he will not do so, since he is a klansman himself, and in sympathy with the klan outlawry

20,000-Pound Sea Monster Is Landed After Long Fight

Jones and other preachers of his type, who atempt to camouflage the real purpose of the klan by a fake cloak of religion, are traitors to the cause of Christianity and should: be shunned and scorned by( all right thinking people. Of course the klan rewards preachers who are willing to prostitute their high calling for the dollars that are grafted and filched from easy marks, and the only excuse that can be offered for a clergyman who deserts the pulpit for the blood money of the klan is that his desire for gain outweighs his sense of duty to

his flock.

The klan has disrupted churches in every town and city in Indiana where the so called invisible empire

When the story got around that! has gained foothold. No true spokes the ku klux country merchant who | man for the Master would think for professed to be such a deadly enemy j a minute of consorting With the gang

Jacksonville, Fla., June 15.—A huge monster, thirty-two feet long.

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PAYROLL PATRIOTS ATTENDED REPUBLICAN LOVE FEAST IN MUNCIE MONDAY

me yuunv. ^ I Citizens here are demanding a full | jj ia ^ required a constant fight until of violating the law, they are guilty j investigation and Vill get it sooner | late yesterday to land it. Dispatches

of a felony and in case of conviction; 0 r later. --- — j

tk e { shall be sent to the states prison for a period of not less than two years.

That is the Indiana state law. The | French surgeon, Morel, in 1674.

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was evi-i sea inonsler > tnircy-iwu i.eet iuu 6 , j Four hundred enthusiastic republic Unmasked j twenty feet around and estimated to I cans attended the Eighth District free weigh more than 20,000 pounds, has lunch and wind-jamming contest held been landed at Long Key, after a day’s j a t the Elks’ home in Muncie last Mon-

struggle, in which fifty bullets from a | day high-powered rifle were fired into it, I

according to a telegram last night to 11 was a great assemblage ot payroll the Times Union from Claude Nolan,' Patriots, presided over by the king pin one of the party of fishermen that cap-'machine republican politician of the

Eighth Congressional district—Billy Williams, who draws a salary as in-

firmary superintendent.

Looking over the crowd an independent observer declared that of the four hundred present all with the exception of newspaper reporters, were drawing salaries either from the government, state, county, township or municipality from which they hailed. Every road superintendent in the district and most of their sub-bosses,

turgd the prize.

The monster was harpooned Saturday evening, but put up a struggle

from Miami stated that efforts were being made in behalf of the American

The tourniquet was invented by a [ Museum of Natural History of New

York to obtain the huge fish. It was

klan met a week ago Saturday night, j Knights were frequently killed in j classified as belonging to the class of There were twenty five hundred of the tilting contests of olden days, j rhynodon, by Louis L. Mowbray, forthem in disguise on the public high- j When a rock is relatively dry it 1 mer director of the Miami Aquarium

way. They had previously con- . i s not greatly damaged by exposure 1 and now connected with the New York 1 we re there, federal prohibition ofllcers j^^o. _ spired to violate the la'w, by assault- to freezing. !,Aquarium, who is, at Long Key. I helped swell the mob, township trus-jare yet to be heard from.

tees, state officers, county officers, revenue collectors and what not, were on hand—everybody was there, in fact, but the people who pay the taxes which fill the kettles from which the enthusiastic four hundred get theirs. Jim Watson, Senator Jim, was there at his best and before he had finished speaking he had clearly convinced the four hundred republican job holders that the only way to save the nation, and keep the devoted four hundred on the payroll for another four years, is to re-elect that peerless statesman—

Warren Gamaliel Harding.

“We are all in harmony,” declared the redoubtable Senator Jim, and his statement stands unchallenged. It was a harmonious gathering of tax eaters who heartily agreed that the way to save the nation is to keep their jobs. Their employers, the taxpayers.