Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 31 August 1923 — Page 1

THE

THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER IN DELAWARE COUNTY MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT

VOLUME 3. NO. 33

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRtDAY, AUGUST 31, 1923.

KLAN WEAKENED

KLAN OUTRAGE AT ELWOOD CAUSES FLOOD OF PROTEST Four Soldiers Of The World War Attacked And Beaten By Mob Of 200.

NAZARENE MINISTER LEADS KLAN MOB Desecrated Colors At Half Mast By Placing Fiery Cross On Flag Staff. (By Staff Correspondent) Elwood, Ind., Aug. 31—In the light of a klan outrage which happened ^ at Elwood on the night of Saturday, | Aug. 18, the moans which are now | ascending to heaven because of the j Steubenville, Carnegie and New Jer-1 sey debacles are not particularly impressive in this section of the middle west. On that night over two hundred unmasked followers of the fiery cross of hatred, acting as an .advance escort for a parade of robed >Rlansmen, assaulted and beat up five young men who refused to doff their hats to’ the invisible empire. Four of the men attacked were soldiers of the world’s war. The fifth, a Vother of two of the klan victims, was a youth who was too young for military service during war time. As the parade came down the main street of Elwood Bernard and Arthur Bradley and Frank and Peter Farina were standing on the sideih fi'oh’t-of &'• cigar-otcfrsr -Although they had fought for their country, and had proved their patriotism and loyalty to American institutions, they failed to measure up to klan specifications. All four are Catholics and the Farina boys are of Italian parentage, although they were born nd reared in Alexandria. The mob saw them and yelled at them to take off their hats. Rather than have trouble the young men stepped back into the cigar store “Go get ’em!” was the order from one of the masked marchers, and the mob, led by a Nazarine preacher who has been arrested several times ou charges of wife beating, rushed into the cigar store and attacked the four young men. Singlle handed the four battled for some time with a mob of two hundred klansmen and the two Italian youths were severely beaten and bruised. “I never expected to get out of it alive,’’ said one of the klan victims to the Post-Democrat. “The howling mob rushed us to the rear of the pool room. There must have been at least two hundred of them, yelling

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Iklll them, get a rope and hang tbem!’ We fought as best we could but were simply overpowered by weight of numbers. The only thing that saved us was the fact that they were so thick that they simply fell over each other in their murderous frenzy. Many of the klansmen accidentally struck each other, but all of us were struck many times. One of the Farina boys says he must have been struck on the chin alone at least twenty times and other parts of his face and body were bruised.’’ And this brave act was performed by “one hundred percent Americans” who believe in law and order, who proved their love of fair play by taking odds of forty to one and who demonstrated that they are a Christian organization by following the lead of a preacher who licks his wife. Louis Farina, a mere boy, hearing of the danger of his brothers, tried to force his way through the murderous mob to reach the side of the four who were attacked, aud he was beaten into insensibility. A dozen of the heroic klansmen struck him at once and one of them, said to be a taxi driver named Albert Garner, struck him with a black jack, inflicting a severe wound. The chief of police, Clifford Walters, forced his way through the cowardly klan gangsters and after heroic efforts succeeded in rescuing the five victims of the would-be murderers. One of the klansmen, resenting the interference of the chief,; struck the officer with his fist, black- j ing his eye. This exhibition of klan ruffianism | has stirred Elwood to the deepest re-! sentment and if officials can be in- j duced to prosecute, criminal charges! will be pushed against those of the : mob who can be identified as having | taken a part in the attack of two j hundred oil fLydfcX-—. Elwood is in the grip of the klan. Mayor Alvin Faust, a democrat, who by the way solicited and received nearly all of the Catholic votes in Elwood, belongs to the organization and while the chief of police is declared not to be a member, nine of his ten subordinates on the force are said to be klansmen. To show the complete subserviency of the city administration to the invisible empire, it is stated that on the night of the parade and attempted j murder of a helpless minority by a | mob of two hundred, the flag at half; mast on the city building, as*a token., of respect to the dead president, was furled at full float and 4ust below it on the flag staff, was placed an electrically lighted fiery cross. This is mentioned as a glaring example of flag desecration and as a sample of klan respect for a dead president, by flying the city flag at top mast in conjunction with a ‘‘fiery cross” at a time of mourning for a dead chief executive of the nation, when decency and ethical ob-

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KLAN MUST DO SOMETHING TO SURVIVE IN GRANT COUNTY SHERIFF MAKES FISH OF ONE AND FOWL OF THE OTHER.

(By Staff Correspondent) just think for one moment you will Marion, Ind., Aug. 31—The staff know there is absolutely nothing to correspondent of the Post, after hav- it, so why should you glorify this ing been advised of a Grant County shirt tail parade with your presence. Klux meeting to be held in Marion The better class of citizens are thereon Labor Day, September the third, fore^ asking that all persons not in discovers that it is a rally instituted, sympathy with the Klan will not by Ex. Sen., Ex. Klegal, Ex. Cyclops, i look on their childish antics, just let Constable Titan Hogston and G. Rot-j them walk around by themselves

ten Booth, to stiffen up their membership, about one half of whom are trying to get out or leastwise are not paying their dues, so they must have a big demonstration and parade in order to give them courage just as they have done in other places when the organization is on the decline. It is thought that the people of Marlon are not going to be further fooled by them. In fact the better class of citizens are wondering how there can be any kick to watching Alf. Hogs-

awhile. Then they will go home where they should have remained, so that they might better take up the important things of life on the following day. KLUX MEETING HELD ON TUBSDAY, AUGUST 21st. Titan Alf. Hogston made a speech on love; they say he has made this so many times he is getting near good at it. Next a couple of members were taken in from put in the high grass

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Dale to Start Indianapolis Weekly

It may be of interest to readers of the Post-Democrat to know that a new publication, to be known as “Dale’s Weekly” will be launched at Indianapolis in the near future. The new publication will be edited by George R. Dale, editor and owner of the Post-Democfat, the policies and management of the latter to remain under the same control as at present. The Indianapolis weekly will be absolutely non partisan and will deal largely with the Ku Klux Klan and its bold attempt to obtain political control of the state and nation. Owing to his experience as a writer on this subject, the editor of the Post-pemocrat has received numberless requests from people residing in Indiana and adjoining states to turn his attention to the larger field and we are now doing it, firm in the belief that Dale’s Weekly will receive enthusiastic support from those persons who recognize in the klan a deadly menace to our national independence. In order to be absolved from the charge of operating on a onetrack mind schedule, the new Weekly will discuss politics and politicians from other standpoints. We will discuss public officials and aspirants for public office and endeavor to take them apart and show the people what makes the wheels go ’round. This will be done in a non partisan way and our policy will be to tell the truth, no matter which party’s interests might be affected. The klan will be the big thing in politics in Indiana and Ohio next year. This is a truth which is privately conceded by politicians who fear to breathe it out loud. Indiana has the largest percentage of klansmen and klanswomen of any state in the union. Ohio has the largest membership and comes next to Indiana in ••percentage.-- —••-- Klansmen openly boast that they will control the destinies of both states in the elections of 1924. Candidates for every state and legislative office in both states are being groomed and the klan will succeed in nominating and electing them unless it is met by an organization that is just as determined and as resourceful as that of the klan. It will be the province of Dale’s Weekly to organize the thought of those who are opposed to the klan; to make them see that the klan expects to pull off a huge non-political conspiracy and that men and women of all parties who do not relish the thought of being forced into involuntary citizenship of an invisible empire, must forget their politics long enough to wipe out this treasonable enterprise. Indianapolis, the capital of the state of Indiana, the very heart of kluxism, is the ideal location for a popular priced publication of this character and it is predicted that it will have & C1 f‘ culation from the very start. It is the hope of the publisher o cover Indiana ancj Ohio first and then reach out m other states, as it becomes more firmly established. The klan, as it relates to politics in all parts of the union, will be discussed, and the truth about the invisible empire, as related by writers of prominence and leading publications of America, will be featured in tvery issue. - It is the hope of the publisher of the new paper to organize an army of readers who will meet the klan on its own ground: To meet force with superior force and political organization with a still better organization.

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE

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White Flag Instead Of The Red, White And Blue Is Now The Emblem Of Muncie Klan Number Four.

Much to the disappointment o£ At Houston, Texas, the cowardly* thousands, who had armed themselves klan quit whipping defenseless vicand were all set to maul a little tims at night over a year ago after sense into a mess of klansmen, the I the open announcement was made much talked of klan parade and klan! that for every klan whipping there-

marriage-fest, was not pulled off in Muncie last Saturday night. The big doin’s had been extensively advertised In Muncie and surrounding cities and towns, but when the time came the brave wearers of sheet and mask weakened and like the yaller bunch that they are, crawled into a hole and pulled the

hole in after them.

In fact, their one hundred percent Americanism shrunk to about one tenth of the half of one percent. Even, the apparent relenting of the Post-Democrat, which tried to coax them into walking into the trap by withdrawing its threat of sicking

after two klansmen would be taken out and horse whipped. On the night of June 2 an armed and arrogant gang of masked and unmasked (klansmen assaulted citizens of Muncie right and left, without the slightest provocation. They merely did it because they were Out in numbers, because the police and sheriff ! had arranged to protect them and because they knew the bystanders were unprepared to meet the prearranged

attack.

The memory of that night has rankled in Muncie and threats were openly made that another klan parade in Muncie would be the signal

the dogs on the cheap skates, didn’t i for a finish fight. The people dis-

work worth a darn. The cyclopses and kleagles and weasels and boll weevils and cockroaches of the Muncie klan were so scared that they couldn’t have been dragged into a parade with a team of oxen. As the hour of sacrifice drew nigh the old yaller came up in their necks and the goose flesh came out so prominently on the valiant “knights” that you could strike a parlor match on their backs. It dawned upon, them as the great day of the mapuage feast and parade approached that the people of Muncie had not forgotten the night of June 2 and that hell wasn’t more than a half mile away. Events have happening--lately which have tended to chill the klan alimentary to its uttermost parts. At Steubenville a mob mussed up a klan parade and sent most of the happy marchers to the hospital. In Oklahoma five confessed klansmen who helped whip an old man sixty years of age were sent to the penitentiary and there are more to follow. At Carnegie, Penn., a procession of masked klansmen ran afoul of an unmasked crowd and when the fight was over one klansman was sent to the undertakers and all the doctors in town were kept busy half a day patching up the others. On the morning after, according to press dispatches, the streets of the Pittsburg suburb were littered with scraps of white rags which had once been perfectly good white robes, costing the wearers thereof $6.50 each, F. O. B. Atlanta. At Perth-Amboy, New Jersey, Thursday night a gang of masked Kluxers were battered, scattered and splattered. And the doctors have been kept busy ever since caring for

the casualties.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific,

covered on the night of June 2 that nothing could be expected in the way of protection from the police and sheriff, who were accessories in the other melee, so they prepared to take the law in their own hands, which is perfectly proper, inasmuch as the police department is not on the side of law and order, but on the side of treason and anarchy. Preparations were quietly made in Muncie to give the klansmen a dose of their own medicine if they attempted to pull off the announced parade. Many of the very best citizens of Muncie were out that night with blood in theiff eye and it was really -fortunate that the- cowardly klan backed up and called the parade off. The klan had no stomach for an even combat. What it considers a fair and even fight is for fifty or sixty masked ruffians to pull some poor, old spavined cuss out of bed at night and whip him or to drag some sick woman a mile or two out in the woods and cover her with tar

and feathers.

Until the klan two years ago started its unbridled campaign of murder, midnight assault, boycott and racial and religious discrimination, our citizenship were at peace, one with another. That peace has now departed. Straight thinking people pleaded with the crazed fanatics who followed after the whirling dervishes at the head of the klan to let the rotten thing alone and were cursed for their pains. Mob rule reigns in most parts of Indiana and Ohio today, but mobs are always cowardly and now that the people have organized to defend themselves from the attacks of the wizard’s imps, the white flag has become the colors of the klan. In Muncie for over a year people have been assaulted, unjustly prose-

-w, J

j the worm has turned and the terror- i cu t el L unfairly treated by the polict

ism of the klan will be met in kind. *

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The New York Times Nominates Kaiser For Imperial Wizard

ton ride a ring boned, windbroken | someplace. Of course those misguid-

plug around the public square with a sheet on or any thrill to hearing Burr Custer bUeat out the doleful hate call on a brase trumpet. Gentle readers, these Ku Klux affairs are all alike and If yon will

ed misfits have not come too as yet. Then a speech by G. Raymond. My how thesp fellows like the sound of their voice. Rule adopted and placed on the minutes that members in arrears

Out in Steubenville, Ohio, the Ku Klux Klan has been compelled to take a dose of its own medicine. At a meeting of Klansmen, an outsider objected to the Klan’s use of the American flag—a prescriptive and exclusive right according to most Klan doctrine. A fight started, in which, according to news dispatches, a hundred Klansmen had to stand off three thousand meddlers, and got the worst of it The odds were even greater, if you believe the Klan version. The enemy outnumbered the Klansmen two hundred to one. Doubtless the hostile mob looked larger to excited partisans who had the small end of the fight; but the Interesting aspect of the case Is that the Klan la loud and

furious in its denunciation of this mob violence, and announces that it will prosecute everybody implicated in the riot. The Klan goes further. It demands the resignation of the Mayor and Chief of Police because they permitted a lawless outbreak. In a somewhat impassioned outburst it urges the citizens of Steubenville to stop digging their own graves. In other words, it insists that the Mayor get out because he lets other people be rough with the Klan. We have never heard of the Klan’s demanding the resignation of a Mayor who ilbt the Klan be rough with other people. When Klansmen put on their masks and sheets and go out to do a little regulating, thirty to one is considered fair enougk odds. Anybody who finds himself se - upon, single-handed by two hundred'Klansmen is merely out of luck and getting what his Iniquitous mode of life deserves. But when the K msmen are set upon by a larger m< >, then there are

piteous whines and a hasty rush for the protection of the law which the Klan supersedes so long as it has the upper hand. It is exactly the attitude of the Germans during the war. When they bombed, cities and used poison gas, it was a necessary and healthful act, a fulfilliment of Germany’s manifest destiny. When the Allies in retaliation bombed cities and used poison gas, it was an infamous outrage against the principles of humanity. The exile of Doom would seem to be the logical candidate for the Imperial Wizardship.—New York Times. o Tom Miller is now ace high in the city court. Has Judge Coons eating out of his hand. When Tom threatened to start a nuisance charge against Bob Graves it scared ’em. Tom got three acquitted of liquor charges and one let off with a fifty dollar fine in the past week. Moral: Hire Tom. This Is not an advertisement.

CORRESPONDENT WANTS TO KNOW WHYTHEHANNAHSDO NOT ADOPT THE CHILDREN THEMSELVES

A friend, signing himself “An Ardent Post-Democrat Reader” recently mailed us a clipping from the Press which relates the anxiety of the Dr. E. E, Hannah family to find hemes for four little orphans. It seems, according to the clipping that the Hannahs have been “frantically using the telephone,” trying to locate homes for these orphans. Commenting on the sudden devotion of the Dr. Hannahs to the cause of childhood our correspondent caustically remarks: “Thinlking that perhaps that your eagle eye had overlooked a fine article of comment for your enterprising newspaper, I wish to take the liberty of sending attached hereto the article referred to. In this article you will note that it is chuck full of pity, which almost makes the writer hereof cry with grief, but, somehow or other the person behind the movement seems to he wanting some newspaper publicity so as to

increase a quack osteopath business I wish to ask you this questior “Why in the hell don’t sister Hanna and her quach| osteopath husban take one or all of them in their ow: home? Or, why in the hell don’t he big brothers of the shirt tail gan give them a home, or her sisters th Kluckerins? You will recall that sh is the lady kluckerino that furnishe your industrious paper some vain able news regarding the organizing c the Kluckerinos here some time paa You will also recall that her hus band was very much shot at in India napolis, Indiana, a few years ago b a woman that missed her mark, wh should have been sent to prison fc life for not being more true to ain If you will look real closely at th article in the press, it fairly reek with shame, in the face of such hyj ocrites as the ones back of it. W assume that the children, are resident of Elwood, Indiana, the former horn of Mrs. Hannah the Muncie Kluckei tno.”