Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 2 January 1925 — Page 1

ANTI-KLAN DEMOCRATIC

THE POST-DEMOCRAT

VOLUME 4—NUMBER 48

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY. JANUARY 1, 1925.

TEN CENTS A COPY—$3.00 A YEAR

STEVENS AFTER |C0L. WM. SIMMONS NOT SWANK’S SCALP j BLAMED FOR KLAN EVILS

Says Swank Is Getting too Chesty And Must Quit Windy Is Experiencing Some Difficulty In Finding a Reason for Canning the Chief. Newark, 0., Jan. 2.—And now His Most Puissant Highness, Stevens the Windy One, has trained his guns ifpon the erstwhile sharer of his honors and perquisites— particularly prequisities—Chief of Police Charles Swank. Various reasons are given for Windy’s sudden change of front, but probably the real reason is that Swank has seen how rapidly Windy’s influence has dwindled and is ready to throw in with the Fitzsimmons-Taylor-Harris

bunch.

PREACHERS ARE SPREADING HATE AND INTOLERANCE

Another reason for Swank’s desertion is the refusal'of Windy to permit Swank to run for sheriff last fall. And the fact that Swank was given a boost in .salary didn’t heal the sore spot—not by a jug full. < New Windy is tearing his shirt— likewise his shimmy—in an effort to get rid of Swank. He can’t prefer charges without involving himself— and the civil service commission belongs to the Fitzsimmons-Taylor-Harris gang of Klanarchists, also known as the Independent Klan of the North. That organization, by the way, is the old K. K. K. under another name. All the difference lies

Men Filling Logansport Pulpits Scorn Bible Teachings.

KASS COUNTY ROOTIES

Logansport, Jan. 2.—As the curtain

utnei u «mo. .... ' s bBi »S ™ n g down On the year 1924, TtT i.: •' lact taat The’'btlVcers do not ' and wd ..iv x : b,„ iag tlf> trfclilyiT

have fancy titles, and that is because the rank ar 1 file could’nt spell the various titl 4.

—o—

FULK ST XKS C ARDS ON BUDGET COIOnSSION When Clamorous Fulk was a mem- 1 her of the council finance committee j he pulled a stunt that was decidedly j unethiqal, to say the least. The Budget Commission had held | a meeting and apportioned the avail- j aWe city funds to the various depart- j ments. This budget was sent to the j city council for approval. At this point Fulk, as a member | of the finance committee, got in his dlrtly work. HdL was not satisfied with the way the money was apportioned, nor the amount appropriated and secretly and without authority, changed the ordinance to suit himself, presenting the altered ordinance to the council as coming from the budget commissionAs the council had confidence in the Budget Commission the ordinance was passed without close inspection. This may be news to some council members, but the records will prove it to be true. Moral—Keep your eyes open when dealin with Clamorous Fulk.

WILL THE NEW PUMP WOKK WHEN INSTALLED That is a question agitating the minds of those familiar with the Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Co., of Hamilton, Ohio, who have contracted with the Klanarchist administration to furnish a pump for the water works at a cost of about $50,000. As a matter of fact, this company never made a pump of the size contracted for, and this city is placed in the position of paying for the experiments of the pump company. Of course the fact that the H. O. R. company was a K. K. K. concern gave them an edge on other bidders- In fact there are those who go so far as to say that the successful bidders knew exactly what they were bidding against when their bid was tedIn any event, it v/ould be the part of wisdom to have the new pump inspected thoroughly by a really competent disinterested engineer before the city accepts it. To get a disinterested engineer it will be necessary to bar any member of the K. K. K. In this case K. K. K. stands for Krooked, Krookeder, Krookedest. May be poor grammar, but it’s the truth. HOW THEY SPENT CHRISTMAS. Windy Stevens—explaining why to (Continued To Page Three.)

sary of the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, the source of kive, the Saviour of all mankind, be they Jew or Gentile, white or black, American or foreign born, we had hoped that we had reached the end of the string, so far as the ministers, who stand for intolerance is concerned. But such is not the case, as the Wheatland Avenue M. E. Church is brought to our attention, and we are told that the great majority of the members of this church are members of the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Hartley is the man who plays the stellar role, as preacher, claiming to feed the sheep, but from all the data we can glean we are suspicious that his flock are mostly made up of a Buttin’ Brigade, namely, “Goats.” We sincerely believe that that sort of religion will soon be a part of history, as the members of that church or any other church who are desirous of leading Christian lives and who possess a Bible and read the commandments therein, which commands each and every one of us to , “Love God above all things and our neighbor as ourself,” hear their minister preach anything contrary to the Commandments of the Master, will turn in disgust and seek the religion of the minister who preaches “Jesus and Love.” We had hoped that perhaps, some of those bigoted ministers would become imbued with the Christmas spirit, and sell their hammer and buy a horn and line up with the rest of us in the ranks of Christ Jesus, the only 100 per cent man that whs or ever will be born. We would like to meet the man or woman living in the world today, who has the brass to claim perfection, 100 per cent Eh? That is just what the Post Democrat is showing up, the supposed one hundred percenter. That reminds us of the Biblical story, the Pharisee and the Publican, of course, all Ku Kluxers stand with the Pharisee. Despite the fact that the Bishops of the Methodist church denounced and condemned the organization, known as the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. at their National Conference, still some of their pulpits are filled with Insincere men, who profess Christianity. How much longer the community will be infested with that specie of preacher, remains to be seen. Logansport dumped one apostate, in the personage of Simons, of the Main Street Methodist, also “Judas” Wachintz, old Cal Swininger’s right hand bower, who found College Hill and Cass County too hot, and (Continued to Page Four)

Disillusionment!

Thei'e are something like two hundred thousand klansmen and former klansmen in the state of Indiana. There are also

thousands of women who became members of the order.

It would be idle to declare that the majority of these people were not convinced that they had joined an organization which

stood for the things its leaders declared it stood for.

How basely they were deceived becomes apparent as the real

purposes of the klan leaders unfold themselves.

Using the Holy Bible and the flag of our country as their chief exhibits, Imperial Wizard Evans and his staff of confidence men have prostituted Christianity, betrayed their country and deceived and robbed their own followers in order to enrich them-

selves and attain political power.

Those who joined the Ku Klux Alan were impressed by its platitudes. To be a “one hundred percent American,” at a trifling cost of ten dollars, seemed to them an inestimable privi-

lege.

Gazing upward at the starry emblem of freedom they were blissfully oblivious of the immediate “split” of the ten dollar purchase price of Americanism. If their glances had been earthward they would have witnessed an immediate meeting, behind the barn, of Wizard Evans, Grand Dragon Bossert and the lesser grafters, each claiming his particular percentage of the ten dollar

fee.

In subscribing to separation of church and state, belief in God and resistance to the program of any individual, organization or church that holds its allegiance to any foreign power, either acclesiactic or temporal, to be superior to its obligations to the government, the klansman was bunkoed into paying ten dollars for the acquirement of a diploma which is graven in the heart of every good citizen, Catholic,' Piutestani, Jew, Gentiie or Negro. The klan leaders craftily commercialized the virtues. Imposing upon the natural tendency of good citizens to love their country, protect their women and stand for proper obedience to the law, Evans and his gold brick specialists placed these precious attributes of good citizenship on the shelves of commerce and sold them in ten dollar packages to all who would buy. Indiana klansmen today are a sadly disillusioned lot. Eighty percent of those who joined have dropped out and of the twenty percent remaining the majority are staying in either for the money there is in it or for some other selfish purpose. The thing that killed the klan in Indiana was the discovery that its leaders are all crooked and insincere and that the klan is being operated by its southern boss as a hate machine and a murder factory. Those who opposed the klan knew these things from the start, but the members were loth to surrender their belief in their leaders. I know hundreds of klansmen in Muncie and I do not believe that one of them, in his heart, hates the Catholic, Jew or Negro. Practically all of them were induced to join in the belief that they were becoming members of a great protective organization. Nothing was said by the “kleagle” who snared them about whipping negroes, closing the parochial schools, disfranchising Catholics, demonetizing the Israelite, packing juries, controlling judges and mayors, prosecuting those who oppose the klan and protecting its criminals and running the politics of the nation. But these things all cropped out. Negroes and whites were indiscriminately beaten in Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisiana and other southern states. Murder became a common thing. Law and order became a mockery and courts in many localities degenerated into mere instruments of torture for the Ku Klux Klan. When Wizard Evans publicly announced a few months ago that the klan was not in politics, every klansman knew him to be an unmitigated liar. The trouble with Evans and his crew is that they pressed their luck too long with the iron dupes. They made the mistake of lying too crudely. To be a good liar one should use some ingenuity and when Evans told his own people that the klan was not in politics, and then openly ordered his henchmen in every state to get into politics, it was even too much for klansmen. They also grew weary of hearing klan “lectures” cursing Catholics, Jews and Negroes in the privacy of the “klavern” and then feeding the general public with the old stuff about the klan being,the Negro’s best friend and that it has nothing in the world against the Catholic and Jew. They also grew very tired of giving up their money to a bunch of grafters who gave them nothing in return for it except a promise that further collections would be made. It is now “the morning after the night before” with a vast majority of Indiana klansmen. They have had a bellyfull of hate and are fed up on hot air. They blush when they remember how they used to stray abroad at night, masked and clad in a nightshirt which only served to emphasize and exaggerate the size of the brogans peeping out below. They want to forget it all and become rational, normal citizens again. In Muncie the klan has practically disappeared. The

(Continued to Page Two)

Founded Klan With High Ideals, Which Others Disgraced Continuation of “Origin of the Klan” Showing How Scheming and Disreputable Persons Spread Hatred and Intolerance and Entered Politics for Gain.

(By George R. Dale) In the first of my series of articles on the old klan, appearing in the issue of December 19, I involuntarily did an injustice to William Joseph Simmons, the founder of that organization, by the publication of one paragraph which requires a fuller explanation than was given at the time. It was stated, “The founder of the klan of today, William Joseph Simmons, declares it to be a ‘reincarnation’ of the Ku Klux Klan of 1866-1871 and its history of murder, outraged and political treachery for the past five years bears out this claim to perfection.” i Strange as it may seem to some, who know my persist- ; ent and determined opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, Col. | Simmons is my personal friend, whom I hold in great es- ! teem, and I want my readers to get the proper angle on j Colonel Simmons’ conception of the klan and what it de- | generated into after the mercenaries took it in hand.

Greek Letter Screen Used By Klansmen In New York Srate

New York, Jan. 2, 1925.—The Ku Klux Klan, commonly inclined io lurk behind mask and sheet, has decided in the State of New York to withdraw still further from the public view, surrendering even its name in favor of Greek letters such as college societies adopt as symbols of classic learning, if Klan records brought to the attention of State officials here are to be trusted. There has been incorporated in New York an organization known as Alpha Pi Sigma, significant, it is said of A. P. S., which in turn are the letters standing for “American Patriotic Society,” a name sometimes used in Klan activities. When the incorporation papers were filed with the Secretary of State, their significance was not known to either that official or the State Attorney General. Alpha Pi Sigma is described as “a purely fraternal, patriotic society,” j and the papers add that it will own ! and .control all regalia necessary in ; its affairs and will hold meetings in j groves. Its affairs are to be nation- ' wide. It is said that high officials of the ; klan are the officers of the new body i and that the klan kleagle here is its | president. It also is said that the so ] ciety was created by the Klan to ov : ercome difficulties met when untime j ly alterations in Klan incorporation papers brought on nullification proceedings against the incorporation of the hooded order. Passages in the papers of the Klan and of the new society are strikingly similar.

j I do not believe that Williai 'Joseph Simmons had a sing: 'mercenary thought when I ; conceived the idea of the klai ; T do not thr.ik he ever.: Jree.::L 'that it would develop into a pi litical moloch or that it was des tined to deluge America wit hnurder and innumerable crime | of violence.

Klansmen Sentenced For Robbing Church

Burlington, Vt.,—William C. Moyers, Ku Klux Klan organizer, has been sentenced to from two to three years at hard labor in the House of Correction, at Windsor, Vt., after pleading guilty to the charge of grand I larceny from St. Mary Cathedral here, last August. William E. McCreedy and Gordon Wells, implicated with Moyers in the robbery, received sentences of from four to six months at hard labor. McCreedy and Wells pleaded not guilty and were convicted of petit larceny after a jury trial. It was brought out that Moyers received $4 out of every $10 initiation fee paid by Klan neophytes.

QUIT IT COLD Colonel Simmons has withdraw! wholly from the Ku Klux Klan anc he publicly proclaims his abhorrence of the crimes it is committing today in the name of Jehovah and the con stitution of the United States. I have before me a letter written by a former klansman and a devotee friend of Colonel Simmons. He says in part: “I hold no brief for the moderr klan and offer no defense for its. pro grams and practices. Neither do I en dorse or sanction its preachments o: religious intolerance and its creed o: hatred for all and sundry who choose to exebcise their constitutional right: of thinking for themselves and dis agreeing with said programs ant practices. I certainly have no sym pathy for its secret political machin ations and its apparent desire to se cure control of the governmenta reins of our nation.” Speaking of Colonel Simmons, he says: “In justice to Colonel Simmons who incidentally no longer has con nection with the organization, be cause of its departure from the paths charted for its feet to tread, I desire to correct the impression that the present program, policies and prac tices were contemplated or had origir in his mentality. His great heart u sad and his soul is in anguish ovei the prostitution of his ‘brain child, its departure from the road of higl idealism and its present wanderings in the slough of despond. HAD A PROGRAM He then cites some of the idealisth plans of Colonel Simmons including a great university, a tubercular sani tarium and hospitals for the treat ment of narcotic addicts, qpncluding under this head with the bitter deola ration that “the Klan of today is un able to show, as the result of any program they may have, two bricks joined together with motar, intendec for the uplift, the education or th<: physical healing of sick and suffering humanity.” This remarkable letter concludes with the following paragraphs: “These things were the envision ment of Colonel William Joseph Sim mons and to which he dedicated him self for their fulfillment. That thess idealistic and humanitarian programs (Continued To Page Three.)