Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 1, DeMotte, Jasper County, 22 November 1946 — GATES SAYS NEW KLAN WILL BE SMASHED [ARTICLE]

GATES SAYS NEW KLAN WILL BE SMASHED

Governor In Fiery Declaration says there ! Will Be No Repetition of Pre-War Days We are going to smash the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. I shall ask the Indiana General ■ Assembly.i which meets January, to ! enact legislation outlawing the j Klan, Columbians, Inc., and all other organizations which live only | on religious and racial hatreds.. ’ I This action would conform to the high principles of our State Constitution and I believe that the Legislature will support my recommendation. Also, the Attorney General of Indiana now is conducting an investigation which probably will result in the filing of court action likewise to oust the Klan. He has wisely consulted the authorities of Kentucky and Georgia, who also have taken courageous steps to fight bigotry. We know that this hate-breed-ing organization is attempting to revive itself from oblivion, because its new Indiana King Kleagle has had the effrontery to boast of its revival and to brag that organization work is in progress in sixty of the ninety-two counties of In diana. There are indications that this man is exaggerating, but we can’t take any chances. We are advised that many Klan organizers are* capitalizing on the normal antiCommunistic principles of Hoosiers in the recruiting campaign, while concealing the commercialized bigotry which is the real objective of the hooded organization. We have had our fingers burned in Indiana and we have learned our lesson the hard way. Apparently the Klan today is substantially the same as it was in the Twenties. I believe that it still stands for un-American racial and religious intolerance, strongarm methods and brute force. Indiana knows the Klan better than do most states of the Union. A quarter of a century ago we saw’ the Klan in ruthless, destructive action in our state. This nefarious, cowardly organization deceived hundreds of thousands of our citizens because the merenary organizers, collecting ten dollars a head from the joiners, said that the Klan would foster patriotism, religion and tolerance. On the strength of a huge membership, the Klan leaders grew to enormous political, social and business power. How did the grand dragous, kleagles and other arrogant chiefs use this terrific power? In the field of politics, the Klan elected hundreds of grafting, unprincipled public officials who brought shame to oui’ state. Nearly fifty of these officeholders, high and low, w’ere indicted or convicted for various offenses. These persons either were Klansmen or were elected to office with Klan support. We in Indiana recall the days of the Klan-sponsored Horse Thief Detectives, Association, w’hose members obtained police powers under an archaic statute designed to help the nearly settlers combat horse thieves. We in Indiana remember how’ these masked and hooded thugs took posts at road intersections, directed traffic brazenly and moved our motorists about to faciliate attendance at the Sunday Klan rallies. We know that these gun-tot-ing ruffians rode the roads at night, terrorizing honest Catholic, Jewish and Negro citizens and committing other illegal actions. Deeply imprinted on our memories also are the whispering campaigns, the slanderous back-sense gossip, the scandal mongering that tore innocent reutations to shreds. Yes, we killed the Klan in In- i diana a score of years ago and we do not prorpose to permit it to be revived.