Show SUCKER 1 I QUITS K Kt KI KS After Doctor Leaves Klan Protesting Policy Polley of Hatred By Dr ByEA EA NEA Service ind Oct 20 20 E EVANSVILLE The curiosity of a ft rotund little who terms himself a chronic Joiner rather than any laid deep-laid political plotting first brought the Ku Klux Klan Into In Indiana In- In Indiana Indiana diana and started the train of o poll poll- tic woes that chat now enmeshes the state stale and many of o its highest Call me Sucker No 1 rather than Member No 1 of Evansville Klan No 1 pleads Dr William G G. G French Though it was through mo me that the Kiln Kl first came Into Indiana I severed all connections with the order within a II year after aeter I was Vias initiated as its first Hoosier Booster member back in 1921 A letter that I wrote to Atlanta started the whole thins thing For some sometime sometime time early in 1921 I had been no no- noticing noticing noticing articles in newspapers and magazines about the new orders order's activities down south southA A JOINER Im a a. chronic Joiner and finally I grew curious about the tion So I wrote that letter to officials dals then In charge of the Klan asking them for Information E. E E y Clarke then at the head of the national klan organization sent a a. representative Joseph HuffIngton Huff- Huff HuffIngton HuffIngton Ington to this city cUy from Texas In response lo io the doctors doctor's query Dr French paid the 10 dues required s the the first of tile the millions of dollars that tha the Klan was to garner from other chronic chrome Joiners in Indiana and and was solemnly initiated into the mysteries of the hidden order That 10 was as both my first and last Dr French said I I 1 objected to same of the policies of 01 the order and they exiled me ENTER ESTER MR m. m STEP liES SON It was not until the following that the Klan realms were en entered en- en entered year by eD D. D C. C Stephenson Stephenson- Stephenson whose who charges hurled I from the murderers murderer's cell he now occupies In the Indiana state prison led to the current probe of ot political corruption in the state and all Its his flung far ramifications John B. B Moore who on occasion doffed his butchers butcher's apron to don the robes of the acting head of o Evansville Klan No 1 I Joins Dr French in the above statement con con- concerning concerning concerning Stephensons Stephenson's first entry Into Hoosier Klan affairs Stephenson In ln 1922 was In L x r r. r v 1 y Y Dr William WilHam G. G G French Evansville E attempting to promote a strip coal mine Moore who ter ter- terminated terminated terminated his own connection with because of o disgust distrust with the Klan propaganda of hate in 1923 declares in a sworn statement st. Stephensons efforts were without with with- without without out great success Moores Moore's state state- statement statement statement ment continues Then Huffington N- N Nand and I I I Induced Stephenson to Join the Klan in order to make use of ot othis his oratorical and organizing ability In fn a a factional fight tight within the Klan between the Evansville Klan Y an and Clarke Stephenson though he got a II late start In ln the order soon demonstrated ed his oratorical and organizing ability by swelling the member- member membership ship chip of the Evansville Klan by hundreds hun hun- hundreds then extending the order throughout the state and finally by winning the purple robes of the supreme head or grand dragon of o the Klan In Indiana Stephenson from his lofty lotty seat in Sn Klan councils welded together a a. powerful political machine mac from the thousands of members that the Klan enrolled In ln the state He lie be became be- be became became came the courted confidant of aspiring candidates to public office was almost worshipped by b the more Ignorant of ot his followers as he dashed mysteriously about the state in his gilded airplane and ond finally at the zenith of o his fortunes was tumbled Ignominiously to the cell he now occupies through the suicide ot of f an Indianapolis girl after aCter a II mid mid- midnight night abduction From that cell he loosed the charges harges of emment that precipitated the present probe Into I political corruption |