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Show THE RICH COUNTY REAPER. RANDOLPH. UTAH NEW KLAN TERRORIZES MIDWEST Authorities Say Membership May Run Into Millions; Killing in De- troit Arouses Public Indignation; Gang on Way Out. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY "masked menace has been discovered lurking behind the Legion to transcend regional boundaries. other rock in the Middle West. It is the kind of masked Authorities are virtually pertain which springs up every decade or so to strike fear into that members, wherever they are, are the hearts of the lawful and fire the imaginations of those who burning their hoods and robes at a retain enough of their boyhood romanticism to eat up stories about rapid rate, and that the organization will die as others before it have, in secret and terrible organizations which ride the night in ghastly masks the light of public discovery and disand fearsome ceremonial robes. approval. No doubt the Black Legion is already being used as a threat to The United States, like many another diary many records of scare little children into eating their spinach or practicing their music country, has in itsorders whose members secret fraternal lessons. But the law, inclined to scoff at first, has decided that it is cloak their identity. Indeed, what group ANEW high time the outlaw order be taken in3 deadly seriousness. Authorities, It is reported, are even ready to believe that the secret members of the Black Legion and its affiliations may number 6,000,000 persons. There are today even reasonable grounds for suspicion that the organizations may have roots in other sections of the country. In many localities there are movements to demand the truth about secret, robed organiza- - ; that it never countenanced violence of any sort He explained its growth by declaring' that during the depression, it gave thousands of men an interest in life that they would not otherwise have had. Other witnesses claimed that the priLegion, insists of small boys has not formed its secret and fearful society, like that of Tom Sawyer and his friends, signing covenants full of misspelled words in blood painfully pricked from their little fingers? Every section of the land has had its secret orders which were an important phase of its history. The West was saved from bad outlaws largely by a mary purpose of the organization was the band of good outlaws, the Vigilantes, who took the suppression of crime securing of jobs for its unemployed members, and to keep employed members in Into their own hands when the law their jobs. Each member was sworn by proved inadequate. The Ku Klux Klan has seen two periods of activity in the South and Middle West. The Middle South has had its Night Eiders or White Caps. And the coal fields of IV, i 'Si Pennsylvania once quaked in fear of the Molly Maguires. KKK. Born in South, The Ku Klux Klan first gained prominence, and was probably born. In the reconstruction period following the Civil war. Its methods were ruthless, but were at that time probably justified as the only means of protecting the South against the army of carpetbaggers and villains who sought to control the government of the South at that time. The theatrical costumes and the dramatic rites of the KKK were aimed primarily at negroes who sought political superiority to whites after gaining their freedom. It was not hard for the blacks to believe that the white-robe-d Klansmen were the ghosts of Confederate soldiers returned to haunt them. To have discouraged the superstition would have been to contribute to the defeat of the Klans purpose, so the members wisely encouraged it. If they lynched occasionally, it was at that time defensible on the grounds that it was the only protection the South had against the abuses of the northern carpetbaggers. As the need for the Klan began to vanish, it turned its energies toward personal . f '' grudges and exaggerated causes. As a result it finally died out for an extended Two Detroit police officers dressed the regalia, and displaying the weapons of, the Black Legion, whose membership some estimates place at a maximum of 6,000,000. in : tions which, under the guise of "true Americanism, allegedly seek to grasp political power by terroristic methods. Find State Employees Members. Positive proof of the existence of such a band seems to have been uncovered in Michigan, where thirteen men, allegedly members of the Black Legion, were held in the murder of Charles Poole, a )WPA worker of Detroit Authorities 0 there claim that In a district of persons there are at least 3,000 and possibly 40,000 Black Legionnaires. Three state employees have been dismissed because of their membership, and twelve others have been suspended from state, city and county pay rolls. twenty-two-year-o- ld 135,-00- holy and terrible oath to do his best to secure a job for another member in the place where he worked. One of the complainants against the Black Legion claims that he was forced to accompany members to a formal meeting, a sternly costumed gathering that awed him completely. He is a small employer. He claims that he was threatened with being flogged to death if he did hot return to work two members of the Black Legion whom he had discharged. He returned them to period. Within the memories of most readers the Klan was revived by William Joseph Simmons and his crowd in the days following the World war. But its purpose was not confined to political injustices. It aimed at alleged intolerances of religion as well as race. At its height, this second edition of the Ku Klux Klan was said to have bad more than 9,000,000 members. Its treasury was believed to have boasted, at one time, a sum of $90,000,000. ' The new Klan died from many causes, most of them relating to its absence of weighty purpose. But the death blow was really struck when D. In some 15 or 16 states, investigations are now under way, probing into past, unsolved cases of mob violence, and into complaints by citizens that they are being terrorized. Detroits own case probably began last August when a ballot box scandal reeked with charges of terrorism by a secret masked brotherhood; but police laughed at the idea. When Poole was killed, however, the police, in seeking some clue to the murder, covered that he had been a member of a club which met In a little meeting hall and celebrated weird rites. Dozens of witnesses questioned revealed that the Black Legion had existed since 1933, at least, although there were a few who insisted that it dated from the Mayflower or from the Boston Tea Party. : ' It is considered possible that the organization may have been an outgrowth of the Ku Klux Klan. The officers dress in white garb somewhat similar to that of the KKK, and the ritual is said to be similar. Detroit authorities are Inclined to believe the story of Dr. William Jacob Shepherd of Bellalre, Ohio, who claims that he was an Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, and organized a Black Guard which developed units In Ohio and Indiana and then spread like wildfire. Provided Interest in Life.. There were many groups who were attracted by the black robes and mystery of the new offspring, Doctor Shepherd said. Arthur Lupp of Detroit, who seems to have been the chief recruiting officer of the Black Geographic Society. Prepared by the National D. C. Washington, WNU Service. PIONEER countrys memorials are usually natural features. Rhodesia has its Indaba tree and its Matopo hills. But the curious spectacle extant as9oci-wit- h Rhodes is that deserted, craterlike pit at the Kimberley diamond mines, where he began digging the fortune which made possible his future colonizing schemes. Picture Kimberley in the 1870s. Atop a bucket, alongside the checkerboard pattern of claims, sits a big, rumple-haireslackly garbed English youth, staring into vacancy. In him Natal has lost a cotton grower, and the world will one day gain to put it thus, since his name is Rhodes a Colossus. The English doctors gave this young Cecil John Rhodes a year or so to live, but the South African climate has saved him. From death to diamonds, and from them to vast wealth, South African statesmanship, and empirebuilding such will be the swiftly as--, cended rungs during a life that will end at forty-nin- e years. Meanwhile he dreams he is an incorrigible dreamer." Presently he will be making wills, based on some future, chimerical wealth, to the end of extending the British empire so vastlyas to render wars impossible and promote the best interests, of humanity. The two Rhodesias, of which the Northern colony is almost double the size of the Southern, contain about two 0 and a half million Bantus and but persons of European descent And over what an expanse are these few scattered ! One might roughly compare the area of the Rhodesias with that of the thirteen states, er parts of states, lying south of Pennsylvania, east of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, eastward along the Gulf of Mexico, and north of a hypothetical line running through central Florida. Picture the above region as being occupied by a population only nine times that of Atlanta, Ga. a population wherein the Bantu and white races are proportioned at 40 to L Consider, along .with that, a civilization only four decades old, and yon have the basic elements of Rhodesia, the pioneer colony. Land of Real Pioneers. In Rhodesia, individual effort has decrop specialveloped into izing into mixed farming, and a department of agriculture, having to do with the cultural and financing sides of Rhodesian husbandry has come into being for the benefit of the pioneers. Pioneer, be it ".noted, is strictly masculine. We have heard of the farmerette and the aviatrix, but never of the pioneeress. Comparing the prqportion of women to men in given countries, one finds that the older civilizations generally have an excess of the former over the latter, whereas the reverse is true of lands later settled, such as Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and Australia. Now, in this spatter of male surplusage, the s "Rhodesia almost ail countries and exceeds the quartette by a masculinity" of from four to seven times greater. v That conveys, of course,' no social picture of Rhodesia, where woman is playing her full part, as always. Rathe er, it tells the old story that the man strikes out for new lands qnd, in time, sends overseas for that girl at home to make the land worth living in.; And just here the governmental schemes enter the picture. Somewhat similar in effect to the Homstead act that, in 1862, called American pioneers to plant their homes on free western lands, the Rhodesian Assistance schemes went much further, in offering Uominally free passages from England to the colony and, upon the settlers arrival, free agricultural instruction for a year. Settlers Have Good Homes. Like the homesteader, he pledged himself to remain for three years. Unlike the homesteader, he was subject to a minimum and a maximum of available capital, and bought his land, at a A d, 61,-00- er out-top- above-name- d - foot-fre- 4 - Tomb of Cecil Rhodes. Fingerprinting Black Legion Suspects at Detroit. work forthwith. Police, in their ques- C. Stephenson, who had been Kleagle tioning, have noticed that a high per- of the district of Indiana, abducted a. centage of employment exists among young Hoosler girl, mistreated her and the witnesses charged with being mem- failed to get her medical;.' attention, bers. leaving her to die when she took poison in her shame. His acts had nothPrecedent in History. ing to do with the Klan itself, but so The principal fear which was In- aroused public opinion that the Klan stilled into the hearts of honest citi- has been little heard from since. Stezens by the Black Legion was the pos- phenson was sent to the state prison sibility of there appearing at some in Michigan City. time a great leader able to organize Western Newspaper Union. ! indollar or so per acre, on a stallment plan. To reach a Rhodesian settlers farmstead, you might possibly drive 20 wooded miles off the turnpike, and, if, it is after nightfall, hear some stray lion gulping gutturally in the distance. Yet, once arrived, you find yourself in a true home that the man and his wife have made together. He and his native boys have built the house, planning it around a big central room with a wide hearth. She has made it bright with gay curtains, with the rugs brought from overseas, with the home24-ye- lands flowers. And the smart furniture? Well, Rhodesia has its teak, and it is as-- , tonishing what carpentry native boys can achieve with the assistance of designs cut from household magazines, and the vicarious elbow grease of your! constant presence. Across the broad acres the reaped corn stands in regimented stacks.) Theres a farm store where the settler, sells to his native boys. For amusements, there are horseback riding, hunting, and fishing, books from public libraries, and maybe a radio set Heading eastward from Salisbury, you soon find yourself nearing those mountains beyond which extends Portuguese territory. Completely cupped within their foothills lofty profiles lies Umtali, eastern outpost of the Rhodesias. Nothing could reveal itself as as a more charming surprise than little town, tucked away' on the. colonys remote verge,' its streets linedi with tall flamboyant trees that rear! their masses of scarlet blossoms' valleys1 against the mountain-ringe- d vastness of overhead blue. e A swing around a circle' centering on Umtali' reveals: It as1 Rhodesias gateway to the wild heart! of things, where waterfalls plunge over' precipices,' and primitive forests clothe) the land with silence, and nude peaks1 pile their shapes against the sky. ' Th Matopo Hills! At times you traverse 50 miles of; wild woodland that offer no more guid- -' or lng features than a dry stream-besome cement causeway, built at low; level to allow seasonal torrents to! sweep across instead of under it Bril-- i liantly plumaged birds flash past,! baboons disgroups of cuss family affairs. Issuance into tha ' open, with a mission church ahead.) is an experience, while the passage of) some other car is a downright sen--i sation. Yet, though you would not have, guessed it there are often kraals near, the road, and thus you get a glimpse of native comgrinding, snuffmaking, hairdressing (as complicated a process! as permanent-wavingand listen toj a fat old grandmother telling Uncle) Remus stories in the original version.) Near Bulawayo you visit the Matopoi hills. After a few hours drive, the) land begins heaping Itself into a wide, series of rocky .kopjes. Now you clamber- up the vast,' smooth slant of a massive formation!, and find yourself on a rocky plateau,! feeling antlike beside the huge, glob-- ; ular bowlders that are perched there, over "Worlds View. Away stretches the tumbled valley, re-- ! sembling earths beginnings as sculp-- ; tured by some supernal Rodin, who) has tossed the work aside, saying, Make out of it what you can.' The bowlders immediately encircling you are vivid 'with lichen, in reds, greens, and gold. A child would call this a fairy place, and dream of enchantments. Then suddenly one severe slab. Imbedded over what was laid to rest in the blasted-ou- t heart of the rock, tells you that here has been high this-nea- 250-mil- d ; rock-perche- d ) j ), ; kopje-heape- d half-finish- . burial: This Power that wrought on us and goes Back to the Power again . . ." Ah, power! Far better than any cathedral aisle does this View of the burial World," Rhodes place, suit with the rugged power of the man... The gnarled pinnacles are his cathedrals spires, the richly hued bowlders his stained-glas- s windows. self-chos- |