Show U NEW EW KLAN terrorizes uz T ES MIDWEST authorities say membership may run into millions killing in detroit arouses public indignation gang gana on way out by WILLIAM C UTLEY NEW masked menace has been discovered lurking behind ANEW every other rock in the middle west it is the kind of masked menace which springs up every decade or so to strike fear into the hearts of the lawful and fire the imaginations of those who retain elou enough h of their boyhood romanticism to eat cat up stories about secret and terrible organizations which ride the night in ghastly masks and fearsome ceremonial robes no doubt the black legion is already being used as a threat to scare little children into batin eating their spinach or practicing their music music lessons but the law inclined to scoff at first has decided that it is is high time the outlaw order be tal en ln in dead deadly ly seriousness authorities it Is reported are even ready to believe that the secret members of the black legion and its affiliations may number persons there are today even reasonable grounds for suspicion that the organizations izat ions lons may have roots in other sec sections of the country in many loca localities litls there are movements to demand the truth about secret robed legion insists that it never counte danced 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 primary purpose of the organization was the securing of jobs for its unemployed members be and to keep employed members in their jobs each member was sworn by 75 n fan aa 4 t ft e M two detroit police officers dressed in the regalia and displaying the weapons of the black legion whose membership some estimates place at a maximum of tiona which under the guise of true americanism allegedly seek to grasp political power by terrorist lc methods find state employees employee members member 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 twenty two year old worker of detroit authorities there claim that in a district of OW persons there are at least euw and possibly 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 in some 15 or 16 states stales investigations investing invest ig actions are or e now under underway way probing pro bing into past unsolved cases of mob violence and into complaints by citizens that they are being terrorized oits own case probably be began mn last august when a ballot box bos 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 discovered that he had been a member of a club which met in a little meeting hall and celebrated weird rites dozens of witnesses questioned quest ione d revealed that the black le legion lion had existed since 1933 at least although althou gli 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 T the he officers dress in white garb somewhat similar to that of the a and nd the ritual Is said to be similar detroit are inclined to believe the story of dr william jacob shepherd ohio who claims that he be was an exalted cyclops of the and organized a black guard which developed d ev eloped units in ohio and indiana and then spread like wilda wildfire ire provided interest Inte reit 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 holy and terrible oath to do his best to 10 secure a job for another member in the place where he worked one of the complainants against the black le legion ion 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 flog flogged ed to death if he did not return to woric work two members of the black legion whom he had discharged he returned them to x A AA IM 7 1 t 0 4 IM M A S 4 K k fingerprinting black legion suspects at detroit work forthwith police in their ques have noticed that a high percentage of employment exists among the witnesses charged with being members precedent in history Hit tory the principal fear which was instilled into the hearts of honest edtl citizens by the black legion was i the possibility lity of there appearing app caring at some time a great leader able to organize the legion to transcend regional boundaries authorities are virtually certain that members wherever they are are burning their hoods and robes at a rapid rate and that the organization will die as others before bedfor e it have in the light of public discovery and disapproval the united states slates like many another country has in its diary many records of secret fraternal orders whose members cloak their identity indeed andee d what group of small hoys boys lias has not formed its its secret secra 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 band of good outlaws the vigilantes who took the suppression of crime into their own hands when the law ganv 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 riders or white caps and the coal fields of pennsylvania once quaked in fear of the molly maguires 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 in the south against the army of carpetbag carpetbaggers carpet ers and villains who sought to control the government of the south at that time the theatrical costumes and the dramatic rites of the 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 robed Klans klansman klansmen men 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 carp carpetbaggers carpet ebba g ers As the need for the klan began to vanish it turned its energies toward personal grudges and exaggerated causes As a result it finally died out for an extended 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 conf confined ined to political injustices it aimed at alleged intoner auces ances of rell religion lon as well as race at its height this second edition of the ku klux klan was said to have had more than in members e in hers its treasury was believed to have boasted at one time a sum of 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 C stephenson who had been of the district of indiana abducted a young hoosier girl mistreated her and failed to get her medical attention leaving her to die when she took poison in her shame his acts had nothing to do with the klan itself but so aroused public opinion that the klan has been little heard from since stephenson was sent to the state prison la in michigan city Ol western vestern newspaper paPer union |