In the first place, Jews are barred from the Ku Klux Klan. In a questionnaire that must be filled in by those who are initiated these questions are asked:
"Are you a gentile or a jew? What is your religious faith? Of what church are you a member (if any)? Of what religious faith are your parents?"
CHAPLAIN ATTACKS JEWS
"Chaplain" Ridley in _The Searchlight_, writes:
"I cannot help being what I am racially. I am not a Jew, nor a negro nor a foreigner. I am an Anglo-Saxon white man, so ordained by the hand and will of G.o.d, and so const.i.tuted and trained that I cannot conscientiously take either my politics or my religion from some secluded a.s.s on the other side of the world.
"Now, if somebody else happens to be a Jew, I can"t help it any more than he can. Or if he happens to be black, I can"t help that, either.
If he were born under a foreign flag, I couldn"t help it--but there is one thing I can do. I can object to his un-American propaganda being preached in my home or practiced in the solemn a.s.sembly of real Americans."
_The Searchlight_ constantly mixes Jews and negroes in ridiculous "movements." For instance, one writer in the issue of July 30, 1921, declares that his investigations have demonstrated that Jewish plotters are stirring up the negroes to make a race war so that the government will be destroyed.
The writer goes on:
"For the same reason, the Jew is interested in overthrowing Christian Russia. But remember, he does not intend to stop at Russia. Through his Third Internationale of Moscow he is working to overthrow all the Gentile Governments of the world. I am enclosing an editorial clipped from The New York _World_ of Sat.u.r.day, July 23. You will keep in mind that _The World_ is Jew-owned, as is every other newspaper in New York City except the Tribune. * * * In all my twenty-five years traveling about over this continent I have never met a disloyal American who failed to be either foreign-born or a Semite. With the best wishes for the success of the Ku Klux Klan."
HOW TO THROW JEWS OUT
In the instructions to kleagles, who sell memberships in the Klan, the anti-Jewish feeling in some communities is appealed to in this manner:
"The Jew patronizes only the Jew unless it is impossible to do so.
Therefore, we klansmen, the only real Americans, must, by the same methods, protect ourselves, and practice by actual application the teachings of klannishness. With this policy faithfully adhered to, it will not be long before the Jew will be forced out of business by our practice of his own business methods, for when the time comes when klansmen trade only with klansmen then the days of the Jews" success in business will be numbered and the Invisible Empire can drive them from the sh.o.r.es of our own America."
Another favorite way to create interest in the anti-Jewish movement is to represent that Imperial Kleagle Clarke has in hand the organization of a nation-wide Jewish society to oppose the Sons of Israel. This society is to be created by Jews who are in the pay of Kleagle Clarke and who are really traitors to their own co-religionists. Spies working in the ranks of the Sons of Israel will keep the Ku Klux Klan informed of what the Sons of Israel are doing and finally a clash between the two organizations is to be engineered, to the destruction of both. Of course this is the wildest sort of propaganda, but it demonstrates how the agents play with fire in order to get members.
"SEARCHLIGHT" AND THE JEWS
Among the articles in _The Searchlight_ there are those headed, "A Message from Jerusalem--Esau the Wanderer must Pay for His Pottage--the Mightiest Weapons for the Jews are Pounds and Pence."
"Doesn"t Think Much of the Jews."
"Jewish Rabbi Gets Rabid."
A paragraph from "Doesn"t Think Much of the Jews," published Feb. 12, 1921, contains this pa.s.sage:
"Their religion is to control wealth and thereby control all nations.
And you cannot deny but they are doing so under false names. Jews are entering into every Government, every nation on earth except China and j.a.pan, where their heavenly G.o.d received little recognition. They spread their ingenious religion that strangled the ignorant and credulous by causing dissension to their advantage."
CHAPTER VIII
KU KLUX KLAN AND THE CATHOLICS
_Misrepresentation of Oath of Knights of Columbus is Used to excite Religious Hatred in order to get money._
Just as the organizers of the Ku Klux Klan misrepresent the Jews in order to get members and money for their order, they go to great lengths to create prejudice against Catholics. In some communities anti-Catholic arguments are thought to be those that will bring the most members into the fold. Fake doc.u.ments and false statements on printed cards that can be slyly pa.s.sed from hand to hand are used for this purpose. Anti-Catholic lies that can be hurled at Klansmen at meetings to inspire them to get in more members and increase the incomes of the "imperial wizard," the kleagles and other officers are spread around.
One of these doc.u.ments is a card ent.i.tled "Do You Know?" A kleagle of the Klan asked the King Kleagle of his state for some literature that he could employ to stir up interest in the Klan. In a short time the kleagle received the literature from the Gate City Manufacturing Company of Atlanta, Ga., a company promoted by "Imperial Kleagle"
Clarke. The supply of literature contained 100 copies of a card bearing the heading "Do You Know?"
Another doc.u.ment that is sent broadcast to foment religious unrest and hatred is a fake oath ascribed to the Knights of Columbus, which is composed of Catholics and which has published the oath that its members take. Before reading the fake oath, it will be well to examine the real oath.
REAL K. OF C. OATH
The bona fide oath that is taken by men initiated into the Knights of Columbus, and which, it has been proven, is the correct oath follows:
"I swear to support the Const.i.tution of the United States. I pledge myself, as a Catholic citizen and Knight of Columbus, to enlighten myself fully upon my duties as a citizen and to conscientiously perform such duties entirely in the interest of my country and regardless of all personal consequences. I pledge myself to do all in my power to preserve the integrity and purity of the ballot, and to promote reverence and respect for law and order. I promise to practice my religion openly and consistently, but without ostentation, and to so conduct myself in public affairs, and in the exercise of public virtue as to reflect nothing but credit upon our Holy Church, to the end that she may flourish and our country prosper to the greater honor and glory of G.o.d."
BOGUS K. OF C. OATH
We can now appreciate the animus behind the bogus oath that is ascribed to the Knights of Columbus by the Ku Klux Klan. This fraudulent oath, as used by the recruiting organization of kleagles of Ku Klux follows:
"I, ---- ----, now in the presence of Almighty G.o.d, the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed St. John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and all the saints, sacred host of Heaven, and to you, my Ghostly Father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, in the pontification of Paul the III, and continued to the present, do by the womb of the Virgin, the matrix of G.o.d, and the rod of Jesus Christ, declare and swear that His Holiness the Pope is Christ"s vicegerent and is the true and only head of the Catholic or Universal Church throughout the earth; and that by virtue of the keys of binding and loosing given His Holiness by my Saviour, Jesus Christ, he hath power to depose heretical Kings, Princes, states, Commonwealths and Governments and they may be safely destroyed. Therefore to the utmost of my power I will defend this doctrine and His Holiness"s right and custom against all usurpers of the heretical or Protestant authority whatever, especially the Lutheran Church of Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and the now pretended authority and Churches of England and Scotland, and the branches of same now established in Ireland and on the Continent of America and elsewhere, and all adherents in regard that they may be usurped and heretical opposing the sacred Mother Church of Rome.
"I do now denounce and disown any allegiance as due to any heretical King, Prince, or state, named Protestant or liberals, or obedience to any of their laws, Magistrates, or officers.
"I do further declare that the doctrine of the Churches of England and Scotland, of the Calvinists, Huguenots and others of the name of Protestants or Masons to be d.a.m.nable, and they themselves to be d.a.m.ned who will not forsake the same.
"I do further declare that I will help, a.s.sist and advise all or any of His Holiness" agents, in any place where I should be, in Switzerland, Holland, Ireland or America, or in any other kingdom or territory I shall come to, and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or Masonic doctrines and to destroy all their pretended powers, legal or otherwise.
MORE OF IT
"I do further promise and declare that, notwithstanding that I am dispensed with to a.s.sume any religion heretical for the propaganda of the Mother Church"s interest, to keep secret and private all her agents" counsels from time to time, as they instruct me, and not divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or circ.u.mstances whatever, but to execute all that should be proposed, given in charge or discovered unto me by you, my Ghostly Father, or any of this sacred order.
"I do further promise and declare that I will have no opinion or will of my own or any mental reservation whatsoever, even as a corpse or cadaver (perinde ac cadaver), but will unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive from my superiors in the militia of the Pope and of Jesus Christ.
"That I will go to any part of the world whithersoever I may be sent, to the frozen regions north, jungles of India, to the centers of civilization of Europe or to the wild haunts of the barbarous savages of America without murmuring or repining, and will be submissive in all things whatsoever is communicated to me.
AND STILL MORE
"I do further promise and declare that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly and openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Masons, as I am directed to do, to extirpate them from the face of the whole earth; and that I will spare neither age, s.e.x or condition, and that I will hang, burn, waste, boil, flay, strangle, and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crash their infants" heads against the walls in order to annihilate their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poisonous cup, strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agents of the Pope or superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Father of the Society of Jesus.
"In confirmation of which I hereby dedicate my life, soul and all corporate powers, and with the dagger which I now receive I will subscribe my name written in my blood in testimony thereof; and should I prove false or weaken in my determination, may my brethren and fellow soldiers of the militia of the Pope cut off my hands and feet and my throat from ear to ear, my belly opened and sulphur burned therein with all the punishment that can be inflicted upon me on earth and my soul shall be tortured by demons in eternal h.e.l.l forever.
NEARING THE END NOW