Because of the more and more frequent outrages committed by the knights of the order of the Ku Klux Klan, and the talk one hears now about this order, we consider it necessary to give to our readers some information as to what the K. K. K. really is.

The original secret organization which was known by the name of Ku Klux Klan arose in 1867, after the liberation of the Negroes from slavery. The organization surrounded itself with a halo of mysteriousness and power. In order to frighten the superstitious negroes, whom the klan was fighting, it adopted a peculiar garb: white hoods and robes.

In their tactics of intimidating the negroes the klansmen were using all kinds of means, from harmless ones to corporal punishments such as flogging, tarring and feathering and even lynching.

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The new modern edition of the Ku Klux Klan made its appearance nine years ago under the flag of a certain individual by the name of W. I. Simmons, and in the beginning it led an abscure existence heaping upon itself the ridicule of all the people and numbering no more than four or five thousand members.

A speedy and quite unexpected luxuriant growth in the existence and activities of the klan began in 1919 when among the high officers of the klan there arose specialists in the art of organizing and developing various societies and enterprises: Mr. Clark and Mr. Taylor. These organizers put the whole business on a commercial basis and began to busy themselves with the distribution on the intellectual and political market of the United States of the real results of the new idea, sending everywhere paid agents for the recruiting of new members and paying to such agents substantial premiums for commission.

The result of this new dollar system of recruiting members was that the organization, which was on the verge of natural death, immediately 3revived, and during the years 1920-1924 the number of members increased to three millions and the order was still steady growing both in membership and in influence.

Officially the klan belongs to the usual American type of fraternal organization for the furthering of unity and mutual help. It emphasizes very strongly its loyalty to the Constitution and to the laws and fundamental principles of the American governmental system and social order. But in reality the klan is a militant secret order which has a secret aim, namely, the elimination from the political and public life of all states of all non-protestants,of all persons of non-American origin and of all those who do not belong to the white race.

The slogans of the klan are the most thorough interpretation of the old adage "America for the Americans," as under Americans are to be understood only protestants born in America and belonging to the white race.

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According to the understanding of the klansmen the greatest foes of Americanism are the Roman-Catholics who are bound to obey the Holy See. This, in the opinion of the klan, endangers the firmness of the loyalty to the fundamental principles of the American Constitution. Next after the Roman Catholics are all the foreigners - Jews, Negroes, all those belonging to the yellow race who, according to the view of the klansmen, should have no rights whatever and no part in the administration of any departments of American life.

The klan is striving to institute a dictatorship consisting of Americans. By this the klan undermines the foundations of the Constitution which is founded on the granting of equal rights to all, irrespective of creed, race or place of birth.

The klan advertises itself and its members as loyal servants of the law, yet at the same time it tolerates the most revolting infringements of the law by arrogating to itself arbitrarily the office of 5guardians of morality and legality, but performing all these duties in an underhand way, under the cover of the solidarity of the order and its secrecy; claiming in a most arrogant way the right to judge, to punish and to exercise clemency.

In those regions where the klan is conscious of its power the above mentioned rights are exercised in accordance with the tastes and the degree of energy of the local representatives of the order who bear the high sounding titles of Emperors, Kings, Kleagles, Grand Wizards and Grand Dragons; and the old methods of the klan of 1867-1870, e. e., flagging, tarring, feathering, ordering people to leave some locality immediately, and even murder - are being applied more and more frequently.

The gradual growth of the power of the klan is explained by the fact that it is attracting the less intelligent, unstable, troublesome and lawless elements of the native population of the country. Such elements are induced to join the klan by the prospect of belonging to 6a mysterious and powerful organization bearing the name of 'Invisible Empire' and giving to its members the rights to control, censure and execute people, and that without any danger to themselves as they know that, being members of the klan, they will be protected by secrecy and the influence exercised by the klan.

In spite of the seeming success achieved during the last four years the klan will hardly be long-lived because its activity infringes too strongly and painfully the aboriginal fundamental principles of American democracy. Besides, the principles of the klan's ideology meet with the most stubborn opposition of such antagonists as twenty millions of organized Roman Catholics who are very powerful because of the strong bond of union holding them together, six millions of Jews who own the concentrated wealth of the states, ten millions of negroes and twenty or twenty-five millions of foreign-born Americans.

Having so many antagonists the klan can win only in a few states, and that mostly among the rural population. But the klan will never 7be able to win on an all-American scale; and herein lies the reason why its stormy, and lately rather colorful existence, cannot last very long.

N. V.