What a marked contrast to the gallant Forrest is “Colonel” (?) William Joseph Simmons, Imperial Wizard, “Emperor” of the “Invisible Empire,” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc. I can find no record of any military service that gives him privilege to use the honorable title of “Colonel,” a title that has been won by American soldiers by virtue of hard service in the army and by desperate deeds of valor on the field of battle. Where then did “His Majesty” get the right to use this military title? According to the Literary Digest, “his friends bestowed it upon him.”
Forrest, as far as can be ascertained, served his country for patriotism; “Emperor” Simmons, on the other hand, is promoting the cause of “pure Americanism” for cash. Prior to his elevation to the responsible position of “Emperor” of the whole United States he was, among other activities, a professor of history at Lanier College in the good state of Georgia. He is also said to have been a Methodist exhorter earlier in his career. So far as the general public is informed, the remuneration of professors in our colleges and universities, even the greatest, is not particularly high. As Lanier College is a small institution that has had to struggle along in the face of more or less poor circumstances, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it is no exception to the general rule. In August, 1921, the newspapers reported that it had been taken over by the Ku Klux Klan, and that “Emperor” Simmons, “in addition to his other duties” would be its President. It is reasonably safe to say that the average income of “His Majesty” during his career as an educator could not have exceeded $2500 a year. Behold, however, the great change that comes with elevation to the Imperial Throne: “Friends of ‘Colonel(?)’ Simmons,” at the Klonklave of the Klan which was held in Atlanta, in May, 1921, presented him with a $25,000 home on Peachtree Street—Atlanta’s fashionable thoroughfare—together with handsome furniture.
In addition to this wonderful munificence of his “friends”—whoever they were—he is also paid a salary, which according to the “Emperor” himself is $1000 a month, and recently his hand-picked Kloncilium voted him $25,000 back pay. This stipend is augmented by the fact that the secret constitution provides that the “Imperial Wizard” shall also be the “Supreme Kleagle,” and that he shall be entitled to “appropriate to himself” the entire ten-dollar “donations” paid by any members he may choose to solicit. Since the ordinary garden variety of Kleagle, with only four dollars “rake-off,” can make a very tidy sum by selling memberships, the reader can draw his own conclusions as to the possible selling ability of the chief monarch. There is also the Gate City Manufacturing Company with its enormous revenue from the sale of robes, the Searchlight Publishing Company, the Clarke Realty Company, and Lanier College, which are interlocking corporations or business concerns conducted by persons connected with the Ku Klux Klan. Where the revenue derived from these enterprises goes has not been reported in the newspapers. The only thing made public in connection with them was the statement that the “Emperor” had been elected President of Lanier College. College presidents are usually paid salaries. When one thinks of the unpaid Forrest and the trying problems he solved, one can scarcely suppress a feeling of disgust in the effrontery of this man of modern times, who declares that this “is the genuine original Klan,” and that he is engaged in the work of “pure Americanism.” Why, the man doesn’t know what pure Americanism is!
The most important differentiation, however, between the old Ku Klux Klan and its spurious successor is the character of their membership. It will be recalled upon a study of both systems that in each candidates were required to answer satisfactorily ten qualifying interrogatories before being finally accepted for membership. Let us compare these together.
A careful reading of these requisites for membership in the two organizations fails to show, except as to the matter of “white supremacy,” that there is the remotest resemblance between them. Nowhere in the “Prescript” of the original Klan, or in any printed publication relating to it, can there be discovered any restriction whatever against the Jew, the Catholic, or the foreign-born American citizen. On the contrary, old men, who claim to have been members of the original movement, state that Jews, Catholics and foreigners were members. The fact that the modern movement is anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic and is opposed to the admission of foreign-born citizens of the country brands it ipso facto as a historical fraud.
Another link in the chain of evidence against the modern organization lies in the provisions governing eligibility for membership. Article VII of the old “Prescript” reads:
“No one shall be presented for membership into the Order until he shall have first been recommended by some friend or intimate who is a member, to the Investigating Committee (which shall be composed of the Grand Cyclops, the Grand Magi, and the Grand Monk), and who shall have investigated his antecedents and his past and present standing and connections, and after such investigation, shall have pronounced him competent and worthy to become a member.”
It is here observed that in the selection of members the old Klan exercised the utmost care and scrutiny, and endeavored to throw around the organization every possible safeguard against the admission of undesirable characters. Even with precautions like those, men who were members of the Klan and left behind them written testimony declare that many men of bad character became connected with the order. How utterly different is the modern system with its indiscriminate solicitation of membership, with its advertising methods, its open and notorious canvassing, and its selling campaigns by means of literature, letters, motion pictures, agents and speakers.
Also, as far as the records show, there was no propagation department in the old Klan, no system of Kleagles, King Kleagles, Goblins, or Imperial Kleagle. All that is a Simmons innovation, designed to gather in large sums of money from a large number of people, money that goes mostly into the pockets of paid workers whose chief interest in the “noble cause” is that of plunder and not of patriotism. The initiation fee of the old Klan was the paltry sum of one dollar. The new Klan, in its great piety and altruism denies that it has an initiation fee at all. It claims that “citizenship” in the “Invisible Empire” cannot be bought. Accordingly it requires that before attaining this delectable privilege, the “alien” must make a “donation” of ten dollars. A “donation” covers a multitude of sins. Where a victim makes a free-will offering to a “noble cause” he can hardly claim afterwards that his money has been taken from him under false pretenses.