A "Klonklave" where One Thousand "Aliens" were "Naturalized" and Became Citizens of The Invisible Empire.
As I have already stated, our American labor problem can not be solved by breaking down the American standard of living and the American spirit among American born working men. Our labor problem can be solved only by winning the employers and workers alike to accept a common policy of justice and Americanism. The view that there is ever "more work in America than we can do ourselves" is the falsest of false economic theories. Why should we try to exploit our resources or develop new projects of any sort at the crazy and destructive rate of speed which has marked our industrialism during the past generation? Just the contrary is the correct policy. The unskilled labor of America must be done by Americans. A dozen of our presidents have wielded the axe and guided the plow. The very foundation of our country is a sturdy, intelligent, characterful and self-respecting working class, who do not at all crave to be parsons and college professors. Better build fewer miles of highway or dig less coal than destroy our civilization by the admixture of unsuitable and unworthy elements. There is an old story of a farmer who burned down his barn in order to get rid of the rats. Here we have a case of burning down one's house in order to settle an argument as to who is going to wash the dishes. Right here appears what may be our supreme test in the building of a great nation, in the conservation of our democratic civilization. Are we Americans ready and willing to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow? If we are, we shall live and prosper as a people. If we are not, if we crave the importation of an ever larger servile class, then we shall perish, and we shall deserve to perish. Democracy is impossible in the presence of a class which holds common labor in disesteem. On the other hand, no idle aristocratic class exists in all the world, that the mills of the gods will not grind to dust and oblivion in the end.
Another aspect of European emigration deserves especial comment. Let us take for granted that it is desirable for a certain number of Europeans to emigrate from their various home lands. Why do they not go to South America, where millions of square miles are as yet untilled and unbroken, and where raw materials in countless amounts await the tools and the initiative of the worker? Or, why does not the European emigrant go to East Africa, where a fair and fruitful land, resembling California, is open to settlement by white men? Australia, with three millions of square miles, has a population of only six millions. She can take millions of immigrants, and provide lands and plenty.
The answer is simplicity itself, the mass of European wage workers and peasants to-day do not wish to become pioneers. Those who are physically, mentally and morally capable of becoming independent and successful farmers no longer emigrate. They stay at home and improve their conditions by instituting modern methods, as in Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. They know that we have no longer free lands for them. The present European emigrant is one who wishes to become a city wage-worker or petty trader. Here in America considerable numbers have attained great wealth. It is this story of the poor emigrant boy who acquires millions of money and perhaps political distinction which troubles the mind and disturbs the sleep of the unemployed European wage worker, the peddler and the landless peasant. Stop European emigration to the United States and within ten years South America, Africa and Australia will begin to receive such emigrants as they need for their natural and rightful development. But those who emigrate from Europe to the great open spaces of the world will be forced to become farmers, foresters and miners, producing the solid wealth which all the world needs.
One further word. We shall presently come again upon a period of prosperity. It will be limited by world conditions, probably, to a few months, at the most to a year or two. During this period an enormous propaganda for unlimited immigration will be again financed by the profiteers and supported by the feeble minded and weeping sentimentalists. At that time the intelligent and patriotic portion of our citizenship must be especially alert and active. We must so organize our working forces that great numbers can readily be shifted from city factories to the harvest fields and back again. Certain seasonable trades and outdoor construction work can be made to supplement one another, so that the workers will not be forced out of employment at any season of the year. To a man of the breadth and experience of, for instance, Mr. Ford, the execution of such a plan would be simplicity itself. We Americans can and must solve these peculiar industrial problems on the basis of a slowly increasing native population.
I realize fully that to consummate so great a reform as the permanent stopping of immigration requires the setting in motion of larger forces than the Klan can command. To this end every American must function through his political party, his fraternal order, his business associates or labor union, and his church. All the argument is on one side. What we require is action, and we Klansmen propose to have it without further dilly-dallying and compromise.
The Problem of Restricting the Suffrage