Ezra A. Cook

“ Then when the end of your initiation shall have been reached in this life and you have been summoned to take your place as an inhabitant of the Invisible Empire, as you pass through the veil you can say to the world in tones of truth triumphant: "I have kept the Faith!" Thus preserving your honor by a faithful allegiance your life shall not have been lived in vain." ”

“ 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 Constitution 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. ”

“ Those who have investigated the Klan are convinced that its principal promoters are not inspired by a zeal for the welfare of the United States, but on the other hand they are certain that the promoters are in the Ku Klux Klan business to make money out of it; that they have profited by millions of dollars and that for this filthy money they have spread loose seeds of discontent and disorder that must be raked out of the body politic by the united action of all patriotic organizations and individuals. ”

“ Furthermore, I charge each and all, that as our fathers have framed the truly Masonic principles of liberty and conscience, equality before the law, and fraternity among men into the constitutions of this nation and state, we as Free Masons and citizens of this republic are obligated to perform our full moral and civic duty, to promote and enforce an orderly administration of justice and equity, acting openly that it may be known of all men. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Those who join the order must pledge blind allegiance to Constitution. They do not see.
Blind and unconditional obedience to the "constitution, laws, regulations usages and requirements" of the Ku Klux Klan, even to the extent of indorsing the principle of secret mob violence, is accepted by every person who takes the oath of Grand Wizard Simmons' Invisible Empire. ”

“ Only after the Pulaski organization had entertained itself for many nights did the phenomenon present itself which was to make the Klan a weapon in the progress of post-war reconstruction. It was the discovery that the African negro was twice as fearful of mysticism and mystery as the white man. It taught the white men of Tennessee and neighboring states that they had a means of their own of preventing what they considered political mismanagement and social insolence in the control by northerners and freedmen of the state government. ”

“ Whereas, Any such statement or intimation is absolutely false and untrue, in that Masonry can not and does not approve of or ally itself with any organization or movement, secret or public, that proposes to subvert or supersede the processes of orderly representative government 'of the people, for the people, and by the people'; nor one that appeals to bigotry and endeavors to foster hatred of any nationality, class, religious faith or sect, as such. ”

“ Jews are entering into every Government, every nation on earth except China and Japan, where their heavenly God received little recognition. They spread their ingenious religion that strangled the ignorant and credulous by causing dissension to their advantage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The man who is invited to join the Ku Klux Klan is kidded into the belief that he is one of the chosen of God's beings and that he is being honored because his presence in the ranks is an honor to himself as well as to the Klan. ”

“ I am an Anglo-Saxon white man, so ordained by the hand and will of God, and so constituted and trained that I cannot conscientiously take either my politics or my religion from some secluded ass on the other side of the world. ”

“ 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, sex 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. ”

“ In 1872 federal troops were sent into the south to back up his anti-Ku-Klux proclamation. By the end of 1872 the "conspiracy" was thought to be overthrown.
At various times individuals in the south and elsewhere have tried to put breath into the Klan's dead body.
It was left for "Grand Wizard" Simmons of Atlanta to accomplish it. His new organization, he explains, is imbued with the Ku-Klux "spirit."
"That this spirit may live always to warm the hearts of many men," he says, "is the paramount ideal of the Knights of the Ku-Klux Klan." ”

“ In each state the law would be enforced by legal officials against any persons guilty of crime if public spirited citizens would make it their business to assist public officials to round up law breakers. The Klan, however, believes in its own method of punishment against those whom it opposes. It protects its own members and there is no case on record where a Klansman has been outraged. The Klan has one law for itself and another for its victims. ”

“ Klansmen of to-day, whether they assemble in the mountains of Maine, or 'neath the shadows of the great Rockies, or on the plains of the Wonderful West, or amid the trailing vines and wild flowers of Dixie, meet to keep alive the memory of these men and preserve the traditions of those days when the souls of men were tried as if by fire. ”

“ This hatred also has been carried into certain sections of large cities of the north where there are large negro populations. In some states they have played upon the feelings of those who might be drawn into the Klan by a crusade against Catholics. They have made use of counterfeit documents in secret bids for membership on this score. In cities like New York and Chicago, where the populations are largely Jewish, they have fanned the flames of religious hatred by propaganda against the Jews. Where foreign-born residents are living in large numbers the Klan has secretly intrigued against them. ”

“ Federal recognition that the Invisible Empire, whether it was the original Klan or not, was everywhere a real empire came in the spring of 1871, when a senate committee presented majority and minority reports on the result of its investigations of the white man's will to rule against the freedmen's militia in the south.
The majority report found that the Ku-Klux Klan was a criminal conspiracy of a distinctly political nature against the laws and against the colored citizens. ”

“ Widespread, spontaneous, popular, the movement of 1866 grew out of a disordered society, not as a "movement" at all at first, but as a scheme for having fun, a source of amusement among a group of young, full-blooded southern men to puzzle outsiders. Its use as a weapon against the stranger in the old south came later. ”

“ I swear that I will most zealously —— and valiantly —— shield and preserve —— by any and all —— justifiable means and methods —— the sacred constitutional rights —— and privileges of —— free public schools —— free speech —— free press —— separation of church and state —— liberty —— white supremacy —— just laws —— and the pursuit of happiness —— against any encroachment —— of any nature —— by any person or persons —— political party or parties —— religious sect or people —— native, naturalized or foreign —— of any race —— color —— creed —— lineage or tongue whatsoever. ”

“ In spite of the fact that ever since the beginning of the American colonies, in the war of the revolution and in other national crises, great Jews have helped to make the United States what it is today, the Ku Klux Klan recruits misguided members on the representation that it has found a scheme to drive the Jews out of the country. ”

“ Thanks to the New York World, court records have been published showing that some of the highest persons in the Ku Klux have been involved in proceedings as disgraceful as those for which tar and feather parties have been organized by the Klan or persons masquerading as Ku Klux.
MISTREAT WHITES AND BLACKS
Men and women, white and black—have been mistreated by masked men. The number of these attacks grows as the [23] Klan increases in size. At present the Klan has branches in all states of the union except three—New Hampshire, Montana and Utah. ”

“ The Klan is supposed to stand for respect of women and children. The records of the Atlanta courts still contain charges against Clarke that he deserted and abandoned his wife and child. He never has denied the charges. Mrs. Clarke went to work to support herself and her little son. A suit for divorce was filed in October, 1919, by Mrs. Clarke, who charged that her husband had deserted her three years previously. After his arrest with Mrs. Tyler Clarke agreed to pay his wife $75 a month. Since Clarke has become prosperous in the Ku Klux Klan he has bought his wife a $10,000 house. ”

“ The Klan early fell a victim to the abuses inseparable from secrecy. It happened that Tennessee, the birthplace of the hooded institution, was also the first southern state to find itself turned upside down in reconstruction. "Dem Ku-Kluxes," as the negro called the mysterious union, became a band of regulators. Their first official convention was held in Nashville early in 1867.
The Klan, which, until then, had been bound together only by the deference which priority rights gave to the grand cyclops of the parental Pulaski "den," was organized into the "Invisible Empire of the South." ”

“ As far as its chief protagonists are concerned the Ku Klux is a huge money-making hoax—a gold mine. The poor dupes who have been "soaked" for regalia and dues will wake up some time and discover how they have been deluded and misled. ”

“ The arraying of race against race, color against color, sect against sect is destructive of peace and harmony, which is the great end we, as Free Masons, have in view. We profess and boast that we are true to our government and just to our country.
IS SUBVERSIVE OF THE REPUBLIC
"We can not, as Free Masons and good citizens, recognize the right of any secret society or combination of men to assume unto themselves the right to administer law and to inflict punishment upon their fellow men. ”

“ Punishment for the offense may be imprisonment from six months to six years, a fine not less than $500, nor more than $5,000, or both.
The act took particular action against the practice of the Klanists of protecting each other in court. It provides that every man called for service on a jury in a Klan case shall take oath in open court that he is not a member of nor has ever aided or advised any such "unlawful, combination or conspiracy." ”

“ Clarke's fortune grows every time a new member is taken in. If the Klansman rides a horse in ceremonies he must buy a robe for $14—also from Clarke's company.
WATER AT $10 A QUART
Another source of revenue to Clarke is the water used in initiations. It comes from the Chattahoochee river (Indian for "muddy water") near Atlanta. It is sent [41] around the country as special Ku Klux Klan liquid without which an initiation cannot be held. It costs $10 a quart, money to be paid to Clarke.
Simmons and Clarke live in costly houses on Peachtree road, outside of Atlanta. ”

“ An organization that practices censorship of private conduct behind the midnight anonymity of mask and robe, and enforces its secret decrees with the weapons of whips and tar and feathers must ultimately merit and receive the condemnation of those who believe in courts, open justice and good citizenship. ”

“ Since the Ku Klux Klan was organized night outrages in which masked men are involved have increased to a frequency not known in the United States since the years just following the Civil War, when the original Ku Klux Klan was active in the southern states against "carpet baggers" and Negroes. ”

“ In a cowardly, whimpering plea, he pleaded that others were as guilty as he. The lash was laid on his back and [65] the tar and feathers applied to his body. He was then informed of the will of the Klan that he should leave the city within forty-eight hours. Upon the return of the party to Beaumont, Dr. Paul was discharged from an automobile at the intersection of two of the main streets of the city, that he might be a warning to all of his ilk that decent men and women no longer wanted him in the community. ”