Much ado was made in the “public prints” recently about one Froneberger, Kleagle of the Asheville Ku-Klux Klan, who was indicted for leading an alleged part of Klaners who went after two disreputable white women who were “tried” by an unsatisfactory magistrate for vagrancy, after consorting with negroes, and released on a small bond, which was forfeited.
It seems the Kluckers got the demi monde “ladies,” who were settling down to renew their base manner of living in an adjacent town, and took them back to the magistrate, with the injunction that he had better sentence them to jail if he desired to do well and prosper in that community in future.
The J.P. did it.
Threw Case Out of Court
The case of Froneberger was called in Buncombe Supreme Court a few days ago and very unlike the attitude previously assumed by Judge Brock, Judge Thomas D. Shaw threw the case out of court, and theoretically kicked it on the way down stairs.
But no parade in this action has been made in the “public prints” of the daily papers. We come across it in the Asheville Advocate, last issue, weekly labor paper, and reproduce what that paper prints of it, in a preface to the report of an address on Ku-Klux principles and purposes at Asheville—because of the public interest manifested in the subject, The Asheville Advocate says:
Great Crowd Hears Camp
A crowd that taxed the capacity of the Auditorium and among which were numerous women, heard an address on the principles of the Ku Klux Klan by Joseph G. Camp, national lecturer, Tuesday evening. Mr. Camp substituted for Rev. C.A. Ridley, Atlanta minister, who was billed to fill the date but who was prevented from coming to the city.
The address of Mr. Camp occupied about an hour and 50 minutes and the closest attention was paid him by the crowd thronging the theater.
Some additional interest was given the Ku Klux speaking, no doubt, by the Froneberger case in Superior Court here last week when Judge Thomas J. Shaw ordered the action thrown out of court and stated that the best organized element in Asheville seemed to be the lawless one. Incidentally, Judge Shaw told Solicitor Pritchard to make investigation and if the Klan itself was found illegal, to take action against it.
The alleged kidnapping of two white women by L.L. Froneberger, kleagle, and some klansmen constituted, Judge Shaw declared, nothing other than a technical violation of the laws, about what any man could been expected to do. The women were charged with statutory offenses with negro men and had fled what seemed to be a “straw bond” when Kleagle Froneberger and some other klansmen are alleged to have arrested their flight and returned them to the city to stand trial.
James F. Barrett, who declared he was not a klansman, introduced the speaker, and Mr. Barrett was presented to the gathering by L.L. Froneberger.
The White Camellias
During the address of Mr. Camp it was stated that a woman’s auxiliary to the invisible empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to be know as the “White Camellia,” will be under way in the spring.
“I am here to discuss the principles of the Ku Klux Klan and will confide to you in the beginning that I am a member and value my membership in any secret fraternal organization to which I belong,” said Mr. Camp in opening his address.
“Last summer I was in Kansas when the storm of protest broke out against the Ku Klux Klan and its alleged methods. The attacks made my blood boil for I knew where they were coming from. I returned to Atlanta and kept a promise to myself, joined the organization of the Invisible Empire.
“The atmosphere has been charged with prejudice and envy,” said Mr. Camp, “and it has even been said it is dangerous to talk about the principles of the Ku Klux Klan. It is said to create race hatred and religious prejudice. I shall ask:
“Since when did it create race hatred for citizens to talk to one another about the sanctity of the American home?
“Since when did race hatred grow out of a discussion between citizens regarding the protection of the purity and chastity of American womanhood?”
For Free School System
“The Ku Klux Klan intends and will lift the moral standards of each locality and the nation. One of the greatest principles of the klan or any other organization is the protection of the free public school system. Perpetuation of white supremacy, a thing many think is not menaced, but I tell you it is, and this organization intends to see to it that supremacy of the white race is perpetuated. The eternal separation of church and state is one of the cardinal principles and in order to insure the future progress of this country, its freedom of speech, the press and religious tolerance, we must see to it that the church remains forever separate from the state.”
The speaker paid tribute to every klansman, asserting that the taking of the oath of the Ku Klux Klan constitutes a long step forward and a reconstruction of citizenship, and predicted the klan would have a “longer and richer record of service than any other organization.” He added he would not except the church or school.
“If we do not succeed, our free public schools are destined to be destroyed and our Protestant churches will go down in defeat. The Ku Klux Klan holds in the palm of its hand the salvation of this country and the preservation of our civilization,” declared Mr. Camp, in dramatic fashion, and his statements were applauded by a large number of his hearers.
Mr. Camp paid his respects to The New York World, the Associated Press and 16 newspapers which carried stories regarding the supposed inner workings of the klan, and said “in the fierce white light of cruel and pitiless publicity we have passed through the fiery white light we have passed through the fiery furnace and emerged without a scar.”
Subsidized Daily Press
“I tell you the Associated Press is Catholic controlled, as is 80 per cent of the daily press,” asserted the speaker. Continuing, he said: “Ever since the Civil War the Catholic hierarchy has been building its attack, preparing its defense and fortifying its position in order to mold public opinion through the press.”
The speaker said he wanted it made plain that “neither he nor the klan had any attack to make on the Catholic church, for the constitution provides for religious worship in any manner a citizen sees fit, but the klan will forever be against the Catholic hierarchy, the political machine aiming to destroy the public school system of the country.” The speaker directed his remarks for several minutes at his “Catholic hierarchy,” according to his own terms, and reading from a book invited a study of his remarks. The book referred to by the speaker, he said, was “Mighty Voices of the World’s Conflict,” published by the Guardians of Liberty.
Investigation Did Klan Good
Declaring that the failure of congress to investigate the Ku Klux Klan and heralding as a victory for the klan the failure of the special committee appointed to investigate and return, if found necessary, a resolution to the house calling for a congressional investigation, to recommend a probe, had resulted profitably for the klan. Mr. Camp said December was the banner month in the history of the organization and the last week the banner week. He said previous to last fall members were being added at the rate of 1,000 a day and since the blow-up of the investigations new members were being added at the rate of 2,500 a day. He declared the klan at Fort Worth, Texas, numbered more than 4,000 and the Texas organization numbered among its membership judges of the federal and district courts, police officers, mayors and other officials.
Functions in Two Ways
“The klan functions in two ways, locally and nationally, the speaker said. Every klansman is guarding the good morals and the law enforcement of the community. The social atmosphere is made purer and better,” he said, in referring to the local functioning. He took occasion at that juncture of his address to assert with emphasis, “the standard of relationship between the sexes is the lowest in the history of the nation.” He said it was the duty of the local klan to “rid the community of bootleggers, cleanse society of social parasites and disease disgusting scoundrels.
“The klan will do this through cooperation with local officers,” he declared in describing the methods by which he said the klan operates. “Every klansman is a sentinel and acts as a detective in a quiet, unobtrusive way,” said he. “The klnasmen find out the character of these undesirables and after assembling the evidence in the secret sessions, appoint a committee to visit the character and have a heart to heart talk. The talk is not threatening and if the talk fails the committee then goes to the proper officer and lays the testimony before him and demands an investigation and the enforcement of the law. This committee tells the officer he will be replaced if he does not enforce the law,” said Mr. Camp in giving his explanation of “how the local klan functions locally.”
Public Opinion Greatest Factor
“Every klansman is a dynamo for the creation of local opinion and post himself about questions of city, state and national affairs,” said the speaker. The klan seeks to make public opinion, for public opinion is greater than the statutes on the law books,” he said.
The speaker declared the klan does not write letters signed “K.K.K.,” and that only letters bearing the official seal of the klan were authorized by the organization. He asserted the stories of tarring and feathering and summary administering of the law by the klan were all false and exclaimed no usurpation of the law is tolerated.
“However,” said the speaker, “we are after bigger game than local conditions and the great objective of this organization is that free, white, native born Gentile Americans may continue to carry on the greatest heritage of the world—a heritage, brought us by our forefathers fleeing to a new land for liberty, watered with their tears and consecrated with their prayers—that we may workshop “God as we please, maintain a freedom of speech and see the government guided by the blood of their ancestors.
Should Preserve Inheritance
“This inheritance is worthy of preservation and if we are worthy sons of a noble race we will protect this inheritance and in the name of the Invisible Knights of the Ku Klux Klan we intend to preserve it and transmit it to our children and their children.
“Alien hands are seeking to deprive us of our inheritance and are seeking to divert our government from the leadership of the free white American citizens. Anglo-Saxon brain and influence is a fast diminishing force in the light of this republic.”
Racial Integrity
We haven’t preserved the racial integrity as we should. We shall soon cease to captain our government if we do not organize. During our watchfulness we have taken in a Trojan horse filled with the scum of Europe. We have permitted all classes to organize and compactly so, while the native-born, free, white Gentile American citizens are the only people under the flag which had not organized until recently, when the Ku Klux Klan, thanks to Imperial Wizard Simonds, came into being.
From the front page of the Union Herald, Raleigh, N.C., Feb. 2, 1922
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