A study of the physical structure of the “Invisible Empire” necessarily starts with its corporate organization, its officers, its general method of functioning, and its ramifications throughout the United States. Although organized under the pretense that it is a “fraternal order,” a close investigation of the system reveals the fact that its activities extend in several directions. Its three principal promoters, William J. Simmons, Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler, are engaged in several lines of business all of which are closely related. The show under the main tent is the “Invisible Empire,” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., allied to which either directly or indirectly is the “Gate City Manufacturing Company,” a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Georgia for the manufacture of lodge regalia, etc., the Searchlight Publishing Company, which prints a weekly paper which is recognized by the public as the official organ of Ku Kluxism, and Lanier University, which was acquired in August, 1921, and of which William J. Simmons is the president. There is also the Clarke Realty Company in which E. Y. Clarke and Mrs. M. E. Tyler are mentioned as incorporators, the operations of which corporation are not known.

The charter of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan granted by the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, reads as follows:

The casual examination of the above instrument fails to show anything more significant than the fact that it is a simple application for a charter for an ordinary fraternal organization, several of whom, including the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias, it specifically names. An analysis, however, of the instrument reveals some interesting things, and raises some questions that may be of service to the public in dealing with Ku Kluxism.

In the first place, this charter, which was granted July 1, 1916, confers upon W. J. Simmons and certain associates the right to engage in the business of a fraternal society under the name and style of “Knights of The Ku Klux Klan.” As a matter of fact the propagation of the movement goes forward under the name and title of “Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc.” The use of the words “Invisible Empire” in connection with the authorized and legal title of the organization is an ultra vires act without the sanction of the Georgia law under which the society is operating.

The following copy of the application for charter membership illustrates this point:

This is the standard form for application for “citizenship” and several hundred such applications, properly signed, have come under my personal observation. It is distinctly a request to be “naturalized” as a “citizen” of the “Invisible Empire,” Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and not an application for membership in an order known as the “Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” by itself.

It appears from an examination of the records, that the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan made but little headway for several years, when it was under the sole management of William J. Simmons. An examination of the Atlanta City Directory reveals the fact that the present “Emperor” was engaged in other lines of activity, largely as a professional organizer. In 1915 he appears listed as “Organizer of the Woodmen of the World”; in 1916, “Imperial Wizard and founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”; in 1918, the next year a directory was issued, as “State Manager, Heralds of Liberty”; in 1920, as “Lecturer”; and in 1921, again as “Imperial Wizard, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” It was not, apparently, until he joined forces with Edward Young Clarke, that the enterprise was placed on a paying basis. Clarke, it is said, has had wide experience as a professional propagandist, and prior to his taking charge of the Ku Klux movement was employed to raise money for the Anti-Saloon League and the Salvation Army, conducting drives for those bodies. The city directory of Atlanta lists him as follows: 1915, “Secretary, Brooks County Industrial Club”; 1916, Secretary, “Georgia Chamber of Commerce”; 1918, “Secretary, Southeastern Exhibit Association”; 1920-21, “President Southern Publicity Association.” Under the direction of Clarke the entire system of field work has been perfected, and as Imperial Kleagle, Clarke is responsible for the success of the movement.

Clarke, whose chief helper and backer was Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, was conducting the Southern Publicity Bureau at the time, and quickly saw the big financial possibilities which lay in the capitalization of the name “Ku Klux.” Simmons, who had concocted the scheme of organization which placed the “entire works” into his own hands, lacked the ability to put his ideas into execution. At this point, I should like to take issue with practically every man who had made any attack on the Ku Klux Klan. The general opinion has been that “Simmons is absolutely sincere in what he is doing, but has been in the hands of Clarke and Mrs. Tyler.” I have never met Simmons in person, but I have studied his organization in the most minute detail. From my study of the system and the part the man has played in it, I believe that he is a cunning, shrewd adventurer, who, from the start conceived the idea of acquiring both wealth and unlimited power from his secret “Invisible Empire.” In all of his public utterances in the newspapers and before Congress he has shown a shiftiness and evasiveness clearly discernible amid a vast mass of wordiness.

In his entire scheme of organization and management, he has so constructed his proposition that he is master of the situation with practically unlimited power. In this particular a good illustration can be found in the contract he made with Clarke whereby the latter became the Chief Sales Manager of the membership peddlers for the whole country. This contract, while it gives Clarke the opportunity of making a vast sum of money, at the same time makes Simmons the absolute dictator of Clarke’s movements. The probabilities are that Simmons, realizing that he himself was ignorant of real organization methods, so framed this contract that he could let Clarke out at any time, and take over to himself the functions of the propagation department after he had learned the system.

The contract which brought Clarke and Mrs. Tyler into the organization reads as follows:

As is well known the new Ku Klux Klan, like the old, depends to a great extent upon concealing the identity of the members by the means of long white robes and a white peaked helmet, with hangings in which eye holes have been cut. In the old Klan these robes were made by members of the Klansmen’s family, but in the new order of affairs the work of supplying these robes is a monopoly entirely in the hands of the national organization.Members are not actually required to possess a robe, but it is generally the case that every man who comes into the movement is childishly eager to acquire one, whether he can use it in public or not. The organization does not “sell” the robes to members; it merely rents them, and members upon leaving the organization are required to return them to the head of the local Klan. The price charged a member for a robe is $6.50, while the Kleagle must pay $12 as his robe has more trimming. Made in large quantities, as they are being made, there ought to be a profit of at least $5 per garment, although I believe a New York garment maker could show a larger profit than that. According to “Emperor” Simmons, the present output is about six hundred robes a day. Orders are taken for the garments by Kleagles and Exalted Cyclops of the different Klans on measuring blanks printed especially for the purpose. The order is made out and addressed to the “Imperial Wizard,” but it is filled by the “Gate City Manufacturing Company” of Atlanta, Georgia. The records of Fulton County, Georgia, show that application for charter for this corporation was filed June 9, 1920, with C. B. Davis and Lottie B. Davis as incorporators. It shows a capital stock of $25,000, and states that “more than $5,000 has been paid in.” It also asks the right to increase its capitalization to $50,000. Its powers indicate that it is to engage in the manufacture and sale of lodge supplies, paraphernalia and equipment of all sorts for the use of lodges, secret societies, etc. The corporation apparently lay dormant for a year, as an order of court allowing the petition was only allowed on August 19, 1921. Until the incorporators met and organized there could have been no legal organization of the corporation. No reports as to business done had been filed in Fulton County up to the date of the court order above mentioned. This concern, however, has been doing business for several months prior to that time, as I received several shipments from them in April and May 1921. Who owns the Gate City Manufacturing Company? What connection has it with the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan? What becomes of the enormous profit derived from the sales of robes?

During the summer of 1921, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan purchased the handsome, colonial home of H. M. Durant on Peachtree Road, about five miles from Atlanta, at an approximate cost of $75,000. The purchase comprises a block of land about four hundred feet square. Extensive improvements, worthy of a real emperor’s palace are contemplated for this property, and it will be the headquarters of the “Imperial Palace.” The land will be cut up into gardens, small lakes and building sites. It is estimated that $30,000 worth of marble alone will be used. A handsome statue of General N. B. Forrest will be erected, and also a statue of “Emperor” William J. Simmons. There will be electric fountains, electric fiery crosses, lakes, boat houses and tennis courts. According to the “Emperor”: “There will be no manufacturing handled at the Palace. We now have a paraphernalia plant here turning out six hundred robes a day, in addition to other equipment, and we expect to erect in a short time a building with railroad frontage to be devoted exclusively to manufacturing.” It is also planned to take over a large printing plant. If this extensive program is carried out, there will be a huge enterprise with all the combined activities costing not less than $3,500,000.

While the organization has been buying land and engaging in real estate transactions, the Imperial Kleagle, as a side line, has also gone into the real estate business. On June 27, 1921, a petition was filed for charter for the “Clarke Realty Company” with Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler as incorporators, with authorized capital stock of $10,000 with privilege of increasing it to $100,000. The corporation seeks the right to deal generally in real estate. Just what real estate the “Clarke Realty Company” has bought, sold, leased, rented, or exchanged or acted as brokers for, has not appeared in print.

The functions of Clarke appear to be exclusively to propagate the work and organize Klans, after which they are turned over to Simmons. According to a statement made by Clarke to the World the organization has one thousand chartered Klans, it requiring the services of two people engaged every day to write charters. After the Klans are chartered they are turned over to Simmons. In this connection, it would be well to turn back to the charter and note that under Section 7, the “business of the society shall be under the control of the Imperial Wizard (President),” etc. This control is so thorough that in the secret constitution of the organization the term of office of the president is for life, and he can be removed only by the unanimous vote of his Imperial Kloncilium. The constitution also provides as follows:

Acting in pursuance of the constitution, which provides that the organization is “military in character,” the propagation department functions in pretty much the same manner as the army handles its business. The Imperial Kleagle is virtually a Chief of Staff, or more properly an Adjutant General. The country is divided into eight “Domains” comprising certain States, each State being known as a “Realm,” which is again divided into districts where the actual field work is done.

The “Domain” is in command of a “Grand Goblin,” the “Realm” is under the jurisdiction of a “King Kleagle,” while the field organizer, having charge of certain territory, is known as a “Kleagle.”

The following is a list of the Domains with their respective Grand Goblins, revised to July 2, 1921:

1. Domain of the Southeast, composed of Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and the two Carolinas, with M. B. Owen, Box 1472, Atlanta, as Grand Goblin.

2. Western Domain, in charge of Grand Goblin George B. Kimbro, Jr., Box 1521, Houston, Texas, and composed of Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

3. Domain of the East, Grand Goblin Lloyd P. Hooper, Apartment 1, No. 320, Central Park West, New York City, in charge, composed of the State of New York.

4. Domain of the Great Lakes, in charge of Grand Goblin C. W. Love, with headquarters in Chicago, and composed of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.

5. Domain of the Mississippi Valley, in charge of Grand Goblin Frank A. Crippen, Box 951, St. Louis, composed of Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota.

6. Domain of the Pacific Coast, in charge of Grand Goblin W. S. Coburn, No. 519 Haas Building, Los Angeles, composed of California, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho.

7. Domain of the Northwest, consolidated with former Southwestern Domain and now part of new Western Domain.

8. Capitol Domain, in charge of Grand Goblin Harry B. Terrell, Box 5, 11th Street Station, Washington, D. C., and comprising the District of Columbia.

9. Atlantic Domain, in charge of Grand Goblin F. W. Atkins, with headquarters in Philadelphia, composed of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

10. New England Domain, in charge of Grand Goblin A. J. Pardon, Jr., with headquarters in Boston, and composed of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Unattached, Florida, to be in charge of King Kleagle S. A. Givens, who will report direct to the Imperial Kleagle and whose address is Box 1883, Jacksonville, Fla.

These “Domains” may be likened to divisions of an army, as they are in control of the spread of Ku Kluxism in the sections named, and the “Grand Goblin” reports direct to the “Imperial Kleagle.” Each State or “Realm” is like a regiment, and the King Kleagle reports to his immediate chief, the “Grand Goblin,” and not to the Atlanta headquarters. The “Kleagle” or field man makes his reports to the “King Kleagle” only. All communications sent to or received by him from the headquarters come through the channels of the “King Kleagle.” The system is so thoroughly military that if a member of the organization writes to Atlanta about any matter, the letter is sent through channels to the Kleagle for his action.

The Kleagle is empowered to administer the obligation, organize and instruct Klans, and collect the requisite and necessary “donation” of ten dollars. Out of this sum he retains four dollars per member for his services, and at the end of the week submits a report of his activities, remitting to the King Kleagle the six dollars balance due on each member secured. The King Kleagle retains one dollar a member for his services, and remits five dollars to the Grand Goblin of the Domain to which he is attached. The Grand Goblin is allowed to shave off fifty cents a member and remits $4.50 to the Imperial Kleagle, who in turn keeps $2.50 and pays into the treasury of the Imperial Palace the sum of $2.00 which is all of the original “donation” that actually reaches the organization. The whole system is carefully conducted as a well organized sales system, each official being required to file his returns each week on a form provided for that purpose. The following is a copy of the Kleagle’s weekly report form:

Has the “Invisible Empire” a program?

According to its “Emperor” it not only has a program, but at the proper time it will put it forth. He made a statement which was printed in the Searchlight on July 2, 1921:

This intemperate language of Simmons was even exceeded at a meeting held on the night of August 25, 1921, in Philadelphia, which was reported in a press telegram as follows: