  I turned over to the New York World early in July, 1921, the facts and documentary evidence I had in my possession, and initiated the exposure with the understanding that the paper would make a complete investigation before printing a single story. Under the direction of Mr. Herbert Bayard Swope, the Executive Editor and Mr. William Preston Beazell, Assistant Managing Editor, the investigation was immediately begun. Mr. Rowland Thomas was assigned to handle the investigation and direct the efforts of the force which began working on it. This work was done for two months, during which time I acted as an assistant to Mr. Thomas. On September 6, 1921, the World began the publication of its series exposing the Ku Klux Klan. Associated with the World were thirty other newspapers covering practically the entire United States, and for twenty-one days the exposure of Ku Kluxism held over five million newspaper readers spellbound in their absorbing interest in the story of the organization. The series comprised twenty-one articles, and occupied the front page in the World to the exclusion The exposure covered in the main facts and documents which I submitted to the paper. It fully substantiated and vindicated the charges made by me in my letter of withdrawal that the organization was un-American, that it was being propagated by spreading religious and racial hatred, that it was a money-making scheme for the benefit of a few insiders, that its oath was illegal and its ritual a sacrilege, and the various other matters referred to by me which are set forth in my letter in a previous chapter. With but few exceptions the entire American press agreed with my position in the matter by endorsing the World’s exposure, and a vast number of the most prominent men and women in America publicly expressed themselves as gratified over the action of the World in showing up the Ku Klux Klan. One of the most interesting developments made by the World in the course of its exposure was its publication of facts collected by the paper in connection with the relations of Edward Young Clarke, the Imperial Kleagle and head of the Southern Publicity Bureau, and his business associate Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler. On Saturday, September 10, 1921, four days after the World commenced the publication of its series, Mrs. Tyler arrived in New York and engaged an elaborate suite of rooms in one of the most conspicuous hotels in the city. “To all Genii, Grand Dragons and Hydras of Realms, Grand Goblins and Kleagles of Domains, Grand Titans and Furies of Provinces, Giants, Exalted Cyclops and Terrors of Cantons, and to all citizens of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the name of our valiant and venerated dead, I affectionately greet you: “In view of our Nation’s need and as an additional force in helping on the great work of conserving, protecting and making effective the great principles of our Anglo-Saxon civilization and American ideals and institutions, “In view of the foregoing, I hereby officially declare and proclaim that such organization does now exist in prospect. Plans, methods, ritualism and regulations of same are now in process of formation and will be perfected at an early date and officially announced. “I do further proclaim that in order to have the proper assistance in the formation and perfecting of this organization, I have this day and date selected and officially appointed Mary Elizabeth Tyler of Atlanta, Fulton County, Ga., to be my Grand Chief of Staff, to have immediate charge of work pertaining to said woman’s organization under my authority and direction. “Further information will be duly and officially communicated from time to time. “Done in the Aulic of His Majesty, Imperial Wizard, Emperor of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the Imperial City of Atlanta, Commonwealth of Georgia, United States of America, on this, the ninth day of the ninth month of the year of our Lord, 1921. “Duly signed and sealed by His Majesty. “WILLIAM JOSEPH SIMMONS, Mrs. Tyler went back to Atlanta, complacently happy in the proud consciousness that she had “pulled” a wonderful piece of publicity. On Monday, September 19, 1921, however, The story, which has been fully verified by the New York World, read as follows: (Special Despatch to The World from a Staff Correspondent.) “Atlanta, September 18.—The World’s exposure of Ku Klux took an astounding turn here yesterday when a staff correspondent obtained evidence of the truth of rumors which have long been matters of gossip in Atlanta. This evidence proves that: “1. A few days prior to October 31, 1919, Edward Young Clarke of Atlanta, who is at present, by appointment of Imperial Wizard Simmons, the Imperial Kleagle or boss organizer of the Ku Klux Klan, and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler of Atlanta, who recently, also by appointment and proclamation of Imperial Wizard Simmons, was made Grand Chief of the newly formed woman’s division of Kluxters, were arrested at midnight and in their sleeping garments, in a notorious underworld resort at 185 South Pryor Street, Atlanta, run by Mrs. Tyler, and taken to the city prison, where Clarke was immediately placed in a cell and where Mrs. Tyler, after being searched, was also locked up. “2. The two prisoners gave assumed names, as ‘Jim Slaton’ and ‘Mrs. Carroll,’ respectively, and being unable to obtain bail at that hour, were imprisoned until morning, when Francis Clarke, now managing and then city editor of an Atlanta newspaper and brother of Edward Young Clarke, now Imperial Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, appeared at the city prison and by giving $50 bonds effected the release of both prisoners. Tried Under Real Names “3. On October 31, 1919, ‘Jim Slaton’ and ‘Mrs. Carroll’ were brought into the Recorder’s Court in Atlanta for trial on charges of disorderly conduct. After consultation with Policewoman Davis, who had participated in the raid and arrests, Recorder George E. Johnson ordered the prisoners docketed under their real names of Edward Young Clarke and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, and under those names they were tried, found guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced to pay $5.00 fines or each work twelve days on the streets or other public works of Atlanta. They paid the fines. “4. Additional charges of possessing whiskey, based on the finding and seizure of such liquor by the police in the Pryor Street resort at the time of the raid, stood against both Clarke and Mrs. Tyler, but were dismissed when J. Q. Jett of Atlanta, the son-in-law of the Mrs. Tyler who is feminine chief of the Ku Klux Klan, came into the Recorder’s Court, claimed ownership of the seized whiskey and was fined $25 by the court. “5. Clarke, Imperial Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan, in its drive for $10 ‘one hundred per cent’ Americans, consecrated and baptized to uphold and enforce the law and protect the sanctity of American homes and the chastity of American womanhood, at this moment stands on the public records of the Fulton County (Ga.) courts and the Atlanta City police courts as a man who has deserted and abandoned his wife and child and has not to this day denied these charges. Testimony Given By Police “Imperial Kleagle Clarke and Mrs. Tyler were arrested at midnight in their bedclothes in the resort, according to the testimony of the witnesses, Policeman Jameson, since dead, and Policewomen Davis and Voss, still on active duty. The resort was at 185 South Pryor Street, corner of Fair Street, and it was operated by Mrs. Tyler. The raid occurred a few days prior to October 31, 1919, which is the date of the hearing before Recorder Johnson, “Most surprising in view of Clarke’s efforts then in progress to make America dry by collecting funds to help the Anti-Saloon League is the fact that the police found whiskey in the house and seized it. “But next morning as stated the super-Prohibitionist and the Ku Klux feminist were absolved from the legal responsibility involved in the discovery of liquor on the premises when Jett claimed the whiskey and paid the fine of $25.” This story created one of the greatest sensations of the whole exposure, and was a blow to the entire propagation department. One Kleagle, A. B. Bate of New Jersey, wired to “Emperor” Simmons demanding the immediate removal of the offending pair. In reply to his telegram he was summarily dismissed as a Kleagle by Mrs. Tyler herself. For a few days chaos reigned in the Ku Klux Kamp. Clarke at first denied the truth of the story of his arrest, then made excuses, and then sent in his resignation to the “Emperor.” Mrs. Tyler issued a statement branding Clarke as a “weak-kneed quitter,” and repudiating him entirely. Simmons, knowing that the pair of professional publicity uplifters had made his organization declined to take any action against either of them, declaring that he had heard rumors of the story, but attached no credence to it. The incendiary article in the Searchlight from the pen of one Carl F. Hutcheson was headed “American Patriots, Hark!” “American patriots! The womanhood of this country has been criminally assaulted in the most diabolical and satanic manner known to the human race—an attempt has been made to ruin the character of a good woman by the most dastardly methods of current times. That dastardly, cowardly and infamous instrument of murder comprises certain daily and powerful newspapers of this country! “Murder! Yes, murder of the worst type! Those murderers who wield the pen, and strew infamy throughout every nook and corner of this nation by their millions of papers with their thunder-bolts of publicity against fair woman! Every word written in opposition to a great patriotic woman of Atlanta reeks with the blood of a grand innocent lady of Southern birth and standing. A woman’s character destroyed (only temporarily), but “The unwarranted murderous attack sprung from the brain of Pulitzer, who disgraces the name of his great father. His paper is located in a city and community where woman’s virtue is played with, and her fair name is no higher regarded than a mere chattel lying upon a crockery-shop shelf for sale at a few pence. Had the so-called editor above referred to, and his blasphemous sheet, had any measure of fairness, justice, and just common canine decency, an effort to materialize effort in its opposition to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he and his corps would never have focused their salacious and foul guns upon a lone, defenseless woman! I said alone? Defenseless? Not yet. By the eternal gods of justice, she is not alone and defenseless, as every mother’s son of true Southern manhood and those of every other section of this country is aroused! We issue the bugle call to all of you to buckle on your armor, and defend this good lady, even with your lives! “To you American patriots, we address ourselves! Unleash your dogs of war and make these hounds of convict stripe pay penalty for the great injury done. To you we appeal! Southern womanhood has been slaughtered! No woman’s good name is safe from the glaring spotlight of a pernicious newspaper and its set of hirelings. Your mothers, sisters and daughters are unsafe from the millionaire newspaper owners, who prostitute their columns by crushing to death the fair name of a woman. They hesitate at no methods, regardless of how low in order, to carry out their designs as a means to their ends! “Who is back of the damnable juggernaut which extinguishes a woman’s life, character and reputation, “Who is back of William Randolph Hearst’s local paper, the Atlanta Georgian, which lifts from the World the false charges against our beloved woman, and defames her in her home? “Whose tremendous influences, with their serpentine poison, inflames the negro of the North and East against the whites? “Whose hands are seen beneath the cover of this murderous and slanderous propaganda? “What manner of man was he who came into Atlanta for the World and wired back lies of the falsest and basest sort against an honest woman? “By what license does a newspaper use its news columns to assert false charges as true? “Who are the cowardly assassins in the background, who are pushing forward the fight against real Americans, by using weak-kneed Protestants and others? “Who are the real murderers before and after the fact in the case of the fair woman murdered? “Patriots, I take pleasure in tearing from their demoniacal faces, the masks! “Patriots, view the hellish countenances of Hundreds of Thousands of Knights of Columbus and millions of members of the Roman Catholic Church! The latter despise real Americanism, hate our government, hate you, Patriots! They class your mothers, sisters and daughters as harlots, while the former is the monstrous iron wheel upon which the Roman Catholic Church hopes to crush America, American government, American institutions and purity of our women for the sake of the Dago on the Tiber—the hope of the Roman Catholic Church! “Patriots, if ever red blood ran through your veins for pure American womanhood, innocent and undefiled Southern womanhood, for the purity of your home and household, let it run now with a warmth that knows no quenching! Yea, let your blood spurt fire! The theft of the records from the police court occurred about ten days after the World had printed the Clarke-Tyler story. The representative of the paper, in getting the evidence of the arrest of the two persons had procured certified copies of the record, and had personally seen the original entries in the books. Upon going back again to look over the books, he found that all traces of the original record had been obliterated, the pages having been cut out and removed. The records were supposedly in the custody of the proper public officials who were responsible for their safety and their preservation from mutilation. No other organization aside from the Ku Klux Klan would have had the slightest interest in destroying the records. |
|
