KU KLUX KLAN: In Colorado

  • Share
  • Read Later

There is disruption in the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, internal dissension arising out of dissatisfaction of the national officers of the Klan with the local officers.

The matters at stake are of course not completely open to the public, but it transpired that recently William Zumbrunn, attorney for the Klan, visited Denver and requested the resignation of Dr. John Galen Locke, Grand Dragon of Colorado. Grand Dragon Locke announced this fact at a meeting of the local Klan and added that he had tendered his resignation. The meeting rose up and gave him a great ovation. His resignation was not accepted.

Here politics came upon the scene. For U. S. Senator Rice W. Means and Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton were suspended from the Klan for partaking in an alleged plot to unseat Locke and make Senator Means Grand Dragon.

For a time there was quiet. Suddenly last week Hiram Wesley Evans, Imperial Wizard of the Klan, directed the Colorado Klan to hold all the Klan's funds and property subject to his orders. This property included a $60,000 interest in a cotton mill. Again a large body of local Klansmen rose up in protest. At a meeting at which Dr. Locke was not present, they turned in their Klan membership cards, and took out membership in "The Minute Men of America,"* an organization which was described as fostering similar ideals.

Attorney Zumbrunn and two national officers of the Klan were reported as starting from Washington for Denver by airplane to look after the Klan's interests and protect its property.

*Not to be confused with the Minute Men of the Constitution, an organization fostered by Charles G. Dawes, and of which he was President until recently.