HOODED IGNORANCE

The Ku Klux Klan is an American Fascismo. So writes Arthur Corning White in the November "Forum." Mr. White asserts that, like the Italian organization, the Klan owes its existence to the economic discontent of the middle class, and that its real purpose, although the Klan may not yet realize the fact, is certain to be the championing of middle class interests in the war between Capital and Labor. This theory makes interesting reading, but its accuracy is questionable.

In the first place that great American institution, the Ku Klux Klan, does not represent any particular class as much as it represents a state of mind. Its causes are not so much economic discontent as they are chauvinism, bigotry, and intolerance. These virtues are not necessarily middle class nor do they have their roots in economic dissatisfaction. Klanism is simply a sad commentary on the condition of education and religion in the United States. It is possible, of course, that the Klan may some day decide to support something reasonable like the rights of the middle class. No such comparatively broad-minded decision can be hoped for, however, until a few men of intellect have supplanted the midnight masqueraders as members. But then with men of intellect in its ranks the Klan will be no longer the Klan.