tion. The more one studies the situation the more amazing and incredible the entire performance becomes.
And yet with these extraordinary events transpiring before our eyes, with the main events reported more or less, usually less,—in the news columns from day to day, the number of newspapers in Oregon that tried in any way to interpret these events, to bring their true significance before the people, to either mold or influence public opinion concerning them, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
ISSUE RECOGNIZED ELSEWHERE
What makes this condition all the more striking is the fact that newspapers elsewhere have shown a great editorial interest in this organization. The New York World was awarded the Pulitzer prize for its campaign against the Klan, the committee ruling that this was the most distinguished public service rendered by any newspaper during that year. The Sacramento Bee, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the Spokane Spokesman-Review, are only a few of the many well known dailies on this coast that have taken a decided editorial stand. A number of magazines have editorially expressed themselves, many of the weeklies, and even in the Manchester Guardian, published in England, I saw, last January, an editorial commenting on the activities of the Klan in the United States, with particular reference to the conditions in Oregon. And yet in the state where this occurred, as far as a majority of the press is concerned,—silence. News value in inverse proportion to distance.
Now it is not my intention to bore you with an attack upon the Ku Klux Klan. Personally I am opposed to it from goblin to wizard. But my personal opinions, as far as this discussion is concerned, are beside the point. I am merely bringing forth the Klan as an example—in my judgment a horrible example—of the low estate to which the editorial departments of a majority of the newspapers of this state have fallen.
So I am not asking anyone to pass judgment on the Ku Klux Klan. All that I am asking is that it be granted that in the last election it was a powerful and effective organization, dominating and to a large extent controlling the political destiny of this state. If this is granted, then I maintain the Klan constituted a factor which absolutely demanded on the basis of editorial responsibility, editorial treatment.
Hundreds of good citizens joined the Klan. One of the most frequent arguments by Klan sympathizers, in Jackson county at least, was "In attacking the Klan you are attacking some of the best citizens in your town." This, instead of being a reason against action, was, it seemed to me, a reason for it. A political, super-legal, secret organization appealing only to the criminal or undesirable element could be easily controlled. If a roster of the Klan had been, as some one claimed, a mere "Who's Who in Hoodlum," the problem would have been simple. But it was far from that The Klan propaganda was so cleverly ar ranged that, superficially at least, some of the best elements in the community were attracted. And this fact. instead of relieving the newspaper from responsibility, merely increased it.
DUTY TO TAKE STAND
I do not mean to say that it was the primary obligation of all newspapers to oppose the Klan, although personally I have never been able to understand how any thinking person could support it. For obviously if good citizens could fall for it, there is no reason why good editors could not do the same. But what I do maintain is this,—that it was the primary obligation of all newspapers, with the issues as important as they were and the radical consequences for good or ill as certain, to take some editorial stand on the Klan, to be either for it or against it, and not to sit on the fence and complacently watch the procession march by.
This ignoring of the issue was, I think, particularly inexcusable because of the
