The backlash against the Ku Klux Klan began with the announcement of a new organization called the Three Brothers.
“I have already been inundated with offers from some of our best citizens who want to join the organization,†said Constable JF Howard. “Jews, Catholics, Protestants and men without religious ties are eager to join the new lodge. “
This was prompted by reports that a chapter of the KKK was formed in Spokane.
Howard said the Three Brothers are a “direct challenge†for the KKK and that our goal is to remove all members of the so-called Ku Klux Klan from public office they hold.
“We already know all of the Ku Kluxers currently stationed at City Hall, Courthouse and School Board, and we intend to do our job of ensuring that they are eliminated in the next few years. elections, â€Howard said.
He said anyone who subscribed to such “narrow, anti-American ideas” had no place in public life.
Howard printed 10,000 membership cards.
In contrast, the KKK’s first “ritual initiation†in Spokane attracted only 17 people.
From the hobo beat: Hundreds of men, “mostly vagabonds,” rode freight cars in Spokane every day, a North Pacific special agent reported.
“There’s not much you can do to stop them from getting on trains, so the best we can do is make sure they’re not allowed on cargo carrying freight,” the officer said. . “… 35 or 40 sometimes travel on a single slow freight.”
He said the men appeared to have no destination. They weren’t allowed to hang out in the courtyards.
“They are said to be more law-abiding than you might expect,” wrote The Spokesman-Review. “Train crews are reported to have little difficulty with tramps getting on trains. “
