Surely there can not be in this frank statement of the principles and the purposes of the Ku Klux Klan any ground for the criticism that the organization was founded on racial and sectarian animosities and hatreds. The Klan is neither anti-racial nor anti-sectarian. It is pro-American. We concede to every distinctive organization in race and religion the same rights of restricting and qualifying its membership that we claim for ourselves. If, in the light of all the past, and in view of the present, we are insisting upon an organization of native-born white American citizens, we do not, by stipulating the conditions of membership in the Ku Klux Klan, avow hostility to any one class or company who may not, for one reason or another, qualify for membership in our organization. Indeed, as Americans we not only have the right to organize under the law and in keeping with the law, but far more than that--in the exercise of that right the Klan is positively committed to vouchsafing the same right to any other class of people on the American continent who desire to organize themselves for patriotic, social, fraternal or religious purposes. Only this too is also stoutly maintained: Any organization that is formed and fostered under the flag of our common country must not be inimical to our democratic government and institutions. There are numerous organizations in America to which members of the Klan would not be admitted. These organizations are racial, social, political and sectarian. There has never been any complaint against these organizations. They have never been subjected to scrutiny by the Department of Justice of the United States Government. They have never been brought under Congressional investigation. They have lived and grown and pursued their purposes of organization without restraint or interference from the outside. All this is in exact keeping with the freedom that is granted under the Constitution and the laws. We realize only too well that when organizations have arisen that have threatened the peace or morals or health of our social life, or, for any purpose, inveighed against the basic institutions of our country or the orderly conduct of our people in obedience to constituted authority, such organizations have been speedily suppressed. There are not a few of the leaders of such movements in the penal institutions of our country to-day, designated as political prisoners, because they undertook to obstruct the machinery of the country in its war activities. The Ku Klux Klan is committed so thoroughly--nothing remaining uncommitted--to the full freedom of human life guaranteed under the Constitution to American citizens that it can never interfere with the rights of groups or individuals outside its ranks. It stands everywhere against disorderly and disruptive movements which deny the authority of the government and disobey its mandates whether in time of war or peace.