Under this section, any sort of crime can be excused in the mind of the person who commits the crime. "But," the answer probably will be, "an act is not justifiable unless it is legal." The obligation might easily have been written so that the distinction could have been clearly stated, but it was not. That oath on its face is an accessory before the fact to any and all kinds of crimes and outrages, and placing such an obligation indiscriminately in the hands of men of average intelligence is like giving dynamite to little children and expecting them not to be blown to pieces. In summarizing the oath of the "Invisible Empire," there are three salient things that stand out very prominently: First: It binds men to obey unconditionally laws they know nothing about, and laws which will be enacted in the future, and to follow blindly an organization which is largely a one-man affair. Second: It places the Ku Klux obligation prior to the obligation to the government of the United States. Third: Its last paragraph is illegal, and is nothing more or less than the condonement of mob rule and the use of methods in carrying out its views that are contrary to all the basic laws of the land. CHAPTER VII THE KU KLUX RITUAL This chapter might well be entitled "Ku-Kluxing a Sacrament," or "How the Kleagles, for Ten Dollars, profane Christianity's Holiest Rite." On the title page of the fifty-four page booklet is the imprint "Copyright 1916, by W. J. Simmons, Atlanta, Ga." I venture to express the opinion that this is the first time in the history of the United States that a ritual of a secret order, genuine or alleged, has ever been copyrighted, and the very fact that it _is_ copyrighted suggests pertinent questions. As a general rule the protection of the copyright laws is a matter of dollars and cents to an author, and the first question that suggests itself is: what royalty does Simmons get from the "Invisible Empire" for the use of his printed productions? Then comes the further question: in whom does the title to the copyright rest? does Simmons own it, or has it been assigned to the corporation? If Simmons owns the copyright, and should die, would the title to the ritual pass to his heirs or would the members of the Klan have anything to say as to the ownership of the secret book of their organization? If the question be answered in the negative the curious spectacle would be presented of an organization paying a royalty to people not members of that organization. Another consideration is the fact that as the law requires two copies of a book to be deposited in the Library of Congress, the pages of this "secret" document are open to the study of any one who cares to go to Washington to examine them. Therefore, in his desire to secure unto himself the property rights in the ritual, Simmons, who took the oath not to divulge any of the secrets of his organization, violated his obligation from the very beginning.