My experience as a fraternal order man has been that the personnel of the order varies with different localities. Therefore, while it might be perfectly proper to build a strictly secret organization in Kingsport, Tennessee, there might be, in another town an entirely different class of membership which would cause the movement to jeopardize the peace and dignity of the community. The potential danger of the Ku Klux organization in this respect was the first thing that dawned upon my consciousness, and it made me careful of the class of people whom I permitted to become members. My duties took me into several towns, and night after night I administered the obligation and put on the degree work until I became thoroughly familiar with the mechanical end of it. Gradually, however, a feeling developed within me that there was something wrong with the organization--that it was not the sort of "fraternal society" to which I had been accustomed for nearly twenty years. I thought at first that this was due to the fact that I had done so much lodge work in my lifetime that I was growing stale. But certain portions of the obligation, which at first had seemed merely perfunctory, stood out in my mind and challenged serious thought and consideration. I studied everything I could find to help me in my work; I received printed matter from the organization: I talked with Klansmen from other cities; and I delved deeply into the origin and history of the original Ku Klux Klan. But business men of standing and prominence in the places where I worked asked me pointed questions about the organization, questions that I could not answer and on which I could get no satisfactory answers from above. Slowly my vague fears that there was something vitally wrong crystallized into stronger belief. I spoke to a few close friends in the organization, and asked them to give me their frank opinions about it. Without any prompting from me they voiced the same thoughts and gave expressions to the same doubts I had myself. After much thoughtful deliberation, I reached the decision that the Ku Klux obligation was radically wrong. It was not the kind of obligation men take in _fraternal_ organizations--it was a _political_ obligation. I saw that the ritual, which had previously been to me merely a badly written mass of words was really a sacriligious mockery. I realized that the whole scheme was vicious in principle, and a menace to the peace and safety of America. The basis for these conclusions can be stated briefly: _First_: While the organization was incorporated under the laws of the State of Georgia, as a fraternal order, the claim being advanced by the promoters that it should have similar powers to the Masons and Knights of Pythias, it is not a fraternal organization in the sense usually understood, but an attempt to create in this republic of ours an "Invisible Empire," entirely political and military in nature and designed to function bodily.