history PDA2

These are, in the first place, a blend of various peoples of the so-called Nordic race, the race

which, with all its faults, has given the world almost the whole of modern civilization. The Klan

does not try to represent any people but these.

There is no need to recount the virtues of the American pioneers; but it is too often forgotten

that in the pioneer period a selective process of intense rigor went on. From the first only

hardy, adventurous and strong men and women dared the pioneer dangers; from among these all

but the best died swiftly, so that the new Nordic blend which became the American race was

bred up to a point probably the highest in history. This remarkable race character, along with the

new-won continent and the new-created nation, made the inheritance of the old-stock Americans

the richest ever given to a generation of men.

Under Attack

In spite of it, however, these Nordic Americans for the last generation have found themselves

increasingly uncomfortable, and finally deeply distressed. There appeared first confusion

in thought and opinion, a groping and hesitancy about national affairs and private lire alike, in

sharp contrast to the dear, straightforward purposes of our earlier years. There was futility

in religion, too, which was in many ways even more distressing. Presently we began to find that

we were dealing with strange ideas; policies that always sounded well, but somehow always

made us still more uncomfortable.

Finally came the moral breakdown that has been going on for two decades. One by one all our

traditional more standards went by the board, or were so disregarded that they ceased to

be binding. The sacredness of our Sabbath, of our homes, of chastity. And finally even of our

right to teach our own children in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn

away from us. Those who maintained the old standards did so only in the face of constant

ridicule.

Along with this went economic distress. The assurance for the future of our children dwindled.

We found our great cities and the control of much of our industry and commerce taken over by

strangers, who stacked the cards of success and prosperity against us. Shortly they came to

dominate our government. The bloc system by which this was done is now familiar to all. Every

kind of inhabitant except the Americans gathered in groups which operated as units in politics,

under orders of corrupt, self-seeking and un-American leaders, who both by purchase and threat

enforced their demands on politicians. Thus it came about that the interests of Americans were

always the last to be considered by either national or city governments, and that the native

Americans were constantly discriminated against, in business, in legislation and in administrative

government.

Strangers in Their Own Country

So the Nordic American today is a stranger in large parts of the land his fathers gave him.

Moreover, he is a most unwelcome stranger, one much spit upon, and one to whom even the

right to have his own opinions and to work for his own interests is now denied with jeers and

revilings. "We must Americanize the Americans," a distinguished immigrant said recently. Can

anything more clearly show the state to which the real American has fallen in this country which

was once his own?

Our falling birth rate, the result of all this, is proof of our distress. We no longer feel that we can

be fair to children we bring into the world, unless we can make sure from the start that they

shall have capital or education or both, so that they need never compete with those who now fill

the lower rungs of the ladder of success. We dare no longer risk letting our youth "make its

own way" in the conditions under which we live. So even our unborn children are being crowded

out of their birthright!

All this has been true for years, but it was the World War that gave us our first hint of the real

cause of our troubles, and began to crystallize our ideas. The war revealed that millions whom

we had allowed to share our heritage and prosperity, and whom we had assumed had become

part of us, were in fact not wholly so. They had other loyalties: each was willing— anxious! —

to sacrifice the interests of the country that had given him shelter to the interests of the one he

was supposed to have cast off; each in fact did use the freedom and political power we had given

him against ourselves whenever he could see any profit for his older loyalty.

Learning

This, of course, was chiefly in international affairs, and the excitement caused by the discovery

of disloyalty subsided rapidly after the war ended. But it was not forgotten by the Nordic

Americans. They had been awakened and alarmed; they began to suspect that the hyphenism

which had been shown was only a part of what existed; their quiet was not that of renewed sleep,

but of strong men waiting very watchfully. And presently they began to form decisions about all

those aliens who were Americans for profit only.

They decided that even the crossing of salt water did not dim a single spot on a leopard; that an

alien usually remains an alien no matter what is done to him, what veneer of education he gets,

what oaths he takes, nor what public attitudes he adopts. They deeded that the melting pot was a

ghastly failure, and remembered that the very name was coined by a member of one of the

races— the Jews— which most determinedly refuses to melt. They deeded that in every way, as

well as in politics, the alien m the vast majority of cases is unalterably fixed in his instincts,

character thought and interests by centuries of racial selection and development that he thinks

first for his own people, works only with and for them, cares entirely for their interests, considers

himself always one of them, and never an American. They decided that in character, instincts,

thought, and purposes -- in his whole soul-- an alien remains fixedly alien to America and

all it means.

They saw, too, that the alien was tearing down the American standard of living, especially in the

lower walks. It became clear that while the American can out-work the alien can so far

under-live the American as to force him out of all competitive labor. So they came to realize that

the Nordic can easily survive and rule and increase if he holds for himself the advantages won by

strength and daring of his ancestors in times of stress and peril, but that if he surrenders those

advantages to the peoples who could not share the stress, he will soon be driven below the level

at which he can exist by their low standards, low living and fast breeding. And they saw that the

low standard aliens of Eastern and Southern Europe were doing just that thing to us.

They learned, though more slowly, that alien ideas are just as dangerous to us as the aliens

themselves, no matter how plausible such ideas may sound. With most of the plain people this

conclusion is based simply on the fact that the alien ideas do not work well for them. Others

went deeper and came to understand that the differences in racial background, in breeding,

instinct, character and emotional point of view are more important than logic. So ideas which

may be perfectly healthy for an alien may also be poisonous for Americans.

Finally they learned the great secret of the propagandists; that success in corrupting public

opinion depends on putting out the subversive ideas without revealing their source. They came

to suspect that "prejudice" against foreign ideas is really a protective device of nature against

mental food that may be indigestible. They saw, finally, that the alien leaders in America

act on this theory, and that there is a steady flood of alien ideas being spread over the country,

always carefully disguised as American.

As they learned all this the Nordic Americans have been gradually arousing themselves to

defend their homes and their own kind of civilization. They have not known just how to go about

it; the idealist philanthropy and good-natured generosity which led to the philosophy of the

melting pot have died hard. Resistance to the peaceful invasion of the immigrant is no such

simple matter as snatching up weapons and defending frontiers, nor has it much spectacular

emotionalism to draw men to the colors.

Break with Liberalism

The old-stock Americans are learning, however. They have begun to arm themselves for this

new type of warfare. Most important, they have broken away from the fetters of the false

ideals and philanthropy which put aliens ahead of their own children and their own race.

To do this they have had to reject completely — and perhaps for the moment the rejection is a bit

too complete — the whole body of "Liberal" ideas which they had followed with such simple,

unquestioning faith. The first and immediate cause of the break with Liberalism was that it had

provided no defense against the alien invasion, but instead had excused it — even defended it

against Americanism. Liberalism is today charged in the mind of most Americans with nothing

less than national, racial and spiritual treason. . . .

Conclusion

We are a movement of the plain people, very weak in the matter of culture, intellectual support,

and trained leadership. We are demanding, and we expect to win, a return of power into

the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly intellectualized, but entirely unspoiled

and not de-Americanized, average citizen of the old stock. Our members and leaders are all of

this class— the opposition of the intellectuals and liberals who held the leadership, betrayed

Americanism, and from whom we expect to wrest control, is almost automatic. . . .

Our critics have accused us of being merely a "protest movement", of being frightened; they say

we fear alien competition, are in a panic because we cannot hold our own against the

foreigners. That is partly true. We are a protest movement — protesting against being robbed.

We are afraid of competition with peoples who would destroy our standard of living. We are

suffering in many ways, we have been betrayed by our trusted leaders, we are half beaten

already. But we are not frightened nor in a panic. We have merely awakened to the fact that we

must fight for our own. We are going to fight— and win!

Source

Source: Hiram W. Evans, “The Klan’s Fight for Americansim,” North American Review 223

(March-April-May 1926).