Karl Reeve investigates the ‘Illinois Department of Constabulary’, a front for capitalist/Klan violence that killed dozens in Southern Illinois. Led by S. Glenn Young–also an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Investigation–a sadist whose terror group were responsible for up to 30 murders of unionists, miners, immigrants, and personal enemies. After the 1922 ‘Herrin Massacre’ where UMWA miners decisively defended their strike from scabs and hired Klan gunmen killing dozens of strike-breakers and thugs, a reign of terror descended on the Southern Illinois coal fields. The Klan took over whole towns, deposing elected bodies, and made a concerted effort to infiltrate and smash the UWMA. Militant mining communities revolted, and a complicated class war raged in the coal fields for decades, with the bloodiest years in the mid-1920s. Other factors came into play; the John L. Lewis and Farrington bureaucracy, anti-Communist union leaders making common cause with the Klan, Democratic and Republican political machines, the ‘Knights of the Flaming Circle’ anti-klan defenders, prohibition and racketeering, politically divided progressive miners, and a helluva lot of violence. However, the militant miners never surrender to the Klan. Young would be shot dead by Ora Thomas, UMWA miner, anti-klan former sheriff and Flaming Circle member, on January 24, 1925, who also died in the gunfight.

‘Illinois Constabulary is Klan Front ’ by Karl Reeve from the Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 175, 176 & 179. October 13,14 & 17, 1924.

Constabulary Stars Flash in Herrin Riots

Glenn Young Exposed as Cossack Officer

That the Illinois department of constabulary, with offices at 104 West Monroe Street, is composed almost entirely of Ku Klux Klan members, with a sprinkling of Chicago politicians, and that it was organized as a basis for a legal state constabulary in case the employers succeed in putting a state constabulary over on the people of Illinois, is disclosed in an investigation of the organization by the DAILY WORKER.

Members of this private corporation disclose to the DAILY WORKER that over two hundred klansmen in Herrin are members of the state constabulary, and that S. Glenn Young, the southern Illinois klan raider and law breaker, is an officer of the state constabulary.

The state constabulary is a private organization composed of gangsters and thugs, with a number of honest workers who are roped in to believing that the slogan of the organization to “reduce crime,” is the real reason for its existence.

Recent Herrin Killers Are Members.

Most of the klansmen who took part in the recent klan riots at Herrin, when six men were killed as a result of klan lawlessness, are prominent in the state constabulary. Harry Herrin, klansman who drove up in an automobile and shot at sheriff Galligan during the recent klan outbreak in Herrin, is a “sergeant” in the state constabulary. Carl Neilson, who was recently found guilty of assault after a jury trial in the Herrin courthouse, is a “captain” of the state constabulary.

The state constabulary has found difficulty in finding excuses for going before the public and carrying on seemingly legitimate activity, while it cloaks its alliance with the klan and with those employers who want to institute a Cossack militarism in this state such as prevails in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The Illinois state constabulary is founded on a law passed in 1787 which allows “officers of the state to call to their aid peace officers of the state in accordance with law in the pursuit of stolen property and apprehension of criminals.”

But the only thing those who become members are privileged to do is to apprehend criminals in the commission of crime–and every private citizen is authorized to go that far. The state constabulary, however, gets in its real work in drumming up militaristic sentiment and entering activities such as are carried on by the klan to divide the workers.

Claim 28,000 Members.

The workers who join are made to pay $24.50 in return for which they receive a tin star and permission to carry a gun. The organization was formed, “under the state laws of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin,” and now claims 28,000 members in Illinois. Practically every member, the DAILY WORKER learns from a reliable source, is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. The few who do not belong to the klan are attracted to the constabulary because of its activities to stir up militarism.

The state constabulary, in spite of its exorbitant charges, is constantly running at a deficit. But the capitalist press, the large employers, one hundred per cent Americans, and thugs clinging to the skirts of the capitalist system find the state constabulary very convenient for their use.

Seek Control Thru Politics.

The constabulary has frequently entered politics. At the present time the organization is backing not only ex-governor Deneen in his race for the senatorship from Illinois, but has also put up J.M. Leventhal, a democrat, as its candidate for judge of the municipal court. Leventhal is secretary of the constabulary.

Dennis Eagan, bailiff of the municipal court, is listed as a vice-president in the “Constabulary News,” official organ of the state constabulary. Other vice-presidents, as announced in literature of the organization, are: Fred Sterling, lieutenant governor of Illinois; Joseph J. Merensky, assistant United States district attorney; Howard Hayes, judge of the municipal court, Theodore Steinert, member of the house of representatives; Edward Litsinger, chairman of the board of review; Robert M. Lee, city editor of the Chicago Tribune; Homer Hogan, city editor of the Herald and Examiner; Robert Thomas Loughran, official editor of the United Press, and Edward W. Geiger, assistant editor of the Chicago American. Some of these men, when interviewed, declared their names had been used without permission.

The state constabulary, which has no lawful connection with the state of Illinois but is a private organization formed by James R. Howe and his backers, in addition to mixing into politics, and its alliance with the klan, makes one of its principal aims the building up of the organization to act as a foundation for a state constabulary which employers hope, will officially be sanctioned by the state of Illinois.

S. Glenn Young an “Inspector.”

The Constabulary News appoints “inspectors” in each locality, which are supposed to send in news and build up the organization in their locality. S. Glenn Young is the “inspector” for the constabulary in Marion, Illinois. In addition to the “inspectors” and the news items in the Constabulary News, the membership is held together by an occasional banquet where law enforcement and militarism is preached.

“I really don’t know what excuse the state constabulary has for its existence,” a high official of the organization told the DAILY WORKER in a confidential moment. “We give away a tin star, but in reality it does not give the wearer more privileges than an ordinary citizen. Perhaps those who buy these stars exceed their authority, I don’t know.”

In the next article I will tell of the activities of the state constabulary during the Defense Day celebration on September 12.

***

STATE CONSTABULARY IS NOT A PART OF STATE GOVERNMENT

The “state constabulary of Illinois,” contrary to the general impression, is not a part of the state government, but is a private corporation. The state constabulary, claiming 28,000 members, is composed almost wholly of members of the Ku Klux Klan.

This issue contains the second of a series of three articles by Karl Reeve, exposing the state constabulary as the tool of the Ku Klux Klan, of the employers who are trying to stir up militarism, and of cheap Chicago politicians.

The state constabulary was founded many years ago under a law permitting private citizens to apprehend criminals in the commission of crime.

Members of the state constabulary have to pay $24.50 in return for which they receive permission to carry a gun and a tin star. The star gives the members no more rights than a private citizen, and the gun permits costs only a few dollars.

In the first article Comrade Reeve showed how the state constabulary aids the Ku Klux Klan to perpetrate its lawlessness. Glenn Young and over 200 Herrin Klansmen, some of whom took part in the recent Klan murders in Herrin, are members of the state constabulary.

In this article Reeve tells of the activities of the state constabulary in stirring up militarism for the employers.

STATE POLICE BACKBONE OF DRIVE FOR WAR

It Is 100 Percent Brand of Americanism

The “state constabulary of Illinois,” a private corporation which claims to exist as a “law enforcing body,” in reality has as one of its chief functions the establishment in this country of an autocratic militarism. The state constabulary pf Illinois was the backbone of the Chicago mobilization day program of Sept. 12, over 2,500 members of the constabulary taking part in the military exercises. The state constabulary furnished the largest delegation to honor militarism of any participating organization.

Looks Like “Skin Game.”

On the surface the state constabulary looks like any ordinary “skin game.” There is the same blustering trade magazine, the “Constabulary News,” which holds the membership together by boosting the organisation. There is the same “good-fellowship” spirit which officers of the organisation try to promote by banquets and meetings.

However, less than one tenth of the membership of the state constabulary attends the meetings and social functions, the DAILY WORKER is informed. Most of the members of the state constabulary, as explained in the first article, are members of the Ku Klux Klan who joined in order to use the organization as a tool. Those Chicago politicians and large financial interests which back the constabulary, allow the officers of the organization to carry on their petty graft, to charge members $24.50 for nothing, because the employers know that when they need the constabulary to put over a job, the constabulary will respond. Such was the case on September 12.

“Rain or shine, the 318th department of constabulary cavalry, the 465th department of constabulary field artillery and the official band of the day, constituting 2,087 of the 2,500 men that president James R. Howes, has promised to have on the drill field at Grant Park, Sept. 12, will report for duty, by the orders of mobilization issued early last week.” Such runs the call of the state constabulary for its members to take part in mobilization day.

It Heads the List.

“Newspaper clippings from all over the state concerning Defense Day have arrived at the executive offices and in all, where civilian participation is mentioned, the department of constabulary heads the list. But there is a reason, a larger number of men will represent the constabulary than those sent from any other organization commercial, political, or patriotic.”

“What the department of constabulary will do on that day,” the statement, written under the title, “The Member’s Duty,” further states, “will be entirely up to the members. If the department of constabulary is to be lauded as patriotic to its country and law abiding, there must be a demonstration of its patriotism.”

In all these statements of the “department of constabulary,” not even pretense is made of doing anything for the workers. On the contrary, it is constantly stressed that “the business man must be protected.”

“The membership has grown,” states a full page advertisement in the Constabulary News, “until today there are 28,000 members in the state of Illinois who are attempting to prevent the criminal from robbing the small business man. They are doing their duty.”

“Like an armed band of criminals taking away our life and property, like vermin, difficult of control, yet noxious and destructive is pacifism,” states the department of constabulary.

“The preservation of peace thru the preparation for war and a preparation to insure lasting peace, as well as to test the patriotic sentiment of the country is the entire cause of the program of the Defense Day in a nutshell. These tin horn pacifists who call themselves anti-gun-toters can bend themselves into anti-anything. They will do nothing to help the small business man or citizen to protect his life and insure property against loss.”

It is 100 Per Cent.

The department of constabulary is admittedly an organization which promotes 100 per cent Americanism, which promotes militarism to protect the business men and injure property against loss. It does the bidding of the Ku Klux Klan, of which it serves as an auxiliary, and promotes the political advance of crooked politicians.

The thugs and criminals of Chicago, as is well known to newspaper men, use the organization to buy gun permits. These gun permits are sold by the department of constabulary at an exorbitant price and many of the guns are used in the commission of crime. The department of constabulary is permitted to sell gun-permits for $24.50 because it drums up militaristic spirit at the bidding of the capitalist class.

***

CONSTABULARY MUST FIND AN EXCUSE TO LIVE

Private Organization Is Shown Superfluous

The “Department of Constabulary of Illinois,” which is a private organization, expends most of its energies, when not taking part in militaristic demonstrations or aiding the Ku Klux Klan in its lawlessness, giving out propaganda for the distribution of guns to private citizens.

The department of constabulary has but one legal right under the criminal code, permission to arrest violators of the law.

No Excuse to Exist.

But every private citizen having that right, the constabulary is hard put to it for finding an excuse for existence.

“The department of constabulary was started with the one intention of preventing crime,” said Judge John J. Dreher, of Brookfield, in trying to give the members something to think about. But lieutenant Doehne, member of the constabulary, gave a very different reason for the existence of the constabulary, when he favored the glorification of war on Defense Day, Sept. 12. Doehne said it would be “good advertisement” to take part, but everyone who had the “inside dope,” knew the constabulary was performing its real purpose in drumming up war spirit.

“Nothing can advertise the constabulary more than a five-hundred-piece band marching in a parade,” said Lieutenant Doehne, just before the Defense Day program was put over with the aid of the constabulary.

In spite of the fact that the constabulary declares its sole purpose is to prevent crime, the entire organization was thrown into the militaristic Defense Day activities. In fact, had it not been for the 2,500 taking part in Defense Day proceedings, the affair in Chicago would have been a sorry failure indeed.

The “Inspectors” of the Chicago “division” and “divisions” from surrounding towns were called together on August 22, at the executive offices, 104 W. Monroe St…”To decide the best plan for getting out their men for the assemblages of the constabulary on Sept. 12.”

Talk for Defense Day.

The president, James R. Howe, and Mr. Laventhal, whom the state constabulary is running as their candidate for associate judge of the municipal court on the democratic ticket, made speeches at this meeting. Howe spoke on “The birth of defense day and its meaning.” denouncing the “Reds and pacifists,” as if they were in the same camp.

“The Defense day test is defined to be a mobilization test of patriotism and is not covered with a false mask,” says the Constabulary News, official organ of the department of constabulary. “The largest active band in the world, the department of constabulary band will play patriotic music, to nearly ten thousand volunteers who will feast at a huge barbecue, prepared by members of the Women’s Overseas Service League.

One of the bands, the DAILY WORKER learns from an official of the constabulary, which took part in the Mobilization day parade under the name of the department of constabulary was in reality the Ku Klux Klan band which wanted to participate but did not want to come out openly as the klan band. The constabulary is always willing, the DAILY WORKER learns, to serve as a convenience for the Ku Klux Klan.

Another example of such co-operation with the klan by the constabulary is instanced in the activities of S. Glenn Young, liquor raider. “Any member who is guilty of imprudent of use of stars issued by the authorized officers of this corporation, or during the life of his membership shall be convicted in any court of law any crime may at the discretion of the board of commissioners be deemed to have forfeited his membership, and all evidence of his authority as a member of this corporation,” says the law of the constabulary.

Young Has Lawless Record.

S. Glenn Young the klan raider in Southern Illinois, has not only been convicted in a court of law for crime, but has taken part in several brutal murders of Southern Illinois officers of the law. Young has carried on much unlawful activity, raiding the homes of peaceful miners, throwing them out on the street, and wrecking their furniture, his sole authority being the constabulary star. Young is now under charges in the Herrin court house. He has evaded his bond and is a fugitive from Justice. Yet the department of constabulary takes pride in advertising Glenn Young as an officer of their organization, thus displaying their partiality and solicitude for Ku Klux Klan members.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

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