By James H. Davis

Editor’s note: This story has been edited for length. To read the original story, visit historycolorado.org. This article was originally published in 1965.

After its establishment in Colorado in 1922, the Ku Klux Klan began — under the leadership of Grand Dragon John Galen Locke — to carry out a program of economic and political control in various towns over the state. The organization made certain that channels for dissemination of propaganda and for recruitment were set up. Then it threatened or coerced individuals, groups and institutions. Finally came attempts to infiltrate into municipal government with the ultimate goal of complete domination. 

The seizure of municipalities was not enough for the Klan; the state government had to be captured also. This was accomplished by obtaining control of the Republican Party, selecting almost all its candidates during the elections of 1924 and making certain the ticket would be successful throughout the state. Once in possession of the executive and legislative branches of Colorado government, the Klan planned to use official acts in furthering its causes on the widest scale possible.

As the year 1925 dawned, Dr. John G. Locke could feel quite pleased with the political situation on the state level. In both the Senate and the House there was a majority of members elected from the Klan-controlled Republican Party and he could seemingly count on the passage of any desired legislation. The executive as well as the legislative branch of the government seemed to be in the doctor’s pocket. Gov. Clarence Morley could not make a move without first consulting the Grand Dragon. Harry T. Sethman was close to the governor during the first part of his administration because he was thought erroneously to be a Klansman. Sethman observed that Morley was constantly on the telephone talking to his “master.” One man in the governor’s office had as his primary duty the carrying of written messages between the Capitol and Locke’s Glenarm Place office. For all practical purposes, Locke was the governor. 

Very soon after his inauguration, Morley made a strong effort to secure control of a prized government department for Klan usage. Having in mind Locke’s desire to control enforcement agencies, he tried to remove the Adjutant General of the state militia and replace him with a Klansman. Paul P. Newlon refused to obey the governor’s executive order to resign as Adjutant General and stationed Captain Alphonse P. Ardourel on 24-hour duty in his office to prevent the governor’s appointee from taking over. Furious over Newlon’s defiance, the governor had the House of Representatives introduce a special bill giving him unquestioned authority to appoint and dismiss the Adjutant General. To give immediate consolation to the disappointed Grand Dragon, Locke was granted a commission that made him a colonel in the National Guard Medical Corps. Another state office was directly given to Locke when he was appointed a member of the State Board of Medical Examiners.

Such a large crowd wished to attend the new governor’s inauguration that all precedents were broken, and it was held in Denver’s Auditorium rather than in the Capitol. The inaugural message clearly reflected the inspiration of Locke, although some points that were emphasized had nothing to do with Ku Klux Klan objectives. These were: the establishment of a state reformatory for women, appropriation of funds to carry on negotiations for interstate river treaties, a minimum wage law for women, assistance in revival of the mining industry, elimination of further taxation on gasoline so that capital would be encouraged to develop Colorado’s resources, the setting up of a new highway code for the purpose of preventing waste in construction and maintenance, and the carrying out of the Boulder Dam water conservation project. However, of the other major points in that speech at least four could be related to aims of the Hooded Order. These included the passage of acts excluding certain aliens from residing in the state, eliminating from the Prohibition law the right to obtain intoxicating liquors for sacramental use, amending the primary election law so that members of one political party could not participate in the primaries of an opposition party, and abolishing many state boards, bureaus and commissions. 

Ostensible reasons for the latter group of recommendations were: furtherance of the cause of organized labor, providing more jobs for Coloradans, eliminating abuse of the Prohibition law and saving taxpayers money by removal of useless agencies. Actually, the Klan had ulterior motives: to strike a blow at non-Americans by keeping them out of Colorado, and to attack the Catholic church — without wine the Mass could not be celebrated, and this is the central act of Catholic worship. In addition, the opportunity the Democrats had enjoyed in the past primary election to upset the Klan ticket could never occur again. The termination of various state agencies would eliminate jobs held by employees not sympathetic to the Klan. New positions, having similar functions, could then be created and doled out to faithful Klan followers. 

The Assembly had been in session for several days and bills had already been introduced to abolish agencies before the governor gave his message. The State Industrial Commission was the object of one bill, concerning which the Denver Times observed: “This action would make the deputy state labor commissioner one of the most powerful officials in the state and would largely increase the number of employed in the office of the Secretary of State whose appointee he is.”

Another resolution introduced in the House would abolish the Civil Service Commission and “throw open jobs of all people employed in the Capitol Office Building and Museum to the winning party at the polls.” The move was also in keeping with a declaration made at a Klan meeting, which stated that the Commission must be eliminated, since “70 percent of the officeholders of the state, protected by Civil Service, were Catholics.” House Bill 38 would eliminate the juvenile court system, permitting the district court in each county to take over its function. Thus, anti-Klan Judge Ben Lindsey would be once and for all eliminated.

While many developments favored the Morley administration, problems began to emerge. Four Republican senators stated they would not abide by certain decisions of majority leaders and walked out of the caucus. These men were Henry Toll, David Elliot, Frank Kelly and Louis A. Puffer. An effort to placate two of them was made by appointing Puffer chairman of the Finance Committee and Elliott chairman of the State Affairs and Public Lands Committee. Walter W. King and John P. Dickinson, two other dissatisfied senators about to join the above-mentioned insurgents, were given chairmanships of the Rules, Banking, and Reapportionment Committees. The Democrats had decided to block legislation rather than make their own proposals and “play a waiting game, hoping for a split.” Therefore, they could not have been more pleased with the Senate revolt. 

The House, overwhelmingly composed of Republicans elected from the Klan-controlled party, continued to cooperate fully with the administration, and the Senate rift was not at first felt. During a long session, which lasted into the late evening of Jan. 21, the Assembly saw to it that the legislation desired by the governor was introduced before the midnight deadline designated by the law. The majority of the so-called administration bills was introduced in the House. Two bills especially pleasing to the Ku Klux Klan were those forbidding the sale of liquor for sacramental use and repealing the civil rights laws, which would allow discrimination against Negroes. An additional blow aimed at Catholics came in the form of a bill that would stop children in public institutions from attending sectarian schools, some of which were run by the Church. In short: “When the time for introduction of the bills was at end, every one of the bills for the abolition of state boards and bureaus, called for by Governor Morley in his  inaugural address, had been laid before the legislature.”

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Outside the state legislature, Catholics were bringing about every kind of pressure in order to kill the bill prohibiting the use of wine for sacramental purposes. An editorial in the Denver Catholic Register was reprinted in various publications and circulated throughout at least 15 different countries. In addition, “Father Matthew Smith was chosen, at a meeting of a group of priests … to celebrate Mass as a test if the obnoxious bill became a law and to notify the authorities that he would do so.”

Meanwhile, events within the Assembly were not going as they should for the Morley-Locke program. Introducing bills was one thing, but passing them was quite another. Doubtful Republicans and a handful of Democrats nearly killed a bill abolishing the State Board of Nurses Examiners and brought postponement of its passage; changes were demanded in the wine bills; and four other administration bills were not introduced because of the attack on the nurses’ bill. Republican “leaders herded their charges into conference where lessons were meted out in loyalty to party discipline.” A majority of Republicans attended the conference and all of them attended a secret caucus held several days later in which the governor explained his legislative program. After this brief flare-up the House passed all the administration bills.

Morley was faced with an increasingly serious threat to his program in the Senate. The insurgent senators were determined to defeat all phases of it. Their approach was, first, to let the House measures die in committee. Failing this, they would carry the fight to the floor. The six Republicans and 14 Democrats formed a coalition large enough to kill any bill brought up. Among the reasons cited by the insurgent Republican senators for the action was the fact that the governor’s administration was not really Republican, since he selected Democrats for key state positions. In addition, he had not once sought out or accepted the advice of party leaders. They also felt that many bills advocated by Morley were intended to eliminate those state employees who had not voted for him in the election.  

One of the insurgent senators recalls the personal pressures that were put on him. He, as well as the other five senators, opposed all administration bills and refused to go into caucus because he would then be bound to abide by a majority decision on the floor. Consequently, he was ostracized. Hardly anyone would speak to him in the Capitol or on the street. Every morning a copy of the unofficial Ku Klux Klan newspaper was placed on his desk. Across the center of the front page was a column with a black border, which was entitled “Roll of Dishonor” and which listed the names of the legislators who had voted against “patriotic” measures. Morley called the insurgent senator, along with the other uncooperative Republicans from the upper legislative body, into a conference. Having before him lists of bills introduced by each man, the governor promised that every bill would fail unless the sponsors agreed to vote for Klan legislation.

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The Twenty-Fifth General Assembly had been in session for an unusually long period — 101 days. During that time, 1,080 bills were introduced in both houses, and only 15 to 20% of these were passed.

Every administration measure met defeat, except the one abolishing the Board of Horseshoe Examiners. Many of the bills were killed in the Senate. The wine bills never even reached the upper house and neither did those repealing the civil rights laws.

Though Klan influence was felt in the succeeding Assembly, it was greatly diminished. Morley served but one term, and his successor was none other than William H. Adams, the man who had perhaps been most instrumental in wrecking the legislative program of Grand Dragon Locke. Because of charges against his management of the Klan, Locke resigned from the organization only four months after the legislature adjourned. Before leaving the Klan, however, he formed a new group called the Minute Men of America.

The Denver Catholic Register gleefully reported the results of the 1926 primary: “In contrast to the primary election two years ago when all the candidates on the Klan ticket were swept into office … Colorado this week vindicated herself to a great extent by denying a second bid for power on the part of the hooded order.”

The people of Colorado had at last seen the real nature of the Ku Klux Klan as it appeared in their state — an organization dedicated to furthering the selfish ambitions of leaders by debasing every religious or fraternal body as well as every public office useful to that purpose. Internal corruption and dissension soon brought an end to Colorado’s Invisible Empire.