K. K. K.

"It is unthinkable and impossible to imagine that the real Americans of the type who made this country, such as Washington, Franklin, Jefferson or Monroe, or the devout and God-fearing Pilgrims who preceded them, should voluntarily sit and watch corpulent Italian, Spanish, French or German aliens and a few Americans, trained in Europe and alienized, enacting, upon the stage, scenes of Latin passion, seductions, betrayals, murders, assassinations, insanity, jealousy, disease and death. The horrible nature of operatic librettos is intensified by poignant, passionate music, acting and singing. The American mind, even in its worst phases, cannot produce a genuine grand opera. It is distinctly a foreign, alien expression, with a far-reaching in fluence for evil. Today, everyone knows the mental nature of cause and effect; and one cannot witness horrible scenes or be mentally a participant in corrupt and degraded poisonous taint. . . ." Thus The Standard, Ku Klux Klan organ.