“Another tactic, this one not entirely deliberate, helped build the Klan: like many other organizations, the Klan exaggerated its size, and doing so made it more desirable to potential recruits. Grand Dragon Stephenson claimed to have a quarter-million members in Indiana; a dubious boast because if true, it would have meant that members constituted more than 30 percent of the state’s white male population. In 1924 the Klan claimed 10,000 members in one Indiana county, but a membership list found later showed that those who paid up numbered about 3,000, and the largest Klan event there drew about 2,000. A Klan organ announced a parade of 50,000 when about 2,700 showed up.18 These exaggerations operated both as draws and as intimidation:”
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