Word: semisecret
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Most of the abusive, threatening letters received by Poet Russell last week were from members of "The Knights of Columbanus" (not Columbus), a semisecret Roman Catholic organization founded a half-dozen years ago at Belfast. But a few persons belonging to other "deteriorated" Irish societies also seemed to feel insulted...
...openly, and the very character of their ideals makes open propaganda difficult. Whatever may be said against the secret societies of a generation ago, their members were not self-seeking and their ideals were defensible. "There has been a change . . . a distinct deterioration. "A new kind of secret or semisecret society has come into existence, whose object seems to be, by a kind of religious masonry, to procure business jobs and contracts for members, and they threaten, bully or cajole barristers, solicitors and businessmen into membership...
From time to time the charge has been repeated that American literature and drama is controlled by a semisecret cabal of radical young critics residing in New York, but the " exposure" has never been thorough. There were rumors; there were hints; but it remained for The Boston Post to analyze the critical dictatorship with a truly ruthless...