was modeled on an earlier group of organized women calling themselves the Ladies of the Invisible Empire. Chapters were founded throughout the country with the Portland, Oregon chapter initiating more than one thousand women into their order in a single month in 1922. Initiation into these chapters required the women to detail their family, religious, and political background, as well as swear allegiance to Christianity and the principles of "pure Americanism". Unsure about the competition that the Ladies of the Invisible Empire and other women's organizations would create, the Klan promoted the idea of a single women's auxiliary, now known as the formal women of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan felt that by including women in their political agenda, women's suffrage could not only be safeguarded, but could also encourage development of other women's legal rights, while working to preserve white, Protestant supremacy. The women of the Klan were to be assistants to the Klansmen in their 100% American mission. Not all Klansmen were in favor of officially including women within their group. Some felt that allowing women to be involved in the political realm, including allowing them to vote, would foster masculine boldness and independence and depreciate the decency of womanhood. As a result, some women felt alienated, and in 1922 they wrote letters to the editor of The Fiery Cross protesting their exclusion from the Klan. The wives of Klan members were not always happy staying at home with the children and wanted to be involved in the new white Protestant movement along with their husbands. Women were recruited into the Women's Ku Klux Klan by hired female kleagles, who used the same campaigning methods as their male counterparts. Recruitment was conducted through social contact using personal, family, and work connections as well as through existing organizations. Open meetings were also held for the politically inactive and women currently not in Klan families. In four months, the Women's Ku Klux Klan had successfully doubled its previous membership, now bringing the total to 250,000 women. By November 1923, thirty-six states included female chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. There were a number of female Klan auxiliary organizations in the 1920s before the foundation of the official Women of the Ku Klux Klan. These groups included Kamelia, Ladies of the Invisible Empire, Ladies of the Invisible Eye, Dixie Protestant Women's League, Grand League of Protestant Women, White American Protestants,