As the Klan attempted to portray itself as a movement led by cultured, well-educated people, its leaders spoke about education in the US. Evans believed that public schools could create a homogeneous society and saw education advocacy as an effective form of public relations. In his writings on the subject, he cited the nation's illiteracy rate as evidence that American public schools were failing, and he considered low teacher salaries and child labor key obstacles to reform. He supported the idea of a federal Department of Education, hoping that it would lead to improvements in public schools that would help "Americanize the foreigners" and thwart recruitment efforts of Catholic schools. Evans wrote four books in the mid to late 1920s: The Menace of Modern Immigration (1923), The Klan of Tomorrow (1924), Alienism in the Democracy (1927), and The Rising Storm (1929). After the Klan gained respect and political influence in parts of the US, Evans hoped to replicate this on a national scale. Political involvement was controversial among the organization's members, and Evans issued contradictory statements on the issue, publicly disavowing it but surreptitiously attempting to sway politicians. Apart from fundamental Klan issues, different local groups often held varying political ideologies; as such, by insisting on specific political stances, Evans would have risked alienating members. Although many of his hopes were never realized, Evans saw several Klansmen elected to high offices and, in the mid-1920s, the group was frequently discussed by political commentators. In 1924, the group convinced Republican Party leaders to avoid criticizing it, prompting Time to put Evans on its cover. That year, the Klan supported Calvin Coolidge in his successful candidacy for president of the U.S. Although Coolidge opposed many key Klan platforms, with the exception of immigration restrictions and prohibition, he was the only major-party candidate who did not condemn them. Nonetheless, Evans declared Coolidge's victory a great success for the Klan. Although Republican leaders refrained from attacking the Klan, they were hesitant to support candidates promoted by the group. Significant discussion of the Klan also took place at the Democratic Party's convention; senator and Democratic presidential primary nominee Oscar Underwood decried them as "a national menace." Evans' attempts to elect Klansmen to public offices in 1924 saw limited success except in Indiana. Decline of Klan Although the Klan had four million members in 1924, the group's membership quickly shrank after Stephenson's widely publicized trial. The