Whoever does not know Ellis Island, where all immigrants land, does not know through what an ordeal immigrants must pass before they are free.

The immigration officials, and especially, those who have direct contact with the immigrants, treat them worse than hog-drivers treat their harmless creatures in the stock yards.

Higher immigration officials very seldom come in contact with the immigrants. Their duty begins and ends with receiving big pensions; invading of immigration homes and, in many cases, receiving graft. This has been proved by frequent changes in the personnel.

The lower official staff has no regard for under-deck immigrants, and the conduct towards them is indifferent, shameless and impudent. Immigrants talk and complain openly, but once they gain freedom they are so happy they do not look for revenge.

The impudence of the immigration officials has no limitations as far as decency is concerned. They enter women's sections while they are undressed, and, if they are not dressed, they order them to do so under pretension of some inspection; they commit outrages against the sick and skin those whose papers are subject to a closer inspection.

They commit these outrages on people who do not speak English and who are more or less ignorant, taking for granted that they will escape punishment as soon as the squeezed out immigrant takes a train and disappears in the vastness of the American territory.

We all know that such a condition exists, but it is hard to get proof, and who is going to look for them after the newcomers are scattered over the country. The Immigration Bureau could get such proof but it is in the hands of still higher immigration officials, who every day create some difficulties for them. Furthermore, our own "patriots," who were born under an unlucky star, do all they can to destroy the only Polish Immigration Bureau we have. We do not wish to discuss this painful matter 3in the paper, but we wish to mention one fact and that is that at a certain conference of immigration officials and the officials of the emigration bureaus, one of our "patriots" denied the Polish character of our St. Joseph's Home, which is strictly Polish. If such action is patriotic, then, let the h... take such patriotism!

It is a fact that conditions on that island are terrible for, a member of the New York Legislature, Mr. Weinstein, made a resolution that immediate investigation should be made in regard to the treatment of immigrants by the immigration officials.

Later on at a friendly gathering Mr. Winstein made the following statement: "It is unbelievable what is going on on that immigrant island. The conditions are just terrible. There is a systematic brutality in respect to the immigrants; violence in respect to children of both sexes; graft; neglectfulness in the administration; ill-treatment of the sick; all that should be prevented and discontinued. This condition will be investigated by the New York Health Department, and the report will be ready in twenty days."