Whoever has been in Chicago and has passed down Milwaukee Avenue could not have failed to notice the building of enormous proportions, with a "Statue of Liberty" a hundred and ninety feet high on its roof, near Paulina Street. At night, the statue presents an imposing sight. More than three thousand electric lights of various colors illuminate it.

The sign "Union Liberty Furniture Company" can be seen upon the building. It is a Polish furniture store--the largest Polish store of its kind in the United States--and it is owned by the five Perlowski brothers. The store at Paulina Street is not the only one owned by the Perlowski brothers (Wenceslaus, Sigmund, Francis, Michael, and Valentine). There are four other stores belonging to the Union Liberty Furniture Company. Two are located on Milwaukee Avenue, one on Archer Avenue, and one in Town of Lake, on South Ashland Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets.

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Since a great many readers of Dziennik Zwiazkowy are interested in the progress of Polish business in Chicago, a reporter from this paper visited the largest of these stores in order to describe it. Thanks to the good will of one of the Perlowski brothers, our reporter visited the entire building at Milwaukee and Paulina.

We shall not attempt to describe the furniture to be seen there. Their stock is so large that the display rooms occupy an entire three-story building. The store has everything in the line of furniture, baby carriages, tables, sofas, dressers, and so on, and everything is kept in exemplary order.

"If we could make one building out of all of our stores," said Perlowski to our reporter, "we would have the largest furniture store in the United States."

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The Union Liberty Furniture Company has been in existence for twelve years. During the course of questioning, Perlowski gave our reporter a detailed account of the growth and present condition of the business.

"We opened this business in 1905," be said, "with our father Joseph and our brother-in-law, Stanislaus Szymanski. Our father was a manufacturer of furniture in Poland and was well acquainted with the business. We had no initial difficulties, despite the fact that we had only five thousand dollars capital to start with. Our business grew daily.

"In time, we bought out W. Nowaczewski, the oldest Polish furniture dealer in Chicago, and later bought out several German dealers and a Jew, expanding our business every year. Today, our business is worth a half million dollars. We have furniture in stock amounting to this sum. We have tens of thousands of dollars on open account.

"We have steady customers in all parts of the city, and about seventy-five 4per cent of all our customers are Poles. The rest are Americans, Russians, Bohemians, Lithuanians, and even Jews and Germans. Jews from the kingdom in Poland, that is, from Russian-occupied Poland, support us the same as Poles, but German Jews would 'drown us in a spoonful of water' if they could. Sometimes a German or a German Jew buys something from us, thinking we are Americans or Germans. Later when they discover that we are Poles, they cannot regret their purchase enough. Such a customer never comes back a second time--he would even pay much more somewhere else. That is the way the Germans treat Poles everywhere.

"That we are able to offer furniture at lower prices than other stores is explained by the fact that we buy in large quantities and consequents pay much less ourselves. As an example of how we buy in quantity, let me cite the fact that we bought two whole carloads of baby carriages for Christmas. Before the European war began, we did considerable out-of-town business. When the war broke out, however, this business decreased to such an extent that we had to discontinue it. Our customers wrote, saying that they 5could not buy because they needed the money to aid their relatives in Poland.

"Our success in business in Chicago is due largely to the fact that we sell the best possible furniture at the lowest possible prices. Another factor that contributes to our success is the harmony in which we work as brothers. No such misunderstandings and quarrels as usually occur between businessmen creep in among us. Each one of us has one store under his management. We hold a business conference once a month, at which each of us reports, and at which we confer among ourselves as to the best way to satisfy our customers.

"From our years of experience, we have come to the conclusion that advertising in newspapers pays well. Last year we spent more than eighteen thousand dollars for advertising.

"At present, our stores employ about ninety people, not including ourselves. Our accounts are kept according to the very latest system. No other 6furniture company in the United States can boast of such an office as we have."

This, more or less, was the information given to our reporter by Perlowski. Those who have ever had anything to do with the brothers will not doubt the truth of these statements. We, on our part, shall not praise the furniture that can be purchased in their store, being of the opinion that good merchandise is its own recommendation. The above has been written with the sole purpose of awakening among our readers an interest in the progress of Polish business and industry that will serve to rebuild our Poland from the ashes in which it now lies.