Ellis Island | The Human Tide | 2

In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt vowed to crack down on the corruption and mistreatment that plagued Ellis Island. He appointed William Williams as the new Commissioner of Immigration and tasked him with cleaning up the Immigration Service. But Williams’ strict interpretations of federal immigration law drew criticism from German American and Jewish community leaders. As immigration to the United States reached an all-time peak, Ellis Island became the primary battleground in a fierce national debate over what it meant to become American. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• 0:00Lindsay Graham?

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• 0:17Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's September 1903 on Ellis Island. You're the Commissioner of Immigration, and you're chairing a board of special inquiry hearing where immigrants denied entry to America are given further review. The conference room is unusually crowded because President Theodore Roosevelt is visiting today with an entourage of friends and officials. After a sidelong glance at the president, who sits beside you, you peer down at your files and then prepare to introduce the first case up for review. All right, gentlemen. First, we have a Hungarian man who intends to travel to Shamok in Pennsylvania to meet his son-in-law. He has a railroad ticket, but only $12 in his possession. I think we can all agree that his deportation must end. Now, wait just a minute.

• 1:01Lindsay Graham?

  The room turns its attention to Roosevelt, who leans forward in his chair. Why should there be any doubt about this man? He seems like a good enough fellow. Mr. President, with only $12 to his name, he's more than likely to become a public charge, and the law clearly states that we cannot admit anyone incapable of getting by on their own. And how can you be so sure he won't get by? Well, of course, we can't predict the future, sir, but for an immigrant to gain entry, there must be no room for doubt, and I have my doubts. I've seen this type before.

• 1:31Speaker 00

  This man is destined to become a charity case.

• 1:34Lindsay Graham?

  Roosevelt claps his hand on the shoulder of the man who sits on the other side of him, his good friend Jacob Rees, the famous Danish-American writer. Well, by that logic, Jake here should have been sent home when he walked off his ship in New York all those years ago. You had less than $12 in your pocket, didn't you, Jake? Rees nods in agreement, and the other visitors and board members laugh good-naturedly. You clear your throat.

• 1:57Speaker 00

  That may be true, but this man is no Jacob Rees. We must be cautious.

• 2:02Lindsay Graham?

  But Roosevelt raises a hand to silence you, sweeping his gaze across the room. How about we put it to a vote? Who agrees we should admit the Hungarian?

• 2:12Lindsay Graham?

  One by one, the entire table puts up their hands. Roosevelt beams in satisfaction. You're furious that the president refuses to trust your judgment. Your job is to strictly enforce the laws of this nation, and you're convinced that the last thing this country needs is another pauper who can't pay his own way.

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• 4:25Lindsay Graham?

  From Audible Originals, I'm Lindsay Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.

• 4:46Lindsay Graham?

  In September 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Ellis Island and clashed with William Williams, his newly-appointed commissioner. Roosevelt had enlisted Williams to bring an end to the corruption and abuse that had plagued Ellis Island for years, but they soon diverged over how strictly immigration law should be enforced. Between 1900 and 1915, 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States, equaling the number of new arrivals in the previous 40 years combined. This record surge of immigration powered the new industrial economy while unleashing new anxieties about a changing America. Ellis Island became the central battleground in the national debate over how strictly immigration

• 5:28Lindsay Graham?

  should be regulated. Caught in the middle were the millions of men, women, and children who passed through its doors, and for many, a shift toward tighter immigration enforcement would have heartbreaking consequences. This is episode two, The Human Tide.

• 5:47Lindsay Graham?

  In September 1901, Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency following the assassination of William McKinley. Only three years had passed since Roosevelt burst onto the national stage as a hero of the Spanish-American War, and now he prepared to transform the highest office in the land with his forceful personality and bold leadership. Roosevelt was a progressive politician who believed in using the levers of government for fighting evils at home and abroad. Unlike his predecessor McKinley, who largely avoided the topic of immigration during his presidency, Roosevelt was deeply concerned with its impact on America's character and national identity. Back in 1896, during his time as New York City Police Commissioner, Roosevelt witnessed the struggles of immigrants firsthand, accompanying

• 6:32Lindsay Graham?

  his friend Jacob Rees, a journalist and Danish immigrant, on nighttime walks through the city's downtown slums. Roosevelt also visited Ellis Island that year and witnessed inspectors debate the case of a young Swedish stowaway. This stowaway had little money and no family in the United States, but officials allowed him to stay, a decision Roosevelt applauded. He declared, "I like the looks of that young fellow. We need lots of good, vigorous, healthy blood to mingle with the national stream." Roosevelt balanced a strong faith in assimilation with a belief in excluding undesirable immigrants from entry into the country. His mantra was, "We cannot have too much immigration of the right kind, and we should have none at all of the wrong kind." To him, that meant

• 7:14Lindsay Graham?

  the careful screening of immigrants, and in his first address to Congress as president, he argued for excluding immigrants of low moral tendency and unsavory reputation. So Roosevelt was especially eager to clean house at the immigration service. Only weeks after taking office, he told a friend that he was "more anxious to get this office straight than almost any other." Ellis Island was still reeling from a government investigation documenting widespread corruption and mistreatment of new arrivals, but Roosevelt struggled to determine who was truly responsible for the turmoil at Ellis Island: Assistant Commissioner Edward McSweeney or his rival at the Treasury Department, Terrence Powderly. Government investigators had laid the blame on McSweeney, but Roosevelt's own friend Jacob Rees declared

• 7:59Lindsay Graham?

  McSweeney "clean and straight," while calling Powderly "a wart that should be removed." Roosevelt remained uncertain, writing, "Either McSweeney is absolutely incompetent, or else he is more responsible than any other one man for these evils." By the spring of 1902, Roosevelt finally decided on a clean sweep and fired both Powderly and McSweeney. Then, after a long search, Roosevelt appointed 39-year-old Wall Street lawyer William Williams as the new commissioner of Ellis Island. Williams had descended from prominent colonial and revolutionary-era families, and the blue-blooded Roosevelt liked his pedigree and reputation for integrity. So in April 1902, Williams threw himself into the job of restoring order at Ellis Island. He posted notices throughout the

• 8:44Lindsay Graham?

  main building, declaring, "Immigrants must be treated with kindness and consideration." To that end, he fired officials accused of abusing their office, including the notorious John Lederhager, who had sexually harassed and groped young women. He also fired an interpreter for trying to arrange a date with a Syrian girl, as well as a clerk who had disappeared for four straight days on an alcoholic bender. But Williams believed the problems ran deeper than Ellis Island's workforce. He scrutinized steamship companies and issued fines to those who had failed to carry out proper inspections of immigrants before departing from Europe. He barred missionaries he believed were con men in disguise, luring immigrants to boarding houses to exploit them for profit, and he hired new food vendors,

• 9:27Lindsay Graham?

  baggage handlers, and money changers, removing old vendors that were holdovers from the Castle Garden era. Satisfied with his efforts, he wrote to Roosevelt boasting, "This office is now being run in the government's interest." But Williams was as zealous about strictly enforcing federal immigration law as he was about curbing corruption and abuse. While insisting that his staff treat immigrants with kindness, he was also a quintessential progressive-era bureaucrat who believed in the power of government to shape a better society. And to him, that meant ensuring the wrong kind of immigrant never entered the country. And by 1903, after a year on the job, he had formed a negative opinion of the majority of America's new arrivals.

• 10:08Lindsay Graham?

  He described the Southern and Eastern Europeans he had encountered as "an especially undesirable stream of immigration." He often corresponded with members of the Immigration Restriction League, a group founded by Harvard-educated elites who championed stricter limits on immigration. Williams told Roosevelt that he believed new laws were needed to meet the real evils of the situation. In the meantime, he did as much as he could to bar the immigrants he deemed undesirable, enforcing his own strict interpretation of the law.

• 10:40Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's January 1903 on Ellis Island. You, your wife, and your six children have just arrived here after a long and arduous journey from Russia. All your struggles have led to this moment. After an initial interview, an inspector has passed your case up to his supervisor. A man with close-cropped hair and a thick mustache approaches a tall registry desk and peers down at you.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  Hello, my name's William Williams. I'm the commissioner of Ellis Island.

• 11:07Lindsay Graham?

  Hello, sir. You straighten your posture as Williams scans a large ledger. So tell me, where are you planning to live? A tenement on Orchard Street, sir. My cousin arranged it all.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  The information is right here in this letter.

• 11:20Lindsay Graham?

  You offer Williams the letter from your cousin, but he holds up his hand in dismissal. His gaze slides from you to your wife and children. The youngest two are clutching her skirt.

• 11:29Speaker 00

  And how do you intend to provide for such a large family?

• 11:33Lindsay Graham?

  Oh, we don't need much, sir, and I don't expect to live in a big house. We'll be satisfied with just one room to sleep in. One room, that's all? Yes, sir, I don't expect to find great riches in America. This is how we lived in Russia. We don't need anything more.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  Williams shakes his head.

• 11:49Lindsay Graham?

  Your ambitions are too small. Excuse me, sir? With aspirations like that, I believe you're all too likely to become a public charge. Williams reaches for a heavy stamp and presses it down on your file. You've been denied entry. I'm sorry, sir? I'm sending you and your family back to Russia. I don't understand. What did I say that was wrong? We're a humble family. I'm not asking for very much. Well, that's just it. You won't get very far in this country with that attitude. But wait, sir. Your protest dies on your lips as Williams walks away. Another official comes around and ushers you out of the line. You turn to look at your wife, whose face is turned ashen.

• 12:31Lindsay Graham?

  She clutches your children close, searching your eyes for an explanation you can't give. You don't understand how you could have spent so many years chasing this dream, only to lose it in a matter of moments. Under William Williams' strict enforcement policies, immigrants at Ellis Island faced rigorous inspections. On one occasion, Williams excluded a large Russian family after concluding that the father lacked ambition. In another incident, when lawyers tried to intervene on behalf of a 12-year-old Italian immigrant who was excluded because he suffered from a scalp disease, Williams declared that "America did not want diseased people in this country, and I intend that they shall not come." Such cases revealed Williams' pessimism about the current wave of immigrants.

• 13:16Lindsay Graham?

  Declaring that "a desire to immigrate can no longer be regarded as evidence of initiative, thrift, or courage," he was determined to ensure that his inspectors were strictly enforcing federal immigration law. But his harsh enforcement policies drew criticism from German-American and Jewish community leaders. The German-language newspaper Staatzeitung attacked Williams' leadership of Ellis Island with headlines including "Unrestricted Despotism" and "Barbarous Treatment of Immigrants." This backlash drew the attention of President Roosevelt, who warned Williams about the growing chorus of complaints. Roosevelt urged him to enforce the law with compassion and avoid any appearance of arbitrary decision-making. But Williams defended his policies, insisting that the real problem was the continued admission

• 14:00Lindsay Graham?

  of "too many low-grade aliens," referring to the southern and eastern Europeans that made up the majority of new arrivals. Soon after, on September 15, 1903, Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting president to visit Ellis Island. Not one to sit on the sidelines, he decided to participate in the interviews. He spoke to a 15-year-old Slavic orphan, who had set off to join his uncle in Minnesota, and he had his friend Jacob Rees pass a $5 bill to a young German mother carrying a sleeping baby in a wicker basket. He also sat in on a board of special inquiry hearing, where he persuaded officials to admit a Hungarian man with just $12 to his name over the objections of Commissioner Williams. But Roosevelt had his own purposes for the trip.

• 14:44Lindsay Graham?

  Much to Williams' surprise, Roosevelt used this visit as an opportunity to announce that he was creating a five-member commission to investigate operations at Ellis Island. It was the fifth investigation into Ellis Island in just over a decade, but it was the first to confront the concerns of immigrant groups. The commissioners themselves included two Germans, two Irishmen, and a Jew. When this commission completed its investigation, the final report praised Williams' indefatigable zeal and intelligence supervision, while criticizing issues such as overcrowding and sanitation. This report proved politically useful for Roosevelt as he prepared for reelection in 1904. Williams served as a symbol of strict immigration enforcement to appease restrictionists,

• 15:27Lindsay Graham?

  while Roosevelt's attention to conditions at Ellis Island helped reassure immigrant voters. Roosevelt won the election decisively, having performed well among immigrant groups. But in the meantime, the pressures of overseeing Ellis Island were taking their toll on William Williams. The workforce chafed under his rigid leadership, and he butted heads with his assistant commissioner Joe Murray, a friend of Roosevelt's who Williams considered lazy and incompetent. So in December 1904, Williams informed Roosevelt that he could no longer work with Murray and demanded he be replaced by someone of his own choosing. When Roosevelt refused, Williams resigned. Williams had not yet made his final mark on American immigration policy, but for the

• 16:08Lindsay Graham?

  time being, his successor would steer Ellis Island in a new direction, just as immigration soared to unprecedented heights.

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• 17:34Speaker 00

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• 17:57Lindsay Graham?

  In 1906, the famous British science fiction writer H.G. Wells toured Ellis Island while researching his next book. Watching immigrants pack the Great Hall, he asked the new commissioner, Robert Watchhorn, "You don't think they'll swamp you?" Watchhorn, who had come to America himself as a young man with little money, replied, "Do you expect me, now I'm here, to shut the door on any other poor chaps who want to start with hope in it, in the new world?" Watchhorn was a former English miner who immigrated to the United States through Castle Garden in 1880 at the age of 22. Like many of his fellow immigrants, he was a victim of exploitation common at the time. In his case, a pie vendor refused to give him change, and when he tried to retrieve his money, a police officer threatened to arrest him.

• 18:42Lindsay Graham?

  Years later, this incident stuck with him when he began working at Ellis Island as an inspector. And in 1905, when President Theodore Roosevelt began searching for a candidate to replace William Williams, he recalled meeting Watchhorn when he first visited Ellis Island as a New York City police commissioner. He believed Watchhorn had the right balance of empathy and moral judgment to lead America's largest port of entry. And as commissioner, Watchhorn would oversee Ellis Island amid the biggest wave of immigration America had ever experienced. The booming U.S. industrial economy created an insatiable demand for cheap labor, a powerful draw for European immigrants escaping poverty and persecution. So in 1905, for the first time, more than 1 million immigrants entered the U.S. in a

• 19:27Lindsay Graham?

  single year. Immigration peaked two years later in 1907 with nearly 1.3 million arrivals, a record that would not be broken until 1990. Nearly 80% of these immigrants passed through the port of New York, where ships crammed the waters surrounding Ellis Island, with many forced to dock for two or three days before their passengers had a chance to disembark. And it was during this time that Ellis Island saw its busiest day on April 17, 1907, when inspectors processed nearly 12,000 new arrivals. One immigration inspector described the workload during this period, writing, "From 9 o'clock in the morning to 9:00 in the evening, we were continuously examining aliens. I thought it was a stream that would never end.

• 20:12Lindsay Graham?

  I myself examined from 400 to 500 a day. We were simply swamped by that human tide." But while inspectors often felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people coming through Ellis Island, Commissioner Robert Watchhorn was optimistic about the larger impact of this massive wave of immigration. Speaking to a Jewish audience on New York's Lower East Side, he declared, "The immigrant has done as much for this country as the country has done for him." Though he supported keeping out immigrants deemed likely to become a public charge, he avoided ordering deportations when he could. The editors of the American Hebrew newspaper applauded the change in tone he brought to Ellis Island, writing, "There is an entirely different atmosphere about the place. The immigrant is no longer looked upon as one to be kept out if the law is strained

• 20:57Lindsay Graham?

  to do so." And this shift was felt not just in New York, but in Washington DC, where in his December 1906 message to Congress, Roosevelt spoke out against discriminatory treatment of immigrants, declaring, "We must treat with justice and goodwill all immigrants who come here under the law." And Roosevelt won praise from the Jewish immigrant community by naming Oscar Strauss, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, as Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Strauss was the first Jewish cabinet member in the nation's history, and in his new role, he would oversee the Bureau of Immigration, work that immediately grabbed his attention. On his first day on the job in December 1906, Strauss began poring over written appeals from immigrants facing deportation.

• 21:42Lindsay Graham?

  After having been denied entry by an inspector, their only recourse was to appeal the decision up the chain of command, with final decisions made by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor himself. Strauss wrote, "I felt that there was a domestic tragedy involved in every one of these cases, and as the law placed the ultimate decision upon the secretary, I decided this responsibility was one that should not be delegated." To that end, he made repeated visits to Ellis Island, where he closely observed the inspection process and took a hands-on role in reviewing difficult cases. He felt special sympathy for excluded immigrants who had sold all their belongings to come to America and did whatever he could to press for their admission. He even cut a personal check for several hundred dollars

• 22:25Lindsay Graham?

  and told Watchhorn to distribute the funds to needy immigrants forced to return to Europe. But there was little Strauss could do when it came to one category of immigrants. Federal law clearly mandated the exclusion of all immigrants with loathsome or contagious diseases. By 1907, Ellis Island doctors screened all immigrants for trachoma, a contagious eye disease that causes blindness, by using button hooks to flip the immigrants' eyelids back and search for symptoms. This exam became notorious, with one German-language newspaper describing it as "a brutality without equal." And in the early 20th century, trachoma was the leading medical reason that immigrants were barred from entering America.

• 23:08Lindsay Graham?

  Imagine it's February 1907 at the hospital building on Ellis Island where you work as a translator. As the son of Italian immigrants, you know how difficult it is to start over in a new country, and you're determined to do whatever you can to ease the process. As you step into a children's ward, you're hit by the smell of soap and carbolic acid. Long rows of narrow beds line both walls, each occupied by a child dressed in a white gown. You walk down the center aisle until you reach a six-year-old boy named Antonio and his mother Maria, who keeps watch from the foot of the bed. She straightens as you pull up a small stool, searching your face for news. Hello, Antonio. You hand the boy a piece of chocolate. His swollen eyes light up as he eagerly unwraps it.

• 23:52Lindsay Graham?

  You turn to Maria and switch to Italian. Has the doctor come to see you? Yes, but I couldn't understand him. Antonio has trachoma. It's a disease in his eye. Trachoma? I've never heard of it. His eyes are only a little swollen. He just needs to rest. You can see just fine, can't you, Antonio? Antonio takes another bite of his chocolate and nods. You take a deep breath, wondering how many times you've been forced to have this conversation. Well, I'm afraid it's a very contagious disease. But he'll get better. It's possible, but there's no way of knowing how long that will take. I'm sorry, man, but he's been denied admission to the United States. Maria shakes her head, blinking rapidly.

• 24:33Speaker 00

  No, you must make them reconsider.

• 24:35Lindsay Graham?

  I did my best to argue on your behalf, but the law is clear. He'll have to return to Italy. The ship you arrived on departs tomorrow, and you both need to be on board. But we don't have a home to go back to. I'm sorry that you came all this way. Your steamship agent should have never let you board in Naples. I understand how difficult this is for you. But you don't understand. All our family is here.

• 24:57Speaker 00

  My husband and older sons are expecting us in Ohio. I can't leave them.

• 25:01Lindsay Graham?

  I wish there was something I could do. I truly do.

• 25:06Lindsay Graham?

  With a small smile to Antonio, you rise from your seat and walk away. Every day, you're forced to reckon with the human cost of these rigid rules. You've begun to resent the system you're a part of and the growing realization that you're powerless to change it.

• 25:24Lindsay Graham?

  In 1907, future New York City Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia worked as an interpreter at Ellis Island while attending law school at night. The 24-year-old spoke Italian, Yiddish, and Croatian, skills that allowed him to help immigrants communicate with English-speaking inspectors and doctors. Some of LaGuardia's toughest conversations involved immigrants suffering from trachoma who faced mandatory exclusion. He described the harrowing experience of seeing families separated when a healthy parent was forced to return to Europe with a child who suffered from the disease, leaving the rest of the family behind in America. Over time, LaGuardia grew frustrated with his limited authority working inside an immigration system that he believed was flawed. He wrote letters to members of Congress urging reform,

• 26:08Lindsay Graham?

  and he did what he could to prevent deportations, so much so that his boss, Robert Watchhorn, described him as "peppery and argumentative." Unable to change policies himself, LaGuardia worked with his fellow translators to standardize translations of foreign criminal records in order to reduce deportations over minor offenses. But despite his difficulties, he later recalled, "I never managed to become callous to the mental anguish, the disappointment, and the despair I witnessed almost daily." LaGuardia had a rare front-row seat to the hopes and fears of those who pass through Ellis Island every day. For most Americans, immigration remained an abstract issue, but few did more to build empathy towards immigrants than pioneering photographer Lewis Hine. Between 1905 and 1909,

• 26:52Lindsay Graham?

  Hine documented thousands of newcomers at Ellis Island. Scenes of families searching for baggage, women resting on benches, and children drinking milk invited Americans to see the faces behind the headlines. And while Hine's photographs helped humanize immigrants, other advocates focused on keeping restrictive laws off the books. In 1906, Jewish, German, and Irish leaders founded the National Liberal Immigration League to oppose new restrictions, countering the efforts of the Immigration Restriction League. This organization attracted support from prominent figures, including Woodrow Wilson and Andrew Carnegie. Still, the group did not support a completely open door. In the first decade of the 20th century, few Americans championed completely open or closed borders.

• 27:37Lindsay Graham?

  The central question was how strictly immigrants should be screened, not whether they should be screened at all. And despite the rise of pro-immigration advocacy, restrictionists like Prescott Hall, founder of the Immigration Restriction League, continued to push for a literacy test to screen out immigrants who could not read or write. And this measure came up for a Senate debate in 1907, but the effort died in the House, where the Speaker was a member of the Liberal Immigration League. Despite this, Congress introduced new categories of exclusion, mandating that officials deny entry to so-called "imbeciles", feeble-minded persons, and those affected by mental or physical disability that might impede their ability to earn a living. But this new law was only a partial victory for Prescott Hall,

• 28:21Lindsay Graham?

  who lashed out by accusing Oscar Strauss of undermining federal immigration law. The complaints reached Roosevelt, who ordered an investigation and found that the charges were largely unsupported. So Hall tried a different tack, turning his anger on Ellis Island Commissioner Robert Watchhorn. He warned Roosevelt, "Watchhorn has been a crook ever since he immigrated to this country", even charging that his naturalization papers were fraudulent. But Hall was not the only critic. After Watchhorn ordered Protestant missionaries to stop proselytizing to Jewish immigrants, missionaries complained to Roosevelt that Watchhorn was hindering their efforts. At the same time, the New York Police Commissioner insisted that Watchhorn was failing to deport enough criminal immigrants and called on Roosevelt to replace him. But despite these attacks,

• 29:06Lindsay Graham?

  Roosevelt stood by both Strauss and Watchhorn. But his time in office was fast coming to an end. In 1908, his vice president and handpicked successor William Howard Taft was elected president. And soon, Taft returned to a familiar face to guard the nation's gateway at Ellis Island, excluding all those who failed to meet the letter of the law.

• 29:32Speaker 02

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• 31:37Lindsay Graham?

  Soon after William Howard Taft was elected president in 1908, Prescott Hall renewed his attack on immigration officials Oscar Strauss and Robert Watchhorn. He lobbied Taft to replace them, and unlike his predecessor, Taft was receptive to Hall's criticism. He eased out Strauss by appointing him as ambassador to Turkey, and Watchhorn resigned after learning that Taft would not renominate him. Soon thereafter, Taft declared the conditions at Ellis Island were not what they ought to be. Determined to restore order, he turned to former commissioner William Williams, a man who had curbed corruption and tightened enforcement during Roosevelt's first term. In his time away from Ellis Island, Williams had continued advocating for immigration restriction.

• 32:18Lindsay Graham?

  In an article published in a social science journal, he argued that a quarter of all immigrants were undesirable due to low skills, poor health, and inability to assimilate. So now, as he resumed his old post, he prepared to close the door on these undesirable immigrants. He informed steamship companies that they should expect stricter enforcement, and he told staff it is necessary that the standard of inspection be raised. And in June 1909, he took his first major step by introducing a money test, forcing immigrants to reckon with harsh new financial barriers. Imagine it's July 1909 at Ellis Island. You're a medical student from Russia, and you've just begun your interview with an immigration inspector.

• 33:03Lindsay Graham?

  You expect this to go quickly. You're in good health, you're intelligent, and you have no criminal record. More than anything, you're looking forward to a good night's sleep in the city after an exhausting journey. The inspector stifles a yawn as he rifles through some papers on his desk. And how old do you say you are? Twenty-three? I'm 24, sir. Name your occupation? I'm a medical student. I'm a graduate of the universities of St. Petersburg and Vienna. I'm here to take postgraduate courses at the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. And who paid for your passage? My father did.

• 33:34Speaker 02

  And how much money are you traveling with today? I have about $10.

• 33:38Lindsay Graham?

  You patch your coat pocket, making sure the money is still there, while the inspector makes a note on a piece of paper, shaking his head.

• 33:45Speaker 00

  You're excluded from entry.

• 33:47Lindsay Graham?

  What? On what grounds? On the grounds that you're likely to become a public charge. I don't understand. A public charge? Someone who ends up in a poorhouse, a recipient of charity. We expect immigrants to this country to be able to support themselves. But I have money. $10 is not enough. All immigrants must have $25 with them to guarantee admission into the country. I've never heard of such a rule, and besides, I'm not going to become a public charge. I'm training to become a doctor. And how do you plan to provide for yourself until then? I'm sure I can find something. I'll get work at a hospital through my college. Now, that doesn't sound like much of a plan. Look, I am not some peasant. I'm educated. My father is a famous surgeon back in Russia, a colonel in the Russian Army Medical Corps. Well, look, it doesn't matter who your father is.

• 34:32Speaker 00

  You will be detained while you await deportation. Guard?

• 34:38Lindsay Graham?

  Before you can protest any further, a guard approaches and ushers you away from the desk, past the long line of people behind you waiting for their interviews. You wonder how many of their dreams will be thwarted by these arbitrary rules and a system that has become impossible to decipher. In the summer of 1909, Ellis Island Commissioner William Williams told inspectors that immigrants should have roughly $25 plus travel funds to avoid being considered as likely to become public charges. Few immigrants carried that much cash after spending nearly all their savings on their travel across the Atlantic. And recognizing that there was nothing in the law specifying a $25 requirement, Williams

• 35:19Lindsay Graham?

  insisted it was not a fixed rule but a humane notice to intending immigrants. But this test, requiring immigrants to arrive with funds equivalent to more than $900 in today's money, dramatically raised the barrier for entry and led to a sharp increase in detentions. Every night, immigrants whose cases were under review filled the crowded dormitory rooms of Ellis Island, sleeping in three-tier bunk beds made of wire mesh and fitted with thin blankets. This rise in detentions and deportations sparked widespread protests among immigrants. An elementary school student from the Lower East Side wrote to Williams, "Does money make you a person? A person who has a mind and hands but not $25 cash is not a person?"

• 36:01Lindsay Graham?

  And more than 100 detained Russian Jews signed their names to a letter published in a local Yiddish newspaper, complaining about overcrowding at Ellis Island and calling the $25 rule an outrage. But Williams was unapologetic, telling a reporter, "I have enforced the laws. Why shouldn't I? That's what I'm here for." But there were also challenges in the courts. A lawyer working for the American Jewish Committee filed legal petitions to challenge the detention of four Russian Jewish immigrants under the money test. This prompted Williams to reopen the immigrants' cases and allow all four entry. This incident drew the attention of the new Secretary of Commerce and Labor, who persuaded Williams to end the money test. But Williams soon found a new means of tightening enforcement, targeting immigrants for characteristics

• 36:45Lindsay Graham?

  such as poor physique and low vitality. This language was in the 1907 Immigration Act, which seeked to exclude those with physical defects that might impair their ability to earn a living. And with Williams in charge, not only were heart and respiratory illnesses disqualifying, but so were more minor conditions such as joint stiffness and varicose veins. Back in 1907, only 870 immigrants were denied entry due to physical defects, but in 1912, under Williams, that number would grow to more than 4,000. One of these unlucky immigrants was Wolf Koenig, a penniless but otherwise healthy 17-year-old. Ellis Island doctors deemed him physically underdeveloped for his age, and despite the

• 37:25Lindsay Graham?

  support of an uncle in Chicago and the intervention of a Jewish aid society, Koenig was deported. Williams affirmed the decision, describing Koenig as frail and an obvious weakling. In another case, Williams excluded a 37-year-old Syrian Jew, describing him as an undersized man with a not-good appearance. Williams accused him of expecting to enter the non-producing class of peddlers. Jewish advocacy groups and leaders responded by accusing Williams of disproportionately applying poor physique standards to Jewish immigrants. Some of these immigrants mounted legal defenses, turning to immigration lawyers like Fiorella Legordia, who had left his job as an Ellis Island translator, and started his own small legal practice.

• 38:07Lindsay Graham?

  He won several deportation appeals, building support among immigrant communities and laying the groundwork for his future election as mayor of New York City. But Williams refused to back down. He openly described immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe as coming from backward races, who have very low standards of living, possess filthy habits, and are of an ignorance which passes belief. This new regime at Ellis Island won praise from restrictionists like Prescott Hall, who wrote to Williams congratulating him for clearing things up. And the prominent eugenicist Madison Grant, who promoted the idea that some races were genetically superior to others, praised Williams for the proper enforcement of immigration laws. But while restrictionists applauded Williams' leadership, immigrant newspapers from across

• 38:51Lindsay Graham?

  the country depicted him as a cruel authoritarian. They branded him as Tsar Williams, a term designed to touch a nerve with Jewish immigrants who had just fled persecution in Tsarist Russia. A Hungarian paper described the terrors of Hell's Island, while a headline in a German-language newspaper proclaimed "Brutality rampant in the name of the law" at Ellis Island. This immigrant outcry led to congressional hearings in May 1911, in which a New York congressman described the atrocities, cruelties, and inhumanities under Williams' watch. German-American witnesses described inspections at Ellis Island as hell and barbarous. But despite all the controversy, and although Williams turned away more immigrants than his predecessor, more than 98% of all arrivals were still admitted.

• 39:36Lindsay Graham?

  So for his part, Williams denied reports of abuse and defended himself by explaining the difficulty of interpreting vaguely worded laws, especially the clause barring immigrants deemed likely to become a public charge. No action was taken in the wake of these hearings, but immigrant groups continued pressing for Williams' resignation. And soon, the immigration debate spilled over into the 1912 election, in which Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson challenged Taft for the presidency. During the campaign, Wilson faced scrutiny for a decade-old American history book he wrote criticizing the "alteration of stock" caused by mass immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. In it, he described these immigrants as "sordid and hapless men, with neither skill nor energy nor intelligence."

• 40:21Lindsay Graham?

  But as a presidential candidate, Wilson wrote letters of apology to various immigrant groups, spoke out about his membership in the National Liberal Immigration League, and praised the contributions of immigrants. Wilson won this election, but once he assumed the presidency, immigration retreated from his mind as he turned his attention to passing progressive economic reforms. But with Europe on the brink of war, a new era for Ellis Island was about to begin as pressure grew to slam the gates shut, bringing an end to decades of open immigration. From Audible Originals, this is episode two of our three-part series on Ellis Island from American History Tellers.

• 41:02Lindsay Graham?

  On the next episode, after the United States enters World War I, federal agents detain hundreds of German nationals at Ellis Island. And in the aftermath of the war, Congress passes sweeping legislation that transforms immigration policy for decades to come. American History Tellers is only possible because of listeners like you, so thank you. And don't miss an episode. Be sure to follow American History Tellers on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge new seasons of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And to find out more about me, including my other podcasts, my live show, the history

• 41:45Lindsay Graham?

  tours I'm arranging, and all sorts of other things, go to historyishuman.com. That's historyishuman.com. American History Tellers is hosted, edited, and produced by me, Lindsay Graham, for Airship. This episode is written by Ellie Stanton, edited by Dorian Marina, senior producers Alita Rozansky and Andy Herman, managing producer Desi Blalock, audio editing by Mohamed Shazib, music by Thrum, sound design by Molly Bach, executive producer for Audible, Jamie Lauer Beckman, head of creative development at Audible, Kate Naven, head of Audible Originals North America, Marshall Louie, chief content officer, Rachel Giatze.

• 42:28Lindsay Graham?

  Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. Sound recording copyright 2026 by Audible Originals LLC. On January 1, 1892, a young Irish immigrant named Annie Moore became the first person processed at the new immigration station on Ellis Island. For the millions who followed her, this small island in New York Harbor would become the place where their American dream would either begin or end. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of the podcast American History Tellers.

• 43:12Lindsay Graham?

  We take you to the events, times, and people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. In our latest series, we trace the history of Ellis Island. For more than three decades, it served as the gateway through which millions of hopeful immigrants entered the United States. But as the nation struggled to decide who belonged, some would find the gates shut to them. Follow American History Tellers wherever you get your podcasts. Audible subscribers can binge all episodes of American History Tellers early and ad-free right now. Join Audible in the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple Podcasts.