CITIZENS' UNION. (PAMPHLET No- J) PUBLIC BATHS AND LAVATORIES. " We demand that Baths and Lavatories adequate to the public needs be established." — Declaration of the Citizen*' Union. Qt fleets : R. FULTON CUTTING, . . . . . . Chairman. CHARLES STEWART SMI I 1 1 Vice-chairman. J. KENNEDY TOD Treasurer. JOHN C. CLARK, Secretary. J. B. REYNOLDS, . . Chairman Executive Committee. FOR ADDITIONAL COPIES ADDRESS COMMITTEE ON PRESS AND LITERATURE PUBLISHED BY THE CITIZENS' UNION, May, 1897, 3!) East 23d Street, NEW YORK CITY. E 1 ND^BGBOUND LAVATORY (INTERIOR), CHARING CROSS, LONDON. MOST OF THE CONVENIENCES ARE SUPPLIED AT A SMALL PEE. USUALLY TWO CENTS. SMALL AS THEY ARE, THESE CHARGES NEARLY DEFRAY THE OPERATING EXPENSES. PUBLIC BATHS. Greater New York will have a population of over three millions, and a total area of 360 square miles. In the cars, in the public schools, on the ferries and in all places of public resort, the increasing density of population Contagions forces this question upon us: What provision does New Diseases. York City make to prevent the spread of contagious dis- ease? \Ye quarantine after the event. We make excel- lent sanitary regulations; but we should also educate the whole people in habits of personal cleanliness. The Tenement House Commission of 1894 declared that bathing (1) preserved health, (2) prevented disease, and (3) cured disease. The Commission found that out of a total population of 255,033 whose sanitary conditions were inspected, only 306 persons had access to bath- rooms in the houses in which they lived. It said that „ , , 1 • • 11 • >0 Batl1 the bathing habit is, nevertheless, growing among the Rooms. masses of the people, but that it stands greatly in need of encouragement by the erection of public baths. The Commission believed that it would conduce greatly to the public health if Xew York should follow the example of many of the cities of the Old World and open municipal baths in the crowded districts, and it recommended the building, at the beginning, of at least one fully equipped bathing establishment on the best European models, with all kinds of baths at moderate charges. What public baths does Xew York provide for its in- habitants? Xot a solitary bath open all the year round! The only baths open the year round are provided by pri- Chanty, vate charity. The oldest of these, the People's Baths, tinder the management of the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, furnished baths for 93,808 persons in the year 1895-6. The Baron de Hirsch Baths accommodated 57,779 persons in the same period. The Riverside Association and the De Milt Dispensary also provide baths. A small fee is charged in each case. There are also the river baths, located on the river front, where the water is not over pure, and where there is no ac- commodation for a cleansing shower, such as is invariably provided in English and German swimming baths. Each bath cost $13,000, and the annual expense of maintaining the fifteen now in use is $48,000. Notwithstanding their great disadvantages, they are extensively patronized. Do you know that in the w ee k ending May S, 1897, 347 children were shut out from the Public Schools because of measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, croup, whooping cough, mumps, contagious eye diseases, parasitic diseases of head and body, chicken-pox and skin diseases? These diseases are contagious, and your ow n child may be sit- ting by the side of another in these schools. Your child catches diphtheria, brings it home, and your other chil- dren catch it. Bathing is one of the best preventives of contagious diseases. Compare the condition of New York with that of Lon- don. Twenty-five parishes of London maintain 31 bath- ing establishments, of which 27 have washhouses in con- nection with them. The cost of 17 of these baths for which figures are available was $2,784,385, and at 23 estab- lishments there were 3,177.914 bathers and washers. None of these baths are free, the fees ranging from two cents for school children to twelve cents for a first-class swimming or private or warm bath. Islington, the largest parish in London, with 320,000 people, maintains three public baths, at an initial outlay of $529,514. Xow the parish proposes to erect Turkish baths. The three baths were used by 721,575 persons in the year ending March 31, 1896. Receipts came to $45,- 783, and working expenses amounted to $47,857. Liverpool's eight baths cost $779,299 and were used by 460,424 bathers, while Birmingham spent $372,996 on five baths which accommodated 431,354 persons in the last year. i Deptford (London) Public Baths. Wash-house-; and Municipal Buildings, under the same roof. this combination enables each depart- ment to effect a saving in initial cost. German cities are equally careful of their citizens. Ber- lin has two magnificent public baths which cost originally $259,482 and accommodated 515,202 bathers in the cur- rent year. There are besides these several semi-public baths assisted by the city, and a number of river baths. Stuttgart spent $333,200 on a bathing establishment used by 464,625 persons, and Hamburg $214,438 on four smaller baths with a total attendance of 329,485. With the bath is usually combined a municipal laundry. The inconvenience of washing day is reduced to a mini- mum when washing is carried on in a special room, well •entilated and drained, with centrifugal and mangles turned by machinery. In London, Westminster's Public Library adjoins its public baths, and Shoreditch is erecting baths and library under one roof. After the body is refreshed and invigor- ated by a warm bath or a cool plunge, the recreation of the mind is more eagerly sought for. German Cities. Public Laundry, Librarj. L Shoheiutch (London) Public Bath-houses \m> a I't 'ni.iv Libbab^ indeb rHK SAME Book. K>1 IMa 1 El» Co>I i,i KM I. Swimming Pools. Privacy. Two Parks. Deptford is putting municipal buildings under the same roof with public baths. Another combination is a "dust destructor," which will heat the water and provide power to light the baths by electricity. The English bathing establishment is not considered complete without at least one swimming pool, and many of the larger baths contain three. Yonkers, Brookline, Boston, Chicago and Buffalo are ahead of New York in establishing public baths. You know that many of your neighbors' children have no room for a bath tub in their own homes; a bath de- mands privacy. If, then, your homes are not large enough for a bathroom, why not favor a Bath House to be built by the city. In May, 1892. a law was passed allowing any city, vil- lage or town to establish public baths if it wished. A po- litical ring was in control of Xew York. Xo baths. The Tenement House Commission secured the passage, among other laws, of one (dated April II, 1895) directing the immediate establishment of two parks on the East Side, and the city was authorized to construct municipal baths in connection with these parks. In 1895 another law said that there should be as many baths as the Board of Health should decide necessary. In April of the same year. President Wilson decided upon seven sites, and requested plans and studies for one bath on a lot 50 x 100. August 20, 1895, the plans recom- mended by the Mayor's Committee were approved. Hkalth Department, ) New York. Aug. 21. 1S95 \ Wm. H. Tolman. Secretary, etc., 105 East 22d S reet, New York. Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Board of Health of the Health Department, held August 20, ib'95, the following resolution was adopted : "Resolved, That this Board hereby approves of the plans for a public bathhouse recently submitted to it by the Mayor's Committee on Public Baths, Water-closets and Urinals, as prepared by Messrs. *";.idy, Berg & See. Architects and Engineers " (Signed, EMMONS CLARK, Secretary. March 25. 1896, a law authorized S200.000 for free $200 000 Public Baths and Comfort Stations, but compelled their ' T ~ ' location in a public park. Popular opposition to using a single inch of the park space for such a purpose compelled its withdrawal, although plans for a bath in Tompkins Square had been ordered by the Mayor and had been ac- cepted by General C. H. T. ColKs, the Commissioner of Public Works. Tune 5, 1896, two blocks were condemned for a small park by the Board of Street Opening, under the Tenement House Commission Small Park Law of 1895. At the in- stance of Mayor Strong, because he realized that the law of 1896 was unworkable, the Board requested the Depart- ment of Public Parks to set aside for a public bath the easterly end of the block bounded by Suffolk, Hester. Division and Norfolk streets, and this was done. Condemnation proceedings are slow. In April, 1897, an act was passed providing for the acquisition by Thirty the city within thirty days of the land condemned for the two parks on the East Side, provided for under the law of the Tenement House Commission passed April, 1895. At last Xew York may be said to have a public bath in view in the near future. The site has been selected, and ma\ be acquired within thirty days at the ve y outside. $2od,od ) has been authorized, and plans have been approve 1 by the Commissioner of Public Works. The Citizens' Union is in favor of pushing forward the establishment of this bath, and of following- this up with other baths in the crowded sections. LAVATORIES. Pun i>inn. Fe>\ Bafldings. Morality and Purity. In the City of Xew York there is no provision for Lava- tories and Public Comfort Stations by the city, outside of the public parks, although semi-public pnes exist in office buildings, ferries, elevated stations, Brooklyn Bridge, sa- loons and hotels. Those in the office buildings are ac- cessible only to the regular occupiers. At the ferries and elevated stations one is obliged to buy a ticket before using the conveniences. At the Brooklyn Bridge a no- tice is put up on the Xew York side: "Bridge Passengers Only." At the saloon, nine men out of ten feel it neces- sary to buy something before availing themselves of the convenience, while the hotels are at the service of the reg- ular guests only. European and English cities provide lavatories, as a matter of course. The needs of Xew York are not less urgent than those of foreign cities. In the tenement house districts there are very few buildings where there is a water-closet on each floor. The usual accommodations are a row of water-closets in the court-yards and a urinal in one corner. The conditions are again complicated by the fact that frequently the court- yard is also the passage-way for the occupants of a rear tenement. Under the very best conditions such arrange- ments are unsanitary, especially when used by ignorant or careless people. But apart from any considerations like these, such accommodations are a constant obstacle to modesty and refinement. All through the tenement- house district are shoals of children ; hence the more rea- son why the community should interest itself in insisting that everv precaution conducive to morality and purity should be taken in behalf of its growing citizenship. In the case cf two classes of public servants — the Police- men and the Street Cleaners— the law forbids them to Polic(imei| enter a saloon while on duty, but in the great majority of cases thev are compelled to do so because there are no public lavatories in their vicinity. Copy ight, 1897 , hy the Mayor's Committee. Proposed Underground Public Comfort Station, Greeley Square. It will, be noted that the park effect will not be disturbed, but at the same time a much needed public convenience will be supplied. Ample Provision. Bureau of Public Comfort. Plans have- already been accepted, and the authorization secured of $200,000, for the erection of buildings for pub- lic comfort in New York City. The Citizens' Union favors such action a> will enable the citizenship of New York to avail itself of this law, and urges: 1. The duplication of the conveniences in the parks and the enlargement of those already built. 2. The ample provision of conveniences for women as well as for men. 3. The opening of a sufficient number of underground lavatories at the entrance of the parks and in or near the crowded th< >r< tughfares. 4. That all public buildings, as far as practicable, which are the property of the city should be provided with lava- tory accommodations on a generous scale, for the use of the public. A certain part of each Public Comfort Station should be free, in order that necessitous cases max be relieved. For the remaining part, a fee'should be charged, which sum will contribute toward the operating expenses. Each lavatory should be in charge of a sufficient num- ber of paid attendants, and should be under the jurisdic- tion of the Board of Health, under a sub-department to be known as the Bureau of Public Comfort. IE* ICtbrta SEYMOUR DURST AVEWYj DURST/