Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-28
FEW MEN LIKE TO APPEAR DIRTY,
But Many Have No Choice in the Matter
After They Leave Home in the
Morning for Work.
GOOD HEALTH DUE TO CLEANLINESS.
General Desire Among Those Interested for q
Speedy Reform in Pittsburg.

pressed sentiments OF Workmen yesterday
touching the article in yesterdays DIS
PATCH on better facilities for cleanliness
among the employees in the shops of the
city. At the headquarters of the knights
of Labor and American Federation OF Labor
this unanimity of opinion was remarkable,
and expressions were heard on all sides COM
mandatory of THE DISPATCH for bringing
the suggestion to the front. 1t was q for
ward step in the right direction toward the
elevation of the laboring classes of people.
Said Master Workman Evans, of the
knights of Labor: at is a good move
ment that ought to be adopted as soon as
possible. 1 know how the working men
feel They do not like to appear dirty on
the streets, and if the city shops, especially
the foundries and mills, were provided with
lockers where the men might hang up their
working clothes at night and don better
ones, the workingmen-the majority of
them-would not wear their dirty shop gar
ments on the street and in public convey
ances. Go into the Government Printing
Office at Washington. There places are pro-
vided where the workmen may hang up
their street clothes when they go to work in
the morning and put them on again when
they quit work at night.
ANOTHER ADVANTAGE IN IT.
"Besides, workmen frequently have to go
to meetings of their lodges or meet other en-
gagements in the evening. They live at
such distance from their shops that they
have not time to 60 home, clean themselves,
change their clothes and meet their engage
ments in time. So they either go there
directly from the shops in their dirty
clothes or they do not go at all. Then
again, if such accommodations were to be
had in the shops, it would save good deal
of labor for the wives and mothers. A
workman would not cause distress to his
wife by coming into the house at night and
finging his dirty clothes around here and
there"
1--WE ought to have it." said another
workman. "I have ridden in street cars in
my dirty clothes, and often L have seen
women trying to get away from NE. But
am too tired to walk home after working all
day. If had SOME place in the shop to
put my street clothes where they would not
get dirty, could make a change every
night"
'Tn the Pennsylvania Shops" said
worker in those establishments, "soap and
facilities for washing and changing clothes
are provided, and in the shops at Altoona |
each man has separate locker for his
clothes and his tools"
Mr.. A. D. Bare, Treasurer of Electrical
Union 1885, of the American Federation of
Labor, said that instances have frequently
come under his observation where working
men, so tired that they could hardly stand
mp, would not get into a street car with their
dirty clothes because they might be snubbed
and soil the clothing of other passengers.
Men like that, he said, would not wear their
dirty clothes on the street ii they were
enabled to change them at their shops.
ONE OF MANY INSTANCES.
"I remember one instance," he continued,
that happened about a year ago, as my
wife and myself were returning from ALLIE |
gheny In a street car. A number of work |
ingmen, among them a young boy about IL |
or Is years, all workers evidently in |
brickvard, boarded the car. They were |
covered from head to foot with brickdust. |
The boy sat down alongside my wife, and |
pushed up against her. When be left the |
car nv wife had one side of her silk dress |
coated with brick dust, and she had ter |
rible time to get it clean again. This goes |
10 show that men would clean themselves |
and change their dirty clothes if they could |
do so conveniently in the shops, and that
they would rather walk or stand in the cars /
than to sit down in their dirty clothing"
For my part, it is a decidedly good |
move, and one that people have been clam
oring for for a long time, said Mr.. Thomas,
Corresponding Secretary of the American
Federation, lit would be a very small |
matter on the part of the employers to give /
their men the required facilities for preserv-
ing cleanliness and appearing on the street |
in decent attire. 1t is something the en-
ployers really ought TO do. Ladies in street |
cars are compelled to bump up against |
workmen right from the shops in their filthy /
clothes. OF course, some workmen will be |
found who don't want to put of their work |
ing clothes, but that is not the desire of the |
majority, and it is no argument against the |
introduction of lockers or closets. 1t is |
very easy to educate men into changing /
their clothes. Another good feature of such |
a reform is that it would teach young boys |
who are growing up as apprentices to be /
neat and tidy about their personal appear /
snce, and also about their work. In that |
way it would benefit the employers Just as
well as their workmen.
COULD AND SHOULD BE DONE.
Mr.. Kelly, an employe in the Westing-
house Machine Works, said the reform could |
be made very easily, and should be made.
The biggest portion of workingmen," he
said, 'live on the outskirts OF the city, at a
long distance from their places of employ
nent, and they have to get there in cars. A
great many of them would not sit down in
the cars, and being too tired to stand up,
they prefer to walk. 1 have seen workmen
from the East, and they have told me that
there lockers are found for the men 10 hang
their clothes, baskets and dinner pals in,
and even pathtubs, where they may have
baths before leaving the shops"
James Connolly, heater employed at the
Clinton Blast Furnace, on the Southside,
when asked about the toilet facilities in his
mill, said: 81 think such things are
necessity, by all means 1 don't know of
any mill in the city where such conveniences
are to be had. HoweveS if all the workers
would make unanimous request for decent
washing rooms, and keep asking continually.
the companies might grant the request. At
the mill where l work there is a small nm
occupied building, owned by the company.
and located near by, which could be yery
easily converted into bath room, at little
expense. Some of the men work "a hou,s
without rest Saturday aud Sunday. and If
they could wash between turns II vould
greatly refresh them. I'll try to interest the
men at the furnace In the matter, and see if we
can't obtain what should be given us freeIy.''
Mr.. David, who works at Chess. Cook a.
A-Gk = Al