New-York tribune., 1903-02-23
FORM TRUST TO FIGHT TRUST.
Hand Laundrymen Declare War on Steam
Laundrymen-To Build Plant.

All that is needed now TO mark the "edrer U.
clean linen as of wealth is he formauon oA
a Natures Own Sprinkler Trust by the Chlnese
Iaundrymen who spray shirt bosoms without the
usa of mechanical apparatus for there is Starch
Trust and Blung Trust, and the hand laundry
men declare they will form trust IN opposiuoh u
the Steam Laundry Trust. What remains Tor tne
family at odds with the Wash Ladies' Mutual and
Benevolent Protective Union. the Amalgamated
Washboard Company the All America Ironing
Board Corporation and the National Fiat Syndl-
cate TO put trust in is probematlcal unless IL
is the undertaken.
1t is going to be fight to the finish (the finish
of the family wash and exc the boiled shirt, say
the hand laundrymen and the steam laundrymen-
The Chinese laundryman will probably De the
amused spectator. 1t would seem that the havoc
wrought among shirts and collars and cuffs under
the present conditions were enough to satisfy the
cravings of the most finished linen wrecker. But
no, The tocsin sounds to war. and. clenched In
deadly strife the steam Iaundrymen and the hand
laundrymen are to struggle until one or the other
cries Hold, enough"
The preIimnares of the conflict began yester-
day at a mass meeting in Harlem Terrace Hall,
when the Network Hand Laundrymen's Pro-
tective Association declared that it had a Wall
Street hacker who would give 1t S25.0D to build a
steam laundry plant of its own. II the steam
laundrymen persisted in advancing the rates
charged to the hand laundrymen.
To the average man the term hand laundry I'M
plies a place wherein his collars and cuffs and
also his shirts washed and ironed by hand
Alas for his ignorancei Easily explained by the
portents of this coming conflict is the seemingly
impenetrabe mystery: why, if L send my shirts
to a hand laundry, do they return to me as II
from the tender mercies of a goat?'
From the hand laundry go the collars to the
steam laundry thence back to the hand laundry
and thence-what is left of them-to the dumb
waiter shaft
The steam Iaundries on the plea that they have
not been paying expenses. have raised the prices
on all their work for the hand laundres. The
wearers. but that is merely an incident Collars
and cuffs IL cents and now cents;
shirts s and and 10 cents: and
family work. as it is called. flannel and
woollen goods of usual and household stuffs
are cents when they used to be ) and cents
JTp to recently the steam laundries were unor-
ganized. Now they form the New-York Steam
Laundrymen's Association and it is said that fifty
four aundries have joined. and that none in the
city not in it. The hand laundrymen say that
a man named Cassidy, from Chicago, organized
the trust and that prices were at once raised.
The steam laundries charge the hand laundres
dozen for collars and cuffs. against 10 cents
formerly. and cents for family work or half
forced them to advance their charges. They are
afraid that they VIII lose their customers by so
doing and hence their determination to have their
own steam plant.
A committee from the Steam Laundrymen's As
sociation at the meeting yesterday. and IT'S
members were asked what they intended to do
They said they could not lower prices.
Then the hand laundrymen declared they would
have their machinery Plans for bringing
every hand laundryman in the city into the or
next sunday to hear what the steam men do at
meeting on "Wednesday night.
Hand I,aundrvnen's Association. that committee
told that may expect to see 21S-cent collar
In New York very soon
Horrible