Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-18
FOR MUNICIPAL BATHS
Crusade fer Putting the Poor
Next to Goodness.
PROGRESS OF MOVEMENT
Over One Hundred Public Baths in
Cities Now.
WHERE FACILITIES ARE FEW
Model Establishments in New York
and New England-Showers
and Swimming Pools.
WHERE FACILITIES ARE FEW

Copyright 1906. by John Elfreth Watk.ns)
The enterprise with which our cites are
getting their poor next to goodness is re-
freshlng to contemplate. decade ago
scarcely a city in the United States offered
any public facilities for bathing at pubic
expense Today there are more than a
hundred public baths in the country-over
ninety founded by municipalities, ten do
mated by philanthropists and two opera ed
nv a state These are distributed among
thirty-five cities and other centers of Pop
ulation are getting in line for free clean
illness, or at least cleanliness at bare cost
Of materials used in its contamination.
Where Bath Tubs Are Scarce.
Just before the public bath movement
started in this country ii was reported TO
the American Medical Association that in
eighteen of our large cities lessSthan one
fourth of the homes had bath tubs and that
five-sixths of the citizens had no bathing
facilities beyond pail and sponge. The
tenement house census of Boston further
showed that three-fourths of the families in
rented tenements were utterly without bath
rooms. In one wand of the progressive hub
less than one in a hundred deniZens of the
tenements had access to such conveniences.
Next the agents of the federal bureau Of
labor discovered that In the slum centers of
New York and Chicago less than three fam
lilies in hundred had bath rooms In that
of Baltimore, less than eight per hundred;
of Philadelphia, about seventeen per hun
bred. More startling disclosures were next
committee which discovered that out of a
quarter million inhabitants of the ten
ements but 3o6 people had access to bath
tubs in the buildings where they lived.
Such figures. collected from other cities
as we'll. started the municipal bath move
ment with vigor Officers of charitable or
ganizations prodded legislators and alder
men and the other powers that We're until
the wherewithal for putting their poor next
TO goodness was forthcoming; and the re-
suit. as stated. is over a hundred public
baths in thirty-fve cities. The exceedingly
small cost per bath to these cities ranges
from one-fourth of a cent in the fifteen
municipal pool baths of Philadelphia to 3
or cents in the indoor shower baths of the
larger cities. In nearly half of these mu-
n!cipal baths all facilities are absolutely
free. In most OF them the bathing suit. If
needed costs cents per hour, towel + cent
and soap cent.
Traditional Privilege of Nudity.
Beach baths were the first types fur
nshed by the cities. Boston, the pioneer
city in the free cleanliness crusade, had her
IL street beach" as early as 1866 and now
maintains ten beach baths, all told. Mil
waukee has four. Chicago and Baltimore
three. while one or two are to be found III
eight other cities The largest of these
public bathing beaches is this IL street
beach" of Boston, the country's first mu-
nicipal bath of any kind. Here on these
summer days thousands of men and boys
of all sorts and social conditions may be
seen disporting In the water or lying stretch
ed out in the sand in strictly Adamite
condition. 1t being here-as II should be
elsewhere-a special Evolutionary privilege
TO dispense with the bathing suit. BY a
series of high fences extending far out into
the salt water of the bay the boys are here
separated from the men, while farther
along the beach is separate bathing place
for women and girls There are 1.UUU
dressing rooms for men, 200 for the gentler
sex and hundreds of lockers for boys. On
some of these hot summer days You may
see 10000 men and boys and 1900 women
and girls enjoying the cool water. Each
section of the beach is patrolled by boats
containing expert swimmers. And Ii is a
fact worthy of remark that 300 bathers
defiant of the chill New England blasts
regularly patronize this beach throughout
the winter months.
Boston's North End Park a great prop
erty adjacent to the most thickly settled
portion of the city, combines swimming
beach for both sexes, two recreation piers
playground and open-air gymnasium. The
public bath includes. in addition 10 The
beach, shower baths. shelter tents, sane