The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-18
SOAP.
ISO.O 900 Cakes Needed Daily to supply Inc
Railroad Trains Out Of New York.

HNShia :" ANaNNbN OhN W
What might seem an insignificant matter,
the e%duipping of trains of cars with cakes OF
soap for the use of passengers, il, according
to 4 purchasing agent Of a great railroad, a
very heavy item of expense every year.
1t il estimated, according to this authority,
that no fewer than 10000 individual cakes
of soap leave New York city every day "a
part Of the equipment of railroad trains.
One railroad alone spends something
like SEQ 900 a year to equip the wash rooms
at either end of the coaches. The hum
dreds OF thousands Of cakes that are used
every day in public lavatories, in hotels,
Office buildings and department stores
form a big item OF expense, although il Ia
distributed among many purchasers.
There is a considerable waste which can
not be controlled because of the disappear
ance of the cakes of soap before they have
been used more than two or three times
The expenditure for this commodity could
probably be more than cut in half IL it were
in the power of the purchasers 10 control
the waste.
We spend thousands of dollars a year for
that one little commodity" a purchasing
agent of a large railroad system said a
few lays ago. Every time a train OF cars
leaves the station in Jersey City or the
Grand Central Station in New York soap
has to be provided for both ends Of each
one Of the coaches
The man in charge of the train has de-
livered to him a supply that will satisfy the
needs of the passengers until the train
has made its trip. no matter where its des-
tination is. One railroad company which I
know ends out ~ 1000 cakes OF soap every
day.
THE only trouble about the matter il
that m any Of the cleaners and other elm
ployees pocket some Of the cakes OF soap,
and then again some Of the passengers who
have failed TO provide themselves with a
cake OF toilet soap flch the cakes before
any of them have been used more than
once or twice. In his way thousands of
cakes Of soap are lost every day. but what
can we do?
ar we could control the waste we
would he able to save thousands OF dollars
a year. IL is a good thing for US that some
Of the travelling public fights shy Of the use
Of the soap we supply, not because there Is
anything unwholesOme O the soap
itself. but because they seem to feel that
| the hygienic conditions surrounding the
soar are not all that they should be. |
know tina one woman friend Of mine told
! me that she believed that germs could be
! communicated through the water that
ac0lmulates around a cake Of soap in the
holder.
Another very large. item Of expense is
| that OF the laundry. We spend thousands
Of dollars every year in providing individual
towels for travellers.
The roller towel disappeared years ago.
not only from railroad rains but you rarely
see a roller towel now in any public wash
room in a hotel or office building. There
was such a fuss about il on the part Of the
-.N.oDa that ~ haA en ha Uivan an Even
n our machine shops the roller towel is no
longer used.
1T il such incidental expenses as these
that the public does not take into colsidera-
ton that makes the maintenance 81 n rail-
road a very OK pensive thing