The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-01-20
THE CHINESE LAUNDRY Its Bearing on Economic Conditions of the Laun-
 dry Workers.
(By Charlotte Molyneux Holloway, Industrial Investi
 gator State of Connecticut

other furnishings are brought to Chi
 nese laundries, where they do that 1 sort of work. And other sorts of ob- jectionable linen is sent to these pla- 1 ceS.
 l It may be said that it does not mat
 ter what sort is brought, as the process | of. washing necessarily destroys all
 germs and insects. Sometimes it does
 and sometimes it does not It de- bends on the washing, on the tempera-
 ture of the water and on the disinfec- 1 tants used. Given a certain tempera-
 ture and few known germs will exist
 under a few seconds of it's influence. The usual Chinese laundry is not run
 with conscientious regard for sscien-
 tific treatment of work.
 In justice it should be stated that | some of the laundries are in clean and
 good buildings and some of the laun-
 dry workers are clean of skin and eye,
 and as far as appearances go cannot be. said to. engender disgust even in the most fastidious. The average
 laundry worker is neither blotchy
 nor sickly outwardly. If we were to
 go by inference we would say that
 the work must be exceptionally health
 sustaining. Inference, however, is
 not always the best of guides. The
 white laundry owner is not legislated for on account of his personal appear | ance, but on account of his business l habits. If he were to be economi- l cal and give up his home and live, cook, sleep, smoke in the same place 1 in which he worked for his public, that public would make Rome howl l with it's denunciation of his unhealthy and unsanitary act. The Chinese laundryman works in the same place in which he eats, sleeps, l receives his company and is said to be addicted to the habit of opium smok- ing. It is on record, after the police visited some Of his habitats that the
 latter supposition was correct and in-
 volved not only himself but outsiders. Some of the interiors are not very
 dirty but there is none that warrants approval. Others are filthy, black with dirt, no air, no light, no ventila- tion; the floor slippery and foul; the walls, often mere wooden partitions, sometimes infested with water and
 other bugs; hunks for sleeping with dirty coverings are ranged along these walls. There does not appear to be ok>e1SO are festooned with wearing apparel
 The laundry apparatus is of the most primitive character; sometimes it is the old-fashioned tub, where the laundry is not of long duration. or is situated in a neighborhood not giving much patronage. Sometimes these wooden tubs are so grined and old that no one could tell when they were nor of what sort of wood they were built In no case is there any lavish use of water. The Chinese laundry man is a careful individual and he will achieve a large amount of work in few gallons of water, the only time that he thinks he needs more water appa- rently being when the bottom of his tub shows dryness!>
 Nor does he waste soap. The clothes are treated with some prepa- ration which Whitens them and makes the softening sof the dirt easier. There were no evidences of formaldehyde nor any other solution being released to disinfect; nor was the water in the cases of which the investigator has personal knowledge Of actual boiling temperature. The most that could be said of some places was they did did not use cold water In no case was, there anything like the methods and assurance of cleanliness that are to be found in the white laundries
 The bulk of the Chinese laundry work is the. most profitable work of the business-collars, cuffs, shirts, ar- ticles that do not take the time and attention of other work and pay about double. Some of the laundries do heavy work, such as underclothing. The customer brings his work and calls for it when it is done, entirely remov- ing the cost of delivery, which in- cludes not only the vehicle and it's up- keep, but the pay'of the driver. An other matter that can be pointed out in this connection is this system pre- vents any trace being kept of the local ity or conditions whence the work comes. The laundryman's responsi- bility ceases when he delivers the goods over the counter and gets his pay. It is generally a strictly cash business.
 It is difficult in the extreme to get in- to the inside working place of Chi nese laundry. The men are suspi- cious and hostile to an unpleasant de- gree, and when questioned are envel- oped in a maze of ignorance of Eng fish that is as sudden as it is thick. The only word which appears to have an instant effect in driving away this cloud is "police." It acts as sesame Tn the meantime, while the barley is going on outside there is a nasty house-cleaning inside which undoubt- edly removes everything which is eith- CT too sacred or of too suspicious na- ture for occidental scrutiny.
 A few of these places are clean. A few are not legally filthy. But no matter how wet the floor, how slip shod the appearance of the men and women workers in the most careless ly run white laundry, there is no com parison to be drawn between it and the best of these Chinese, plants in favor of the latter, according to Obser- vations and unavoidable differences.
 Without delving into the subject, it may be stated there are also strong moral reasons why some of these dens are the worst possible possessions of reidence quarters where mothers are working, careless or i'll, and little girls do the errands of the family, Both federal and municipal authorities bear record to the fact that opium is fre- uuently sold by the less scrupulous of these workers.
 It is said that the Chinese laundry is the friend of the poor, as the prices are so much lower and it is so conven- tent and accessible. There is ground