The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-06-02
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR
NEGROES.
1.-THE Wet Wash Laundry Business
Part l.

SCIENTIFIC SERVICE.


SCIENTIFIC SERVICE.
Not more than twenty-five years
have elapsed since the Negro was the
nations barber, and Negro barber
shops dotted the main thoroughfares
of our principal cities.
His white brother, ever on the look
out for profitable fields for exploita-
| tion, and with his slogan "He profits
most who serves best" discovered that
"barbering" was a lucrative undertake
ing Since, the white "tonsorial art
ist' has been forcing the Negro bar
ber," into the background, and ton
sorial parlors" have been blossoming
cities, while the Negro "barber-shop"
has been moving onto the side streets
and into the alleys.
And, it is all because the Negro,
who looks upon Service" as a relic
and badge of slavery, has permitted
| his viewpoint to becloud the possibi-
tiles and opportunities with which
service" is pregnant.
But to the white man, service holds
| no traditional or fancied disadvan-
| tages. Every opportunity to serve is
| to him a chance to serve better and
more scientifically than his predeces-
sors in that field, by means of labor
saving, time-saving, and service-giving
devices. Whatever sting service may
| hold for him, he proceeds to extract
| by applying science, and by raising
that field into which he enters to the
| dignity of a profession.
THE NATIONS WEEKLY WASHING
| The Negro woman has been the ma
| tional wash-woman," and still con-
tinues to hold a place in the Ameri-
can Familys weekly cleanup. This is
| true even in the face of the rapid rise
| and growth of the factory" method
of doing washings, the laundry.
| That the Negro race has derived
untold benefit from the countless
| thousands of washings done by these
| Woodworking women, many an edu-
\ Gated Negro man and woman can tes-
| tify, for many of them have been edu-
Gated through the toll of mother who
| took in washings." Many an impos-
| ing church edifice has been founded
| upon the fruits of her toll; the pros
| porous insurance companies and grow
| ing savings banks which the Negro
| boasts had their beginning in the
thrifty wash-woman's hard-earned dol
lars; and a wash-woman recently
made the first contribution of $1,000
to a fund being raised by one of our
foremost institutions of learning.
But again, the ingenuity of the
white man is being applied to this
field, and the race is about to be de-
prived of this source of revenue. Spe-
cial machinery and methods have been
developed to turn out the wet wash
ing" for those American families who
cannot afford to pay the prices
charged by the, trough dry" laundries
that seek to serve them.
THE WET WASH LAUNDRY.
The laundry was first developed in
this country to do finished laundry
The work in these first laundries was
largely confined to collars, cuffs and
similar starched and highly finished
work. The first step toward invading
the domain of the wash-woman, and
taking over the family washing was
the development of the "rough-dry''
phase of the business. Special ma
chinery was designed for this work,
as in the case of the original steam
or power laundry, and most up-to-date
laundries now have a ''rough-dry de-
partment," catering to family trade.
The latest development, however, is
the Wet Wash branch of the business,
in which the family wash is returned
to the home wet.
While the rough-dry department of
the laundry aims TO cheaper the cost
of bulk or family laundering, it has
not sufficiently done so to reach the
average American home. On the 9TH
er hand, the Wet Wash Launderer is
enabled to further reduce the cost of
family washings, and can do work
cheaply enough to secure family trade
heretofore unrsached by launderers.
1t is likely, therefore, that the Wet
Wash launderer is destined to become
"launderer to the nation" and to sup
plant the wash-woman in the average
American home.
. A GOOD BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
/ FOR NEGROES. E.
; There are many reasons why Negro
( men should enter this field, the CHIEF
, among which is the fact that by sc
f doing, they will prevent the cutting
!, off of a portion of the income of the