Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-06
LITTLE MONEY RECEIVED
 FROM CHINESE LAUNDRY
Miss Holloway Says They. Are Purely
 Money Making Institutions.

The Chinese laundry is the subject of an interesting chapter in Miss Charlotte MOlyneux Holloway's re- port on Industrial Conditions of Wo- men and Girls in the state. She says: "An industry which cannot exactly be classed as American and yet which f1ourishes in America like Jonah's gourd is the Chinese laundry. While the laundry run by a white man is subject to laws and regulations, that of his Chinese competitor is singular ly free from even the local require ments which it might be assumed the good of the community in which it thrives demands. Many people when spoken to on this matter were of the opinion that laws could not reach this class of workers, and any attempt to bring them within the scope of laws might be deemed class legislation.
 Every state in the Union has laws for the regulation of white laundries. Some of these laws entail expense which some of the laundry owners can i'll afford to meet. But if they do not they are fined Yet no white mans laundry, however dilapidated and out-of-date, ever sheltered the condi- tions that can be found to be general rather than exceptional in Chinese Iaundries. Whether or not anything can be done about these conditions. it is only right that the public and especially the legislative part of the
 
 existence. Perhaps it may be of use to let some of the patrons of these places have sight Of more than their work and the check for it's payment.
 There are probably more than 500 of these laundry workers in Connecti- cut. When the association three years ago scheduled the existence Chinese laundries to the best of it's ability to so do, there were in 25 cities and towns in the state 245 plants, em- pIoyins 614 Chinese and four whites. The amnut of business done by these plants was s1,S51,S $40.
 Some idea of the expansion of the business since then can be gathered by taking the number cre6Jed to one or two cities at that time and com pairing it with the number which the investigator wnoks exists in those same cities today Waterbury in the city directory of 1915 lists A, and the investigator would be willing to say that 6g would be nearer the real mum ber A statement from exact knoWl- edge cannot be made. as it was not possible to go over every street in the localities in the city in which this sort of place can be found But while looking over the other class of laun- dries, attention was paid to the Chi nese both as to numbers and state. In Bridgeport there are more than the city directory gives. in New Haven the same and Hartford has a number which no one but the patrons know exists.
 They are purely and simply men ey-making institutions of which the | town and the county receive little 1 toll. Usually situated in apologies for | business dwellings. the rents are low The accommodations are usually such as no other class of business would tolerate and which would not for an | instant be tolerated in a white mans business. The amount of money spent for that necessary part of the 1 labor material, water, is so small in comparison with that of the white laundryman that no town ever has the chance to feel aggreived when one of the Chinese businesses leaves it. | But they do not leave. The same in scrutable almond-eyed believer in Confucius may seem to the casual cus- toner to hand one the goods and the check with the same confident child I like bIandness for 20 or 30 years. But he does not. Scrutiny shows there is an endless and silent procession in the business. Such a thing as sick | laundryman was never known to a customer. No Chinese laundry, they say is closed on account of anl ill., ness or death. But when China | man becomes ill he is no longer seen l in the outside part of the business. And if he dies there is no pageant of