Committee to End Pay Toilets in America
 | |
| Founded | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Dissolved | 1976 |
| Headquarters | Dayton, Ohio |
The Committee to End Pay Toilets in America, or CEPTIA, was a 1970s grass-roots political organization which was one of the main forces behind the elimination of pay toilets in many American cities and states.
History
When a man's or woman's natural body functions are restricted because he or she doesn't have a piece of change, there is no true freedom.
Founded in 1970 by nineteen-year-old Ira Gessel, the committee's purpose was to "eliminate pay toilets in the U.S. through legislation and public pressure."[1][2][3]
Starting a national crusade to cast away coin-operated commodes, Gessel told newsmen, "You can have a fifty-dollar bill, but if you don't have a dime, that metal box is between you and relief."[4] Membership in the organization cost only $0.25, and members received the committee's newsletter, the Free Toilet Paper. Headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, U.S., the group had as many as 1,500 members, in seven chapters.[1]
The group also sponsored the Thomas Crapper Memorial Award, which was given to "the person who has made an outstanding contribution to the cause of CEPTIA and free toilets."[1]
In 1973, Chicago became the first American city to act when the city council voted 37–8 in support of a ban on pay toilets in that city. According to at least one source, this was "a direct response, evidently," to CEPTIA.[4][5][6]
The group disbanded in 1976, with Gessel saying that CEPTIA "essentially achieved our victory".[7]
Achievements
According to The Wall Street Journal, there were, in 1974, at least 50,000 pay toilets in America, mostly made by the Nik-O-Lok Company. Despite this flourishing commerce, CEPTIA was successful over the next few years in obtaining bans in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, California, Florida, and Ohio.[8] Lobbying was so successful that by June 1976, twelve states had enacted bans and the group announced that it was disbanding, declaring its mission mostly achieved.[9]
Criticism
While CEPTIA's campaign was successful in largely eliminating pay toilets in the United States, critics charge that the result was not a flourishing of free public toilets, but rather fewer public toilets of any sort than in other countries that did not see a movement against pay toilets.[10][11] In a piece for Bloomberg CityLab, Sophie House called for a reconsideration of the pay toilet bans in the hope of making public toilets more widely available, like most places without pay toilet bans.[12]
References
- 1 2 3 4 Wallechinsky, David; Wallace, Irving (1975). The People's Almanac. Doubleday and Company, Inc. p. 1256. ISBN 0-385-04186-1.
- ↑ Franckling, Kenneth (August 21, 1974). "Ban on pay toilets disputed". The Dispatch. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
- ↑ Geringer, Dan (May 2, 1972). "A New Kind of Protest". The Palm Beach Post. pp. B1, B3.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - 1 2 Felton, Bruce; Fowler, Mark (1994). The Best, Worst, & Most Unusual. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-88365-861-1.
- ↑ Wiggins, Ron (August 2, 1973). "Comfort-For-Pay Being Flushed Out". Evening Independent. Archived from the original on October 27, 2025. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
- ↑ "Group Seeks to End Pay Toilets: And It Has Had Some Success Already". Sarasota Journal. July 25, 1973.
- ↑ AP (August 15, 1976). "Anti-pay toilet organization disbands". The Lima News. pp. A2. Retrieved May 17, 2026.
- ↑ "Clinched fist rising from commodes ends". Journal-News. Hamilton, Ohio. August 19, 1976. p. B–6.
- ↑ Dunphy, Robert J. (June 20, 1976). "Notes: Pay Toilets". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
- ↑ Gordon, Aaron (September 17, 2014). "Why Don't We Have Pay Toilets in America?". Pacific Standard. Archived from the original on November 29, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
- ↑ Yuko, Elizabeth (November 5, 2021). "Where Did All the Public Bathrooms Go?". Bloomberg CityLab. Archived from the original on February 4, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
- ↑ House, Sophie (November 19, 2018). "Pay Toilets Are Illegal in Much of the U.S. They Shouldn't Be". Bloomberg CityLab. Archived from the original on June 9, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2022.