New York City may be breaking the law.
Committee to End Pay Toilets in America national crusade to cast away coin-operated commodes. "You can have a fifty-dollar bill, but if you don't have a dime, that metal box is between you and relief." Membership in the organization cost only $0.25, and members received the Committee's newsletter, the Free Toilet Paper. Headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, USA, the group had as many as 1,500 members, in seven chapters.
In 1973, Chicago became the first American city to act when the city council voted 378 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.
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.