Ever since his trip in the 1880s to study the public bath system of Germany, Baruch was a tireless advocate for free public baths in New York City, during a period of immigration in American history when newcomers flooded cities. After he studied hydrotherapy, and understood the utility of fresh water to the prevention of infection. Baruch worked tirelessly to educate public officials and the medical community about the importance of water to public health. For many years, the general public and civic leaders were skeptical about the debilitating effects of poor sanitation on physical health; pessimistic Mayor Hugh J. Grant (1852–1910) declared, "The people won't bathe." Despite decades of opposition, Baruch managed to convince three successive mayors of the utility of water, and in particular, the importance of a public bath system to the population health of the urban working class and poor. He wrote numerous journal and newspaper articles on the medical utility of water, including first article published in America on public baths for the Philadelphia Medical Times and Register on August 24, 1889. He reported on the structure, functioning, and health benefits of a public bath systems to the New York's Committee on Hygiene, in his role as chairman. Baruch also delivered addresses on the topic to medical and scientific societies. Moreover, Baruch was medical editor at the New York Sun, from 1912 to 1918, and he covered all the major health concerns of the period, and wrote articles on a variety of topics, from the common cold to malarial fevers. Public bathhouses Although Baruch was met with continual resistance, by 1895, he successfully persuaded the State Legislature to pass a law to obligate cities exceeding a population of 50,000 to establish and maintain free bathhouse facilities, and an order from the local Board of Alderman to construct a public bath in the City of New York. In 1897, 9 Centre Market Place People's Baths, located between Centre and Mulberry Streets, served as a prototype public bathhouse. Financed by private contributions from the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP), and built on land owned by the City Mission and the Tract Society, the facility provided more than 100,000 people a year with a bath, soap, and a towel for five cents. In 1901, Baruch and his colleagues, Deputy Commissioner of Health of the City of New York Fowler and Dr. Van Santvoord, presided