The Itching Palm a Study of Tipping in America
Transcript of The Itching Palm a Study of Tipping in America
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A STUDY OF THE HABITOF TIPPING IN AMERICA
THE PENN PUBLISHINGCOMPANY PHILADELPHIA1916
COPYRIGHT 1916 BY THE PENN PUBLISHINGCOMPANY
The Itching Palm
THE AUTHOR WILL BE PLEASED TOCORRESPOND WITH ANY READER WHOAPPROVES OF, OR HAS COMMENTS TO MAKE
UPON, THE ATTITUDE TAKEN IN THIS BOOKTOWARD THE TIPPING CUSTOM.WILLIAM R. SCOTT.PADUCAH, KENTUCKY.
CONTENTS
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CHAPTER PAGE
I Flunkyism in America 7
II On Personal Liberty 10
III Barbary Pirates 15IV Personnel and Distribution 19
V The Economics of Tipping 26
VI The Ethics of Tipping 36
VII The Psychology of Tipping 47
VIII The Literature of Tipping 58
IX Tipping and the Stage 68
X The Employee Viewpoint 73
XI The Employer Viewpoint 88
XII One Step Forward 97
XIII The Sleeping-Car Phase 105
XIV The Government and Tipping113
XV Laws Against Tipping 122
XVI Samuel Gompers on Tipping 144XVII The Way Out 158
Index 169
[7] THE ITCHING PALM
I
FLUNKYISM IN AMERICA"Oliver Cromwell struck a mortal blow at theuniversal heart of Flunkyism," wrote Carlyle of the execution of Charles I.Yet, Flunkyism is not dead!
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In the United States alone more than5,000,000 persons derive their incomes, inwhole or in part, from "tips," or gratuities.
They have the moral malady denominated TheItching Palm.Tipping is the modern form of Flunkyism.Flunkyism may be defined as a willingness tobe servile for a consideration. It is democracy'sdeadly foe. The two ideas cannot live togetherexcept in a false peace. The tendency always is
for one to sap the vitality of the other.The full significance of the foregoing figures[8]is realized in the further knowledge that these5,000,000 persons with itching palms are fully10 per cent of our entire industrial population;for the number of persons engaged in gainfuloccupations in this country is less than
50,000,000.Whether this constitutes a problem formoralists, economists and statesmen dependsupon the ethical appraisement of tipping. If tipping is moral, the interest is reduced to theeconomic phase—whether the remunerationthus given is normal or abnormal. If tipping is
immoral, the fact that 5,000,000 Americanspractice it constitutes a problem of first rateimportance.Accurate statistics are not obtainable, butconservative estimates place the amount of
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money given in one year by the Americanpeople in tips, or gratuities, at a figuresomewhere between $200,000,000 and
$500,000,000!Now we have the full statement of the caseagainst tipping—five million persons receivingin excess of two hundred millions of dollars for—what?It will be interesting to examine the ethics,[9]economics and psychology of tipping to
determine whether the American peoplereceive a value for this expenditure.
[10] II
ON PERSONAL LIBERTYThe Itching Palm is a moral disease. It is as oldas the passion of greed in the human mind.
Milton was thinking of it when he exclaimed:"Help us to save free conscience from the paw,Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw."Although it had only a feeble lodgment in theminds of the Puritans, because their mindswere in the travail that gave birth todemocracy, enough remained to perpetuate
the disease. In Europe, under monarchicalideals, a person could accept a tip withoutfeeling the acute loss of self-respect thatattends the practice in America, under
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democratic ideals. For tipping is essentially anaristocratic custom.TIPPING UN-AMERICAN
If it seems astounding that this aristocraticpractice should reach such stupendousproportions[11] in a republic, we mustremember that the same republic allowedslavery to reach stupendous proportions.IF TIPPING IS UN-AMERICAN, SOME DAY,SOMEHOW, IT WILL BE UPROOTED LIKE
AFRICAN SLAVERYApparently the American conscience isdormant upon this issue. But this is moreapparent than real. The people are stirringvaguely and uneasily over the ethics of thecustom. Six State Legislatures reflected thedawning of a new conscience by considering in
their 1915 sessions bills relating to tipping.They were Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska,Tennessee and South Carolina.The geographical distribution of these States issignificant. It is proof that the opposition to thepractice is not isolated, not sectional, butnational. North, Central, South, the verdict was
registered that tipping is wrong. The South,former home of slavery, might be supposed tobe favorable to this aristocratic custom. On thecontrary the most vigorous opposition to it isfound there. Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee,
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and South Carolina simultaneously[12] hadlaws against tipping—with the usual contests inthe courts on their constitutionality.
The Negro was servile by law and inheritance.The modern tip-taker voluntarily assumes, in arepublic where he is actually and theoreticallyequal to all other citizens, a servile attitude fora fee. While the form of servitude is different,the slavery is none the less real in the case of the tip-taker.
Strangely enough, bills to prohibit tipping oftenhave been vetoed by Governors—notably inWisconsin—on the ground that they curtailedpersonal liberty. That is to say, a bill whichremoved the chains of social slavery from theserving classes was declared to be anabridgment of liberty! "Oh, Liberty, how many
crimes are committed in thy name!"The Legislature in Wisconsin almost re-passedthe bill over the Governor's veto. In Tennesseeand Kentucky bills have been vetoed for thesame given reason, though Tennessee in 1916finally had such a law in force. In Illinois, thelaw was framed primarily with the object of
preventing the leasing of privileges to collecttips in hotels and other public places,[13] andnot against the individual giver or taker of tips.SHORT-LIVED LAWS
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The courts have negatived such laws on muchthe same grounds, so that anti-tipping lawsthus far have been, generally, short-lived. The
reason is, of course, that popular sentimenthas not been behind the laws in an extentsufficient to give them power. Judges andexecutives simply have yielded to their ownclass impulses, and the pressure fromorganized interests, to suppress the legislation.When the public conscience finds itself and
becomes organized and articulate, they willhave no difficulty in finding grounds fordeclaring regulatory laws constitutional. Thehistory of the prohibition of the liquor businessis a parallel.PERSONAL LIBERTYPersonal liberty is a phrase that is being
redefined in America in every decade. In itsbroadest sense it is interpreted to mean that aman has the right to go to perdition if he soelects without neighbors or the governmenttaking note or interfering.Anti-liquor laws in the early days of the[14]temperance movement fared badly from this
interpretation, just as anti-tipping laws fare to-day. But as public sentiment crystallized, and
judges and executives began to feel thepressure at the polls, a new conception of personal liberty developed. In its present
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accepted sense, as regards liquor, it isinterpreted to mean that no citizen may act orlive in a way that is detrimental to himself, his
neighbor or his government, and his privilegeto drink liquor is abridged or abolished at will.The right to give tips is not inalienable. It isnot grounded on personal liberty. If the publicconscience reaches the conviction that tippingis detrimental to democracy, that it destroysthat fineness of self-respect requisite in a
republic, the right will be abridged orwithdrawn.
[15] III
BARBARY PIRATESThe American people became fully aroused onone occasion to the iniquity of tipping—on an
international scale.In 1801 President Jefferson decided that theUnited States could tolerate no longer thesystem of tribute enforced by the BarbaryStates along the shores of the Mediterranean.Before our action, no European governmenthad made more than fitful, ineffectual attempts
to break up a practice at once humiliating tonational honor and disastrous to nationalcommerce. Candor requires the admission thatwe, too, submitted for years to this system of paying tribute to Barbary pirates for an
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unmolested passage of our ships, but thesignificant fact is that American manhood didfinally and successfully revolt against the
practice.By 1805 our naval forces had brought thepirates to their knees and all Europebreathed[16] grateful sighs of relief. Even thePope commended the American achievement.The practice was contrary to every dictate of self-respect.
TRIBUTEThese pirates of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco andTripoli did not pretend to have any other rightbehind their demands for tribute than the rightthey could enforce with cutlass and cannon—aright ferociously employed. It was not robberyin the ordinary sense of the word. They
demanded a fee based on the value of thecargo for the privilege of sailing in theMediterranean, and this being paid, the shipcould proceed to its destination. Ship-ownerssoon began to figure tribute as a fixed expenseof navigation, like insurance, and passed theadded cost along to the ultimate consumer.
This practice of paying tribute was a system of international tipping. The Barbary piratesgranted immunity to those who obeyed thecustom, but made it decidedly warm andexpensive for those who dared to protest
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against it—just as do our modern pirates inhotels, sleeping cars, restaurants, barbershops and elsewhere.
[17] If a ship refused to pay tribute it wassunk, and the sailors went to slavery in thedesert, or to death by fearful torture. PresidentJefferson could not see any basis of right in theposition of the Barbary States that theMediterranean was their private lake throughwhich ships could not pass without paying toll.
He sent Decatur to register our protest.With the Pinckney slogan: "MILLIONS FORDEFENSE—NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE!" theAmerican naval forces made good our position.The tips that skippers of our nation had beenpaying to the pirates were saved and thecustom soon was abandoned by other nations.
To-day, the old battle cry is reversed to read:"Millions for tribute—not one cent for defense!"It is certain that a greater tribute is paid in oneweek in the United States in the form of tips,than our merchantmen paid during the wholeperiod that they knuckled to the Barbarypirates.
In New York City alone more than $100,000 aday is paid in gratuities to waiters, hotelemployes, chauffeurs, barbers and alliedclasses.[18] But New York has reached a
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subserviency to the tipping custom that isamazing in a democratic country.This vast tribute is paid for not more real
service than the Barbary pirates rendered tothose from whom they exacted tribute. It isgiven to workers who are paid by theiremployers to perform the services enjoyed bythe public. If the Barbary pirates could see theease with which a princely tribute is exactedfrom a docile public by the tip-takers, they
would yearn to be reincarnated as waiters inAmerica—the Land of the Fee!
[19] IV
PERSONNEL AND DISTRIBUTIONThe Itching Palm is not limited to the servingclasses. It is found among public officials,
where it is particularized as grafting, and it isfound among store buyers, purchasing agents,traveling salesmen and the like, and takes theform of splitting commissions. There are variedmanifestations of the disease, but whether theamount of the gratuity is ten cents to a waiteror $10,000 to a captain of police, the practice
is the same.This is a partial list of those affected:BaggagemenBarbersBartenders
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Bath attendantsBellboysBootblacks
ButlersCab driversChauffeursCharwomenCoachmenCooksDoor men
Elevator menGarbage men[20] GuidesHatboysHousekeepersJanitorsMaids
ManicuristsMessengersMail carriersPullman portersRubbish collectorsSteamship stewardsTheater attendants
WaitersThe foregoing list is not offered as a completeroster of those who regularly or occasionallyreceive tips. Nearly every one can think of additions, and at Christmas the list is extended
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to include money gifts to policemen, deliverymen and numerous others.THE TIP-TAKING CLASSES
At the last Census, in 1910, there were38,167,336 persons in the United States, outof a total population of ninety-odd millions,who were engaged in gainful occupations, thatis, who worked for specified wages or salaries.Of this number, 3,772,174 persons wereengaged in domestic or personal service, or
practically ten per cent. of the industrialpopulation.This means that in round numbers 4,000,000Americans of both sexes and all ages wereengaged in the lines of work specified in theforegoing list, with certain additions asmentioned.[21] These are the citizens who
profit by the tipping practice.Since 1910 the growth in population to onehundred millions, and the steadily wideningspread of the tipping practice will increase thebeneficiaries of tipping to 5,000,000. An ideaof the relative distribution of the total may beobtained from the statistics of fifty leading
cities. The numbers represent the tip-takingclasses in each city.CITY NUMBERCITY NUMBER
Albany 8,000 Minneapolis 19,000
Atlanta 23,000 Nashville 15,000
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Baltimore 48,000 New Haven 9,000
Birmingham 16,000 New Orleans 37,000
Boston 61,000 New York 400,000
Bridgeport 5,200 Newark 17,000Buffalo 25,000 Oakland 11,000
Cambridge 7,500 Omaha 10,000
Chicago 135,000 Paterson 5,000
Cincinnati 30,000 Philadelphia 105,000
Cleveland 31,000 [22] Pittsburgh41,000
Columbus 14,000 Portland 17,000
Dayton 6,500 Providence 14,000
Denver 17,000 Richmond 15,000
Detroit 26,000 Rochester 13,000
Fall River 4,000 St. Louis 56,000
Grand Rapids 5,500 St. Paul 16,000
Indianapolis 19,000 San Francisco 44,000
Jersey City 14,000 Scranton 6,000Kansas City 24,000 Seattle 19,000
Los Angeles 26,000 Spokane 7,000
Lowell 5,500 Syracuse 9,000
Louisville 23,000 Toledo 9,500
Memphis 19,000 Washington 43,000
Milwaukee 22,000 Worcester 9,000In all other cities, towns and hamlets there areproportionate quotas to bring the grand totalto 5,000,000. Any estimate of the daily tippingtribute for the whole country necessarily isonly an approximation, but $600,000 is a
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conservative figure. At this rate the annualtribute is around $220,000,000.IN NEW YORK ALONE
Taking New York with its 400,000 persons whoprofit from tipping, the leading classes of beneficiaries are as follows:Barbers 20,000
Bartenders 12,000
Bellboys 2,500
Bootblacks 3,500
Chauffeurs 12,000Janitors 25,000
Manicurists 4,500
Messengers 1,500
Porters 15,000
Waiters 35,000
The tipping to these and other classes variesboth in amount and regularity. Waiters andmanicurists in the better-class places receiveno[23] pay from their employers and dependentirely upon tips for their compensation.Barbers and chauffeurs are classes whichreceive wages and supplement them with tips.
Sometimes the employer will pay wages andrequire that all tips be turned in to the house.It is a common feature of the "Help Wanted"columns to state that the job is desirable tothe workers because of "good tips." Thus the
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employers are fully alert to the economicadvantage of tipping, and wherever it ispracticable they throw upon their patrons the
entire cost of servant hire.The extent to which employers are exploitingthe public is realized vaguely, if at all. The veinof generosity and the fear of violating a socialconvention can be worked profitably, and theyare in league with their employees to make itassay the maximum amount to the patron.
In a restaurant where the employer has thusshifted the cost of waiter hire to the shouldersof the public, the patron who conscientiouslyobjects to tipping has not the slightest chancein the world of a square deal in competitionwith the patron who pays tribute, although hepays as much for the food.
[24]A waiter, knowing that his compensationdepends upon what he can work out of hispatron, employs every art to stimulate thetipping propensity, from subtle flattery to out-right bull-dozing. He weaves a spell of obligation around a patron as tangible, if invisible, as the web a spider weaves around a
fly. He plays as consciously upon the patron'sfear of social usage as the musician in thealcove plays upon his violin.This is a particularly bad ethical and economicsituation from any viewpoint. The patron,
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getting only one service, pays two persons forit—the employer and the employee. Thepayment to the employer is fixed, but to the
employee it is dependent upon the whim of thepatron. To make this situation normal, thepatron should pay only once, and this shouldcover both the cost of the food and theservices of the waiter. Theoretically this is thepresent idea under the common law, butactually the patron is required, through fear of
well-defined penalties, to pay twice.Naturally, if the $200,000,000 or moreannually given to those serving the publicshould be withdrawn suddenly, employerswould face the[25] necessity of a radicalreadjustment of wage systems. In many lineswages would be increased to a normal basis,
either at the expense of the employer's profits,or through additional charges to patrons.Before going further into the employer phaseof the practice, the economics of tipping inindividual instances will be an interestingstudy.
[26] V
THE ECONOMICS OF TIPPINGThe basic question is, does tipping represent asound exchange of wealth? Do the American
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people receive full value, or any value, for the$200,000,000 or more given in tips?Values, of course, may be sentimental as well
as substantial and, so far as tipping isconcerned, it can be demonstrated that if anyvalues are received they are sentimental. Thesatisfaction of giving, the balm to vanity, theindulgence of pride, are the values obtained bythe giver of a tip in exchange for his money.It is a stock argument for tipping that the
person serving frequently performs extraservices, or displays special painstaking, whichdeserve extra compensation. Only anexamination of individual instances candetermine whether this is true. The proportionof the tipping tribute which really pays forextraordinary service is negligible. A brief
inquiry[27] into a few of the more prominentinstances of tipping follows.THE WAITERIf food is sold undelivered, then the waiter inbringing it to the patron and assisting him inits consumption does perform an extra servicefor which payment is due.
But this is not the fact, any more than that ashoe clerk should be tipped for assisting acustomer in the selection of his employer'sfootwear. In both instances, the cost of the
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service is included in the price of the article—food or shoes.The prices on the bill of fare have been figured
to include all costs of serving it, such as cook-hire, waiter-hire, rent, music, table ware, rawmaterials and overhead charges. If a sirloinsteak costs seventy-five cents a definite part of that amount represents the wages of thewaiter serving it.Thus the waiter has no claim upon the patron
for compensation, because the patron, inpaying for the food, provides the proprietorwith funds from which the waiter's wages willbe paid. If the patron, in addition, gives thewaiter a tip it[28] is clearly a gift for which novalue has been returned. The waiter is paidtwice for one service.
ECONOMIC WASTEThe question then recurs, is this gift to thewaiter a sound economic transaction?Economists teach that no transaction isindustrially sound which does not involve anequal exchange of values. The exchange of fivedollars for a pair of shoes is a sound
transaction because the dealer and thecustomer each receive a value. But the gift of aquarter to a waiter as a tip is an unsoundtransaction because the patron receives
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nothing in return—nothing of likesubstantiality.The patron may justify the gift from
sentimental considerations, of pride,generosity or fear of violating a socialconvention, but no sophistry of reasoning canprove that a substantial value has beenreceived.Of course, a waiter may give a patron morethan the proprietor agrees to give in the bill of
fare, and this undoubtedly is an extra service—but it is also a dishonest service. Every extraservice to one patron means a deficiency of service[29] to other patrons. It is a commonexperience that liberal tipping obtains specialattentions which non-tipping patrons miss, but,being dishonest, such a condition is outside the
scope of this inquiry. When a patron pays forfood he is entitled to adequate and equalservice, and no largess by other patrons shouldinterfere with this basic right.On its economic side, then, tipping is wrong.Wealth is exchanged without both parties tothe transaction receiving fair values. The
psychology and ethics of the transaction will beconsidered in other chapters.THE BARBERNo tipping is so inexcusable as that which isdone to a barber. The trade is highly organized
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and the workers are well-paid under goodworking conditions. There is not the slightestchance for the barber to serve a patron in a
way for which the patron does not pay in theshop tariffs.If a haircut costs thirty-five cents, the patron isentitled to just as good a hair-cut as the barbercan give. The patron enters the shop upon theassumption that he is entitled to asatisfactory[30] service. Hence, in tipping a
barber a patron is yielding in a peculiarly timidway to the mesmeric influence which thetipping custom exerts over its devotees.It is a wanton waste of wealth, an unsoundbusiness transaction, because money is givenwhere charity is unnecessary and whereabsolutely nothing is given in return. "But my
barber takes lots of pains with my hair," thepatron exclaims in justification of the tip. As inthe instance of the waiter, if he takes morethan a normal amount of pains with your hairhe is dishonest to his employer and to otherpatrons whom he must neglect to pay youspecial attention. Your right is to a satisfactory
service, and this you pay for in the regularcharge. Any extra compensation is unearnedincrement to the barber.The unctuous manner he employs to arouse asense of obligation in a patron, when stripped
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of disguises, is a plain hold-up game. This willbe shown in the consideration of thepsychology and ethics of tipping.
THE HOTELThe attitude that hotel employees havebeen[31] allowed to develop toward the publicis a blot upon professional hospitality.Every one of them takes the hotel patron forfair game. And the hotel proprietor, with a fewnotable exceptions, encourages this despicable
attitude. The assumption is that the patronpays at the desk only for the privilege of beingin the building.Hence, they will not cheerfully move hisbaggage to his room unless he pays to get itthere. He cannot have a pitcher of ice waterwithout being made to feel that he owes for
the service. The maid who cares for his roomexacts her toll. The head waiter demandspayment for showing him to a seat. Theindividual waiters at each meal (and they arechanged each meal by the head-waiter so thatthe patron has a new tip to give each time hedines) require fees. If he rings a bell, asks any
assistance, goes out the door to a cab, inshort, whichever way he turns, an itching palmis outstretched!Just think for a moment of the real significanceof this state of affairs. Hotel hospitality? Why,
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the Barbary pirates would have been ashamedto go it that strong!To ignore this grafting spirit means
insulting[32] annoyance. The suave hotelmanager listens to your complaint and smilesassurance that his guests shall have properservice, but underneath the smile he has acontempt for the "tight-wad," and instructs thecashier always to give the waiters smallchange so as to make tipping easy for the
patrons.In truth, what does a hotel guest pay for whenhe registers? Certainly for the service of thebell-boy who carries his suit-case to his room;for the keeping of the room in order; for water,clean towels and other necessities for hiscomfort; for the privilege of finding a seat in
the dining room; for the right to use the doors—all without extra charge.But the hotel manager admits this in theoryand outrageously violates it in practice. Alltipping done to bell-boys, porters, maids,waiters, door men, hat-boys and otherservitors in a hotel is sheer economic waste.
When the guest pays his bill at the desk hepays for all the service they perform.The hotel manager protests that the moneythat passes between his guests and hisemployees is not his affair. But he proves his
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insincerity by adjusting his wage scale on theestimate that[33] the guests will pass moneyto his employees!
Professional hospitality as "enjoyed" byAmericans is a travesty on democracy. ThatEurope should have such a system and spirit ishistorically understandable. Tipping, and thearistocratic idea it exemplifies, is what we leftEurope to escape. It is a cancer in the breastof democracy.
THE CHAUFFEURIt would be possible to run through all theclasses tipped and prove that the extracompensation is unearned. The chauffeur is alatter-day instance of the itching palm. Like thebarber, the chauffeur is paid well for his work.He does nothing for which the patron should
give him a tip. The taxi-meter charges thepatron roundly for all the service given, yettipping chauffeurs is as common in the largercities as tipping barbers or waiters. It simplyshows the spread of the practice to workerswho have no other claim upon it than their ownavaricious impulses—and the extreme docility
of the public. Every tip given to a chauffeur isso clearly a bad economic transaction thatfurther argument is unnecessary.[34] So widespread has the practice becomethat tipping is, individually, a problem, as well
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as collectively. The traveler has a formidablecost to face in the tipping required. When thetotal passes $200,000,000 a year, it becomes
a problem which the American people will findmore difficult of solution the longer it continuesunchecked.The whole argument is summed up in this.Tipping is an economic waste because it isdouble pay for one service—or pay for noservice. It causes one person to give wealth to
another without a fair return in values, orwithout any return. The pay that employersgive to their employees should be the onlycompensation they receive. All the moneygiven by the public on the side is unearnedincrement.The best condition for a fair exchange of
wealth is where standards are known andprices are definite. Self-respect and soundeconomics flourish in such an atmosphere,whereas, if values are hazy and compensationis indirect and irregular, as it is under thecustom of tipping, the bickering that followsdegrades manhood.
From an economic viewpoint, all businessesare on an abnormal basis which figureminimum[35] wages, or no wages, to theiremployees on the assumption that the public
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will, through gratuities, pay for this item of service."One service—one compensation" is the only
right relation of seller and buyer, of patron andproprietor.
[36] VI
THE ETHICS OF TIPPINGThe moral wrong of tipping is in the graftingspirit it engenders in those who profit by it; in
the rigid class distinctions it creates in arepublic; in the loss of that fineness of self-respect without which men and women areonly so much clay—worthless dregs in thecrucible of democracy.In a monarchy it may be sufficient for self-respect to be limited to the governing classes;
but the theory of Americanism requires thatevery citizen shall possess this quality. Wegrant the suffrage simply upon manhood—upon the assumption that all men are equal inthat fundamental respect.THE PRICE OF PRIDEHence, whatever undermines self-respect,
manhood, undermines the republic. Whatevercultivates aristocratic ideals and conventionsin[37] a republic strikes at the heart of democracy. Where all men are equal, somecannot become superior unless the others
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grovel in the dust. Tipping comes into ademocracy to produce that relation.Tipping is the price of pride. It is what one
American is willing to pay to induce anotherAmerican to acknowledge inferiority. Itrepresents the root of aristocracy buddinganew in the hearts of those who publiclyrenounced the system and all its works.The same Americans who profit by thisundemocratic practice exert as much influence,
proportionably, in the government of therepublic, as those who give tips, or thosewhose sense of rectitude will not allow them togive or accept gratuities. Is a man who willtake a tip as good a citizen, is his self-respectas fine, as the one who will not accept a tip, orwho will not give a tip? Is the one as well
qualified to vote as the other?What is a gentleman? What is a lady?Can a waiter be a gentleman? Can a maid be alady?Would a gentleman or a lady accept a gratuity?[38] What would happen if a tip should beoffered to the average "gentleman" who
patronizes restaurants, and taxicabs andbarber shops? He would have a brainstorm of self-righteous wrath!THE TEST OF DEMOCRACY
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And there is the test. If a "gentleman" wouldnot accept a tip, is it gentlemanly to give a tip?If a "gentleman's" self-respect would rebel at
the idea of accepting a gratuity, why shouldnot a waiter's self-respect rebel at the idea?"Oh, but there's a difference!"The difference is there indeed. It is thedifference between aristocracy and democracy.In an aristocracy a waiter may accept a tip andbe servile without violating the ideals of the
system. In the American democracy to beservile is incompatible with citizenship.Every tip given in the United States is a blowat our experiment in democracy. The customannounces to the world that at heart we arearistocratic, that we do not believe practicallythat "all men are created equal"; that the class
distinctions forbidden by our organic laware[39] instituted through social conventionsand flourish in spite of our lofty professions.Unless a waiter can be a gentleman,democracy is a failure. If any form of service ismenial, democracy is a failure. ThoseAmericans who dislike self-respect in servants
are undesirable citizens; they belong in anaristocracy.TIPS DISLIKED BY RECIPIENTSFortunately, conditions are not as rotten as theextent of the tipping practice would indicate.
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The vast majority of Americans who give tipsdo so under duress. At heart they loathe thecustom. They feel that it is tribute exacted as
arbitrarily and unrighteously as the tribute paidto the Barbary pirates. Some day this majoritywill rise up and deal as summarily with thetipping practice as our forefathers dealt withthe Mediterranean tribute custom!A great number of servants and workers insuch lines as barber shops, restaurants and
other public service positions are equallyopposed to the custom. They are caught up,however, in a system where they mustconform to the custom or lose theiremployment. Many a barber or waiter orchauffeur whose self-respect[40] rebels attaking a tip is forced to do so in order not to
offend patrons. For nothing so stirs up a"gentleman" as for the person serving todecline a tip. The reason is that he feels therebuke implied in the refusal and knows in hisconscience that the practice is wrong. Wealways grow more indignant at a justaccusation than at an unjust one!
CONSCIENCE IS STIRRINGThe constant re-appearance of laws to regulatetipping, in every section of the country, provesthat the conscience of the people is stirring.The daily and periodical press now and then
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condemn the practice editorially inunmeasured terms and persons prominent inthe public eye occasionally flare-up at some
particularly flagrant manifestation of theitching palm. Governor Whitman, of New York,in an address to the Society for the Preventionof Useless Giving, said (as District Attorneythen):"It is a brave thing, a womanly thing and acourageous thing for you to band together to
combat an evil. And I hope you will stand pat.We are all growing to tolerate a kind of pettygrafting that is not right, that is un-American. Iobject to having a man take my[41] hat andhang it up for me and then accept a coin. I amstrong and big enough to hang up my own hat.And I also prefer to carry my own bag to
having a boy half my size carry a bag that ishalf his size and be paid with a coin. If hehonestly earns the money he should have it asan earning, not as a gratuity. It is this giving of gratuities that is unlike us, it is a customcopied from a foreign country where conditionsare different from ours."
Where one person has the courage to speakout against this deep-rooted social convention,unnumbered thousands feel dumbly the sameopposition to it. Harry Lauder, the Scotchcomedian, a citizen of a monarchy, on one of
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his tours in America, was reported by thenewspapers as being disgusted with thedevelopment of so aristocratic a custom as
tipping in America, the cradle of democracy.The press will yield many such evidences of condemnation for the practice in high places.They are cited to prove that opposition totipping is not a mere distaste among personsof limited means who cannot afford to tipgenerously.
The cost of following the custom is animportant item; but those who consider itmorally wrong gladly would pay any increase incharges[42] that might follow the abolition of the custom. If the Pullman company shouldagree to abolish tipping if each patron wouldpay a quarter more for his berth it would be a
long step in advance—though the customshould be abolished without additional chargesto the public.HUSH MONEYThe United States went through a period of muck-raking against graft among politiciansand big business men. It was found that the
idea of "honest graft" was shockinglyprevalent. The especially odious manifestationswere dealt with, but the little springs andrivulets that combine to make the main streamwere allowed to trickle along, unite, and
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direction predisposes toward laxity in otherdirections.SPLITTING COMMISSIONS
When a gratuity gets above a small amount, itis known as splitting commissions, or plaingraft. Salesmen in their anxiety to sell goodswill divide their commissions with the buyers.Frequently buyers or purchasing agents willdemand this concession when it has not beenoffered. One New York department store
found[44] that its piano buyer was acceptingmoney for placing all orders with a particularmanufacturer. This store discharged its buyer,and yet the proprietor of the store doubtlesstipped the waiter at lunch the same day he soacted! He failed to see that a waiter (paid toserve patrons) who accepts tips, is precisely on
the same level as a buyer (paid to purchase inthe whole market), who concentrates hisorders with one house for a fee.A clipping from The New York Times shows theattitude that employers are taking toward splitcommissions:"Several wholesalers in this market received a
letter yesterday from a prominent dry goodsretailer in the middle West saying that theirbuyers would be in this city to-day and thateach one had signified her acceptance of a ruleagainst taking petty 'graft.' The retailer asked
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that the salesmen try not to make this ruledifficult to observe. The rule follows: 'You mustnot accept entertainment of any kind, even
luncheon or dinner, from any one in New York.We will make an allowance, sufficient to coverall expenses, including entertainment.'"This retail merchant had discovered that a freetheater ticket or dinner could create such[45] asense of obligation that his buyers would notbe able to exercise the freedom of choice that
was necessary. The New York salesmen offeredthe tickets and dinners in the form of gracioushospitality, but knew all the while that theirreal intent was to bind the buyers to themthrough a sense of obligation without regard tothe merits of the goods.Thus the spirit of "honest graft" is spreading
out in America. It grows with what it feedsupon. It is a moral miasma, the fumes of whichare permeating all strata of society.THE BIBLE AGAINST TIPSFollowing are only a few of the many citationsin the Bible against tipping, gifts, gratuities,greed and like practices and impulses:
Exodus 23:8. And thou shalt take no gift; forthe gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth thewords of the righteous.Ecclesiastes 7:7. Surely oppression maketh awise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.
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Proverbs 15:27. He that is greedy of gaintroubleth his own house; but he that hatethgifts shall live.
I Samuel 12:3. Behold here I am: witness[46]against me before the Lord, and before hisanointed: whose ox have I taken? or whoseass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?whom have I oppressed? or of whose handhave I received any bribe to blind mine eyestherewith? and I will restore it you.
Isaiah 33:14-15. Who among us shall dwellwith the devouring fire?... He that walkethrighteously and speaketh uprightly ... thatshaketh his hands from holding bribes.... Heshall dwell on high....Job 15:34. For the congregation of hypocritesshall be desolate, and fire shall consume the
tabernacles of bribery.Luke 12:15. And he said unto them, Take heedand beware of covetousness: for a man's lifeconsisteth not in the abundance of the thingswhich he possesseth.
[47] VII
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TIPPINGWhy the custom of tipping should be followedso generally when it is palpably a badeconomic practice and ethically indefensible isa psychological study with the same aspects
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that the slavery issue presented before theCivil War.The Puritan conscience allowed that institution
to grow to formidable proportions beforearousing itself decisively, and it has allowedthis equally undemocratic custom to attainnational ramifications.CASTE AND CLASSIn its broadest statement, the psychology of tipping presents the two antipodal qualities of
pride and pusillanimity. The caste system isnot based upon the superiority of one classover another, but upon the pride that onestage of human development feels overanother stage of human development.[48]A democracy cannot do away withdifferent stages of development in the human
mind. But it does do away with the belief of one stage of development that it is worthy of homage from another stage of development.Democracy does not concede that one manworking with his brain is superior to anotherman working with his brawn. Democracy looksbeyond the accident of occupation, or the
stage of human development, and sees everyman as originating in the same divine source."We hold these truths to be self-evident, thatall men are created equal."
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In a monarchy, the craving of the human mindfor approbation—the quality of pride—iscultivated into the class or caste system. Those
citizens who have attained a larger measure of culture than their fellow-men allow the falsesense of pride in that culture to creep into theirideals and actions. They seek for some methodof visualizing this assumed superiority, of obtaining the acknowledgment of it from theirfellow-men. With an unerring instinct of human
nature they play upon the cupidity of thosewhom they desire to place in a servile relation.A gift of money wins the social distinction theycovet.[49]Thus the tipping custom has its origin inpride, and it necessarily involves humility as acorrelative condition. If all men are created
equal, as we aver in our basic political creed,they cannot become unequal except artificially,except by an agreement of one set of citizensto play the rôle of servitors for a considerationfrom another set of citizens. One set of citizenswill become abased—that is, they willsurrender their birthright of equality—in order
that another set may strut around in a belief of superiority and indulge a sense of pride.NO SUPERIOR CLASSIn a democracy, the gradations of cultureexist, but it is not permissible for one class of
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workers to assume a superiority over anotherclass. That they do assume it is evident, andthat for all practical social purposes we live and
move and have our being on that assumptionis evident, but in granting manhood suffrage,in allowing the proud and the humble to havean equal voice in government, we declare thesocial system a fungus growth.At the moment of the highest power of the[50]institution of slavery it was not less wrong than
at the moment the first ship-load of slaves waslanded. No mere accumulation of materialproperty can vitiate a principle of right. Hence,the very widespread acceptance of the tippingcustom lends no authority to it. If 95,000,000Americans are engaged in tipping 5,000,000Americans, and if both the givers and the
receivers apparently concur in the rightness of the custom, it does not thereby become right.We must go back to first principles to find theanswer.TIPPING AND SLAVERYThe American democracy could not live in theface of a lie such as slavery presented, and it
cannot live in the face of a lie such as tippingpresents. The aim of American statesmanshipshould be to keep fresh and strong the originalconcepts of democracy and to beat back the
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efforts of base human qualities to overridethese concepts.The relation of a man giving a tip and a man
accepting it is as undemocratic as the relationof master and slave. A citizen in a republicought to stand shoulder to shoulder withevery[51] other citizen, with no thought of cringing, without an assumption of superiorityor an acknowledgment of inferiority. This iselementary preaching and yet the distance we
have strayed from primary principles makes itnecessary to prove the case against tipping.The psychology of tipping may be stated morein detail in the following formula:To one-quarter part of generosity add twoparts of pride and one part of fear.FIRST INGREDIENT, GENEROSITY
This is a subtle element and merges into asense of obligation on slight provocation. Youfeel that your position in life is more fortunate,and pity enters your thought. If an extraservice is given, in reality or in appearance,the servitor has pitched his appeal upon theground of obligation. Few persons can rest
easily until a sense of obligation is dischargedthrough some form of compensation. Theopportunity to balance the account comeswhen cash is being passed between you andthe person serving. You offer a cash
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consideration proportioned to your sense of obligation.Inasmuch as the whole argument in favor
of[52] tipping is based upon the allegation thatthe servitor actually gives a value in extraservice, the element of obligation will beexamined closely.The Pullman porter or the waiter who cansucceed in making a patron feel a sense of obligation knows that he has assured a tip for
himself. The company or the restaurantbusiness is a vague fact, while the manhovering over your berth or table is a mosttangible relation. His art is to make the patronfeel that he is responsible for the carefulattentions. In a subconscious way the patronknows that the price of the ticket or the food
includes the service (wages of the porter orwaiter) but the obsequious alertness of theattendant overshadows this knowledge. It ispresent personality versus an abstract entityknown as company or restaurant. Hence,though the price of the ticket or the paymentof the check pays for the porter's or waiter's
service, the patron has been made to feel asecond obligation which he discharges with atip.CLOAKROOM TACTICS
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Thus tipping involves two payments forone[53] service. Servitors understand clearlythe psychology of the sense of obligation from
experiment even though they could not readunderstandingly a book on psychology. A trialin Detroit over the division of the tips in thecloak-room of a restaurant furnished thefollowing proof:"'How do you make people "cough up"?'queried the judge.
"'When they are going away I brush themdown, and if they don't give me something Itake hold of their lapel and say, "Excuse me,"and brush them again. I pretend that's theonly English I can speak. If they don't give mesomething then I hold on to their hats untilthey do give me something. I made $12 the
first day I worked at the place.'"'Why did you pretend you could not speakEnglish?' demanded the judge."'The more English you know the less tips youget.'"This morally obtuse hat-boy knew that theaverage person does not want something for
nothing when dealing with serving persons,and he exploited this trait to the maximum.Pullman porters and high grade waiters aremore polished in the use of the same method,but it[54] all gets back to the idea of creating a
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sense of obligation by actual or pretendedservice beyond the expected.Undoubtedly, a rigid adherence to the letter of
duty would result in service that would beunsatisfactory, but this is to be surmountedrightly by the employer requiring flexibility of service from employees—not by the publicpaying extra for affability, courtesy andattentiveness.SECOND INGREDIENT, PRIDE
Anxiety to cut a good figure before servants orallied classes of personal workers is a rich veinof pride which they do not fail to work for all itis worth. This kind of mind is always agitatedfrom fear that the tipping has not been donehandsomely enough. The satisfaction of havinga fellow creature servile before your largess is
a factor. The gratuity emphasizes your positionin the social scale. It stamps the giver as agentleman or lady. The smirking attentivenessof the servitor is balm to vanity.
Truly, if it were not for vanity there would beno tipping system.[55] THIRD INGREDIENT, FEAR
The power behind the tipping custom is SocialConvention and the fear of violating it. The so-called social leaders, actuated by aristocraticideals, establish the custom and the crowdfollow suit in a desire to do the "proper" thing.
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The "what will people say" mania holds theaverage person in an iron obedience to acustom which is innately loathed. It makes you
conspicuous to be a dissenter. The servingpersons understand this psychology perfectly.To drift along with the current of social usageis easiest, whereas, to go against it requiresthe highest order of courage. The multitudesimply rate it as one of the petty vices and letit go at that.
THE REMEDYNow what is the method of meeting andmastering this situation?Precisely the same reasoning employed by theAmericans in 1801 against the custom of paying tribute to the Barbary pirates.First, establish clearly in your mind that tipping
is wrong. The slogan is: ONE COMPENSATIONFOR ONE SERVICE. With[56] this premise, youcan answer, seriatim, every argument whicharises in favor of the custom. To the plea of generosity or obligation the reply is, fullcompensation for all service rendered isincluded in the bill you pay at the hotel desk,
at the ticket window, to the barber-shopcashier, for the taxi-meter reading, and so on.Any extra compensation implied by the personserving is an imposition and has no
justification either as charity or obligation.
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Second, the promptings of pride must berecognized frankly and mastered by democraticideals. When a tip is given, not only is an
individual wrong done, but a blow is struck atrepublican government and the ideals uponwhich it is founded. Patriotism, as well asfaithfulness to self-respect requires that allcustoms which promote class distinctions shallbe held in check. In entertaining a democraticattitude toward all Americans you are
strengthening the government under whichyou live. You will not become less of agentleman or lady if the socially submergedclasses rise to a normal plane of self-respect.In declining to place a false valuation uponthem you are promoting the true mission of Americanism.
[57] "To thine own self be true,And it must follow as the night the dayThou canst not then be false to any man."Third, the fear of violating a social custom isovercome when you understand its perniciousnature. The general observance of it gives thecustom neither rightness nor authority. With
full assurance that the custom is wrong andwith a measure of the courage Decatur showedbefore Tripoli, an apparently formidable, butreally vulnerable, custom can be destroyed.
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[58] VIII
THE LITERATURE OF TIPPING
Writers of books on etiquette uniformly accepttipping as the correct social usage. They state
just the amount that it is proper to give onvarious occasions and thus do their utmost torivet the custom upon the people.A few extracts from such books will be givenhere to show how the custom is strengthened
by the arbiters of etiquette. Those masses of Americans who are aspiring to a broaderculture naturally turn to these books, and havetheir Americanism poisoned at the very start.They are educated to believe that tipping isessential to social grace. The featuredepartments of newspapers in answering
queries about tipping usually confirm thisimpression, though now and then a side-swipeis delivered at the extortionate attitude of theserving persons.[59] HOTEL FEESTaking up the hotel first, the following advice isfrom "Everyday Etiquette":
"A porter carries a bag and he must be tipped;another carries up a trunk, he must be tipped;one rings for ice water and the boy bringing itexpects his ten cents; one wants hot waterevery morning and in notifying the
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chambermaid of this fact, must slip a bit of silver into her palm. The waiter at one's tablemust be frequently remembered, and the head
waiter will give one better attention if he findssomething in his hand after he shows the newarrival to a table, and, of course, on leavingone will give a fee."It is usually best for a transient guest to feethe waiter at each meal, since another man willprobably be in attendance at the next one. The
usual rate is to give 10 per cent. of the sumpaid for the lunch or dinner—ten cents beingthe minimum except at a restaurant of humblepretensions, where five will be gladly acceptedby the waitress."If the waiters and other hotel employees hadwritten the foregoing themselves could they
have put it more strongly? Note the advice totip the waiter at each meal because a new onemay[60] be on hand at the next meal! Thisimplies that the failure to tip is a graveoffense, and that no risk of giving it must betaken. The patron may rest assured that a newone will be on hand at the next meal, for the
head waiter shifts them about for exactly thatreason—to make the patron tip again.However, in this same book, there is areluctant note, as shown by the followingextract:
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"We may rebel against the custom and withreason. But as not one of us can alter the stateof affairs, it is well to accept it with good
grace, or reconcile oneself to indifferentservice."Hotel managers will read this with entireapproval. And yet, consider what acontradiction it is for a hotel to advertise itsservice at such and such rates and thensubject its guests to "indifferent service" if
they do not cross an itching palm at everyangle in the building!TIP—OR BE INSULTEDAny one who conscientiously objects to tippingknows how true it is that in the "best" places,with one or two notable exceptions, not only"indifferent service" but positively insulting[61]
deportment may be expected from theservitors if the tips are omitted.The servitors are aggressive because theirremuneration depends upon what they canwork out of the patrons. The employer hadhired them on the understanding that anycompensation they receive must come from
the gratuities of patrons. In certain hotels themanagement carries the exploitation to thepoint of charging the servitors for the privilegeof working the patrons. The tipping privilege in
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one hotel has been sold as high as $10,000 ayear!The economic pressure of tipping upon the
patron causes one authority on etiquette,"Good Form For All Occasions," to exclaim:"Women of frugal mind endeavor to call onthese functionaries as little as they canbecause the cents readily mount into dollars.The elevator-boy receives fewer tips than hisperipatetic brother and need not be feed after
a short stay."Here is proof that those who from economic orethical reasons do not wish to tip arepersecuted. They are advised that the easiestway to avoid the displeasure of servitors is tocall on them for service as little as possible!The[62] two dollars or more they pay at the
hotel desk for a day's domicile must beexclusively for the privilege of sitting in a chairor sleeping in a bed. The moment they requirethe service of any of the employees about thebuilding, they are under a second obligation topay. And yet, hotels prate about their"hospitality." The Barbary pirates were
hospitable in the same way—after you paid thetribute!HOW THE BOOKS HELP"The Cyclopædia of Social Usage" states thetipping obligation as follows:
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"In a large and fashionable hotel generous andwidely diffused gratuities are expected by theemployees. The experienced traveler usually
distributes in gratuities a sum equal to ten percent. of the amount of the bill. It is customarywhen a lengthy sojourn is made in an hotel orpension to tip the chambermaid, the variouswaiters and the porter who does one's boots,once in every week. Once in every fortnightthe head waiter's expectations should be
satisfied, and where an elevator boy anddoorman are on duty, they, too, have claimson the purse of the guest."In a fashionable European hotel the rule of tipping a franc a week all around maysafely[63] be observed during a long stop. Butat the hour of departure something extra must
be added to the weekly franc, and the headwaiter will scarcely smile as blandly as need beif he is not propitiated with gold."Others, the writer says, have claims that it iswell to recognize and meet before they urgethem.Practically all the books on etiquette have the
same note of subserviency to the custom. Thepoint to be remembered is that, without beingconscious of it, these writers are in league withthe beneficiaries of the custom to perpetuateand extend it. Most of the authors think the
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custom is right, they have the aristocraticviewpoint that servants should "know theirplace" and, in a republic, be made to
acknowledge it by accepting a gratuity. Otherssimply take conditions as they find them andwrite to inform readers how to avoidunpleasant incidents. But regardless of theopinion of the writers on the ethics of thecustom, the books are one of the principalsupports of the custom.
Leaving the hotel, and considering the tippingcustom in its relation to private hospitality, wefind this advice in "Dame Curtesy's Book of Etiquette":[64] "It is customary to give servants a tipwhen one remains several days under afriend's roof. The sum cannot be stated but
common sense will settle the question."IN PRIVATE HOUSESThe theory of tipping to servants in privatehomes where one may be a guest is based onthe assumption that one's presence gives theservants extra work and they should becompensated therefor. The extra work
undoubtedly is involved, but in a really trueconception of hospitality, should not theservants enter into it as much as the hosts?Or, if the guest entails extra work should notthe host's conception of hospitality cause him
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or her to supply the extra compensation? Theguest who tips servants in a private homeimplies that the host or hostess has not
adequately compensated them for their labor.The tips under such circumstances are areflection upon the hospitality of the home. Ahost should ascertain if servants considerthemselves outside the feeling of hospitalityand pay them for the extra work, thus givingthe guest complete hospitality. It is bad
enough to tip in a hotel, for professionalhospitality; to tip[65] in a private home is, orshould be, an insult to the host.ON OCEAN VOYAGESThe same author advises in regard to thePullman car that "a porter should receive a tipat the end of the journey, large or small
according to the length of the trip and theservice rendered," and then considers thecustom aboard a ship, as follows:"There is much tipping to be done aboard aship. Two dollars all around is a tariff fixed forpersons of average means, and this isincreased to individual servants from whom
extra service has been demanded."The traveler boards a ship with a ticket of passage which includes stateroom and mealsand all service requisite to the properenjoyment of these privileges. The stewards
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and other employees on board are expresslyfor the purpose of giving the service the ticketpromised. Hence, extra compensation to them
may be justified only as charity. They cannotpossibly render extra service for which theyshould be paid. If a passenger called upon theengineer to render a service, thatemployee[66] would be rendering an extraservice, but stewards and stewardesses andlike employees are aboard to render any
service the passenger wants or needs. Movingdeck chairs, bringing books, attending to callsto your stateroom, serving you food and thelike duties are all within the scope of theirregular employment.But read another writer's pronouncement:"At the end of an ocean voyage of at least five
days' duration, the fixed tariff of fees exacts asum of two dollars and a half per passenger toevery one of those steamer servants who haveministered daily to the traveler's comfort."Thus single women would give this sum to thestewardess, the table steward, the stateroomsteward, and, if the stewardess has not
prepared her bath, she bestows a similargratuity on her bath steward. If every day shehas occupied her deck chair, he also will expecttwo dollars and fifty cents.
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"Steamers there are on which the deck boysmust be remembered with a dollar each, andwhere a collection is taken up, by the boy who
polishes the shoes and by the musicians."On huge liners patronized by rich folksexclusively, the tendency is to fix the minimumgratuity at $5, with an advance to seven,ten[67] and twelve where the stewardess,table steward and stateroom steward areconcerned."
Then follow instructions to tip the smoking-room steward, the barbers and even the ship'sdoctor!THE "RICH AMERICAN" MYTHIt is small wonder, in view of the nature of theliterature of tipping, that Europe has foundAmerican travelers "rich picking." Before
embarking on the first trip abroad the averageAmerican informs himself and herself of whatis expected in the way of gratuities, andeverywhere the tourist turns in a library adviceis found which effectually throws the cost of service upon the patron. Railroad andsteamship literature usually avoids the subject
because these companies do not want to bringthis additional expense of travel to theattention of the public. A steamship folder willstate that passage to London is ninety dollars,
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including berth and meals, but gives no hintthat the tips will amount to ten dollars more!
[68] IX
TIPPING AND THE STAGEAn almost invariable laugh-producer on thestage or in moving pictures is a scene in whicha bell-boy or other servitor executes thecustomary maneuvers for obtaining a tip.Play producers know that the laugh can be
evoked and any hotel scene is certain toinclude this bit of business. In seeking theexplanation of the humor in such a scene, theanswer will be found to be cynicism and thepeculiar glee that people feel in observingothers in disagreeable situations.COMIC WOES
The slap-stick variety of comedy is based uponthis trait in human nature. If a man is kickeddown three flights of stairs, the spectatorhowls with delight. And, particularly, if apoliceman is worsted in an encounter, themerriment is frenzied. Our Sunday comicpapers[69] depend almost exclusively upon
violence for their humor. It is the finalspanking the Katzenjammer Kids receive thatbrings the laugh. The climax to many othercomics—notably Mutt and Jeff—is violence.
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Hence, a tipping scene on the stage or inmoving pictures creates a laugh because thepublic sees the tip-giver as a victim. He usually
exaggerates his rôle by making the giving of the tip a painful act to himself, and the wholescene proves the contention in this discussion,namely, that tipping is wrong. If the spectatorsdid not perceive the bell-boy as a bandit, andthe hotel guest as a victim, no laugh wouldresult. They have been in similar situations and
know the feelings of the victim.Sometimes stage managers vary the incidentso that the laugh is on the bell-boy, by havingthe guest refrain from tipping. Then thespectators laugh at the bell-boy'sdisappointment—again finding humor inmisfortune.
TIPS IN THE MOVIESWith the development of moving pictures theutilization of this kind of humor has widenedimmeasurably. And the point to beconsidered[70] here is the influence of suchvisualization of tipping upon the spread of thecustom. Undoubtedly tipping is increased by
moving pictures and by stage representation.The public is made to feel that, despite theinherent wrong in the custom, it must befollowed, or they will experience the
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unpleasantness at which they have justlaughed.Another example of the itching palm which
may be depended upon to produce a laugh is ascene in which a policeman is handed a bill forneglecting his duty in some respect. A well-to-do man will cross the law in some manner andin the play he winks an eye, the policemanturns his back with his palm extended, a bill isslipped into it, and he departs to the sound of
the spectators' laugh.The effect of these scenes upon the public isdual. It either confirms their impression that allservants or officers are "approachable," or itcreates among the unsophisticated the ideathat tipping or graft is the customary andproper method of dealing with such classes of
citizens. The worldly wise gain the firstimpression, and the spread of the tippingcustom is assured by the second impression.[71] Moving pictures have extended thisinfluence to every nook and corner of thecountry. The result is that persons who live inthe smaller and more democratic communities
are educated to the big city development of the itching palm. And the effect upon childrenand young people is pernicious in the extreme.IMPRESSING THE YOUNG
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A boy who sees a tipping scene in a movingpicture gains the impression that it is smart toexact such tribute. Or he gains the impression
that he has been overlooking a rich vein of easy remuneration. The photo-play directors,either consciously or unconsciously, are doinggreat damage to democratic ideals by featuringsuch scenes. It will not be surprising if, amongthe other evils fostered by moving pictures,the next generation displays a marked increase
in the grafting propensity. The young peopleare being educated to think it natural.Thus, aside from the human impulses of prideand avarice, it is apparent that literature andthe stage are strengthening the custom of tipping by their representations of it ashumorous. People will not combat anything at
which they[72] laugh. The itching palm hastwo doughty champions in the books onetiquette and the theaters.Actors, it would seem, have enough contactwith the itching palm among stage hands tomake them ardent advocates of reform, to saynothing of their contact with it in hotels. On
the vaudeville stage especially the carpenter,the electrician, the property man and their co-workers must be "seen" with regular andgenerous donations to insure a smooth act. Inmany theaters the stage hands have a definite
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scale of tips for regular duties that theyperform—and for which the management alsopays them.
[73] X
THE EMPLOYEE VIEWPOINTFrom a waiter, or a porter, or a janitor's pointof view, tipping is wrong only when it ismeager. They regard this form of compensation as not only just but usually too
sparingly bestowed.Unquestionably, with any reform in the mannerof compensation to persons engaged indomestic or other serving capacities, must go areform in the attitude of the public towardservitors. The patron who abuses hisprivileges, who exacts of employees far more
than he has the right to ask, who treats themas automatons without sensibilities or self-respect—such a patron must be handledsimultaneously with the change in manner of compensation.Employers, particularly in hotels and like publicplaces, will have to give more attention to
seeing that employees are not mistreated bythe swaggering, blatant, selfish type of patron.[74] This type abounds and has beendeveloped largely by the tipping custom, thatis, the extremely servile attitude assumed by
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servitors in order to stimulate tipping hasbrought out the opposite quality of domineering pride in the patron.
THE SORE SPOTNo feeling so rankles in the mind as the senseof uncompensated labor. The thought thatpatrons have gotten something for nothingleaves a sore spot in the thought of servitors.And if they are employed in places where theonly compensation they receive is from the
gratuities of patrons, this soreness is incurable.The next time the patron appears he will bemade to feel the displeasure of the employee.Thus, in one sense, it is the system that iswrong, a system which does an injustice toboth employee and patron.Every employee has a fairly clear idea of his
duties. Most employees scrupulously refrainfrom doing more than the duties for which theyare paid expressly. Hence, when an employeeover-steps this boundary he has fixed in hisown[75] mind, he has the sense of uncompensated labor. He feels a grudge eitheragainst the employer or the patron. He looks
to one or the other to supply the extraremuneration for the extra service.As a consequence, personal service workersare nursing a grievance much of the time.Their conversation and thoughts are about
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some patron who has failed to compensatethem, or has, in their judgment, inadequatelycompensated them. They devote little time to
thinking of a reform in the system that wouldgive them an adequate compensation from theemployer and do away entirely with thepatron-to-employee form of compensation.THE MARTYRThe tipping system is so established now thatthe individual who opposes it must be prepared
to play the rôle of martyr, whether employeeor patron. Employers who profit by the no-wage system dislike employees with a degreeof self-respect that makes them rebel atgratuities. Such wages as are paid are sonominal that the employee cannot subsist uponthem[76] alone. He either has to quit that line
of work or enter it and conform to theconventional methods.In Chapter V the equity of tipping certainemployees was considered and the claim of other employees as to their rights will beconsidered briefly here.BAGGAGEMEN
Tipping men who call for and deliver trunks hasbecome a fixed custom in the cities and isexpected, though not so often practiced, in thesmaller towns. The transfer companytheoretically charge for the complete operation
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of moving the trunk from the home or hotel tothe railroad station. But the men on thewagons or trucks exact tips for carrying the
baggage up and down stairs or elevators. Thequestion is, are they entitled to this extracompensation? The baggagemen argue thattheir business, strictly interpreted, is to carrythe trunk from the house to the station andthat going up stairs and into rooms is an extraservice. Hence, they stand around and make it
evident that they expect compensation fromthe patron, in addition to their wages from thecompany.[77] Their position is not tenable. A patronpays the company to get his trunk fromwherever it may be and to deliver it to itsdestination. Whatever operations are
necessary to get the trunk are the naturalduties of the company and its employees. Thecharges of the company are, or should be,based on the complete service. The exaction of extra compensation in the form of tips by theemployees, therefore, is an imposition. Incalling the company no person, tacitly or
openly, agrees to the argument that the trunkis to be moved from curb to curb.The understanding is that your baggage is tobe removed from its customary place in thehome to the customary place in the station or
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of obligation in the patron who does not like tohave his shoes shined for nothing, even thoughthe payment at the desk covers the
transaction.Any one who has patronized a restaurantregularly, or a bootblack stand, or abarbershop, or manicurist, or any public place,will recall[79] how invariably the servitorsbring up the subject of tipping and always withthe suggestion that they would be disabled
financially if it were not for the generosity of the public.This is all a carefully and skilfully plannedcampaign to exploit the patron.BARBER SHOP PORTERSPatrons who do not tip barbers frequently tipthe porters who brush them down. On the
surface it seems that the porter's attentions ina barber shop are extra and deserve extracompensation. Yet, theoretically, no masterbarber would admit that a patron of his shophas any other charges to pay than the regulartariffs. The porter is there as an extra measureof service from the shop. Practically, however,
the shops all proceed on the assumption of tipping. The porter is a much-aggrievedindividual if he is overlooked. In any soundeconomic system, the porter's compensationshould come exclusively from the shop. If his
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attentions are decided to be extra, thereshould be a regular scale of compensation, asfor a hair cut, which the patron should pay. So
long as his services are furnished by the shopwithout being[80] included in the regular shoptariffs, the patron owes the porter nothing forhis attentions.The solution of the whole tipping problem liesin the foregoing postulate—that if anyemployee is in a position to render an extra
service there should be a regular scale of charges for such service. It is the irregularcompensation, depending upon the whim of the patron, that makes the practiceeconomically unsound. No hotel, or otheremployer, should have on the premises anyemployee whose compensation depends upon
chance. If a hotel stations an employee in thewashroom he should be there distinctly as partof the service for which a patron pays at thecashier's desk. A porter in a barber shopshould be engaged exclusively at the shop'sexpense as part of the complete service forwhich a patron pays to the cashier. Employers,
however, are much too shrewd to scatteremployees around on the formal understandingthat the patrons are to compensate them. Theypretend that they are engaged as an extrameasure of courtesy or service from the
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employer and then are educated to exact,through tips, their compensation from thepatron.
[81] DOOR MENIt would seem that if there were any placewhere the patron might feel free to forget hiscoin pocket, it would be in the use of doors.But it is customary now to tip door men. Thatis, you have to pay to enter a hotel, arestaurant or other public place in order to
spend money with the employer. The employerwill smile blandly and assure you that nopatron need tip the door man, but the doorman will give unmistakable evidence to thecontrary. The tipping of door men shows howthe custom grows with what it feeds upon. Tothe devotee of the custom every underling has
an itching palm that must be scratched with acoin and the employer rejoices because itrelieves him of wage-payments. Tippingdoormen is incomprehensibly weak. Elevatormen are in the same class.GUIDESIn parks and other public places where the
employer or the Government furnishes guidesand where patrons pay a regular fee for beingshown the sights, the guides carefullycultivate[82] the tipping propensity. Their mostcommon method is to start a conversation
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about how inadequately they are paid for theirwork and the high cost of living. They playupon the sympathies of the sight-seers until at
the end of the trip the feeling is strong that theguide should be remembered. He pockets thegratuity and looks for other game. The patronsoverlook the fact that if he is underpaid theemployer or the Government is at fault. Heoften works in the appearance of extraattentions to create the sense of obligation. It
is clearly a case of double compensation forone service.HATBOYSThe cloak-room is one of the best devices forthrowing the item of wages to the shoulders of patrons. For some one to check and guardyour hat and overcoat while you see a show or
dine has a speaking likeness to a real extraservice. But it is as counterfeit as the otherpretenses of extra service. It is everyrestaurant's or theater's duty to provide forhats and coats of patrons. The meal or theshow cannot be enjoyed unless this preliminaryfunction is performed by the proprietor. When
two[83] dollars is paid for a theater ticket italso pays for this service, and extracompensation to the attendant in charge maybe defended as charity but not as anobligation. A patron who buys a meal in a
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restaurant owes the cloak-room attendantsnothing. He paid for their service in paying forthe meal. Tips to hatboys are superfluous.
JANITORSThe autocrat of the basement is a man with agrievance even when generously tipped. Fromhis viewpoint he is called upon to do a score of things outside his duties. Must he do these fornothing? He must not. The only question iswho shall pay him. The janitor should be hired
by employers upon the understanding that therenters have the right of way in utilizing hisservices. Or, apartments should be leased witha clear understanding of the janitor's duties, sothat he will have no lee-way to exploit therenters. On the face of it, the idea of defining a
janitor's services so that everything outside of
the regulations would be extra service forwhich the renter should compensate him,seems difficult of execution. But the difficulty isless[84] real than apparent. And in themeantime, the janitor regularly is tipped to dothings for which he is paid by the employer. Heis "out for his" as eagerly as the waiter or the
Pullman porter. Hallboys in the apartmenthouses are equally avaricious. Now and thenthe metropolitan papers contain letters to theeditor complaining of their exactions—patheticletters from well-to-do persons paying
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thousands of dollars' rent for apartments! Oneway out would be to insert in a lease that therenter shall receive full and equal service
without extra compensation to employees.MANICURISTSThese young women have the bestpsychological opportunity to exact tribute,particularly where the patrons are men. Thepersonal contact is influential, and the plaintivetale of meager salary and small tips which she
purrs into your ears, the meanwhile flashing alanguishing smile—it's a great little gamewhich she plays for all it is worth! Some of them receive eight dollars a week in "salary,"and the tips amount to enough to make theirincome thirty-five a week and more. Theemployer has[85] the fifty, seventy-five cents
or a dollar charge for the service as practicallyclear profit. Many men tip the manicurist asmuch as they pay for the service. Perhapsmany of them feel that they get their money'sworth in social enjoyment—not believing thatthe young woman bestows the same charmupon every other male victim! "I feel sorry for
that little Miss Brown. If it wasn't for the tipsshe couldn't live on her salary," said onesympathetic man. He objected to tipping as arule, but here was a clear case where it wasworthy! No use arguing ethics with him.
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MESSENGERSThe custom of pay to telegraph messengerboys by the recipients of messages is
peculiarly reprehensible because it is fixing astandard of graft in his mind that will work outinto worse practices in maturity. A boy given atip has had his self-respect punctured in adangerous way. He may grow up and out of such a conception of compensation, but it willbe a struggle, and much of our police and
other public graft had its origin in thecultivation of the belief that "tips" are proper.A messenger boy[86] has absolutely no claimupon a patron for extra compensation. Theprice of a telegram includes the cost of delivery.STENOGRAPHERS
Public typists often expect gratuities. Theregular charges are for "the house." They wantsomething for themselves on the side.Sometimes the tips are so large that theemployer gets greedy and requires them to beturned in, as proved by the following extractfrom a want ad in the New York Times:
"Remuneration half of all you make withweekly guarantee of $20; proceeds net morethan guarantee. No smoking; tips must beturned in."
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It seems self-evident that anything given tostenographers beyond the regular charges forthe work is pure waste. They cannot possibly
give any service in return, and cannot retainthe proper self-respect in accepting somethingfor nothing. Many of them, however, take thetips simply to avoid offending patrons.The list of tip-takers is too extensive forindividual consideration. Bath attendants,bartenders, house servants, clerks—and so
on[87] through a lamentably long list, have thesame moral disease. The contagion isspreading in an alarming way. Of course, thewhole system is riding for a fall.The spurious and specious arguments of employees in behalf of the custom and thetimorous acquiescence of the public will alike
yield before a robust and elementalAmericanism.
[88] XI
THE EMPLOYER VIEWPOINT"We face a condition, not a theory," assertthose employers who defend their adaptation
of wages to the tipping custom. "The publicseems determined to bestow gratuities, and if we paid full wages in addition, our employeeswould be the highest paid workers in theworld."
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But two wrongs do not make a right.THREE KINDS OF EMPLOYERSEmployers who profit by tipping are classified
as follows:1. Those who pay living wages and positivelyforbid gratuities.2. Those who pay average competitive wagesand maintain a passive attitude towardgratuities.3. Those who pay minimum, or no, wages, and
aggressively exploit the propensity to give.[89] At present the first class constitutesalmost an infinitesimal minority. Here andthere in large cities there are barber shopswhich advertise a "No-Tip" policy, andoccasionally a hotel or restaurant.In the second class are most of the moderate-
price places catering to the public. Theemployers and employees welcome gratuitiesbut do not make them the prime object in theirrelations with patrons.The third class includes the high-grade hotels,sleeping car companies, expensively conductedrestaurants and like enterprises. This is the
class which sets the pace through thepatronage of the socially or financiallyprominent.A few of the more noteworthy employers whoprofit by the custom follow:
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The Pullman Company,The Hotel Company,The Taxicab Company,
The Transfer Company,The Steam Ship Company,The Master Barber,The Apartment House Owner,The Restaurant,The Telegraph Company.[90] That an organized conspiracy exists
between employers and employees to exploitthe public is realized vaguely, if at all, by theaverage patron.Proof of this allegation may be found at thecashier's desk of almost any restaurant orhotel. The waiter invariably is given changethat will make it easy for the patron to tip. He
returns with the change arranged in such away on the tray that the patron must fumbleover all of it if he wants the full amount. Theemployer's and the waiter's theory is that,rather than do this, he will leave a dime or aquarter in one corner. In a barber shop thepatron always receives small change so that it
will be easy to "remember" the porter.Yet, such a practice is the mildest indictmentthat may be brought against employers forentering a conspiracy to exploit patrons.SELLING THE TIP PRIVILEGE
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In New York and Chicago particularly, manyemployers went so far (and still maintain thepractice) as to sell to outside persons and
companies the privilege of collecting the tips intheir places of business. That is to say,these[91] outside parties were to furnishwaiters, cloak room attendants and otheremployees to the hotel or restaurant anddepend upon the tips for their remuneration.So large was the sum realized from tips that
the hotels and restaurants actually charged theoutside parties thousands of dollars for theconcession. In Illinois a law was passed in1915 aimed directly at this organized phase of the custom. It prohibited hotels and othersfrom selling tipping privileges. The men whoowned such privileges promptly went to law to
test the constitutionality of the act. To the tip-taker anything is unconstitutional thatinterferes with his graft!At the time the law went into effect, thesituation was reported in the Chicago Tribuneas follows:"The state will have a fight on its hands before
the Chicago tip trust ... releases its clutch onthe pocketbooks of hotel and restaurantpatrons."At midnight last night ... there was noindication the largess was going anywhere else
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than it has gone before ever since acommercial genius capitalized the well-knowngenerosity of[92] the dining and wining public
—straight into the coffers of the trust."The manager of one of the leading hotels saidthat lawyers for the hotel had served notice onthe head of the biggest of Chicago's three tiptrusts to withdraw his minions."Do you contemplate returning part of themoney paid for the concession?" he was asked.
"That," the manager replied, "is a detail.""Do you think it possible (the head of the tiptrust) will resist expulsion?""Hardly. We'll just put in a crew of our own andthat will end it.""Have you heard a report that the tip trustscontemplate standing by their guns and, if
necessary, charging a 10 cent fee for checkinghats and coats, anticipating the tip?""That's preposterous."After such evidence, patrons of hotels andother public service places hardly will feel ascheerful in giving tips as they may have feltbefore being enlightened. Here was a typical
instance of a hotel advertising such and suchrates for rooms and food with the plaininference that patrons had no other obligation.Then the management goes out and sellsthe[93] right to exploit the patrons, thereby
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filling its dining rooms and cloak rooms withemployees who must exact tips if they are tobe paid at all for their work!
ARE YOU A BENEFACTOR?A small part of the public cares nothing aboutthis and will tip regardless of the conditions of employment of the servitors. This elementsimply enjoys the grandiloquent rôle of Bestower of Largess. But the vast majority of Americans has followed the custom under
duress. This majority finds it repugnant to tipon the assumption that the employee aloneprofits by its generosity; and to discover thatthe employer as well profits by it—in factsecretly devises methods of encouraging thetipping—will confirm the majority in thethought that the custom is wholly bad.
Under which school of economics, or ethics,can such a system be justified?The assertion of employers that tipping is thespontaneous impulse of patrons and that theycannot afford to pay living wages in addition isseen to be without foundation in conspicuousinstances. Such spontaneity as exists they[94]
stimulate and exploit for their own profit.Conceding that the development of tipping hasthrown employment upon an abnormal basis,the question arises, if tipping is abolished
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should the increase in wages be borneexclusively by the employer?To the extent that employers make
extraordinary dividends out of the custom theextra cost of operation through normal wagesshould be borne by them without increasedtariffs to patrons. Competition in the hotelbusiness, for example, has been adjusted tothe custom of tipping and the sudden throwingof a bona fide wage system upon such
employers, without an increase in revenues,would be disastrous.A REASONABLE SOLUTIONThe solution in certain instances might befound in a joint obligation of patron andemployer. The employer says: "I have beenable to give you food at such and such a price
because I have not had to charge to it the costof waiter hire. If the public discontinuesgratuities to my employees, I must raise theprice of food to cover this deficit." The patronreplies:[95] "Upon proof that your food tariffshave not included the item of waiter-hire, I willpay more for my meals if they are served
free."The goal of a reform in tipping is to make onepayment—and that one to the employer—coverevery expense of the patron.
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Even if the public should have to pay more forfood, lodging and other service, if tipping isabolished, an immense advance in sound
economics and democratic ethics would bemade in eliminating the double-paymentsystem. Where two payments are made—toemployer and employee—it is inevitable thatthe patron will lose.It should be understood, however, that a largepart of the $200,000,000 or more given
annually by Americans in gratuities is sheerwaste because it is given for absolutely nothingin return. Such waste should be eliminatedwithout consideration of employer oremployee.So long as employers assume that the publicwill pay part or all of the wages of employees,
so long will the employees be under thenecessity of resorting to outrageous tactics—coddling the patron who does tip, insulting andneglecting[96] the one who does not tip—inorder to obtain pay for their services.Employers must come to the viewpoint thattipping is morally wrong, and therefore of
necessity, economically unsound. The moneythey make out of tipping is tainted money.Employees should be engaged on wages thatare adequate without regard to any gratuitiesthat may be given.
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[97] XII
ONE STEP FORWARD
When the Hotel Statler, in Buffalo, announcedthat a guest need not tip its employees inorder to get satisfactory service, a sensationwas sprung upon hotel managers and thetraveling public. Nothing more emphaticallyshows the abnormal state of mind towardtipping than that such an elementary right
should be affirmed and cause surprise in theaffirmation.A SOUND CODEFollowing is its Code to employes on thepractice of tipping:"The patron of a hotel goes there because heexpects to receive certain things served with
celerity, courtesy and cheerfulness."The persons who are to fetch and carry himthese things will be those whose portion it is torender intimate, personal services to others.Since time immemorial, this class of servitorshas been of the rank and file.[98] "Now and then a server is found—a
waiter, a bootblack, a barber or a bell boy—who adds a bit of his own personality to hisservices. Such a one shows a bit moreintelligence—initiative—perspicacity—than hisfellows. The patron finds his smaller wants
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anticipated, and is pleased. He feels that theservant has given him something extra andunexpected—and he wants to pay something
extra for it."He tips."Of course there are abuses of the tip. A richbounder wants something more than otherhotel guests, and he futilely tries to get it bythrowing money about."His tips are insults, and his reward Servility
instead of service."Or—"An individual wishing to be thought a 'goodfellow' ADMINISTERS tips with the advice to'buy a house and lot,' etc."Or—"An infrequent traveler, having the time of his
life, tips out of sheer goodheartedness."These types help to constitute the 'Public.'"It is the business of a good hotel to cater tothe Public. It is the avowed business of theHotel Statler to please the public better thanany other hotel in the world."Statler can run a tipless hotel if he wants to.
[99] "But Statler knows that a first-class hotelcannot be maintained on a tip-less basis, forthe reason that a small but certain per cent. of its guests will tip, in spite of all rules.
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"Statler can and does do this: He guaranteesto his guests who do not wish to tip,everything—EVERYTHING—in the way of hotel
service, courtesy, etc., that the tipper gets."Let's make that a bit stronger—guests do NOThave to tip at Hotel Statler to get courteous,polite, attentive service."Or, for final emphasis, we say to Statlerguests: Please do NOT tip unless you feel likeit; but if you DO tip, let your tipping be
yielding to a genuine desire—not conforming toan outrageous custom."Any Statler employee who is wise and discreetenough to merit tips is wise and discreetenough to render a like service whether he istipped or not."And he is wise and discreet enough to say
'thank you' when he gets his tip."In this connection let this be said:"The man who takes a tip and does not thankthe tipper does not feel that he has earned thetip any more than a blackmailer feels that hehas earned his blood money."Any Statler employee who fails to give
Service, or who fails to thank the guest whogives him something, falls short of theStatler[100] Standard. We always thank anyguest who reports such a case to us. Statlerdoes not deal summarily with his helpers, any
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more than he deals perfunctorily with hisguests—but the tip-grafters get short shrifthere."
FOR THE BENEFIT OF GUESTSTo understand the spirit of management whichcould issue such instructions to its employeesin the face of the opportunity to exploit thepublic, as most hotels do and so throw thewhole cost of wages upon the patron, it isnecessary to consider other sections of the
Code treating of professional hospitality."Hotel Statler is operated primarily for thebenefit and convenience of its guests. Withoutguests there could be no Hotel Statler. Theseare simple Facts easily understood."The Statler is a successful hotel. The Reasonis, that every Waiter in this hotel, every Hall-
Boy, the Chambermaid, the Clerk, the Chef,the Manager, the Boss Himself, is working allthe time to make them FEEL 'at home.'"Hotel service—that is, Hotel Statler service—means the limit of Courteous, EfficientAttention from Each Particular Employee toEach Particular Guest. This is the kind of
service a Guest pays for when he pays us hisbill—whether it is for $2.00 or $20.00 per[101]day. It is the kind of Service he is entitled to,and he NEED NOT and SHOULD NOT pay ANYMORE."
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NOT HOSPITALITYCompare the attitude of management towardguests as revealed in this code with the
bristling, belligerent attitude of employees inother first-class places where tipping isundisciplined! In the average hotel where themanagement encourages the tipping foreconomic reasons the bell-boy will make ascene if you fail to tip him after he carries yoursuit-case from the lobby to your room. Every
other employee has the same spirit—he has tohave it if he is to be compensated at all, forthe employer puts it squarely up to him towork the guest for his wages.Apparently this hotel reached the convictionthat this was not hospitality.Then the conviction was reached that a guest
"need not and should not pay any more" forhotel service than the rate paid at the desk.From this it was logical to bring the employeesto a new conception of service and to stop thepiratical practice toward guests who do not tip.[102] It is particularly significant to note theassertion that the proprietor can run a tipless
hotel if he wants to. That is an interestingdeclaration. It proves that those managerswho exploit the tipping propensity deliberatelydo so for reasons of greed.
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Then the reason for not running a tipless hotelis stated to be that "a small but certain percent. of its guests will tip in spite of all rules."
Here is evidence that the public has itsmeasure of blame for the custom as well asthe avarice of managers. This hotel declaresthat its conception of hospitality is to leave theguest free in his relation toward employees.But note this! It does not leave the employeesfree in their attitude toward guests.
UP TO THE EMPLOYERThe foregoing distinction is the crux of thewhole tipping problem. If managers willrestrain and discipline employees so that theywill not run riot in their eagerness to exact tollfrom patrons the tipping evil will be reduced toa minimum.
THE FIRST STEPIt is not the idea underlying thisdiscussion[103] to consider that a satisfactorydisposal of the tipping custom has been madewhen managers insure equal treatment forthose who do not tip in comparison with thosewho do tip. Nothing short of the complete
abolition of the custom can be the goal in arepublic. But as a long stride toward the goal,the Code cited above is noteworthy. Itconstitutes the first immediate step that anyhotel may take.
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The public would find immense relief in thegeneral adoption of the foregoing idea—thattipping must "be yielding to a genuine desire—
not conforming to an outrageous custom."Inasmuch as the vast majority of Americanswho tip do so only because they are afraid notto conform to an outrageous custom, this plan,honestly enforced upon employees, will reducethe followers of the custom to the smallpercentage of the public who tip because of
pride or moral obtuseness. A way can be foundto handle this element when the majority havebeen freed.Once the proof is at hand that tipping can behandled the conclusion is unescapable that themanagers who knuckle to the custom are"corrupt and contented." They are on
precisely[104] the same moral level as theiremployees.THE GUEST'S RIGHTSIn the meantime, the individual patron has theright to and should proceed on the theory thathe is entitled to EVERYTHING in the way of service for the one payment. This is his
common law right even if no special lawsregulating tipping are in force.The public is at a great disadvantage incombating the tipping evil when the managersleave the issue to be settled between the
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patrons and the employees. A bell boy cancommit an offense to a patron who does nottip that is perfectly tangible to the patron but
difficult to report to the manager. Unless themanager takes a positive hand and instructshis employees in a manner similar to the aboveCode it is likely that most persons will continueto pay tribute rather than be insulted andneglected.In Chicago, the Young Men's Christian
Association operates a nineteen-story hotelwhere tips are prohibited, and this organizationgenerally discourages the custom in itsenterprises.
[105] XIII
THE SLEEPING-CAR PHASE
The Pullman company stands in the publicmind as the leading exponent of tipping. Itcertainly is the largest beneficiary of thecustom, as a simple calculation will show.The company has about 6,500 porters, whoreceive $27.50 a month in wages. Suppose theporters received no tips. The company then
would have to pay living wages. Assuming thatthe long hours of work would not attractdesirable porters under a straight wage systemwithout at least $60 a month pay, each one of
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the 6,500 would have an increase of $32.50 amonth, or $390 a year.This would mean an increase in the company's
annual pay-roll of $2,535,000!In other words, the company saves about twoand a half millions a year through the tipsgiven to its porters. What part of thelarge[106] annual dividend is furnished by thissaving is a secret of the company's books.Some of these porters after many years'
service receive $42 a month in wages, and thiswould bring down the foregoing estimate,though not to any radical extent. The tips bringtheir incomes to $100, $150, $200 and more amonth! There are, of course, many runs onwhich the porters derive smaller amounts ingratuities, and the best runs are given as a
reward for long and faithful service.WHAT THE PULLMAN MANAGER SAIDThe Walsh Commission, appointed toinvestigate industrial conditions in the UnitedStates, in 1915 singled out the Pullman tippingpractice for investigation. Some of thetestimony given by the general manager of the
company follows:"The company simply accepts conditions as itfinds them. The company did not inventtipping. It was here when the companybegan."
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"What do you say to making tipping unlawfuland paying employees a living wage?"Chairman Walsh asked.
"If such a condition arises, I presume we[107]would have to pay wages necessary to get theservice."
"Do you get your negroes in the South?""Yes, we have been looking after them in theSouth. The South is a bigger field and the menthere are more adapted for the work than the
Northern negroes.""Well, be plain," Chairman Walsh said, "are thenegroes from the South more docile and lessindependent than those from the North?""Well, no, but the Southern negro is morepleasing to the traveling public. He is moreadapted to wait on people and serve with a
smile.""Can a man live on $27.50 a month and rear afamily?""Really, I don't know. He might.""Does the Pullman company have in mind theliberality and kindness of the public when itfixes that rate of pay?"
"Well, I should say that tips have something todo with it. I didn't make the rates of pay."
"A porter must call passengers during thenight, polish shoes, answer bells, and look
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after the safety and comfort of the passengersat all hours, must he not?"[108] "Yes. He is reprimanded, suspended or
discharged for infractions of the rules.""What is your attitude toward the question of an organization among your employees?""I felt that the movement to form a federationof our employees was a selfish one on the partof a few."WHAT THE PORTERS SAID
The Commission also called several porters totestify. They stated that they could not livewithout the tips. One porter with twenty-oneyears' service behind him testified that hereceives $42 a month in wages, while the tipsaveraged about $75 a month, or $117 incomefrom the company and the public.
Another porter receiving $27.50 a monthtestified that his tips averaged about $77 amonth. He was described as wearing twodiamond rings and being tastefully dressed.The conductors receive from $70 to $90 amonth in salary, and it was brought out beforethe Commission that many do not consider it
dishonest to "knock down" on seat sales. Thisis accomplished partly at the company'sexpense, and partly at the expense of patrons—especially unsophisticated travelers whobuy[109] a whole seat but have other
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passengers sit beside them, the conductorpocketing the extra payment. This practice islimited to day runs. There is also the
opportunity to overcharge.That the Pullman company gives the publicgood service through its porters isindisputable. The only question is whether thepublic should pay extra for this service. If aporter with an income of $117, say, receivesonly $27.50 from the company, the public is
paying three-fourths of his wages and thecompany only one-fourth. Where the portershave incomes of $150 to $200 a month thecompany pays one-fifth to one-eighth of theamount and the public pays from four-fifths toseven-eighths!SERVICE INCLUDED
The price of a ticket on a sleeping car is asmuch as a patron should pay the Pullmancompany, and it should carry with it adequateporter service.A passenger enters a car in spick and spancondition as a rule. At the end of the journey,through no fault of his own, he may be dusty,
and it becomes the obligation of thePullman[110] company to discharge him in asgood condition as when he entered the car.The porter is there for this service. Hence, togive him a tip for a "brush," or for any other
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service he may have rendered to make the useof the company's property comfortable, is asuperfluous payment.
The company has a school for training a porterin which he is taught a rigid discipline of attentions to passengers, all of which tend tocreate in the passenger a sense of obligationtoward the porter. Yet not one of theseattentions calls for a gratuity if they areexamined fairly.
The porter is psychologist enough to know thatto create the illusion that he has rendered anextra service is as good for producing a tip asactually to do so. Hence he will come aroundwith a pillow, or shine your shoes during thenight unsolicited, or execute some othermaneuver that arouses a feeling of obligation.
The shining of shoes is outside his ordinaryduties, but he has no valid claim forcompensation unless specifically requested toperform this service. In his mind is theconstant reminder that if the passenger doesnot make a donation[111] his pay envelopefrom the company will not meet his bills.
WHAT THE PRESS SAIDAmong the many editorial comments that thedisclosures of the Walsh Commission evoked isthe following from the St. Louis Republic:
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The most captious critic of the Pullmancompany cannot deny that it merits a uniquedistinction. Other corporations before now
have underpaid their employees ... but itremained for the Pullman company to discoverhow to work on the sympathies of the public insuch a manner as to induce that public tomake up, by gratuities, for its failure to pay itsemployees a living wage.It began this forty years ago, when the
"plantation" darky of ante-bellum days was stillabroad in the land. It used him, his pathetichistory, his peculiar attitude toward the whiteman, for the accomplishment of its purpose.There at the end of the journey, after thetraveler had paid $2, $2.50 or $3 for his berth,stood the porter with his whisk broom and his
smile.And back of him was the pathetic fact,industriously circulated, that "the company"did not pay him enough to live on, so that hewas dependent on the gratuities of passengers[112] who had already paid fullprice for accommodations and services. We
were expected to pay him simply because thePullman company didn't. And we paid him.Tens of millions of passengers have paid himmillions of dollars.
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It wasn't really philanthropy to the porter; itwas philanthropy extended to the Pullmancompany, which was glad to have the fact of
its meanness in its relations to its coloredemployees—ill-informed of the rights of workingmen and dependent by instinct—published to the world.It was the Pullman company which fastenedthe tipping habit on the American people andthey used the negro as the instrument to do it
with.It may be remarked in closing this phase of thediscussion that an act of Congress forbiddingtips on inter-state carriers would effectuallyreach the Pullman situation.
[113] XIV
THE GOVERNMENT AND TIPPINGIt has been asserted in this discussion thattipping is incompatible with a democratic formof government. Yet we find officials of ourGovernment following the custom and allowingtips as a legitimate item of expense of traveling to be paid out of the public treasury.
FREE AND EQUALThis state of affairs proves that the work of 1776 and 1787 was limited practically to onephase of democracy, namely, the political.Washington and Jefferson lived in a day when
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political equality was the passionate ideal. Thisthey and their associates achieved in amplemeasure. They gave the waiter or the barber
or the bootblack an equal voice in governmentwith themselves.Let those Americans who think that theabolition of tipping would be too radical astep[114] toward social democracy considerhow repulsive the attitude of Washington andJefferson was to the aristocratic thought of
their day. No matter what arguments thearistocrats presented against politicaldemocracy, their real objection was just thisgranting of voting equality to persons whomthey rated as socially submerged.But having founded our government uponpolitical democracy, the straight line of
development is toward social and industrialdemocracy, in order to complete the idealentertained by Washington and Jefferson. Thatboth of these idealists tipped servants and thatWashington owned slaves is indisputable, butthey left records that prove that they merely"suffered it to be so now." Washington clearly
foresaw the trouble in which slavery wouldinvolve his country, and would have freed hisslaves if he could have done so withoutprecipitating what to him appeared a greaterevil in view of all the circumstances of his day.
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The Revolutionary period did all that can beasked of one generation when political equalitywas established. It remains for our generation
to finish the work of democracy byestablishing[115] social and industrialdemocracy. The prospect of a street cleaner oryour valet being your social and industrialequal may seem either utopian or undesirable,but it must be remembered, as stated, thattwo centuries ago the thought of granting an
equal vote to such persons was precisely asdistasteful to the aristocratic mind.EQUALITY AND UNIFORMITYMuch loose thinking along these lines would beobviated if every one could learn clearly thedistinction between "equality" and"uniformity." It is the thought of uniformity
that makes most persons belligerent towarddemocratic impulses in industry or society.They dislike the idea of a dead level of compulsory uniformity. A bootblack and abanker are "equal" in the right to vote, butthey are not "uniform" in function or culture.Social democracy will abolish an aristocratic
custom like tipping so that every citizen willstand upon an equality of self-respect. It willdelete the adjective "menial" from any form of service so that a garbage collector will stand inas honorable a relation to society as a lawyer.
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But[116] social democracy will not and cannotmake naturally uncongenial minds live in arelation of compulsory fellowship.
Thus in the United States we have only one-third of a democracy. The other two-thirds—social and industrial democracy—must beattained before we can consider ourgovernment as ideal. The tipping customstands squarely in the path of this attainment.The slavery system is not worse in competition
with free labor than is the tipping system of compensation. In neither system are valuesdetermined by merit or production.In the list of the 5,000,000 Americans withitching palms were national or city governmentemployees like mail carriers, garbage collectorsand policemen. In the larger cities a system of
giving gratuities to these and othergovernment employees has grown up thatemphasizes the distance we have to travel toattain true democracy.Any one of these three classes of governmentemployees is paid well for the service herenders. Yet there are mail carriers who will
lose a courteous, friendly bearing toward thosewho fail to "remember" them at Christmas,or[117] at more frequent intervals, or who willactually curtail the service they are paid torender.
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MISGUIDED GENEROSITYThere seems to be something about thecontinual contact of a person serving and a
person served that makes the one think theother owes him something on the side. A mailcarrier will bring your mail once, twice orseveral times a day for a period and thenenters the feeling that he is entitled to somesubstantial token of appreciation of his faithful,cheerful service, other than the compensation
paid by the government. Often the personbeing served feels a generous appreciation of good service and bestows a token of it withoutthe person serving having expected or wantedit. The tipping custom is not wholly theoutgrowth of greed. It is frequently misguidedgenerosity. Where the error creeps in is in
expressing appreciation in terms of money.Self-respect is satisfied with verbalappreciation.As an employer the government, of allemployers, should set an example of truedemocracy, should practice sound economicsand ethics in the relations it permits between
its[118] employees and the public. There is no justification from any viewpoint for givinggratuities to public servants. If garbagecollectors render slipshod service to citizenswho fail to tip them—and they do this regularly
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—a complaint should bring immediate relief. Itdoes not now because the higher officials areunder the same illusion about tipping that
envelopes the subordinates.An inspector of street cleaning in Philadelphiawas investigating a complaint against a streetsweeper in a residence district. The sweepertold him that he felt the complaint must be ill-founded and that the people in theneighborhood must be satisfied with his
sweeping, because he had recently receivedfrom residents in one block twenty-one dollarsin Christmas tips.How many public servants in your ownneighborhood did you tip last Christmas?It should not be assumed that the indictmenthere read is against all mail carriers or garbage
collectors, or policemen. With tipping, as withmany other abuses "there are more than seventhousand who have not bowed the knee toBaal."[119] THE GOLDEN RULEAt Christmas the spirit of generosity findsmany curious and misdirected expressions.
Policemen on certain traffic corners areremembered by many gifts of money andcigars from persons who have no other contactwith them than a nod from a limousine as theypass the corner daily. Why should the feeling
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of appreciation run to thought of money as atoken of expression? It is because the personswho give entertain the idea that the policeman
is in a stratum of society under them and that,being an underling, his self-respect will not behurt by offering money. The same personswould not think of offering a friend money andwould be insulted if any one offered themmoney. The golden rule is a dead letter tothem.
Some clubs have handled the tipping customby forbidding gratuities during the year andthen allowing the members to contribute to afund to be divided among the servitors atChristmas. This is a great improvement overthe tipping custom but it is still short of thedemocratic ideal. A servant who is adequately
paid for his work throughout the year has nomore[120] call upon the generosity of patronsat Christmas than a clerk in a shoe store fromwhom you purchase shoes four or six times ayear.GOVERNMENT HOTELSThe Government operates hotels in the Canal
Zone, and tipping is permitted. Guests who failto tip are treated by the servitors precisely likethey are treated in private hotels, but thewriter, who boarded three months in one of theGovernment hotels in the Canal Zone, during
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which time he did not tip the waiter, found thata complaint to the manager about poor servicewould result in the prompt discipline of the
offending servitor. This is more than can besaid of many privately operated hotels.In this connection, it is noteworthy that theonly whisper of graft in the building of the$400,000,000 canal was the charge madeagainst the purchasing agent of theCommissary that he split commissions with the
houses from which he purchased supplies.Splitting commissions is the itching palm incommerce.It would seem that before passing laws toregulate tipping among citizens, theGovernment, state and national, should beable to[121] come into court with clean hands.
Until the Government rids its service of thespirit of graft the law-makers are beatingaround the bush.
[122] XV
LAWS AGAINST TIPPINGEfforts to abolish or regulate the custom of
tipping have been made in the Legislatures of practically all of the States. Often after passinglegislative barriers the laws have fallen beforeExecutive vetoes, so that scarcely half a dozenStates now have statutes on the subject.
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The State of Washington adopted a lawprohibiting tipping, but it was so generallyignored that the Legislature of 1913 repealed
it. This shows that, at first blush, a socialcustom of long standing has a strongerinfluence upon the people than a conscientiousconviction registered in a new law.Yet, as abortive as the legal campaign againsttipping has been thus far, the constantrecurrence of the issue in the Legislatures, and
the voluntary attempts at regulation beingmade by hotels and other public serviceenterprises, show that the propaganda ismaking headway[123] and that there are greatmoral resources in the people ready to becalled into action.CUSTOM ABOVE LAW
The opposition to tipping is unorganized,undisciplined and inarticulate, while thebeneficiaries of the custom, with a munificenttribute to nerve activity, are upon a highlyefficient basis of operation. Even with a law athis back to stiffen his moral resolution, theaverage citizen feels more afraid of violating
the custom than of violating the law. It isbecause of the intangible nature of the customfrom his viewpoint. A waiter can do so manythings to annoy a non-tipping patron that thepatron cannot present in the form of a
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concrete complaint, yet which are quite realand irritating. The upshot is that the patronswallows his conscientious objection to the
custom and pays the tribute for fair service.He knows that a failure to tip means a strugglethree times a day in the dining room for hisrights and the same struggle at every point of contact with the itching palm. Rather thanhave his efficiency interfered with by themental disturbance such rows create, he pays
the price.[124] But this type of man will makeexcellent material in the regular ranks even if he lacks the initiative of a lone hand againstbig odds. When the movement against tippingreaches the stage where a spokesman andleader is produced, all the latent opposition willspring into effective coöperation.
THE IOWA LAWSome of the laws are aimed exclusively at thetakers of tips and others at the givers as well.The Iowa law is in the first class, as follows:Sec. 5028-u. Accepting or Soliciting Gratuity orTip. Every employee of any hotel, restaurant,barber shop, or other public place, and every
employee of any person, firm partnership, orcorporation, or of any public servicecorporation engaged in the transportation of passengers in this state, who shall accept orsolicit any gratuity, tip or other thing of value
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or of valuable consideration, from any guest orpatron, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, andupon conviction thereof shall be fined not less
than five dollars, or more than twenty-fivedollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail fora period not exceeding thirty days.This law makes the mere acceptance of atip[125] illegal and it also heads off anyattempt to circumvent the law on a technicalityby prohibiting the acceptance of "other thing of
value or of valuable consideration."THE WISCONSIN BILLThe Wisconsin bill, which the Governor vetoedon the ground that it curtailed "personalliberty" was intended to penalize the giving of the tip, and was worded as follows:Sec. 45751. Every employee of any hotel,
restaurant or public place and every employeeof any person, firm or of any public servicecorporation engaged in the transportation of passengers or the furnishing of food, lodgingand other accommodations to the public in thisstate who shall receive or solicit any gratuity ortip from any guest or patron shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor. Every person who shall give oroffer any gratuity or tip to any person oremployee prohibited from receiving orsoliciting the same by the provisions of thissection shall also be guilty of a misdemeanor.
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"Every hotel, restaurant, firm and publicservice corporation engaged in thetransportation of passengers or in furnishing
food or lodging or other accommodations tothe public shall keep a copy of this law postedin a conspicuous place in such hotel andrestaurant and[126] in the dining or sleepingcars of any firm or public service corporationmentioned in this section. Any personsviolating any of the provisions of this section
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and uponconviction shall be fined not less than fivedollars, nor more than twenty-five dollars, orby imprisonment in the county jail not toexceed thirty days."The demand for this bill was so strong amongthe members of the Legislature that it almost
was passed over the Governor's veto. Theprovision that a copy of the law must beposted in the places where the public comesinto contact with the itching palm is a mostessential one. It reassures patrons to see itand gives them a present stimulus for standingupon their right to good service for one
payment.THE COURTS AND TIPPINGThe courts, in declaring such lawsunconstitutional have proceeded upon thecommon law right of one citizen to give away
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his goods or property in the form of money toany other citizen. A tip, the judges say,represents a gift within the meaning of this
common law right. But the instances of suchaltruism are exceedingly rare.[127] Even the judges who so decide knowthat the tips they give are not bona fide giftsout of the goodness of a generous heart. Tipsare given, by the devotees of the custom, froma sense of obligation. They pretend to feel that
the servitor actually has rendered a service forwhich the tip is payment. The proof of this isfound in the fact that such persons never goabout giving money gifts indiscriminately. Theirgifts are exclusively to the employees of publicservice enterprises, showing that no thought of charity or generosity enters their minds.
The courts some day will come to theconclusion that a gift of money to any servingperson is a special relation that is subject tothe police power of the State. The specialcircumstances surrounding the gift will betaken into consideration. Then it will be seenthat the gift was made for something the
patron did not receive; for something for whichhe is required to pay twice and that themotives of the gift were pride, or fear or asense of obligation falsely aroused.
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While the courts are so scrupulous inpreserving the common law right to makegifts,[128] they might give consideration to the
equally indubitable right of a patron to receivefull value for his money, and to receive suchvalue for one payment.It may be, that to write an anti-tipping lawthat will stand the test of judges educated inthe old school of thought about gratuities,legislators will have to approach the subject
from this viewpoint of preserving a patron'scommon law right to satisfactory service forone payment. For instance, a law specificallydefining the right of a patron to have foodserved, or to use a hotel room or sleeping carfacilities, in short to patronize any publicservice place, with only one charge, and that
to be paid exclusively to the proprietor, mightstrike an effective blow at "the universal heartof Flunkyism."The courts will assert that the foregoing rightexists without a special statute, and it does.Still the average citizen does not think of instituting a suit against a hotel, or swearing
out a warrant against the manager or anemployee to enforce his common law right toservice at one price. If there is a specificstatute against tipping there is a moretangible[129] inducement to stand up for one's
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rights and there is more likelihood that redresswill be granted. The defense of tipping on the"personal liberty" plea, like the defense of the
liquor business on the same plea, will growfeebler and feebler until judges cease to takethe aristocratic viewpoint.THE SOUTH CAROLINA LAWThe South Carolina law goes a step ahead of either the Iowa law or the Wisconsin bill in theprovision that the employer shall not permit
the custom of tipping, in addition to provisionsprohibiting the giving or receiving of tips bypatrons or employees. The law follows:"It shall be unlawful in this State for any hotel,restaurant, café, dining car company, railroadcompanies, sleeping car company or barbershop to knowingly allow any person in its
employ to receive any gratuity commonlyknown as a tip, from any patron or passenger,and it shall be unlawful for any patron of anyhotel, restaurant, café, dining car or for anypassenger on any railroad train or sleeping carto give any employee any such gratuity and itshall be unlawful for any employee of any
hotel, restaurant, café, dining car, railroadcompany,[130] sleeping car company orbarber shop to receive any such gratuity."By 'gratuity' or 'tip' as used in this Act, is tomean any extra compensation of any kind,
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which any hotel, restaurant, café, dining car,railroad company, sleeping car company orbarber shop manager, officer or any agent
thereof in charge of the same, allows to begiven to any employee and is not a part of theregular charge of the hotel, restaurant, café,dining car, railroad company, sleeping carcompany or barber shop, for any part of service rendered, or a part of the service whichby contract it is under duty to render. No
company or incorporation shall evade this Actby adding to the regular charge, directly orindirectly, anything intended for or to be usedor to be given away as a gratuity or tip to theemployee. All charges must be made by thecompany or proprietor in good faith as acharge for the service it renders, inclusive of
the service which it furnishes throughemployees."Each hotel shall post a copy of this Act in eachroom and each restaurant, café and barbershop shall post at least two copies of this Act intwo conspicuous places in their places of business, and each railroad company shall post
two copies of this Act in their waiting roomsand passenger rooms at passenger stations incities of three thousand inhabitants or more,and each sleeping car and dining car shall
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have[131] posted therein at least one copy of this Act."Any person or corporation failing to post as
required shall be fined not less than ten dollarsfor such failure and each day of failure shallconstitute a separate and distinct offense andany person violating any of the otherprovisions of this Act shall be subject to a fineof not less than ten dollars or more than onehundred dollars, or be imprisoned for not
exceeding thirty days."This South Carolina law was an evident effortto cover the custom of tipping in a manner thatwould permit of no evasions. It defines a "tip"and prohibits surreptitious gratuities andmakes employer, employee and patron equallyliable to prosecution. Yet, it falls short of an
ideal law because its operations are limited toseven places frequented by the public and doesnot cover private places where the itching palmflourishes, such as apartment houses andboarding houses.To stop tipping in hotels, restaurants, cafés,dining cars, railroad stations and cars, sleeping
cars or barber shops will be a long stride in theright direction, but the need of stopping tippingto messenger boys, janitors and otheremployees of apartment houses, maidsand[132] waitresses in boarding houses,
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garbage collectors, mail carriers and policemenamong government employees, trunktransfermen, guides, steamship employees and
others too numerous to cite, is fully as urgent.THE IDEAL LAWThe ideal act will be evolved through theserepeated approximations and throughexperience. In a broad outline it must include(1) a clear definition of a tip, (2) a statementof a patron's right to service for one payment
exclusively to the proprietor, (3) a prohibitionagainst subterfuges in the charges wherebypatrons may give tips, (4) the wages paid byan employer to be considered as presumptiveevidence of his attitude toward tipping, (5) arequirement that employers shall give patronsa definite understanding of the service to
which they are entitled, (6) any actual extraservice to be compensated for direct toemployer after being appraised and chargedfor by the employer, (7) the giving of moneyor gifts to employees to be taken out of theclass of "charity" and "personal liberty," (8) theemployer, the employee and the patron to be
subject to[133] the same penalty for violatingthe law and the conviction of any one of thethree to be followed automatically by theconviction of the other two for the sameoffense, (9) the law to be applicable to any
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law would be unnecessary, but many of themare not thus actuated and a minute restraintwill be imperative at the outset and until a
normal ideal of democracy is cultivated.THE NEBRASKA ACTThe bill introduced in the 1915 session of theNebraska Legislature does not penalize thepatron for giving gratuities and seems to beaimed at the practice of "split commissions" aswell as at tipping. It has a maximum fine of
one hundred dollars, or imprisonment of sixtydays and the employers only are specified forconviction. The act follows:"No employee or servant shall accept, obtainor agree to accept, or attempt to obtain, fromany person, for himself or for any otherperson, any gift, gratuity or consideration as
an inducement to perform or as a reward forhaving performed any duty or service forwhich[135] such employee or servant has beenemployed or is to be paid by the employer ormaster, firm or corporation of such employeeor servant."No employer or master, firm or corporation
shall permit or allow any of his or theiremployees or servants to solicit or to acceptany gift, gratuity or consideration as aninducement to perform or as a reward forhaving performed any duty or service for which
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such employee or servant has been or is to bepaid by such employer or master, firm orcorporation.
"Each and every employer or master, firm orcorporation who carries on business as thekeeper of a hotel, inn, restaurant, café, placefor the sale of alcoholic beverages, barber shopor place for polishing boots and shoes, or whooperates a railroad dining, buffet, sleeping orparlor car, shall post up or cause to be posted
up in at least two conspicuous places in thepremises in which such business is carried on,or in such car, a notice that tipping, or thegiving of any gift or gratuity to any servant oremployee, is forbidden under penalty of fine orimprisonment."No employer or master, firm or corporation
shall give or agree to give or offer to anyemployee or servant any gift, gratuity orconsideration as an inducement to perform oras a reward for having performed any duty orservice for which such employer or servant hasbeen[136] or is to be paid by the employer,master, firm or corporation employing such
servants."Each and every employer, master, firm orcorporation who shall violate any of theprovisions herein made shall be deemed guiltyof a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be
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liable in each and every case to a fine of notless than ten dollars nor more than onehundred dollars, or to imprisonment in the
county jail of the proper county not less thanten nor more than sixty days, or to both suchfine and imprisonment, at the discretion of thecourt."THE TENNESSEE LAWThe Tennessee law was adopted upon theespecial solicitation of the traveling salesmen
of the State. These men live constantly intouch with the itching palm and find the tributenot only burdensome to themselves but totheir employers. The act is much like the SouthCarolina law, and a notable feature is Section6:"That it shall be the duty of the circuit judges
and the courts of like jurisdiction to especiallycall the attention of the grand jury to theprovisions of this act at each term of thecourt."The foregoing provision makes it certain that,even if patrons are timid about obeying the lawand if employers and employees
disregard[137] it, the fight against the customwill go right on, just as does the fight againstbootlegging after saloons have been banishedfrom a city. The Tennessee law also has a
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more elaborate scale of fines, as the followingsection shows:"Be it further enacted that any hotel,
restaurant, café, barber shop, dining car,railroad or sleeping car company, and themanager, officer or agent of the same incharge, violating this act or wilfully allowingthe same to be violated in any way, shall eachbe subject to a penalty of not less than $10nor more than $50 for each tip allowed to be
given. If any person shall give an employeeany gratuity or tip each person shall be subjectto a fine of not more than $25 and not lessthan $5 for each offense. If any of the aboveemployees shall receive a gratuity or tip he orshe shall be subject to a fine of not more than$25 nor less than $5 for each offense. Should
any hotel, restaurant, café, barber shop, diningcar, railroad company or sleeping car companyfail, neglect or refuse to post notice of this actas required herein, such hotel, restaurant,café, barber shop, dining car, railroad orsleeping car company shall be subject to a finenot to exceed $100 for each day it shall fail."
Naturally if this law is enforced with any[138]fidelity by the grand juries, not to mentionsuch actions as may be instituted by thepublic, tipping in Tennessee in the specifiedpublic service place will become extinct, or
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assume a guise not covered by the law. But if tipping is restrained only in the seven placesenumerated and allowed to be practiced
unrestrained everywhere else, only a limitedindustrial democracy will be attained, and thepart of the custom left alive will spread by itsown insidious processes to the placespreëmpted.THE ILLINOIS COMPROMISEWhen the public conscience is fully aroused to
the need of stifling this custom, the legal mindwill be able to draw up a law that will preventtipping anywhere and under anycircumstances. The Illinois law is a particularexample of a half-way measure in that it seeksonly to prohibit the practice of leasing tippingconcessions to employees.
"That it shall be unlawful for the owner,proprietor, lessee, superintendent, manager oragent in any hotel, restaurant, eating house,barber shop, theatre, store building, officebuilding, factory, railroad, street railroad,fair[139] ground, baseball or football ground,hall used for public meetings or
entertainments, or any other building, office,or space which is a place of publicaccommodation or public resort, to rent, leaseor permit to be used any part, space or portionthereof, for any trade, calling or occupation, or
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for the exercise of any privilege by any person,company, partnership or corporation for thepurpose of accepting, demanding or receiving,
directly or indirectly, from the customers,patrons or people who frequent such places of public accommodation or public resort,gratuities or donations, commonly called tips,in addition to the regular, ordinary andpublished rate of charge for work performed,materials furnished or services rendered,
provided, that nothing in this section containedshall be construed to prohibit any employee orservant from accepting or receiving gratuitiesor donations commonly called tips, if suchgratuities or donations are not accounted for,paid over, or delivered, directly, or indirectly,in whole or in part, to any person, company,
partnership or corporation, but are retained bysuch employee or servant, as and for hisabsolute and individual property."Any lease, contract, agreement orunderstanding entered into in violation of theprovisions of section 1 of this act shall beabsolutely void.
"Any person, company, partnership orcorporation[140] or any officer or agentthereof, violating the provisions of this actshall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor andupon conviction shall be fined in any sum not
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exceeding ten thousand dollars for each andevery offense, and, in addition thereto suchperson, officer or agent, in the discretion of the
court, be sentenced to the county jail not lessthan three months and not more than oneyear."LEGALIZED ROBBERYThis Illinois law is an instance of an AmericanCommonwealth specifically and deliberatelyrecognizing tipping as legal and right. It turns
loose the tip-pirates upon the public with fullgovernmental sanction, but stipulates that intheir piracy they shall not organize into a trust,as they had done in Chicago and in all largecities.The Illinois law can be commended to theextent that it seeks to break up the organized
traffic in tips, but its recognition of tipping onan unorganized basis is equivalent to theaction of some European governments inpaying out of their treasuries tribute to theBarbary pirates for the privilege of sailing thehigh seas. Thomas Jefferson's democracyrebelled at this[141] and he freed the whole
world from the outrageous custom.IN MASSACHUSETTSMassachusetts has a law to prohibit the corruptinfluencing of agents, employees or servants,but it is aimed specially at the practice of
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"splitting commissions" and does not operateto restrain tipping in the State. A salesmansometimes will offer to give a buyer a bonus or
part of his commission if an order is placed,and this practice is causing the business worldconsiderable thought, as employers realize thata buyer who will accept favors from salesmenwill not exercise unbiased judgment. It is theitching palm a plane above tipping owing tothe larger amount involved, and is akin to the
graft of public officials. The law follows:"Whoever corruptly gives, offers or promises toan agent, employee or servant any gift orgratuity whatever, with intent to influence hisaction in relation to his principal's, employer'sor master's business; or an agent, employee orservant who corruptly requests or accepts a
gift or gratuity or a promise to make a gift orto do an act beneficial to himself under anagreement or with an understanding thathe[142] shall act in any particular manner inrelation to his principal's, employer's ormaster's business; or an agent, employee orservant, who, being authorized to procure
materials, supplies or other articles either bypurchase or contract for his principal, employeror master, or to employ service or labor for hisprincipal, employer or master receives, directlyor indirectly, for himself or for another, a
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commission, discount or bonus from theperson who makes such sale or contract, orfurnishes such materials, supplies or other
articles, or from a person who renders suchservice or labor; and any person who gives oroffers such an agent, employee or servantsuch commission, discount or bonus, shall bepunished by a fine of not less than ten dollarsnor more than five hundred dollars, or by suchfine and by imprisonment for not more than
one year."Although the Arkansas and Mississippi lawsagainst tipping are not mentioned, acomprehensive idea of the extent and natureof the opposition to the custom in the UnitedStates is presented in the review of the billsintroduced in or enacted by the Legislatures of
Iowa, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Nebraska,Tennessee, Illinois, and Massachusetts. All theother States have no laws against tipping.Considering[143] the fact that no organizationhas been formed to agitate for this reform,these spontaneous State efforts are significant.
[144] XVI
SAMUEL GOMPERS ON TIPPINGLabor has the strongest interest of anyelement of citizens for seeing the 5,000,000men, women and children with itching palms
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elevated to a normal plane of self-respect. Fornothing in America more certainly promotesclass distinctions than tipping. It is essentially
aristocratic, and labor has attained its widestdevelopment in democracy.WAITERS AGAINST THE TIP CUSTOMOccasionally waiters and some other workersin a serving capacity have attempted toorganize and place their work upon the wage-system, rather than the combination wage-
and-tip system, or the strictly tip system, nowexisting. In New York in 1913 the waitersstruck for higher wages and serious riotsoccurred before they capitulated to the oldsystem. The hotels preferred the tippingsystem because it[145] throws the cost of waiter hire upon the public, whereas, an
adequate wage system would necessitate areadjustment of their business.Even where the waiters and barbers haveorganized they have not always shownaggressive efforts to abolish or regulate thetipping custom. The barbers, for instance, arehighly organized, and any real desire upon
their part to abolish the custom would befollowed by immediate reform. But it is evidentthat the tipping system of compensation isattractive to many persons who serve thepublic because it yields more pay than a wage
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system. In the higher strata of workersparticularly the tips are so large as to stupefymoral sense, and this minority dominates the
majority by setting a standard of "proper"social usage.A LABOR LEADER ON TIPSMr. Samuel Gompers, president of theAmerican Federation of Labor, has opposedtipping as an irregular form of compensation,and in response to an inquiry for his opinion he
inclosed a letter he had written to the managerof the Hotel Stowell, in Los Angeles, where anon-tipping rule is enforced.[146] "Hotel Stowell, Los Angeles, Calif."Replying to your letter of November 28th Ibeg to say that I found your hotel and serviceeminently satisfactory and was particularly
pleased with the rule you have enforced as tono tipping."While, of course, I have followed the usualcustom of giving tips, yet I have maintainedthe principle of tipping to be unwise and that ittends to lessen the self-respect of a man whoaccepts a tip.
"Very truly yours,"(Signed)Samuel Gompers,"American Federation of Labor."This letter is interesting as revealing theattitude of many prominent Americans,
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namely, that while they conform to the customrather than be subjected to insults, annoyanceand poor service, they really consider it
inimical to self-respect.EUROPEAN TIPSMr. Gompers in his letter said: "You have mypermission to quote my opinion upon thissubject in any way that you may desire," andgave permission to have reproduced here thechapter in his book, "Labor In Europe and[147]
America," which deals with tipping in Europe,as he encountered it in his investigations of labor conditions. The chapter is entitled"Nuisances of European Travel" and is asfollows:"Having in previous letters given myimpressions with regard to matters of more
serious import, I wish to say something aboutthe almost hourly sufferings of Americantravelers in Europe from mosquito bites. To thesharp probes from these insects, with theresultant pain, fever and disgust, the traveleris obliged to submit continually—at hotels andrestaurants, on the railroad and often
elsewhere—as he goes seeing the sights. Toillustrate: our party on arriving at The Hagueengaged two mosquitoes in the form of stationporters to carry our hand-baggage to the busof the Hotel Blank, waiting at the curb of the
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station exit. The station porters passed thevalises over to the hotel bus porter at a point
just within the station door. Nip! nip! by the
two station porters.NIP! NIP!"When we arrived at the hotel door both thebus porter and the bus driver asked me forwhat they regarded as their due drop of blood.Nip! nip! Within the door of the hotel themanager informed us that all his rooms
had[148] been engaged by telegraph, but thathe could give us good rooms at a clean hotelnear by, and we took them. Two hotel porterswho had carried our bits of hand-baggage intothe hotel lobby asked me, as soon as the hotelmanager had turned his back, for their tribute.Nip! nip! Yet another porter, after taking the
things a few steps down the street to the otherhotel stood by in the hallway and waited togive us his nip. Seven gouges of silver changeout of my pocket before we reached ourrooms! But the probes of the mosquito swarmsof this hotel reached even further. The littlehotel charged us Hotel Blank rates for our
rooms, about double what would have beenasked had we gone there direct and bargainedfor accommodations. And the dinner at theHotel Blank cost us half a florin apiece morethan the price set down in the guide-book. In
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this incident the reader sees some, but not all,of the methods of stinging which the hotelmosquitoes practice.
"In Berlin, just at the moment of ourdeparture, the porter, the gold-laced andbrass-buttoned dignitary who browbeatslamblike guests at European hotel entrances,handed us our laundry bill, every article of which was charged double to treble New Yorkprices. In Vienna, tired of blood-letting to each
mosquito separately in the group of servantsalways assembled about the door upon ourdeparture—'the review' they themselves callthis evolution[149]—I drew the manager asideand said: 'I understand that there is a way of giving tips to all hands through themanagement.' (One bleeding as it were.) 'How
much extra shall I give you?' He replied:'Twenty per cent. of your bill.'"BRIBE AND BE HAPPY""I was rather tickled than bitten the first time Igot a nip in a European railway train. One of our party suggested that as the second-classplaces were crowded we should go into a first-
class compartment and await results. Whenthe conductor, in his jim-dandy uniform, camealong, he was handed our second-class ticketsand a mark—a silver coin worth a paltrytwenty-five cents. And he took our tickets and
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passed on without seeing for what class theycalled. The vast possibilities of cheaplypurchased privileges on future trips acted as a
palliative to this little sting. And the thought of what might happen if the traveler in Americashould try to overcome the virtue of one of ourexpress-train conductors with a 'quarter'brought all our party to see the circumstancefrom a humorous point of view. Truth to relate,it marked the beginning of a custom we
followed—since we learned that it was general—of buying our way past any obstacle thatappeared to interrupt the smoothness orcomfort of our daily progress. With a[150] littlesilver we henceforth obtained concessions fromgrand-looking policemen, soldiers on guard,vergers in churches, museum custodians. It is
a common custom for conductors on streetcars in Continental Europe to hold out theirhands to receive as a tip any small changedue, but first handed over to the passenger.You may have your choice in European travel:Bribe and be otherwise happy and free, orvirtuously decline to bribe and be snubbed,
ordered about and forbidden to see things.BORDERS ON BLACKMAIL"The tipping system, bad as it is becoming inAmerica, is in Europe universal and acceptedby all classes of travelers as an inevitable
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nuisance. It often borders on blackmail.Tippers go raving mad in recounting theirwrongs under the tyrannies of the system, the
newspapers by turn rail or make merry over it,the hotel keepers and other employers of theclass have their excuse that they pay wages totheir servants—but the tipping goes on forever.Why is it? Who is to blame?"These questions I have asked representativewaiters—for representatives these men have,
many of them being organized into benefitsocieties and a small proportion in a sort of trade union. But one answer was given. Thesystem is detestable to every man and womanof the serving class possessing the leastdegree of self-respect.[151] It is demoralizingto all who either give or receive tips. The real
beneficiaries of the system are the employers.An end to it, with a fair standard of wages,would be a boon of the first order toemployees, a means of compelling hotelproprietors to put their business on a basis of fair dealing, and an incalculable aid to thetranquillity and pleasure of the general public.
MORAL PIRATES"I have often talked over the system of tippingwith my fellow waiters," said an educated manof the calling, when I brought up the subject tohim. (Parenthetically, perhaps, I should say
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here that since this man speaks fluently andwrites correctly four languages, has traveledmuch and observed well on the great tourist
routes of the world, has studied some of theserious works of writers on sociology, and has,withal, acquired agreeable manners, he maybe called educated. Without doubt, had he afew thousands of vulgar dollars he might buyhimself a title as Baron and marry in our bestsociety; but he is above that; he has a craving
for walking in the light of truth.) "All of uswould like to see the system abolished," heassured me, "except a small minority who intheir moral make-up resemble pirates, andwho cruise in places where riches abound.[152] But the whole situation is one in whichreform is most difficult.
"Among the people who patronize hotels andrestaurants there is a considerable elementthat, either for a week of frolic or during theirlifelong holiday, are regardless of the value of their tips, and through their vanity enjoythrowing away a percentage of their readymoney. Then, also, are those grateful for the
little kindly attentions which a good waiter orporter knows how to bestow. As for theproprietors and managers, their business isbased on tips as one of the considerable formsof revenue. For instance, in many German
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hotels the waiters are obliged to give thecashier five or more marks additional on everyhundred marks of checks. In Austria, at the
larger restaurants the customers tip threepersons after a meal—the head-waiter whocollects the payments, the waiter who servesand the piccolo or beer-boy. The hotelmanagement sells to the head-waiter themonopoly privilege of the tips. The head-waiterthen provides the newspapers and magazines
on file, the city directories, time-tables andother books of reference called for by patrons,and a part of the outfit of the waiters. Of course, it is an old and true story, that in thebig restaurants of Paris, and to-day of othercities and fashionable watering-places, thewaiters pay so much cash a day for their jobs.
The pestering of guests to buy drinks comes,not so[153] much from commissions, as fromorders of the management that the custom of drinking at meals must be encouraged. InGermany it is usual at the larger restaurants toadd half a mark to the cost of a meal if theguest drinks plain water only.
TOO MANY SERVANTS"European hotels generally take on moreservants than are necessary. It makes ashowing of being prepared for big business.Then the servants must redouble their artful
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moves to extort tips. Porters not infrequentlywork without salary at all. Chambermaids, whoare paid by the month, receive absurdly low
pay. Financing a hotel or restaurant is basedon the tips as a margin yielding on the averagea fixed amount. To make them reach therequired sum all the employees are obliged tomaneuver so as to put up a showing of earningthe traveler's extra silver pieces. Coppersrarely are expected as tips now. It has become
common for railway station porters to demandhalf a franc for what once brought them a fewsous or pfennigs."One outcome of running a hotel on the tippingsystem developed to the point of bamboozlingor worrying the guests out of petty extras atevery turn is that each year there is an
emigration of European waiters to America toget places in hotels taken by Europeanmanagers,[154] who, depending upon theirservants to work the system at its worst forthe guests, can make a business pay bothmanager and landlord, where an Americanmanager, paying wages, would fail. While
shop-keepers have in the course of time beenforced to adopt the one-price system, the driftin the hotel business has been continuouslyaway from the per diem rate. Another point—the big tourist agencies for European travel are
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certainly in some sort of partnership with thehotels for which they sell coupon tickets. Thoseon the inside of the hotel business in Europe
know that these hotels are patronized largelyby Americans, spendthrifts on their trip stayinga few days at a time and usually speakingEnglish only, and therefore disinclined to huntup stopping-places for themselves. Hence atsuch hotels there is a harvest for everybody—asituation which eventually leads to bad food,
bad cooking, bad service, and a hold-up atevery turn of the guest."A SORRY BUSINESSIn going over the possible method of a changefor the better in this sorry business, my waiterfriend said that first of all he believed that abig trade union must be formed of hotel help.
Tipping must give way to fair wages. Thepublic could give its share of assistance. Herecommended that the guests at either hotelsor[155] restaurants should follow these rules,notes of which were taken on the spot."Patronize, whenever possible, the hotels andeating houses where tips are forbidden; there
are such places in England and on thecontinent. Refuse importunities for tips, eitherthrough words or 'hanging around,' wherethere has been no service. Where, for yourown comfort you feel constrained to tip give
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the bare minimum. Whenever possible do nottip at all."He added, and I felt that he had me also in
mind, "Some easy-going natured peoplebelieve that they tip the nearest itching palmto them because of their sympathy with thepoor. Reflection should teach them that therecan sometimes be real charity without publicdemonstration."True, church people might, with this purpose,
give through their own congregationalagencies. In London, the American travelerwishing to do the best with his withheld tip-appropriation, might send it to theWestminster Children's Aid Society; In Rome,to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty toAnimals; In Berlin, to the semi-public lodging
houses. Everywhere, trade-unionists canalways give first to the genuine and pressingclaims of their own organizations. But, of course, if the tipper, gives, not from motives of good-heartedness, but mere vanity, all adviceis thrown away on him. The hotel keeper willcontinue growing[156] rich on him and
despising him. Other folks in Europe may havegood reason to tell him, what a plain spokenSwiss citizen told a friend of mine: "YouAmericans with your dirty dollars are ruiningmy country."
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VANITY, ALL IS VANITY!Mr. Gompers in this chapter from his book hasshed much light on the ethics, economics and
psychology of tipping. The deliberate,shameless exploitation of the public byemployers and employees is revealed. Noground to stand upon is left to the tip giversexcept vanity, and the pernicious influence of the custom, to patron, employee andemployer, is so unmistakable that the doom of
the custom is as certain as was slavery, whenthe American conscience once squarely facesthe issue.Hotel and restaurant managers in our citieshave employed European waiters upon thetheory that the native American has too muchindependence and self-respect. The European
waiters have multiplied the tip-givingpropensity in America and have establishedtheir undemocratic sovereignty over our publichospitality. Inasmuch as a certain element of Americans think that the last word in socialpropriety[157] originates in Europe, whenthese European servitors are transplanted,
gold lace and all, to America, they hasten toenlarge their tips to the point which theyassume these servitors consider "proper."The astonishing feature of the Europeansituation is that the European patrons of hotels
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do not themselves tip within a tenth of thelargess bestowed by American tourists. TheAmerican tourist is fair game to the European
hotel, which trebles its regular rates themoment he appears. A native of the country,however, can have identically the sameaccommodations for one-third of theAmerican's bill, and his tips are a bagatelle incomparison.The situation may be changed by an
organization of employees, but reform willcome most speedily whenever the public,which pays the bill, decides to withhold thetribute.
[158] XVII
THE WAY OUT
Summarizing the case against tipping, thefollowing facts stand out prominently:1. Flunkyism is rampant in the American
democracy and this aristocratic influence isundermining republican ideals and institutions.2. Flunkyism, in the form of tipping, is kept
alive by the courts on the plea of "personal
liberty."3. Tipping nowadays is of precisely the same
morality as paying tribute to the BarbaryPirates was in Jefferson's day, which theAmerican conscience finally abolished.
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4. On the economic side, tipping is wrongbecause it is payment for no service, or doublepayment for one service; thereby causing the
exchange of wealth without a mutual gain.5. Tipping is ethically wrong because one
person accepts payment for a service notrendered, or for a service which the employeralready has paid to have performed. Andbecause gratuities destroy self-respect.6. The hold which tipping has upon the
public[159] is due to unscrupulous appeals togenerosity, pride and fear of violatingconventional social usage.7. The public is exploited deliberately through
books on social propriety which emphasize thecustom, or which advise conformity thereto forthe sake of peace and comfort.
8. The exploitation of the public is aided bythe visualization of the custom in movingpictures and on the stage where it is treatedhumorously.9. Employees defend tipping upon the ground
that it compensates them for extra servicesnot covered in their wages. An examination of
individual instances shows this contention tobe false in a vast majority of the numberexamined.10. Employers defend the custom on theground that the public insists upon giving
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gratuities and they must face competitionbased upon that condition. But it is shown thatemployers openly profit by the custom and
secretly encourage it.11. One metropolitan hotel has blazed the wayto reform by guaranteeing that its guests willnot be annoyed or neglected if tips are notgiven. This partial step toward the abolition of the custom is possible everywhere if employersare sincere in their profession of antipathy for
the custom.12. Our democratic government permits itsofficers and employees to accept gratuities,[160] thereby stultifying the spirit of theDeclaration of Independence and theConstitution.13. The conscience of the people as reflected
in the laws adopted or offered against tippingis sound and needs only to be led to anadequate expression. There are abundantindications of a widespread distaste for thecustom but the sentiment is unorganized andinarticulate.14. The head of the labor movement in
America declares that tipping is undesirable asa system of compensation for employees anddestroys the self-respect of those who give orreceive the gratuities.
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15. A national organization of those interestedin this reform should be brought into beingwith effective state auxiliaries.
BETTER ORGANIZATION NEEDEDThe last proposition constitutes "the way out"of the present undesirable situation. When it isremembered that the anti-tipping propagandaheretofore has lacked organization anddirection it is not surprising that the lawsadopted against the custom and the spasmodic
public irritation over it have fizzled out. Withthe same organization behind this movementthat has been given to the anti-saloonmovement, or the suffrage movement, tippingwould be vanquished in an astonishingly shorttime.[161] There is no doubt there is sufficient
latent opposition to tipping to form the basis of an anti-tipping organization. It may be called"The American Anti-Tipping Association," or byany other name, and it should embrace in itsmembership not only those who are opposedto giving tips, but those servants and workerswho are opposed to receiving tips, and also all
other persons of any race or creed whoseconception of true Americanism does notinclude approval of this custom.NOT A WAR AGAINST PERSONS
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The object of such an organization should notbe to wage war on persons, but on a custom.There is no need for hostility against waiters,
barbers, porters and the like as a class. Manyof these heartily oppose the custom and will
join in a movement to eradicate it. Hence, thecampaign should be to readjust the basis of compensation of those who serve the public sothat self-respect may be preserved all around.Nothing less than a fair wage as a substitute
for the present tipping system of compensationwould be considered.Having made the foregoing point clear at[162]the outset, much resentment among servitorswould be eliminated. No one has a desire todeprive a waiter of an adequate compensation,but no one has a desire to give him an
excessive compensation through gratuities, ora compensation which depresses his self-respect in the manner of receiving andhumiliates the patron in the manner of giving.Employers would need to be informed, too,that the campaign against tipping is not tothrow an unjust burden of operating expense
upon them. It will indeed deprive them of anyrevenues which they should not, economicallyor ethically, receive from the public throughgratuities to employees. The substitution of awage scale will be attended by economic
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changes which at first may cause someunsettled conditions, but this is inevitablewhen an unsound practice has been allowed to
grow unrestrained in the business world.PUBLIC OPINIONOne of the first aims of such an organizationwould be to bring public opinion to bear uponcity, state and national governments toinspire[163] them to clean house in regard totipping. No government employee should be
permitted to accept any compensation otherthan his salary or wages from the government.Mail carriers, policemen, garbage collectors,guides and other government employees arepaid adequately and gratuities to them fromthe public are indefensible, in any country, andsupremely so in the American democracy.
The public, of course, will need to revise itsattitude toward these and all persons whoserve them. The feeling that a traffic policemanwhom you pass in your automobile every dayshould be remembered with a gift of money oranything else substantial at Christmas, or uponany other occasion is false sentiment. He is
due nothing except courtesy all the time fromthe public, which, through taxes, already hasprovided his compensation. The feeling that amail carrier whom you see daily, or a garbagecollector, must be similarly remembered is
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equally false sentiment. The ideal is a relationin which patron and employee, public andgovernment employee, entertain mutual
opinions of self-respect, and regardless of howdistasteful[164] this may be to class sense, oraristocratic impulses, it is the Americanstandard and the right standard.PROMOTING LEGISLATIONAn organization opposed to tipping would haveas its further objects the promotion of
legislation against the custom and theprotection of the public in the enjoyment of itsrights at law. If so many States have adoptedlaws as a spontaneous expression of Americanism, it may be assumed that withorganized public sentiment, and educatedpublic sentiment all the States will get in line.
There will be abundant financial resourcesbehind such an organization. Those whooppose tipping have been silent but they havefelt keenly and will contribute liberally towardthe advancement of the cause. And when suchan organization actually proves its efficacy inprotecting the public, its ranks will be
augmented overwhelmingly.The protection hinted at is the kind that wouldtake up specific instances of neglect of patronswho do not give tips. Thus, if a member shouldbe neglected or insulted in a hotel after he had
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failed to bestow a gratuity, the[165]organization, upon investigation, wouldassume the task of correcting the situation at
law. Even where there is no statute againsttipping, the common law guarantees the rightof a patron to fair and equal service, and theorganization could enforce this right in thecourts.Naturally, great care and good judgment wouldbe needed to prevent an injustice to
proprietors and employees. Often patronsexact more service than they are entitled to,and in such a situation the organization wouldbe ranged on the side of the employee. Thosewho desire a condition where they may runrough-shod over servitors have a mistakenidea of the anti-tipping ideal. The employer is
required to have employees who will givecheerful, adequate service, but within thelimits of reason, and the selfish, domineering,patron is an evil which must be restrained aseffectually as the waiter who surreptitiouslyinsults patrons who do not tip.TO PREVENT COMPLAINT
Surveying the vast field of tipping one maywonder how any organization could offerprotection to the numberless patrons whomight[166] complain. The answer is that theorganization would be as widespread as the
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custom. Every town and city would have itslocal organization with an attorney toprosecute violations. But it is reasonable to
presume that when public opinion is oncethoroughly aroused and organized, and a fewprosecutions have been successful, thatemployers and employees, who do notvoluntarily reform their practices, will see thelight.As deep-rooted as the custom seems, it really
rests on insecure foundations and will crumblebefore any real attack. The average American,be he barber, waiter or porter, has enoughinherent understanding of democracy to knowthat the custom is wrong. He "will get his" aslong as an easy-going public will stand for theexaction, but will not be a formidable
opponent. The imported European waiter willpresent more obstinate fondness for thecustom, having been nurtured in thearistocratic school, but his opposition can behandled.The most difficult type will be the class of patrons who delight in playing the rôle of Lady
Bountiful or Gentleman Generous. Their pridewill be restrained from buying servility[167]from other Americans. And wealthyproprietors, who cater to this class and theintermediate class which ape the "smart set,"
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will cling to the custom because of theirpecuniary interest therein. But the averageAmerican and his vigorous sense of democracy
will be adequate to the task of controlling allelements adverse to the republic.The campaign against tipping is much morethan a purpose to save the money given ingratuities. Its idealism aims to reach the verypinnacle of republican society—the destinytoward which 1776 started us. The mountain
peaks of pride will have to be pulled down andthe valleys of false humility will have to belifted up, while the impulses to greed andavarice will have to be rebuked until everyAmerican can say:If I must build my pride upon another man'shumility,
I will not be proud;If I must build my strength upon anotherman's weakness,I will not be strong;If I must build my success upon another man'sfailure,I will not succeed!
[168][169] INDEXArguments for Tipping, 26, 28
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Baggagemen, 76
Barbary Pirates, The, 15
Barber, The, 29
Barber-shop Porters, 79
Bath Attendants, 86
Bell-boys, 32, 69, 104
Better Organization Needed, 160
Bible, The, Against Tipping, 45
Blackmail, 150
Bootblacks, 66, 78
Caste and Class, 47
Chambermaids, 153
Chauffeurs, 33
Christmas Tips, 116, 119
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Cloakroom Tactics, 52
Clubs, 119
Commissions, Splitting, 43
Courts, The, and tipping, 126
Custom Above Law, 123
Democracy and Tipping, 38, 48, 114, 166
[170]Door Men, 81
Economics of Tipping, 26, 28
Elevator Men, 61, 81
Employee Viewpoint, The, 73
Employer Viewpoint, The, 88
Employers, can control, 102" conspiracy by, 90" retain tips, 86, 90, 152" three kinds of, 88" who profit by tips, 89, 105
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Equality and Uniformity, 115
Etiquette Books foster tipping, 58
European Tips, 146train conductors, 149
Fear, as a reason for tipping, 55
Flunkyism in America, 7
Free and Equal, 113
Garbage Collectors, 116, 118
Generosity, as a reason for tipping, 51" misguided, 117
Gentleman, what is a?, 37" would he accept tips?, 37
Golden Rule, The, 119
Gompers, Samuel, on tipping, 144
Government Hotels, tipping in, 120
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" " the, and tipping, 113
Governor Whitman against tips, 40
Graft, "honest", 45" taught by tipping, 42
[171]Guest's Right, The, 104
Guides, 81
Harry Lauder against tipping, 41
Hatboys, 82
"Honest Graft", 45
Hospitality, false, 101
Hotel, The, 30" fees, 59" hospitality, 62, 101
" theory and practice, 32" tipless, 97, 146
House Servants, 64
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Hush Money, 42
Ideal Law, The, 132
Illinois Law, The, 91" Compromise, The, 138
Iowa Law, The, 124
Itching Palm, The, 8, 10, 19, 31, 70, 72
Janitors, 83
Lady, What is a?, 37
" would she accept tips, 37
Laws against Tipping, 122
Legalized Robbery, 140
Legislation, Promoting, 164
Literature of Tipping, The, 58
Mail Carriers, 116
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[172]Manicurists, 84
Massachusetts, In, 141
Merchants against tips, 44
Messengers, 85
"Millions for Defense", 17
Moral Pirates, 151
"Movies," the, and tipping, 69
Musicians, 66
Nebraska Act, The, 134
Not a War Against Persons, 161
"No Tip" Policy, barber shops, 89" " " hotels, 89, 97, 147
" " " restaurants, 89
Ocean Voyages, tipping on, 65
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One Compensation, One Service, 35, 55
Organization Needed, 160
Personal Liberty, 10, 13
Personnel and Distribution, 19
Policemen, 116, 119
Porters, 147, 153" Pullman, 108
Price of Pride, The, 37
Pride, as a reason for tipping, 54
Private Houses, tipping in, 64
Psychology of Tipping, The, 47
Pullman Company, The, 105" " investigated, 106
Public Opinion, 162
[173]Reasons for tipping, 51, 54, 55
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Recipients opposed to Tipping, 39, 144, 150
Remedy for Tipping, 55, 94, 95, 103, 158
Rich American Myth, The, 67
Ship's Doctor, The, 67
Sleeping-Car Phase, The, 105
Solution, a Reasonable, 94
South Carolina Law, The, 129
Splitting Commissions, 43
Stage, The, and Tipping, 68, 72
Statistics of Tippingmoney given in tips, 8number of tip-takers, 7tips in N. Y. City, 17, 22
tips in other cities, 21tip-taking classes, 19, 20
Statler Hotel, The, 97
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Stenographers, 86
Stewards, Ship, 66
Street Cleaners, 118
Tennessee Law, The, 136
Tipping and Americanism, 11, 87, 150
" and democracy, 7, 38, 48, 113" and labor, 144, 145" and morals, 96, 158" and patriotism, 56" and personal liberty, 10, 13" and public opinion, 162" and slavery, 11, 50
[174]" and the Bible, 45" and the caste system, 47" and the courts, 126" and the wage system, 75, 107" arguments for, 26, 28" and a training school for graft, 42" in private houses, 64
" in "the movies", 69" Laws Against, 123" Literature of, The, 58" Merchants opposed to, 44" on ocean voyages, 65
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" on the stage, 68" psychology of, the, 47" real reasons for, 51, 54, 55
" recipients opposed to, 39, 144, 150" remedy for, 55, 94, 95, 103, 158
"Tip Privileges" Sold, 90, 152
Tip-Takers, Partial List of, 19" numbers by cities, 21
"Tip Trust, The", 92
"Tribute, Not One Cent for", 17
Wages versus Tips, 75, 107
Waiter, The, 27" can he be a gentleman?, 37
Waiters, European, 150, 156
Waitresses, 59
Walsh Commission, The, 111
Washington Law, The, 122
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Way Out, The, 158
Wisconsin Bill, The, 125
Y. M. C. A., The, 104
Transcriber's Note:
Spelling and hyphenation have been retainedas in the original publication. On page 74,"asumed" in "attitude asumed by servitors" has
been changed to "assumed".
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