The Itching Palm Part 13

The astonishing feature of the European situation is that the European patrons of hotels do not themselves tip within a tenth of the largess bestowed by American tourists. The American tourist is fair game to the European hotel, which trebles its regular rates the moment he appears. A native of the country, however, can have identically the same accommodations for one-third of the American's bill, and his tips are a bagatelle in comparison.

The situation may be changed by an organization of employees, but reform will come most speedily whenever the public, which pays the bill, decides to withhold the tribute.

XVII

THE WAY OUT

Summarizing the case against tipping, the following facts stand out prominently:

1. Flunkyism is rampant in the American democracy and this aristocratic influence is undermining republican ideals and inst.i.tutions.

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 Barbary Pirates was in Jefferson's day, which the American conscience finally abolished.

4. On the economic side, tipping is wrong because it is payment for no service, or double payment 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 not rendered, or for a service which the employer already has paid to have performed. And because gratuities destroy self-respect.

6. The hold which tipping has upon the public is due to unscrupulous appeals to generosity, pride and fear of violating conventional social usage.

7. The public is exploited deliberately through books on social propriety which emphasize the custom, or which advise conformity thereto for the sake of peace and comfort.

8. The exploitation of the public is aided by the visualization of the custom in moving pictures and on the stage where it is treated humorously.

9. Employees defend tipping upon the ground that it compensates them for extra services not covered in their wages. An examination of individual instances shows this contention to be false in a vast majority of the number examined.

10. Employers defend the custom on the ground that the public insists upon giving gratuities and they must face compet.i.tion based upon that condition. But it is shown that employers openly profit by the custom and secretly encourage it.

11. One metropolitan hotel has blazed the way to reform by guaranteeing that its guests will not be annoyed or neglected if tips are not given. This partial step toward the abolition of the custom is possible everywhere if employers are sincere in their profession of antipathy for the custom.

12. Our democratic government permits its officers and employees to accept gratuities, thereby stultifying the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the Const.i.tution.

13. The conscience of the people as reflected in the laws adopted or offered against tipping is sound and needs only to be led to an adequate expression. There are abundant indications of a widespread distaste for the custom but the sentiment is unorganized and inarticulate.

14. The head of the labor movement in America declares that tipping is undesirable as a system of compensation for employees and destroys the self-respect of those who give or receive the gratuities.

15. A national organization of those interested in this reform should be brought into being with effective state auxiliaries.

BETTER ORGANIZATION NEEDED

The last proposition const.i.tutes "the way out" of the present undesirable situation. When it is remembered that the anti-tipping propaganda heretofore has lacked organization and direction it is not surprising that the laws adopted against the custom and the spasmodic public irritation over it have fizzled out. With the same organization behind this movement that has been given to the anti-saloon movement, or the suffrage movement, tipping would be vanquished in an astonishingly short time.

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 a.s.sociation," or by any other name, and it should embrace in its membership not only those who are opposed to giving tips, but those servants and workers who are opposed to receiving tips, and also all other persons of any race or creed whose conception of true Americanism does not include approval of this custom.

NOT A WAR AGAINST PERSONS

The object of such an organization should not be to wage war on persons, but on a custom. There is no need for hostility against waiters, barbers, porters and the like as a cla.s.s. Many of these heartily oppose the custom and will join in a movement to eradicate it. Hence, the campaign should be to readjust the basis of compensation of those who serve the public so that self-respect may be preserved all around.

Nothing less than a fair wage as a subst.i.tute for the present tipping system of compensation would be considered.

Having made the foregoing point clear at the outset, much resentment among servitors would be eliminated. No one has a desire to deprive a waiter of an adequate compensation, but no one has a desire to give him an excessive compensation through gratuities, or a compensation which depresses his self-respect in the manner of receiving and humiliates the patron in the manner of giving.

Employers would need to be informed, too, that the campaign against tipping is not to throw an unjust burden of operating expense upon them.

It will indeed deprive them of any revenues which they should not, economically or ethically, receive from the public through gratuities to employees. The subst.i.tution of a wage scale will be attended by economic changes which at first may cause some unsettled conditions, but this is inevitable when an unsound practice has been allowed to grow unrestrained in the business world.

PUBLIC OPINION

One of the first aims of such an organization would be to bring public opinion to bear upon city, state and national governments to inspire them to clean house in regard to tipping. No government employee should be permitted to accept any compensation other than his salary or wages from the government. Mail carriers, policemen, garbage collectors, guides and other government employees are paid adequately and gratuities to them from the public are indefensible, in any country, and supremely so in the American democracy.

The public, of course, will need to revise its att.i.tude toward these and all persons who serve them. The feeling that a traffic policeman whom you pa.s.s in your automobile every day should be remembered with a gift of money or anything else substantial at Christmas, or upon any other occasion is false sentiment. He is due nothing except courtesy all the time from the public, which, through taxes, already has provided his compensation. The feeling that a mail carrier whom you see daily, or a garbage collector, must be similarly remembered is equally false sentiment. The ideal is a relation in which patron and employee, public and government employee, entertain mutual opinions of self-respect, and regardless of how distasteful this may be to cla.s.s sense, or aristocratic impulses, it is the American standard and the right standard.

PROMOTING LEGISLATION

An organization opposed to tipping would have as its further objects the promotion of legislation against the custom and the protection of the public in the enjoyment of its rights at law. If so many States have adopted laws as a spontaneous expression of Americanism, it may be a.s.sumed that with organized public sentiment, and educated public sentiment all the States will get in line. There will be abundant financial resources behind such an organization. Those who oppose tipping have been silent but they have felt keenly and will contribute liberally toward the advancement of the cause. And when such an organization actually proves its efficacy in protecting the public, its ranks will be augmented overwhelmingly.

The protection hinted at is the kind that would take up specific instances of neglect of patrons who do not give tips. Thus, if a member should be neglected or insulted in a hotel after he had failed to bestow a gratuity, the organization, upon investigation, would a.s.sume the task of correcting the situation at law. Even where there is no statute against tipping, the common law guarantees the right of a patron to fair and equal service, and the organization could enforce this right in the courts.

Naturally, great care and good judgment would be needed to prevent an injustice to proprietors and employees. Often patrons exact more service than they are ent.i.tled to, and in such a situation the organization would be ranged on the side of the employee. Those who desire a condition where they may run rough-shod over servitors have a mistaken idea of the anti-tipping ideal. The employer is required to have employees who will give cheerful, adequate service, but within the limits of reason, and the selfish, domineering, patron is an evil which must be restrained as effectually as the waiter who surrept.i.tiously insults patrons who do not tip.

TO PREVENT COMPLAINT

Surveying the vast field of tipping one may wonder how any organization could offer protection to the numberless patrons who might complain.

The answer is that the organization would be as widespread as the custom. Every town and city would have its local organization with an attorney to prosecute violations. But it is reasonable to presume that when public opinion is once thoroughly aroused and organized, and a few prosecutions have been successful, that employers and employees, who do not voluntarily reform their practices, will see the light.

As deep-rooted as the custom seems, it really rests on insecure foundations and will crumble before any real attack. The average American, be he barber, waiter or porter, has enough inherent understanding of democracy to know that the custom is wrong. He "will get his" as long as an easy-going public will stand for the exaction, but will not be a formidable opponent. The imported European waiter will present more obstinate fondness for the custom, having been nurtured in the aristocratic school, but his opposition can be handled.

The most difficult type will be the cla.s.s of patrons who delight in playing the role of Lady Bountiful or Gentleman Generous. Their pride will be restrained from buying servility from other Americans. And wealthy proprietors, who cater to this cla.s.s and the intermediate cla.s.s which ape the "smart set," will cling to the custom because of their pecuniary interest therein. But the average American and his vigorous sense of democracy will be adequate to the task of controlling all elements adverse to the republic.

The campaign against tipping is much more than a purpose to save the money given in gratuities. Its idealism aims to reach the very pinnacle of republican society--the destiny toward which 1776 started us. The mountain peaks of pride will have to be pulled down and the valleys of false humility will have to be lifted up, while the impulses to greed and avarice will have to be rebuked until every American can say:

If I must build my pride upon another man's humility, I will not be proud; If I must build my strength upon another man's weakness, I will not be strong; If I must build my success upon another man's failure, I will not succeed!