is: ONE COMPENSATION FOR ONE SERVICE. With this premise, you can
answer, _seriatim_, every argument which arises in favor of the custom.
To the plea of generosity or obligation the reply is, full compensation
for all service rendered is included in the bill you pay at the hotel
desk, at the ticket window, to the barber-shop cashier, for the
taxi-meter reading, and so on. Any extra compensation implied by the
person serving is an imposition and has no justification either as
charity or obligation.
Second, the promptings of pride must be recognized frankly and mastered
by democratic ideals. When a tip is given, not only is an individual
wrong done, but a blow is struck at republican government and the ideals
upon which it is founded. Patriotism, as well as faithfulness to
self-respect requires that all customs which promote class distinctions
shall be held in check. In entertaining a democratic attitude toward all
Americans you are strengthening the government under which you live. You
will not become less of a gentleman or lady if the socially submerged
classes rise to a normal plane of self-respect. In declining to place a
false valuation upon them you are promoting the true mission of
Americanism.
"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Third, the fear of violating a social custom is overcome when you
understand its pernicious nature. The general observance of it gives the
custom neither rightness nor authority. With full assurance that the
custom is wrong and with a measure of the courage Decatur showed before
Tripoli, an apparently formidable, but really vulnerable, custom can be
destroyed.
VIII
THE LITERATURE OF TIPPING
Writers of books on etiquette uniformly accept tipping as the correct
social usage. They state just the amount that it is proper to give on
various occasions and thus do their utmost to rivet the custom upon the
people.
A few extracts from such books will be given here to show how the custom
is strengthened by the arbiters of etiquette. Those masses of Americans
who are aspiring to a broader culture naturally turn to these books, and
have their Americanism poisoned at the very start. They are educated to
believe that tipping is essential to social grace. The feature
departments of newspapers in answering queries about tipping usually
confirm this impression, though now and then a side-swipe is delivered
at the extortionate attitude of the serving persons.
HOTEL FEES
Taking up the hotel first, the following advice is from "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 it expects his ten cents; one wants hot water every
morning and in notifying the chambermaid of this fact, must slip
a bit of silver into her palm. The waiter at one's table must be
frequently remembered, and the head waiter will give one better
attention if he finds something in his hand after he shows the
new arrival to a table, and, of course, on leaving one will give
a fee.
"It is usually best for a transient guest to fee the waiter at
each meal, since another man will probably be in attendance at
the next one. The usual rate is to give 10 per cent. of the sum
paid for the lunch or dinner--ten cents being the minimum except
at a restaurant of humble pretensions, where five will be gladly
accepted by the waitress."
If the waiters and other hotel employees had written the foregoing
themselves could they have put it more strongly? Note the advice to tip
the waiter at each meal because a new one may be on hand at the next
meal! This implies that the failure to tip is a grave offense, and that
no risk of giving it must be taken. The patron may rest assured that a
new one will be on hand at the next meal, for the head waiter shifts
them about for exactly that reason--to make the patron tip again.
However, in this same book, there is a reluctant note, as shown by the
following extract:
"We may rebel against the custom and with reason. But as not one
of us can alter the state of affairs, it is well to accept it
with good grace, or reconcile oneself to indifferent service."
Hotel managers will read this with entire approval. And yet, consider
what a contradiction it is for a hotel to advertise its service at such
and such rates and then subject its guests to "indifferent service" if
they do not cross an itching palm at every angle in the building!
TIP--OR BE INSULTED
Any one who conscientiously objects to tipping knows how true it is that
in the "best" places, with one or two notable exceptions, not only
"indifferent service" but positively insulting deportment may be
expected from the servitors if the tips are omitted.
The servitors are aggressive because their remuneration depends upon
what they can work out of the patrons. The employer had hired them on
the understanding that any compensation they receive must come from the
gratuities of patrons. In certain hotels the management carries the
exploitation to the point of charging the servitors for the privilege of
working the patrons. The tipping privilege in one hotel has been sold as
high as $10,000 a year!
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 on these functionaries as
little as they can because the cents readily mount into dollars.
The elevator-boy receives fewer tips than his peripatetic
brother and need not be feed after a short stay."
Here is proof that those who from economic or ethical reasons do not
wish to tip are persecuted. They are advised that the easiest way to
avoid the displeasure of servitors is to call on them for service as
little as possible! The two dollars or more they pay at the hotel desk
for a day's domicile must be exclusively for the privilege of sitting in
a chair or sleeping in a bed. The moment they require the service of any
of the employees about the building, they are under a second obligation
to pay. And yet, hotels prate about their "hospitality." The Barbary
pirates were hospitable in the same way--after you paid the tribute!
HOW THE BOOKS HELP
"The Cyclopaedia of Social Usage" states the tipping obligation as
follows:
"In a large and fashionable hotel generous and widely diffused
gratuities are expected by the employees. The experienced
traveler usually distributes in gratuities a sum equal to ten
per cent. of the amount of the bill. It is customary when a
lengthy sojourn is made in an hotel or pension to tip the
chambermaid, the various waiters and the porter who does one's
boots, once in every week. Once in every fortnight the head
waiter's expectations should be satisfied, and where an elevator
boy and doorman are on duty, they, too, have claims on the purse
of the guest.
"In a fashionable European hotel the rule of tipping a franc a
week all around may safely be observed during a long stop. But
at the hour of departure something extra must be added to the
weekly franc, and the head waiter will scarcely smile as blandly
as need be if he is not propitiated with gold."
Others, the writer says, have claims that it is well to recognize and
meet before they urge them.
Practically all the books on etiquette have the same note of
subserviency to the custom. The point to be remembered is that, without
being conscious of it, these writers are in league with the
beneficiaries of the custom to perpetuate and extend it. Most of the
authors think the custom is right, they have the aristocratic viewpoint
that servants should "know their place" and, in a republic, be made to
acknowledge it by accepting a gratuity. Others simply take conditions as
they find them and write to inform readers how to avoid unpleasant
incidents. But regardless of the opinion of the writers on the ethics of
the custom, the books are one of the principal supports of the custom.
Leaving the hotel, and considering the tipping custom in its relation to
private hospitality, we find this advice in "Dame Curtesy's Book of
Etiquette":
"It is customary to give servants a tip when one remains several
days under a friend's roof. The sum cannot be stated but common
sense will settle the question."
IN PRIVATE HOUSES
The theory of tipping to servants in private homes where one may be a
guest is based on the assumption that one's presence gives the servants
extra work and they should be compensated therefor. The extra work
undoubtedly is involved, but in a really true conception of hospitality,
should not the servants enter into it as much as the hosts? Or, if the
guest entails extra work should not the host's conception of hospitality
cause him or her to supply the extra compensation? The guest who tips
servants in a private home implies that the host or hostess has not
adequately compensated them for their labor.
The tips under such circumstances are a reflection upon the hospitality
of the home. A host should ascertain if servants consider themselves
outside the feeling of hospitality and pay them for the extra work, thus
giving the guest _complete_ hospitality. It is bad enough to tip in a
hotel, for professional hospitality; to tip in a private home is, or
should be, an insult to the host.
ON OCEAN VOYAGES
The same author advises in regard to the Pullman car that "a porter
should receive a tip at the end of the journey, large or small according
to the length of the trip and the service rendered," and then considers
the custom aboard a ship, as follows:
"There is much tipping to be done aboard a ship. Two dollars all
around is a tariff fixed for persons of average means, and this
is increased to individual servants from whom extra service has
been demanded."
The traveler boards a ship with a ticket of passage which includes
stateroom and meals and all service requisite to the proper enjoyment of
these privileges. The stewards and other employees on board are
expressly for the purpose of giving the service the ticket promised.
Hence, extra compensation to them may be justified only as charity. They
cannot possibly render extra service for which they should be paid. If a
passenger called upon the engineer to render a service, that employee
would be rendering an extra service, but stewards and stewardesses and
like employees are aboard to render any service the passenger wants or
needs. Moving deck chairs, bringing books, attending to calls to your
stateroom, serving you food and the like duties are all within the scope
of their regular 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 a sum of two dollars and a half
per passenger to every one of those steamer servants who have
ministered daily to the traveler's comfort.
"Thus single women would give this sum to the stewardess, the
table steward, the stateroom steward, and, if the stewardess has
not prepared her bath, she bestows a similar gratuity on her
bath steward. If every day she has occupied her deck chair, he
also will expect two dollars and fifty cents.
"Steamers there are on which the deck boys must be remembered
with a dollar each, and where a collection is taken up, by the
boy who polishes the shoes and by the musicians.
"On huge liners patronized by rich folks exclusively, the
tendency is to fix the minimum gratuity at $5, with an advance
to seven, ten and twelve where the stewardess, table steward
and stateroom steward are concerned."
Then follow instructions to tip the smoking-room steward, the barbers
and even the ship's doctor!
THE "RICH AMERICAN" MYTH
It is small wonder, in view of the nature of the literature of tipping,
that Europe has found American travelers "rich picking." Before
embarking on the first trip abroad the average American informs himself
and herself of what is expected in the way of gratuities, and everywhere
the tourist turns in a library advice is found which effectually throws
the cost of service upon the patron. Railroad and steamship literature
usually avoids the subject because these companies do not want to bring
this additional expense of travel to the attention of the public. A
steamship folder will state that passage to London is ninety dollars,
including berth and meals, but gives no hint that the tips will amount
to ten dollars more!
IX
TIPPING AND THE STAGE
An almost invariable laugh-producer on the stage or in moving pictures
is a scene in which a bell-boy or other servitor executes the customary
maneuvers for obtaining a tip.
Play producers know that the laugh can be evoked and any hotel scene is
certain to include this bit of business. In seeking the explanation of
the humor in such a scene, the answer will be found to be cynicism and
the peculiar glee that people feel in observing others in disagreeable
situations.
COMIC WOES
The slap-stick variety of comedy is based upon this trait in human
nature. If a man is kicked down three flights of stairs, the spectator
howls with delight. And, particularly, if a policeman is worsted in an
encounter, the merriment is frenzied. Our Sunday comic papers depend
almost exclusively upon violence for their humor. It is the final
spanking the Katzenjammer Kids receive that brings the laugh. The climax
to many other comics--notably Mutt and Jeff--is violence.
Hence, a tipping scene on the stage or in moving pictures creates a
laugh because the public sees the tip-giver as a victim. He usually
exaggerates his role by making the giving of the tip a painful act to
himself, and the whole scene proves the contention in this discussion,
namely, that tipping is wrong. If the spectators did not perceive the
bell-boy as a bandit, and the hotel guest as a victim, no laugh would
result. They have been in similar situations and know the feelings of
the victim.
Sometimes stage managers vary the incident so that the laugh is on the
bell-boy, by having the guest refrain from tipping. Then the spectators
laugh at the bell-boy's disappointment--again finding humor in
misfortune.
TIPS IN THE MOVIES
With the development of moving pictures the utilization of this kind of
humor has widened immeasurably. And the point to be considered here is
the influence of such visualization of tipping upon the spread of the
custom. Undoubtedly tipping is increased by moving pictures and by stage
representation. The public is made to feel that, despite the inherent
wrong in the custom, it must be followed, or they will experience the
unpleasantness at which they have just laughed.
Another example of the itching palm which may be depended upon to
produce a laugh is a scene in which a policeman is handed a bill for
neglecting his duty in some respect. A well-to-do man will cross the law
in some manner and in the play he winks an eye, the policeman turns his
back with his palm extended, a bill is slipped into it, and he departs
to the sound of the spectators' laugh.
The effect of these scenes upon the public is dual. It either confirms
their impression that all servants or officers are "approachable," or it
creates among the unsophisticated the idea that tipping or graft is the
customary and proper method of dealing with such classes of citizens.
The worldly wise gain the first impression, and the spread of the
tipping custom is assured by the second impression.
Moving pictures have extended this influence to every nook and corner of
the country. The result is that persons who live in the smaller and more
democratic communities are educated to the big city development of the
itching palm. And the effect upon children and young people is
pernicious in the extreme.
IMPRESSING THE YOUNG
A boy who sees a tipping scene in a moving picture gains the impression
that it is smart to exact 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 doing great damage
to democratic ideals by featuring such scenes. It will not be surprising
if, among the other evils fostered by moving pictures, the next
generation displays a marked increase in the grafting propensity. The
young people are being educated to think it natural.
Thus, aside from the human impulses of pride and avarice, it is apparent
that literature and the stage are strengthening the custom of tipping by
their representations of it as humorous. People will not combat anything
at which they laugh. The itching palm has two doughty champions in the
books on etiquette and the theaters.
Actors, it would seem, have enough contact with the itching palm among
stage hands to make them ardent advocates of reform, to say nothing 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 and generous donations to insure a smooth act. In
many theaters the stage hands have a definite scale of tips for regular
duties that they perform--and for which the management also pays them.
X
THE EMPLOYEE VIEWPOINT
From a waiter, or a porter, or a janitor's point of view, tipping is
wrong only when it is meager. They regard this form of compensation as
not only just but usually too sparingly bestowed.
Unquestionably, with any reform in the manner of compensation to persons
engaged in domestic or other serving capacities, must go a reform in the
attitude of the public toward servitors. The patron who abuses his
privileges, who exacts of employees far more than he has the right to
ask, who treats them as automatons without sensibilities or
self-respect--such a patron must be handled simultaneously with the
change in manner of compensation.
Employers, particularly in hotels and like public places, will have to
give more attention to seeing that employees are not mistreated by the
swaggering, blatant, selfish type of patron. This type abounds and has
been developed largely by the tipping custom, that is, the extremely
servile attitude assumed by servitors in order to stimulate tipping has
brought out the opposite quality of domineering pride in the patron.
THE SORE SPOT
No feeling so rankles in the mind as the sense of uncompensated labor.
The thought that patrons have gotten something for nothing leaves a sore
spot in the thought of servitors. And if they are employed in places
where the only compensation they receive is from the gratuities of
patrons, this soreness is incurable. The next time the patron appears he
will be made to feel the displeasure of the employee. Thus, in one
sense, it is the system that is wrong, a system which does an injustice
to both employee and patron.
Every employee has a fairly clear idea of his duties. Most employees
scrupulously refrain from doing more than the duties for which they are
paid expressly. Hence, when an employee over-steps this boundary he has
fixed in his own mind, he has the sense of uncompensated labor. He
feels a grudge either against the employer or the patron. He looks to
one or the other to supply the extra remuneration for the extra service.
As a consequence, personal service workers are nursing a grievance much
of the time. Their conversation and thoughts are about some patron who
has failed to compensate them, or has, in their judgment, inadequately
compensated them. They devote little time to thinking of a reform in the
system that would give them an adequate compensation from the employer
and do away entirely with the patron-to-employee form of compensation.
THE MARTYR
The tipping system is so established now that the individual who opposes
it must be prepared to play the role of martyr, whether employee or
patron. Employers who profit by the no-wage system dislike employees
with a degree of self-respect that makes them rebel at gratuities. Such
wages as are paid are so nominal that the employee cannot subsist upon
them alone. He either has to quit that line of work or enter it and
conform to the conventional methods.
In Chapter V the equity of tipping certain employees was considered and
the claim of other employees as to their rights will be considered
briefly here.
BAGGAGEMEN
Tipping men who call for and deliver trunks has become a fixed custom in
the cities and is expected, though not so often practiced, in the
smaller towns. The transfer company theoretically charge for the
complete operation of moving the trunk from the home or hotel to the
railroad station. But the men on the wagons or trucks exact tips for
carrying the baggage up and down stairs or elevators. The question is,
are they entitled to this extra compensation? The baggagemen argue that
their business, strictly interpreted, is to carry the trunk from the
house to the station and that going up stairs and into rooms is an extra
service. Hence, they stand around and make it evident that they expect
compensation from the patron, in addition to their wages from the
company.
Their position is not tenable. A patron pays the company to get his
trunk from wherever it may be and to deliver it to its destination.
Whatever operations are necessary to get the trunk are the natural
duties of the company and its employees. The charges of the company are,
or should be, based on the complete service. The exaction of extra
compensation in the form of tips by the employees, therefore, is an
imposition. In calling the company no person, tacitly or openly, agrees
to the argument that the trunk is to be moved from curb to curb.
The understanding is that your baggage is to be removed from its
customary place in the home to the customary place in the station or
other destination. It would be as reasonable for baggagemen to dump a
trunk outside a station and demand a gratuity from the railroad for
bringing it inside, as to demand a gratuity from the patron for taking
the trunk up or down stairs. Tipping to baggagemen is unnecessary. If
the company pays inadequate wages the remedy lies not from the patron
through tips but from the employer through the payment of increased
wages.
BOOTBLACKS
Of late years the custom has grown up to tip bootblacks. This is in
addition to the regular charge paid for the service and has no
justification except in the false plea of the servitor that if the
patron does not tip him he will have no compensation. Here it may be
stated that the thought that the tip constitutes the only compensation
the employee receives is the chief influence in the mind of the patron.
He feels a pity for the employee even though he objects to the bad
economic system that enables employers to engage workers on such a
basis. The employees exploit this thought in the mind by leading the
conversation with the patron into the channel of compensation. At some
time during the service he lets the patron know that the tips he
receives are his only compensation and this arouses the sense of
obligation in the patron who does not like to have his shoes shined for
nothing, even though the payment at the desk covers the transaction.
Any one who has patronized a restaurant regularly, or a bootblack stand,
or a barbershop, or manicurist, or any public place, will recall how
invariably the servitors bring up the subject of tipping and always with
the suggestion that they would be disabled financially if it were not
for the generosity of the public.
This is all a carefully and skilfully planned campaign to exploit the
patron.
BARBER SHOP PORTERS
Patrons who do not tip barbers frequently tip the porters who brush them
down. On the surface it seems that the porter's attentions in a barber
shop are extra and deserve extra compensation. Yet, theoretically, no
master barber would admit that a patron of his shop has any other
charges to pay than the regular tariffs. The porter is there as an extra
measure of service from the shop. Practically, however, the shops all
proceed on the assumption of tipping. The porter is a much-aggrieved
individual if he is overlooked. In any sound economic system, the
porter's compensation should come exclusively from the shop. If his
attentions are decided to be extra, there should be a regular scale of
compensation, as for a hair cut, which the patron should pay. So long as
his services are furnished by the shop without being included in the
regular shop tariffs, the patron owes the porter nothing for his
attentions.