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 an employee to enforce his common law right to service at
one price. If there is a specific statute against tipping there is a
more tangible inducement to stand up for one's rights and there is more
likelihood that redress will be granted. The defense of tipping on the
"personal liberty" plea, like the defense of the liquor business on the
same plea, will grow feebler and feebler until judges cease to take the
aristocratic viewpoint.
THE SOUTH CAROLINA LAW
The South Carolina law goes a step ahead of either the Iowa law or the
Wisconsin bill in the provision that the employer shall not permit the
custom of tipping, in addition to provisions prohibiting the giving or
receiving of tips by patrons or employees. The law follows:
"It shall be unlawful in this State for any hotel, restaurant,
cafe, dining car company, railroad companies, sleeping car
company or barber shop to knowingly allow any person in its
employ to receive any gratuity commonly known as a tip, from any
patron or passenger, and it shall be unlawful for any patron of
any hotel, restaurant, cafe, dining car or for any passenger on
any railroad train or sleeping car to give any employee any such
gratuity and it shall be unlawful for any employee of any hotel,
restaurant, cafe, dining car, railroad company, sleeping car
company or barber shop to receive any such gratuity.
"By 'gratuity' or 'tip' as used in this Act, is to mean any
extra compensation of any kind, which any hotel, restaurant,
cafe, dining car, railroad company, sleeping car company or
barber shop manager, officer or any agent thereof in charge of
the same, allows to be given to any employee and is not a part
of the regular charge of the hotel, restaurant, cafe, dining
car, railroad company, sleeping car company or barber shop, for
any part of service rendered, or a part of the service which by
contract it is under duty to render. No company or incorporation
shall evade this Act by adding to the regular charge, directly
or indirectly, anything intended for or to be used or to be
given away as a gratuity or tip to the employee. All charges
must be made by the company or proprietor in good faith as a
charge for the service it renders, inclusive of the service
which it furnishes through employees.
"Each hotel shall post a copy of this Act in each room and each
restaurant, cafe and barber shop shall post at least two copies
of this Act in two conspicuous places in their places of
business, and each railroad company shall post two copies of
this Act in their waiting rooms and passenger rooms at passenger
stations in cities of three thousand inhabitants or more, and
each sleeping car and dining car shall have 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 dollars for such failure and each day of
failure shall constitute a separate and distinct offense and any
person violating any of the other provisions of this Act shall
be subject to a fine of not less than ten dollars or more than
one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for not exceeding thirty
days."
This South Carolina law was an evident effort to cover the custom of
tipping in a manner that would permit of no evasions. It defines a "tip"
and prohibits surreptitious gratuities and makes employer, employee and
patron equally liable to prosecution. Yet, it falls short of an ideal
law because its operations are limited to seven places frequented by the
public and does not cover private places where the itching palm
flourishes, such as apartment houses and boarding houses.
To stop tipping in hotels, restaurants, cafes, dining cars, railroad
stations and cars, sleeping cars or barber shops will be a long stride
in the right direction, but the need of stopping tipping to messenger
boys, janitors and other employees of apartment houses, maids and
waitresses in boarding houses, garbage collectors, mail carriers and
policemen among government employees, trunk transfermen, guides,
steamship employees and others too numerous to cite, is fully as urgent.
THE IDEAL LAW
The ideal act will be evolved through these repeated approximations and
through experience. In a broad outline it must include (1) a clear
definition of a tip, (2) a statement of a patron's right to service for
one payment exclusively to the proprietor, (3) a prohibition against
subterfuges in the charges whereby patrons may give tips, (4) the wages
paid by an employer to be considered as presumptive evidence of his
attitude toward tipping, (5) a requirement that employers shall give
patrons a definite understanding of the service to which they are
entitled, (6) any actual extra service to be compensated for direct to
employer after being appraised and charged for by the employer, (7) the
giving of money or gifts to employees to be taken out of the class of
"charity" and "personal liberty," (8) the employer, the employee and the
patron to be subject to the same penalty for violating the law and the
conviction of any one of the three to be followed automatically by the
conviction of the other two for the same offense, (9) the law to be
applicable to any employer and any employee in any relation with the
public or with individuals, in private home or public place, (10) a
prohibition against operating any convenience for the public in which
the rate of payment shall be left to the whim of the patron, such as
cloak rooms, the tariffs to be displayed and exacted impartially of
every patron if the employer assumes that patrons must pay extra for the
service, (11) an adequate provision for acquainting patrons with the law
through posting it or otherwise directing their attention to it, (12)
the granting of licenses to operate public service places only upon
condition that gratuities are not to be permitted, directly or
indirectly, (13) the granting to a patron who has been denied fair
service of redress in addition to the punishment of the guilty employee
and employer, (14) an adequate scale of penalties, fine or imprisonment
for any violation of any part of the law.
It is not presumed that if a law were drawn to embody the foregoing
provisions that the tipping custom would be strangled. Only actual tests
in the courts will produce the ultimate intent. Of course, if employers
and employees and patrons were actuated by a desire to maintain their
relations upon a basis of self-respect so circumstantial a law would be
unnecessary, but many of them are not thus actuated and a minute
restraint will be imperative at the outset and until a normal ideal of
democracy is cultivated.
THE NEBRASKA ACT
The bill introduced in the 1915 session of the Nebraska Legislature does
not penalize the patron for giving gratuities and seems to be aimed at
the practice of "split commissions" as well as at tipping. It has a
maximum fine of one hundred dollars, or imprisonment of sixty days and
the employers only are specified for conviction. The act follows:
"No employee or servant shall accept, obtain or agree to accept,
or attempt to obtain, from any person, for himself or for any
other person, any gift, gratuity or consideration as an
inducement to perform or as a reward for having performed any
duty or service for which such employee or servant has been
employed or is to be paid by the employer or master, firm or
corporation of such employee or servant.
"No employer or master, firm or corporation shall permit or
allow any of his or their employees or servants to solicit or to
accept any gift, gratuity or consideration as an inducement to
perform or as a reward for having performed any duty or service
for which such employee or servant has been or is to be paid by
such employer or master, firm or corporation.
"Each and every employer or master, firm or corporation who
carries on business as the keeper of a hotel, inn, restaurant,
cafe, place for the sale of alcoholic beverages, barber shop or
place for polishing boots and shoes, or who operates a railroad
dining, buffet, sleeping or parlor car, shall post up or cause
to be posted up in at least two conspicuous places in the
premises in which such business is carried on, or in such car, a
notice that tipping, or the giving of any gift or gratuity to
any servant or employee, is forbidden under penalty of fine or
imprisonment.
"No employer or master, firm or corporation shall give or agree
to give or offer to any employee or servant any gift, gratuity
or consideration as an inducement to perform or as a reward for
having performed any duty or service for which such employer or
servant has been or is to be paid by the employer, master, firm
or corporation employing such servants.
"Each and every employer, master, firm or corporation who shall
violate any of the provisions herein made shall be deemed guilty
of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be liable in each and
every case to a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than
one hundred dollars, or to imprisonment in the county jail of
the proper county not less than ten nor more than sixty days, or
to both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the
court."
THE TENNESSEE LAW
The Tennessee law was adopted upon the especial solicitation of the
traveling salesmen of the State. These men live constantly in touch with
the itching palm and find the tribute not only burdensome to themselves
but to their employers. The act is much like the South Carolina law, and
a notable feature is Section 6:
"That it shall be the duty of the circuit judges and the courts
of like jurisdiction to especially call the attention of the
grand jury to the provisions of this act at each term of the
court."
The foregoing provision makes it certain that, even if patrons are timid
about obeying the law and if employers and employees disregard it, the
fight against the custom will go right on, just as does the fight
against bootlegging after saloons have been banished from a city. The
Tennessee law also has a more elaborate scale of fines, as the following
section shows:
"Be it further enacted that any hotel, restaurant, cafe, barber
shop, dining car, railroad or sleeping car company, and the
manager, officer or agent of the same in charge, violating this
act or wilfully allowing the same to be violated in any way,
shall each be subject to a penalty of not less than $10 nor more
than $50 for each tip allowed to be given. If any person shall
give an employee any gratuity or tip each person shall be
subject to a fine of not more than $25 and not less than $5 for
each offense. If any of the above employees shall receive a
gratuity or tip he or she shall be subject to a fine of not more
than $25 nor less than $5 for each offense. Should any hotel,
restaurant, cafe, barber shop, dining car, railroad company or
sleeping car company fail, neglect or refuse to post notice of
this act as required herein, such hotel, restaurant, cafe,
barber shop, dining car, railroad or sleeping car company shall
be subject to a fine not to exceed $100 for each day it shall
fail."
Naturally if this law is enforced with any fidelity by the grand
juries, not to mention such actions as may be instituted by the public,
tipping in Tennessee in the specified public service place will become
extinct, or assume a guise not covered by the law. But if tipping is
restrained only in the seven places enumerated and allowed to be
practiced unrestrained everywhere else, only a limited industrial
democracy will be attained, and the part of the custom left alive will
spread by its own insidious processes to the places preempted.
THE ILLINOIS COMPROMISE
When the public conscience is fully aroused to the need of stifling this
custom, the legal mind will be able to draw up a law that will prevent
tipping anywhere and under any circumstances. The Illinois law is a
particular example of a half-way measure in that it seeks only to
prohibit the practice of leasing tipping concessions to employees.
"That it shall be unlawful for the owner, proprietor, lessee,
superintendent, manager or agent in any hotel, restaurant,
eating house, barber shop, theatre, store building, office
building, factory, railroad, street railroad, fair ground,
baseball or football ground, hall used for public meetings or
entertainments, or any other building, office, or space which is
a place of public accommodation or public resort, to rent, lease
or permit to be used any part, space or portion thereof, for any
trade, calling or occupation, or for the exercise of any
privilege by any person, company, partnership or corporation for
the purpose 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 and published rate of charge for work performed,
materials furnished or services rendered, _provided_, that
nothing in this section contained shall be construed to prohibit
any employee or servant from accepting or receiving gratuities
or donations commonly called tips, if such gratuities 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 by such
employee or servant, as and for his absolute and individual
property.
"Any lease, contract, agreement or understanding entered into in
violation of the provisions of section 1 of this act shall be
absolutely void.
"Any person, company, partnership or corporation or any officer
or agent thereof, violating the provisions of this act shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be
fined in any sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars for each and
every offense, and, in addition thereto such person, officer or
agent, in the discretion of the court, be sentenced to the
county jail not less than three months and not more than one
year."
LEGALIZED ROBBERY
This Illinois law is an instance of an American Commonwealth
specifically and deliberately recognizing tipping as legal and right. It
turns loose the tip-pirates upon the public with full governmental
sanction, but stipulates that in their piracy they shall not organize
into a trust, as they had done in Chicago and in all large cities.
The Illinois law can be commended to the extent that it seeks to break
up the organized traffic in tips, but its recognition of tipping on an
unorganized basis is equivalent to the action of some European
governments in paying out of their treasuries tribute to the Barbary
pirates for the privilege of sailing the high seas. Thomas Jefferson's
democracy rebelled at this and he freed the whole world from the
outrageous custom.
IN MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts has a law to prohibit the corrupt influencing of agents,
employees or servants, but it is aimed specially at the practice of
"splitting commissions" and does not operate to restrain tipping in the
State. A salesman sometimes 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 world considerable thought, as employers realize that a
buyer who will accept favors from salesmen will not exercise unbiased
judgment. It is the itching palm a plane above tipping owing to the
larger amount involved, and is akin to the graft of public officials.
The law follows:
"Whoever corruptly gives, offers or promises to an agent,
employee or servant any gift or gratuity whatever, with intent
to influence his action in relation to his principal's,
employer's or master's business; or an agent, employee or
servant who corruptly requests or accepts a gift or gratuity or
a promise to make a gift or to do an act beneficial to himself
under an agreement or with an understanding that he shall act
in any particular manner in relation to his principal's,
employer's or master's business; or an agent, employee or
servant, who, being authorized to procure materials, supplies or
other articles either by purchase or contract for his principal,
employer or master, or to employ service or labor for his
principal, employer or master receives, directly or indirectly,
for himself or for another, a commission, discount or bonus from
the person who makes such sale or contract, or furnishes such
materials, supplies or other articles, or from a person who
renders such service or labor; and any person who gives or
offers such an agent, employee or servant such commission,
discount or bonus, shall be punished by a fine of not less than
ten dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or by such fine
and by imprisonment for not more than one year."
Although the Arkansas and Mississippi laws against tipping are not
mentioned, a comprehensive idea of the extent and nature of the
opposition to the custom in the United States is presented in the review
of the bills introduced in or enacted by the Legislatures of Iowa,
Wisconsin, South Carolina, Nebraska, Tennessee, Illinois, and
Massachusetts. All the other States have no laws against tipping.
Considering the fact that no organization has been formed to agitate
for this reform, these spontaneous State efforts are significant.
XVI
SAMUEL GOMPERS ON TIPPING
Labor has the strongest interest of any element of citizens for seeing
the 5,000,000 men, women and children with itching palms elevated to a
normal plane of self-respect. For nothing in America more certainly
promotes class distinctions than tipping. It is essentially
aristocratic, and labor has attained its widest development in
democracy.
WAITERS AGAINST THE TIP CUSTOM
Occasionally waiters and some other workers in a serving capacity have
attempted to organize and place their work upon the wage-system, rather
than the combination wage-and-tip system, or the strictly tip system,
now existing. In New York in 1913 the waiters struck for higher wages
and serious riots occurred before they capitulated to the old system.
The hotels preferred the tipping system because it throws the cost of
waiter hire upon the public, whereas, an adequate wage system would
necessitate a readjustment of their business.
Even where the waiters and barbers have organized they have not always
shown aggressive efforts to abolish or regulate the tipping custom. The
barbers, for instance, are highly organized, and any real desire upon
their part to abolish the custom would be followed by immediate reform.
But it is evident that the tipping system of compensation is attractive
to many persons who serve the public because it yields more pay than a
wage system. In the higher strata of workers particularly the tips are
so large as to stupefy moral sense, and this minority dominates the
majority by setting a standard of "proper" social usage.
A LABOR LEADER ON TIPS
Mr. Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, has
opposed tipping as an irregular form of compensation, and in response to
an inquiry for his opinion he inclosed a letter he had written to the
manager of the Hotel Stowell, in Los Angeles, where a non-tipping rule
is enforced.
"_Hotel Stowell, Los Angeles, Calif._
"Replying to your letter of November 28th I beg to say that I
found your hotel and service eminently satisfactory and was
particularly pleased with the rule you have enforced as to no
tipping.
"While, of course, I have followed the usual custom of giving
tips, yet I have maintained the principle of tipping to be
unwise and that it tends to lessen the self-respect of a man who
accepts a tip.
"Very truly yours,
"(Signed) SAMUEL GOMPERS,
"American Federation of Labor."
This letter is interesting as revealing the attitude of many prominent
Americans, namely, that while they conform to the custom rather than be
subjected to insults, annoyance and poor service, they really consider
it inimical to self-respect.
EUROPEAN TIPS
Mr. Gompers in his letter said: "You have my permission to quote my
opinion upon this subject in any way that you may desire," and gave
permission to have reproduced here the chapter in his book, "Labor In
Europe and 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 as follows:
"Having in previous letters given my impressions with regard to
matters of more serious import, I wish to say something about
the almost hourly sufferings of American travelers in Europe
from mosquito bites. To the sharp probes from these insects,
with the resultant pain, fever and disgust, the traveler is
obliged to submit continually--at hotels and restaurants, on the
railroad and often elsewhere--as he goes seeing the sights. To
illustrate: our party on arriving at The Hague engaged two
mosquitoes in the form of station porters to carry our
hand-baggage to the bus of the Hotel Blank, waiting at the curb
of the station exit. The station porters passed the valises 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 the bus porter and the
bus driver asked me for what they regarded as their due drop of
blood. Nip! nip! Within the door of the hotel the manager
informed us that all his rooms had been engaged by telegraph,
but that he could give us good rooms at a clean hotel near by,
and we took them. Two hotel porters who had carried our bits of
hand-baggage into the hotel lobby asked me, as soon as the hotel
manager had turned his back, for their tribute. Nip! nip! Yet
another porter, after taking the things a few steps down the
street to the other hotel stood by in the hallway and waited to
give us his nip. Seven gouges of silver change out of my pocket
before we reached our rooms! But the probes of the mosquito
swarms of this hotel reached even further. The little hotel
charged us Hotel Blank rates for our rooms, about double what
would have been asked had we gone there direct and bargained for
accommodations. And the dinner at the Hotel Blank cost us half a
florin apiece more than the price set down in the guide-book. In
this incident the reader sees some, but not all, of the methods
of stinging which the hotel mosquitoes practice.
"In Berlin, just at the moment of our departure, the porter, the
gold-laced and brass-buttoned dignitary who browbeats lamblike
guests at European hotel entrances, handed us our laundry bill,
every article of which was charged double to treble New York
prices. In Vienna, tired of blood-letting to each mosquito
separately in the group of servants always assembled about the
door upon our departure--'the review' they themselves call this
evolution--I drew the manager aside and said: 'I understand
that there is a way of giving tips to all hands through the
management.' (One bleeding as it were.) 'How much extra shall I
give you?' He replied: 'Twenty per cent. of your bill.'
"BRIBE AND BE HAPPY"