Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-08-08
SPEAKING OF STRIKES.

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While Mr.. Morgan doesn't seem to be
a bit afraid to throw down the gaunt-
let TO the greatest labor organization in
the country, 1t may cause even the en-
peror of finance TO tremble to know that
a widespread strike is threatened Of
those ~autocrats of the r~ailroads-the
Pullman car porters.
Hitherto it has been generally con-
coded that the Pullman car porter was
the only person lin it" with Mr.. Nor
gan. But it appears that the Pullman
ear porter's pull on the public has been
weakened. At least the public grip on
its purse has been frightened and the
usual tip" which has made the Pull
man car porter looked up to by all
classes is not so munifcent nor so
numerous as 1t used to be. 1t is this
reduction of tips that has caused
the 1000 Pullman car porters of the
country to talk of a strike for higher
wages.
tbt WdStS " Inc btob VA a.
porter, 1t appears, are not over $50 per
month. This allowance, out of which
he must keep himself and family, is so
meagre because the car company as
sumes that the travelling public will
make up the major portion of pay due
the porter in tips"
No.. ,1.l@..-l 49, 80 LA-a1IAI nc
piping times of prosperity, it seems that
the public has drawn its purse strings
mighty tight lately and the usual tip
for the porter is not forthcoming with
its accustomed frequency, and conse-
quently the erstwhile %plutocrats of the
Pullman car are rapidly getting down
to hard pan since it is ne easy job to
support the dignity of a Pullman por-
ter and possibly a large and healthy
family besides on $50 a month.
The travelling publie. however, is not
to be blamed for cutting off the tips
that heretofore have constituted the
major portion of the Pullman porter's
pay. The New York Mail and Express
says:
"As the only service that the ordinary
traveller gets out of the porter is a very
poor polish for his shoes, worth less than
five cents in the market, and possibly a
p%erfunctory brush of his clothes at de-
parture. the traveller fails to see the fair
ness of expecting him TO support the por-
ter's family. The man. left practically
with a bootblack's tip, calls on the COM
pany to do its duty. Yet the Pullman car
porter is a man and a brother"
Our New York contemporary goes on
to philosophize on the ethics OF the
tip"
THE use of the tip is not to relieve en-
ployers of the necessity of paying their
help. Its purpose is to reward the clever
and willing work of a servant who has al
ready done his duty with dizziness and
zeal, and in a general way to conduce to
the geniality and sweetness of life. If a
waiter in a restaurant has served a guest
perfectly. without knowing whether or
not he is to receive a tip, and IL he is
given a silver coin which has a more or
less proportionate relation to the size of
the diners check, the giver gets the
moneys worth as well as the waiter. For
he has purchased the value OF the coin
not only in good service. but in gratifca-
ton to his amour propre. in f~lattery to
his own sense of justice and good cheer.
considered in this light, the tip has its
good uses. If it is yielded UP as a pure
or an unwilling concession to
custom, it is base and pusillanimous. I'm
der such constraint the tip is sure first to
dwindle. as on the sleeping car it is now
dwindling, and then to tremble to it's total
fall. Already the current tips to walters
growing misunderstanding with the
parts of the country that are best able to
pay them. Ordinary tips are smaller in
New York than they are in Chicago, much
smaller in Chicago than they are in Ari-
IONA. 1t may be reasoned that the COM
which live in largest measure on
borrowed money can afford to pay the
largest fees. In any case, ii seems clear
that the tip wanes as boarded wealth ac-
cumulates."