Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-17

The trouble is that til. hotel mans
remedy would aggravate rather than cure
the evil. Under
Remedy Would the European sys-
Exaggerate Evil. s ssm ., 5ssu nj :,
be tipped, even the street car conductor
In some cities. The tips are small, but
they are universal. IF regulation" is i'm
ported into this country It will mean that
the tips will be universal. but large.
AS for the superiority of service under
the tip system, that part OF the hotel
mans defense is absolutely overthrown
by the universally admitted fact that
service i'll clubs where there is no tipcing
is better than 1t IS in hotels and restaur-
ants.
The truth is that the hotel men defend
the tipping system because 1t is profitable
to them. They have substituted the
European plan for tn" American plan of
conducting their hotels because the Euro
pean plan means more and larger tips.
They have cut wages lower and lower
as the cost OF living has mounted higher
and higher. thus forcing their employees
to caiole larger tips out of their patrons.
1t is they who benefit by the system, and
they know It.
The hotel proprietor formerly WIS con-
tent to take tips only indirectly-that is,
he permitted the servants to take them
and he profited only by cutting down
their wages. In recent years. however,
the hotel proprietors. especially in the
higher class hotels of the larger cit es.
nave yielded to the promptings of greed
and have insisted on getting A part OF the
tips in more direct fashion
Practically every large hotel in New
York, Chicago and other large cities
leases out t II e
Lease Hat hat-check bust
ol n., ness. That IS an
told later, but the fact is that the hotels
get from 5000 to $1,000 a year for this
concession. The one large hotel in New
York that gets only $1,000 for its hat ch elk
privilege explains its lack of thrift by
letting 1t be known that the conceS ION
aire is a former employee and they let
n,m have it cheap for the sake Of 'aul1
lang syne.'
When the hotel man accepts this huge
sum of money for an annual dividend on
the generosity or cowardice. of his mulct-
ed patrons he is particepS criminis to a
species Of blaclkmaii that is without the
law, but that ought to be met and dealt
with by public sentiment.
In London this same thing is done. but
not quite SO gracefully. few years
ago a cloakroom boy, discharged from
one of the principal hotels of London.
sued the hotel company for some S4lo
which he alleged to AVE been wrong
fully distracted from his tips by the no
tel management. The cloakrOom boys
in that hotel. it appeared. were paid S1.2o
a week wages. All tips received were
placed in a common box. Once week
the box was opened. The hotel man.
agement took out $50 and the remainder
was divided equally among the boys
Whether the box held much or little.
whether the tips were great or small
the hotel took ont its $50 a week and
the boys got the rest.
An American hotel proprietor would be
insulted if enc offered 10 tip him directly.
Yet he will take the tips indirectly with
out offense. Even the European inn
not take a tip directly. The only Euro
pean hoteikeeper that habitually lines
up with the review Of walters. CHAM