The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-03-22

displays the no tipping" sign and
means it. If this could be done con-
sistently in every city it would not be
long before the combination in re-
straint of grateful tipping for real per-
sonal services duly received would be
broken up.
a certain New York hotel has re-
Gently established a ten per cent dis
count rule on the bills of its guests,
the deduction apparently designed to
cover the guests tipping outlay. In
likewise doing hotels will yield their
old attitude of pay to the limit or
beat it Tipping cuts d big hole in
the daily expense account Ten p r
cent discount is a conscience fund
but it does not go far enough.
The time has long since passed when
ten per cent is acc ptablc to the hotel
or restaurant turnkey. Nowadays a
man in the east would hardly dare offer
a waiter a dime after a dol'ar meal.
1t is not so band in the west and south,
except in Chicago and San Francisco.
A few weeks ago a well known Irish
American in New York city entered a
famous restaurant for a luncheon with
his sister. AS they ate lightly the
bill was a modest $1.65. Ten per cent
for tips had been the Irishman's rule
for years. In his instance he laid two
dimes on the table for the waiter. With
a snarling bah" that pampered pork
chop attache swept the money On the
floor. The head waiter was called
and in this particlar case the man was
discharged.
AS a rule matters don't ppf that for
In the first place, only a brave man
tries to get by with the customary ten
per cent that was deemed liberal a few
years ago. If he does it once the lofty
conGescension or the plying smile OF
bitter insult with which the waiter
receives thu pittance blisters the pa
iron into resolving that it is even bet
ter to be robbed than to be roasted. To
he strictly honest with themselves and
their guests all hotels which hereafter
shall feel attacks of conscience be-
meath which is concealed the good bust
ness sense that notes the gradual turn
ing of the worm, should take off TWEEN
ty instead of a teasing ten per cent.
Only an aroused public con-
Vlction of a wrong that should be
right2d can slip the claws of the tip
ping monster. 1t will nave to grow
strong enough to pull in line the spine-
less and the vain among its own num-
her who cannot resist the tipping lure.
Then the hotel proprietors, taxicab
owners, sleeping car plutocrats and
others of the same ilk who chiefly ben-
eft by the outrage, and finally the
walters, bell boys, drivers, etc, who,
uhnr rrto ,t-a 49, ~. .a,4.-.1 ~
them, must resist the temptation to
extort coin by the methods they now,
spurred by necessity in some cases,
use so mercilessly.
Tipping in this country easily
amounts to $10O.O OO, 600 a year. Com
mercial travellers estimate that they
spend fully $4,000, 600. G.. A.. Lor-
enzen, a Chicago hummer who has Just
quit the road, has announced that in
twenty years h, lost $500 in tips.
he kept accurate 0 of every tip,
no matter how small, throughout the
entire twenty years. He found that
to get proper service and make the
right connections with his trains it
was absolutely necessary to smooth
the way with gratuities. Also, he tes-
titles that the tips are twice today
what they We're ten, or even five years
ago. A quarter now works hard to
do the duty of the thankfully received
dime a few years back. Mr.. Loren
zen says hat although he was not a
piker a large percentage of drummers
give more h he did for tips.
Then there are the thousands of
travellers who are not drummers. Be
sides the peripatetic tippers there are
the hundreds of thousands who tip but
do not travel: they who pay daily toll
to the barber, the butchers boy the
candlestick maker and the waiter in
their own home town. No reliable
statistics are at hand but it can read
lily be seen that 800, 900 annually is
rather under than above the amount
expended in the United States to per-
I%etuate the tipping evil.
A number of western legislatures
have passed laws which prohibit en-
ploycs from accepting tips unless con-
sent is given by the employers. What
is needed is laws forcing public places
not to permit the practice in any form.
Wages, of course, would go up. The
public would still foot the bill but it
N''f' il't NC ~ the expense OIL us OWN
sense of fair play and the self respect
Of the employee. Furthermore, what
the public now pays in ceaseless and
constantly increasing driblets is I'M
toubtedly more than it would ever
have to pay in broad daylight. An
multiplying bill now is pending before
the Missouri legislature. In a plaintive
Interview. two weeks ago, the author
said that he had been a marked man
ever since its Introduction in nearly
every hotel, rctNaurant and Rlrber
shop of the state capital where he
heeds must struggle for the necessi-
ties Ct life.
Perhaps the most active agency in
the multiplying crusade is the Com
merc'al Travellers league, an organi-
ration of business travelling men. The
members refuse to p%atronizn hotels
ana restaurants which perpetratc tip
ping, and in each town or city visited
they consult a list of first class board
ing houses, also hotels if there be
any, which are free of the bad habit.
lney lcuk for the general public to do