Omaha daily bee., 1916-07-22
Why Restaurants Are
Sometimes UMs1n1tary

as possible of the front and well light
ed. attractive parts of their space TOR
dining rooms, show windows and dis
play purposes generally, the kitchens
and scullieries are crowded INTO cack
rooms or driven underground ih'o
cellars or easements.
Anything can happen and usuany
will happen in the dark or IN 2 pao
light, and practically every dark cor,
ner sooner or later becomes dirty and
unsanitary. Commercialism and COOK
ing don't mix we'll and when the
cooks eye is chiefly on prohts
stomachs are apt to suffer.
Another reason, and a potent one,
for the unsatisfactory conditions in
hotels and restaurants is the tact that
until Just within recent years, WATERS
cooks and hotel and restaurant SER
wants generally have been morgan
lied and unable to demand and secure
decent wages, decent living and work
ing conditions and decent food from
their employers. If there is hotel or
restaurant in the country which does
not at times, and usually most OF the
time, IecQ It's WoitSiS,
chamber maids and employees gen
orally upon stuff which is really only
fit for the garbage can, it can rlse'
stand and be counted.
Some of the most Objectionable ana
insanitary features discovered about
public kitchens have arisen from the
way in which the eating places and
wash rooms and even sleeping places
and toilets of the cooks and helpers
and hotel servants have been crowded
right among or next door to the
rooms in which food was cooked or
prepared or stored. E,j
Bedrooms for the help are ex-
tremely apt to be located either IN
Easements or attics, and in one state
it was actually found that the walters
slept at night on mattresses spread
upon the tables in the dining room.
One could almost wish that it was
against the law for hotel and res
taurant keepers in cities to house any
of their employees on the premises. 1t
would certainly work powerfully tor
both the health and safety of the
public and the comfort and welfare of
the employees.
They should also be compelled to-
abandon another ancient and abomi-
nable trade custom, survival OF slay-
cry, that OF refusing to pay their wait.
ers an adequate living wage and
sponging on the public to do it for
them in the shape of tips. II walters
are compelled to live, as most of them
are at present, upon what they can
pick up in the way Of tips and what
is thrown to them in the shape of
scarps and second-handed food, 1t is
scarcely to be expected that they will
develop high standards Of self-respect
and sanitary service, or take . pride
in their occupation and in the inter-
ests of the establishment in which
they are employed. The handling and
preparing and serving Of human food
is certainly the last occupation which
should be left in the hands Of over
worked, poorly paid, and badly fed
and housed labor.
Also, partly from the special ex-
igences of the trade, partly from the
irregular and unskilled nature of the
occupation, the hours of service which
are required are often extremely long
and exhausting. Some Of the most
bitter opposition, for instance, to Cali
fornia's new humane and progressive
labor laws, forbidding, among other
things, the employment of women for
more than eight hours out of the
twenty-four, came from hotels and
hotel keepers. They declared that it
was impossible to carry on their busi-
ness under such restrictions, that their
property was being confiscated, took
the matter to the courts and secured
an injunction. But the courts there
had a wholesome fear Of enlightened
public sentiment, and in the final ap-
peal, sustained the law.
Not single hotel went out of busi-
ness, and within year, the law had so
greatly improved conditions, not
merely for women employees, but also
for guests, patrons and the manage
ment, that the hotel keepers were
completely converted and declared
that they would not go back to the
old conditions if they could
An eight-hour day and a minimum
wage fixed and enforced by law would
do more than almost any other single
step toward making hotel and res
taurant kitchens clean and sanitary.