Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-06-27
DRY SPELL MAY
BRING TIPLESS
NATION, CLAIM
Going Out Of Liquor to Terminate
old Custom of FaVOrs, Opin-
ion of Hotel Man.

With the going out of liquor, the
country is also likely to go on the
''tipless" basis, according to A. c.
Stephens, president of the Ohio Ho-
tel association, who is in Chicago
arranging for the convention of his
association to be held in connec-
tion with the hotel show during
the week Of Aug. a. Mr.. Stephens
IS manager Of the St. Clair hotel,
Toledo, which will be turned over
to newspapermen and run as club
during the week Of the Willard
Dempsey fight
Il think the day of tips is over, "
said Mr.. Stephens. With the going
out OF the bar aud the serving OF
liquor the size Of tips will dimin-
ISL and the organizations which
make it a business to collect tips
for certain services probably will
find it Improbable. People give
up more easily and more generous
ly when they are mellowed by a
few drinks. That has already been
discovered in the states which have
recently gone from a wet to a dry
basis
Besides, the manpower shortage
and, in fact, the womanpower short
age also, is affecting the hotels.
With the European source of SUP
ply practically cut off. it is hard to
get good trained walters. So the
hotels have been more and more
carefully considering mechanical
devices to take the place of ser
wants.
1T is surprising to note how
many really good hotels have in
stalled cafeterias. I predict that
moro of them will do so. The cafe
terra. as you know, is a strictly
tipiess institution
Even in dining rooms where
there is service, the movement to-
ward doing away with walters is
making rapid strides. There are
all sorts of mechanical devices for
this purpose. There is the disap-
pearing table. This is a device by
which the guest in dining room
is given a table for his party. The
menu card lies before him. He
writes his order, the table disap-
pears through an arrangement sim
liar to a stage trap-door, and when
the food is ready 10 serve, it re-
appears, all set for the party with
the food on it, smoking hot.
"A mechanical system for check
ing hats and wraps has already
been devised and, 1 am sure, will
soon come into general use.
Everybody has heard the me-
chanical paging device, which sub
stitutes the voice of a telephone OPP
orator for bell boys in paging in
hotels. 1 am informed that all
these and number of other SIM,
liar devices will be shown at the
hotel show, and. when the hotel
men see these things visibly be-
fore them and see how they work,
am quite certain that many of
these devices will be adopted.
For, with the going out of liquor
and the curtailing Of tips in conse-
quence of this, walters will be ask
ing a wage scale two or three times
as great as the present one, and il
the hotel men accede to such a
scale, it will be ruinous to the in
dus.ry. They simply can't afford
to pay it.
And I don't know that the pub
III W III B6 IHuCA nuII. lIH the
dearth Of good walters due to war
conditions; the very high wages Of
fered in other industries which at
tracted many good walters, and the
shutting off of the European sup
ply, service has unquestionably suf-
fered. Mechanical service, I have
no doubt, will prove just as good
as human service. certainly far su-
perior to poor human service, once
the public becomes used to IT.
This is proved to some extent
by the cafeterias and automatic res