The Itching Palm: A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America — John Shaqi
The Itching Palm: A Study of the Habit of Tipping in AmericaScott, William R. (William Rufus)
Philosophy
The Itching Palm: A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America
Scott, William R. (William Rufus)
Tipping
The ideal act will be evolved through these repeated approximations and
through experience. In a broad outline it must include (1) a clear
definition of a tip, (2) a statement of a patron's right to service for
one payment exclusively to the proprietor, (3) a prohibition against
subterfuges in the charges whereby patrons may give tips, (4) the wages
paid by an employer to be considered as presumptive evidence of his
attitude toward tipping, (5) a requirement that employers shall give
patrons a definite understanding of the service to which they are
entitled, (6) any actual extra service to be compensated for direct to
employer after being appraised and charged for by the employer, (7) the
giving of money or gifts to employees to be taken out of the class of
"charity" and "personal liberty," (8) the employer, the employee and the
patron to be subject to the same penalty for violating the law and the
conviction of any one of the three to be followed automatically by the
conviction of the other two for the same offense, (9) the law to be
applicable to any employer and any employee in any relation with the
public or with individuals, in private home or public place, (10) a
prohibition against operating any convenience for the public in which
the rate of payment shall be left to the whim of the patron, such as
cloak rooms, the tariffs to be displayed and exacted impartially of
every patron if the employer assumes that patrons must pay extra for the
service, (11) an adequate provision for acquainting patrons with the law
through posting it or otherwise directing their attention to it, (12)
the granting of licenses to operate public service places only upon
condition that gratuities are not to be permitted, directly or
indirectly, (13) the granting to a patron who has been denied fair
service of redress in addition to the punishment of the guilty employee
and employer, (14) an adequate scale of penalties, fine or imprisonment
for any violation of any part of the law.
It is not presumed that if a law were drawn to embody the foregoing
provisions that the tipping custom would be strangled. Only actual tests
in the courts will produce the ultimate intent. Of course, if employers
and employees and patrons were actuated by a desire to maintain their
relations upon a basis of self-respect so circumstantial a law would be
unnecessary, but many of them are not thus actuated and a minute
restraint will be imperative at the outset and until a normal ideal of
democracy is cultivated.
THE NEBRASKA ACT
The bill introduced in the 1915 session of the Nebraska Legislature does
not penalize the patron for giving gratuities and seems to be aimed at
the practice of "split commissions" as well as at tipping. It has a
maximum fine of one hundred dollars, or imprisonment of sixty days and
the employers only are specified for conviction. The act follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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