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
15. A national organization of those interested in this reform
should be brought into being with effective state auxiliaries.
BETTER ORGANIZATION NEEDED
The last proposition constitutes "the way out" of the present
undesirable situation. When it is remembered that the anti-tipping
propaganda heretofore has lacked organization and direction it is not
surprising that the laws adopted against the custom and the spasmodic
public irritation over it have fizzled out. With the same organization
behind this movement that has been given to the anti-saloon movement, or
the suffrage movement, tipping would be vanquished in an astonishingly
short time.
There is no doubt there is sufficient latent opposition to tipping to
form the basis of an anti-tipping organization. It may be called "The
American Anti-Tipping Association," or by any other name, and it should
embrace in its membership not only those who are opposed to giving tips,
but those servants and workers who are opposed to receiving tips, and
also all other persons of any race or creed whose conception of true
Americanism does not include approval of this custom.
NOT A WAR AGAINST PERSONS
The object of such an organization should not be to wage war on persons,
but on a custom. There is no need for hostility against waiters,
barbers, porters and the like as a class. Many of these heartily oppose
the custom and will join in a movement to eradicate it. Hence, the
campaign should be to readjust the basis of compensation of those who
serve the public so that self-respect may be preserved all around.
Nothing less than a fair wage as a substitute for the present tipping
system of compensation would be considered.
Having made the foregoing point clear at the outset, much resentment
among servitors would be eliminated. No one has a desire to deprive a
waiter of an adequate compensation, but no one has a desire to give him
an excessive compensation through gratuities, or a compensation which
depresses his self-respect in the manner of receiving and humiliates the
patron in the manner of giving.
Employers would need to be informed, too, that the campaign against
tipping is not to throw an unjust burden of operating expense upon them.
It will indeed deprive them of any revenues which they should not,
economically or ethically, receive from the public through gratuities to
employees. The substitution of a wage scale will be attended by economic
changes which at first may cause some unsettled conditions, but this is
inevitable when an unsound practice has been allowed to grow
unrestrained in the business world.
PUBLIC OPINION
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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