rought the pirates to their knees and all
Europe breathed grateful sighs of relief. Even the Pope commended the
American achievement. The practice was contrary to every dictate of
self-respect.

TRIBUTE

These pirates of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli did not pretend to
have any other right behind their demands for tribute than the right
they could enforce with cutlass and cannon--a right ferociously
employed. It was not robbery in the ordinary sense of the word. They
demanded a fee based on the value of the cargo for the privilege of
sailing in the Mediterranean, and this being paid, the ship could
proceed to its destination. Ship-owners soon began to figure tribute as
a fixed expense of navigation, like insurance, and passed the added cost
along to the ultimate consumer.

This practice of paying tribute was a system of international tipping.
The Barbary pirates granted immunity to those who obeyed the custom, but
made it decidedly warm and expensive for those who dared to protest
against it--just as do our modern pirates in hotels, sleeping cars,
restaurants, barber shops and elsewhere.

If a ship refused to pay tribute it was sunk, and the sailors went to
slavery in the desert, or to death by fearful torture. President
Jefferson could not see any basis of right in the position of the
Barbary States that the Mediterranean was their private lake through
which ships could not pass without paying toll. He sent Decatur to
register our protest.

With the Pinckney slogan: "MILLIONS FOR DEFENSE--NOT ONE CENT FOR
TRIBUTE!" the American naval forces made good our position. The tips
that skippers of our nation had been paying to the pirates were saved
and the custom soon was abandoned by other nations.

* * * * *

To-day, the old battle cry is reversed to read: "Millions for
tribute--not one cent for defense!"

It is certain that a greater tribute is paid in one week in the United
States in the form of tips, than our merchantmen paid during the whole
period that they knuckled to the Barbary pirates.

In New York City alone more than $100,000 a day is paid in gratuities to
waiters, hotel employes, chauffeurs, barbers and allied classes. But
New York has reached a subserviency to the tipping custom that is
amazing in a democratic country.

This vast tribute is paid for not more real service than the Barbary
pirates rendered to those from whom they exacted tribute. It is given to