m.

TIPPING UN-AMERICAN

If it seems astounding that this aristocratic practice should reach such
stupendous proportions in a republic, we must remember that the same
republic allowed slavery to reach stupendous proportions.

IF TIPPING IS UN-AMERICAN, SOME DAY, SOMEHOW, IT WILL BE UPROOTED LIKE
AFRICAN SLAVERY

Apparently the American conscience is dormant upon this issue. But this
is more apparent than real. The people are stirring vaguely and uneasily
over the ethics of the custom. Six State Legislatures reflected the
dawning of a new conscience by considering in their 1915 sessions bills
relating to tipping. They were Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska,
Tennessee and South Carolina.

The geographical distribution of these States is significant. It is
proof that the opposition to the practice is not isolated, not
sectional, but national. North, Central, South, the verdict was
registered that tipping is wrong. The South, former home of slavery,
might be supposed to be favorable to this aristocratic custom. On the
contrary the most vigorous opposition to it is found there. Mississippi,
Arkansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina simultaneously had laws against
tipping--with the usual contests in the courts on their
constitutionality.

The Negro was servile by law and inheritance. The modern tip-taker
voluntarily assumes, in a republic where he is actually and
theoretically equal to all other citizens, a servile attitude
for a fee. While the form of servitude is different, the slavery
is none the less real in the case of the tip-taker.

Strangely enough, bills to prohibit tipping often have been vetoed by
Governors--notably in Wisconsin--on the ground that they curtailed
personal liberty. That is to say, a bill which removed the chains of
social slavery from the serving classes was declared to be an abridgment
of liberty! "Oh, Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!"

The Legislature in Wisconsin almost re-passed the bill over the
Governor's veto. In Tennessee and Kentucky bills have been vetoed for
the same given reason, though Tennessee in 1916 finally had such a law
in force. In Illinois, the law was framed primarily with the object of
preventing the leasing of privileges to collect tips in hotels and other
public places, and not against the individual giver or taker of tips.

SHORT-LIVED LAWS

The courts have negatived such laws on much the same grounds, so that
anti-tipping laws thus far