and deliver trunks has become a fixed custom in
the cities and is expected, though not so often practiced, in the
smaller towns. The transfer company theoretically charge for the
complete operation of moving the trunk from the home or hotel to the
railroad station. But the men on the wagons or trucks exact tips for
carrying the baggage up and down stairs or elevators. The question is,
are they entitled to this extra compensation? The baggagemen argue that
their business, strictly interpreted, is to carry the trunk from the
house to the station and that going up stairs and into rooms is an extra
service. Hence, they stand around and make it evident that they expect
compensation from the patron, in addition to their wages from the
company.

Their position is not tenable. A patron pays the company to get his
trunk from wherever it may be and to deliver it to its destination.
Whatever operations are necessary to get the trunk are the natural
duties of the company and its employees. The charges of the company are,
or should be, based on the complete service. The exaction of extra
compensation in the form of tips by the employees, therefore, is an
imposition. In calling the company no person, tacitly or openly, agrees
to the argument that the trunk is to be moved from curb to curb.

The understanding is that your baggage is to be removed from its
customary place in the home to the customary place in the station or
other destination. It would be as reasonable for baggagemen to dump a
trunk outside a station and demand a gratuity from the railroad for
bringing it inside, as to demand a gratuity from the patron for taking
the trunk up or down stairs. Tipping to baggagemen is unnecessary. If
the company pays inadequate wages the remedy lies not from the patron
through tips but from the employer through the payment of increased
wages.

BOOTBLACKS

Of late years the custom has grown up to tip bootblacks. This is in
addition to the regular charge paid for the service and has no
justification except in the false plea of the servitor that if the
patron does not tip him he will have no compensation. Here it may be
stated that the thought that the tip constitutes the only compensation
the employee receives is the chief influence in the mind of the patron.
He feels a pity for the employee even though he objects to the bad
economic system that enables employers to engage workers on such a
basis. The employees exploit this thought i