It should be understood, however, that a large part of the $200,000,000 or more given annually by Americans in gratuities is sheer waste because it is given for absolutely nothing in return. Such waste should be eliminated without consideration of employer or employee.
So long as employers assume that the public will pay part or all of the wages of employees, so long will the employees be under the necessity of resorting to outrageous tactics—coddling the patron who does tip, insulting and neglecting the one who does not tip—in order to obtain pay for their services.
Employers must come to the viewpoint that tipping is morally wrong, and therefore of necessity, economically unsound. The money they make out of tipping is tainted money. Employees should be engaged on wages that are adequate without regard to any gratuities that may be given.
XII
ONE STEP FORWARD
When the Hotel Statler, in Buffalo, announced that a guest need not tip its employees in order to get satisfactory service, a sensation was sprung upon hotel managers and the traveling public. Nothing more emphatically shows the abnormal state of mind toward tipping than that such an elementary right should be affirmed and cause surprise in the affirmation.
A SOUND CODE
Following is its Code to employes on the practice of tipping:
"The patron of a hotel goes there because he expects to receive certain things served with celerity, courtesy and cheerfulness.
"The persons who are to fetch and carry him these things will be those whose portion it is to render intimate, personal services to others. Since time immemorial, this class of servitors has been of the rank and file.
"Now and then a server is found—a waiter, a bootblack, a barber or a bell boy—who adds a bit of his own personality to his services. Such a one shows a bit more intelligence—initiative—perspicacity—than his fellows. The patron finds his smaller wants anticipated, and is pleased. He feels that the servant has given him something extra and unexpected—and he wants to pay something extra for it.
"He tips.
"Of course there are abuses of the tip. A rich bounder wants something more than other hotel guests, and he futilely tries to get it by throwing money about.
"His tips are insults, and his reward Servility instead of service.
"Or—
"An individual wishing to be thought a 'good fellow' ADMINISTERS tips with the advice to 'buy a house and lot,' etc.
"Or—
"An infrequent traveler, having the time of his life, tips out of sheer goodheartedness.
"These types help to constitute the 'Public.'
"It is the business of a good hotel to cater to the Public. It is the avowed business of the Hotel Statler to please the public better than any other hotel in the world.
"Statler can run a tipless hotel if he wants to.
"But Statler knows that a first-class hotel cannot be maintained on a tip-less basis, for the reason that a small but certain per cent. of its guests will tip, in spite of all rules.
"Statler can and does do this: He guarantees to his guests who do not wish to tip, everything—EVERYTHING—in the way of hotel service, courtesy, etc., that the tipper gets.
"Let's make that a bit stronger—guests do NOT have to tip at Hotel Statler to get courteous, polite, attentive service.
"Or, for final emphasis, we say to Statler guests: Please do NOT tip unless you feel like it; but if you DO tip, let your tipping be yielding to a genuine desire—not conforming to an outrageous custom.
"Any Statler employee who is wise and discreet enough to merit tips is wise and discreet enough to render a like service whether he is tipped or not.
"And he is wise and discreet enough to say 'thank you' when he gets his tip.
"In this connection let this be said:
"The man who takes a tip and does not thank the tipper does not feel that he has earned the tip any more than a blackmailer feels that he has earned his blood money.
"Any Statler employee who fails to give Service, or who fails to thank the guest who gives him something, falls short of the Statler Standard. We always thank any guest who reports such a case to us. Statler does not deal summarily with his helpers, any more than he deals perfunctorily with his guests—but the tip-grafters get short shrift here."