rux of the whole tipping problem. If
managers will restrain and discipline employees so that they will not
run riot in their eagerness to exact toll from patrons the tipping evil
will be reduced to a minimum.

THE FIRST STEP

It is not the idea underlying this discussion to consider that a
satisfactory disposal of the tipping custom has been made when managers
insure equal treatment for those who do not tip in comparison with those
who do tip. Nothing short of the complete abolition of the custom can be
the goal in a republic. But as a long stride toward the goal, the Code
cited above is noteworthy. It constitutes the first immediate step that
any hotel may take.

The public would find immense relief in the general adoption of the
foregoing idea--that tipping must "be yielding to a genuine desire--not
conforming to an outrageous custom." Inasmuch as the vast majority of
Americans who tip do so only because they are afraid not to conform to
an outrageous custom, this plan, honestly enforced upon employees, will
reduce the followers of the custom to the small percentage of the public
who tip because of pride or moral obtuseness. A way can be found to
handle this element when the majority have been freed.

Once the proof is at hand that tipping can be handled the conclusion is
unescapable that the managers who knuckle to the custom are "corrupt and
contented." They are on precisely the same moral level as their
employees.

THE GUEST'S RIGHTS

In the meantime, the individual patron has the right to and should
proceed on the theory that he is entitled to EVERYTHING in the way of
service for the one payment. This is his common law right even if no
special laws regulating tipping are in force.

The public is at a great disadvantage in combating the tipping evil when
the managers leave the issue to be settled between the patrons and the
employees. A bell boy can commit an offense to a patron who does not tip
that is perfectly tangible to the patron but difficult to report to the
manager. Unless the manager takes a positive hand and instructs his
employees in a manner similar to the above Code it is likely that most
persons will continue to pay tribute rather than be insulted and
neglected.

In Chicago, the Young Men's Christian Association operates a
nineteen-story hotel where tips are prohibited, and this organization
generally discourages the custom in its enterprises.

XIII

THE SLEEPING-CAR PHASE