low at the universal heart of
Flunkyism," wrote Carlyle of the execution of Charles I.

Yet, Flunkyism is not dead!

In the United States alone more than 5,000,000 persons derive their
incomes, in whole or in part, from "tips," or gratuities. They have the
moral malady denominated The Itching Palm.

Tipping is the modern form of Flunkyism. Flunkyism may be defined as a
willingness to be servile for a consideration. It is democracy's deadly
foe. The two ideas cannot live together except in a false peace. The
tendency always is for one to sap the vitality of the other.

The full significance of the foregoing figures is realized in the
further knowledge that these 5,000,000 persons with itching palms are
fully 10 per cent of our entire industrial population; for the number of
persons engaged in gainful occupations in this country is less than
50,000,000.

Whether this constitutes a problem for moralists, economists and
statesmen depends upon the ethical appraisement of tipping. If tipping
is moral, the interest is reduced to the economic phase--whether the
remuneration thus given is normal or abnormal. If tipping is immoral,
the fact that 5,000,000 Americans practice it constitutes a problem of
first rate importance.

Accurate statistics are not obtainable, but conservative estimates place
the amount of money given in one year by the American people in tips, or
gratuities, at a figure somewhere between $200,000,000 and $500,000,000!

Now we have the full statement of the case against tipping--five million
persons receiving in excess of two hundred millions of dollars
for--what?

It will be interesting to examine the ethics, economics and psychology
of tipping to determine whether the American people receive a value for
this expenditure.

II

ON PERSONAL LIBERTY

The Itching Palm is a moral disease. It is as old as the passion of
greed in the human mind. Milton was thinking of it when he exclaimed:

"Help us to save free conscience from the paw,
Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw."

Although it had only a feeble lodgment in the minds of the Puritans,
because their minds were in the travail that gave birth to democracy,
enough remained to perpetuate the disease. In Europe, under monarchical
ideals, a person could accept a tip without feeling the acute loss of
self-respect that attends the practice in America, under democratic
ideals. For tipping is essentially an aristocratic custo