this item
of service.

"One service--one compensation" is the only right relation of seller and
buyer, of patron and proprietor.

VI

THE ETHICS OF TIPPING

The moral wrong of tipping is in the grafting spirit it engenders in
those who profit by it; in the rigid class distinctions it creates in a
republic; in the loss of that fineness of self-respect without which men
and women are only so much clay--worthless dregs in the crucible of
democracy.

In a monarchy it may be sufficient for self-respect to be limited to the
governing classes; but the theory of Americanism requires that every
citizen shall possess this quality. We grant the suffrage simply upon
manhood--upon the assumption that all men are equal in that fundamental
respect.

THE PRICE OF PRIDE

Hence, whatever undermines self-respect, manhood, undermines the
republic. Whatever cultivates aristocratic ideals and conventions in a
republic strikes at the heart of democracy. Where all men are equal,
some cannot become superior unless the others grovel in the dust.
Tipping comes into a democracy to produce that relation.

Tipping is the price of pride. It is what one American is willing to pay
to induce another American to acknowledge inferiority. It represents the
root of aristocracy budding anew in the hearts of those who publicly
renounced the system and all its works.

The same Americans who profit by this undemocratic practice exert as
much influence, proportionably, in the government of the republic, as
those who give tips, or those whose sense of rectitude will not allow
them to give or accept gratuities. Is a man who will take a tip as good
a citizen, is his self-respect as fine, as the one who will not accept a
tip, or who will not give a tip? Is the one as well qualified to vote as
the other?

What is a gentleman? What is a lady?

Can a waiter be a gentleman? Can a maid be a lady?

Would a gentleman or a lady accept a gratuity?

What would happen if a tip should be offered to the average "gentleman"
who patronizes restaurants, and taxicabs and barber shops? He would have
a brainstorm of self-righteous wrath!

THE TEST OF DEMOCRACY

And there is the test. If a "gentleman" would not accept a tip, is it
gentlemanly to give a tip? If a "gentleman's" self-respect would rebel
at the idea of accepting a gratuity, why should not a waiter's
self-respect rebel at the idea?

"Oh, but there's a difference!"

The difference is ther