e indeed. It is the difference between aristocracy
and democracy. In an aristocracy a waiter may accept a tip and be
servile without violating the ideals of the system. In the American
democracy to be servile is incompatible with citizenship.

Every tip given in the United States is a blow at our experiment in
democracy. The custom announces to the world that at heart we are
aristocratic, that we do not believe practically that "all men are
created equal"; that the class distinctions forbidden by our organic law
are instituted through social conventions and flourish in spite of our
lofty professions.

Unless a waiter can be a gentleman, democracy is a failure. If any form
of service is menial, democracy is a failure. Those Americans who
dislike self-respect in servants are undesirable citizens; they belong
in an aristocracy.

TIPS DISLIKED BY RECIPIENTS

Fortunately, conditions are not as rotten as the extent of the tipping
practice would indicate. The vast majority of Americans who give tips do
so under duress. At heart they loathe the custom. They feel that it is
tribute exacted as arbitrarily and unrighteously as the tribute paid to
the Barbary pirates. Some day this majority will rise up and deal as
summarily with the tipping practice as our forefathers dealt with the
Mediterranean tribute custom!

A great number of servants and workers in such lines as barber shops,
restaurants and other public service positions are equally opposed to
the custom. They are caught up, however, in a system where they must
conform to the custom or lose their employment. Many a barber or waiter
or chauffeur whose self-respect rebels at taking a tip is forced to do
so in order not to offend patrons. For nothing so stirs up a "gentleman"
as for the person serving to decline a tip. The reason is that he feels
the rebuke implied in the refusal and knows in his conscience that the
practice is wrong. We always grow more indignant at a just accusation
than at an unjust one!

CONSCIENCE IS STIRRING

The constant re-appearance of laws to regulate tipping, in every section
of the country, proves that the conscience of the people is stirring.
The daily and periodical press now and then condemn the practice
editorially in unmeasured terms and persons prominent in the public eye
occasionally flare-up at some particularly flagrant manifestation of the
itching palm. Governor Whitman, of New York, in an address to the
Society for the Preve