nd other employees to the hotel or restaurant and depend
upon the tips for their remuneration.

So large was the sum realized from tips that the hotels and restaurants
actually charged the outside parties thousands of dollars for the
concession. In Illinois a law was passed in 1915 aimed directly at this
organized phase of the custom. It prohibited hotels and others from
selling tipping privileges. The men who owned such privileges promptly
went to law to test the constitutionality of the act. To the tip-taker
anything is unconstitutional that interferes with his graft!

At the time the law went into effect, the situation was reported in the
Chicago _Tribune_ as follows:

"The state will have a fight on its hands before the Chicago tip
trust ... releases its clutch on the pocketbooks of hotel and
restaurant patrons.

"At midnight last night ... there was no indication the largess
was going anywhere else than it has gone before ever since a
commercial genius capitalized the well-known generosity of the
dining and wining public--straight into the coffers of the
trust."

The manager of one of the leading hotels said that lawyers for the hotel
had served notice on the head of the biggest of Chicago's three tip
trusts to withdraw his minions.

"Do you contemplate returning part of the money paid for the
concession?" he was asked.

"That," the manager replied, "is a detail."

"Do you think it possible (the head of the tip trust) will
resist expulsion?"

"Hardly. We'll just put in a crew of our own and that will end
it."

"Have you heard a report that the tip trusts contemplate
standing by their guns and, if necessary, charging a 10 cent fee
for checking hats and coats, anticipating the tip?"

"That's preposterous."

After such evidence, patrons of hotels and other public service places
hardly will feel as cheerful in giving tips as they may have felt before
being enlightened. Here was a typical instance of a hotel advertising
such and such rates for rooms and food with the plain inference that
patrons had no other obligation. Then the management goes out and sells
the right to exploit the patrons, thereby filling its dining rooms and
cloak rooms with employees who must exact tips if they are to be paid at
all for their work!

ARE YOU A BENEFACTOR?

A small part of the public cares nothing about this and will tip
regardless of the