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Show -t j The Ten Per Cent Tip 1 By Frederic J. Ha.skin. ! : N KV YORK. A i: sr. l'.V A new hope tf re from t no h.a cms! oi' lip pi iii; h;i ; resell. iv lit-j i!i the h ves of NV w Yur.-ivrs. lvt;i waiters and restaur nt n'.anaws are now ams: ierny tho ad , b:ht y a hi: nt; a s;rai-!i: to pi-r cent t'.p for service to me.il t-'uvks, instead t' , lcainu; t::e s ze of iho i:p to i.:e judgment judg-ment uf the diner. tf. nil a plan h.ts a' ready been installed , in the F;:t:i avenuo p.utry shops, w::h encouraging rtsu;ts. The wai'eis have; declared tn:neivt-s to be sat'siicd. and; tiie public has shown its appreciation hy eating pastry as it has no cr eaten it before, be-fore, and by con'.riout-r.g to the fund tor . indigent waiters in the boxes provided for this purpose in front oi the f::ops. There is no question as to the popularity of the 10 per cent system here, but the o.d factors responsible for the rise of j the tippintr evil aro , checking its adop- lion elsewhere. A visitor who patronized one of thepe shops one day went into a hotel restaurant res-taurant for luncheon the net day. "What do you think of the 10 per cem tip?" he asked the waiter when tr.e meal had been safely served and there was no danger of arousing his suspicions as to the size of the tip he was to receive. "We don't favor it," replied the waiter quickly. "You come in hero and are served with a lunch that costs, say, ?1.10. You wouldn't think of tipping less than a quarter." Any resolutions the visitor may have f or m ed of putting the n e w sy s t e m into effect were Immediately destroyed. With a sigh he obediently tipped tho waiter as that gentleman had" suggested. According to William Lehman, secretary secre-tary of tho waiters union here, waiters would be distinctly in favor of tlie 10 per cent tip if their wags wero raised sufficiently suffi-ciently to make up the difference. "Walters," declares Mr. Lehman, "are opposed to tipping. They recognize, far more keenly than the public they serve, that it is servile and degrading. But under un-der tlie present conditions tips constitute about two-thirds of their weekly wages. If they came ont in favor of the 10 percent per-cent tipping system, and then their wages were not raised to make up for the cut, It would be greatly to their disadvan-. disadvan-. tage." A commission of restaurant employers and waiters is soon to be formed, according ac-cording to Mr. Lehman, to fix a stand-i stand-i ard minimum wage for waiters, with a i certain tip guarantee. The 10 per cent plan is one of the chief features it will ' consider. It is estimated that the very smallest wage a waiter can get along on, and meet tho present high cost of living, is 535 a week. Two places in New York which specialize on their nontipping service ser-vice pay their waiters this wage. In tlie Fifth avenue pastry shops the waiters are paid only ?5 a week. -but they are guaranteed guar-anteed $25 a week In tipfi. Some places, where the tips are so large and so frequent fre-quent that the waiters make ?60 a week, pay no wages at all. On the first floor in the local union headquarters several waiters were found engaged in the pleasant pastime of eating eat-ing sandwiches, drinking something which might have been beer, or near-beer, and playing cards. When asked what they thought of the 10 per cent tipping plan they all expressed favorable opinions, and one of them prophesied that in a few moro years the system would be universally uni-versally esstablished. "There is no reason why employers can't pay us enough to let the public off with a 10 per cent tip," declared he. "Waiting Is a skilled trade, and a good waiter has to be above the average intelligence. in-telligence. Some of us must wait on as many as twenty-four persons at a time, and if you don't believe it requires some skill to get all the orders straight, try it. In some of the larger restaurants and cafes waiters do all of the table decorating decorat-ing in addition to their other work. We feel that we have the right to claim that we should not be looked upon as mere domestic servants or objects of public charity." One of the men explained that conditions condi-tions In the waiting trade are much better bet-ter now than they were a few years ago. Then hundreds of waiters were working fourteen hours a day for $15 a month, and paying expenses of incidental breakage. Now a minimum standard of ten hours a day for six days a week has been established estab-lished at a weekly wage of $15. Further more, all responsibility for breakage has been removed from tho waiter's shoulders. shoul-ders. The old practice of docking a waiter for dishes or other property damaged dam-aged by him in performing his work a practice which was often taken advantage advan-tage of by unscrupulous employers has been finally eliminated. The other day a waiter spilled a cup of coffee in the lap of a guest at one of the near-by beach hotels, and the management docked him $4. But the money was later refunded to him. An English waiter who recently came to this country takes the optimistic view that the 10 per cent tipping system will come into vogue because It is a progressive pro-gressive measure. "Conditions are getting better for us, j sir," he explained cheerfully as he set down a heavy tray of food, "It's now j the salaried people who are getting the ! worst of the high cost of living problem." j In Europe, he said, In most places a res- i taurant proprietor was regarded as being i slightly out of his mind if he paid wages j to a waiter. It was not unusual for i waiters to pay for the privilege of wait- j Ing in certain places, and In others they , even paid for the matches used by the public. But the war put an end to most of these practlces just how he wasn't quite sure. With the waiters favorable to the 10 per cent tipping system, the question of its adoption is now largely one for restaurant res-taurant men to decide. A year ago there would have been little hope of getting such a measure through. The restaurant men naturally are in business for profit, and if they can make the public pay for its service In tips, why should they take the burden upon themselves? But this year there Is a new factor in the situation situa-tion prohibition. After January 1 there seems reason to believe that New York will be actually dry, and this is expected to have a depressing effect upon the cafe business. Already some individuals claim that they notice a falling off in dinner parties, and many waiters have concrete evidence of a falling off in tips. Thi.-A, it is being widely predicted that next year the public is going to be In a much soberer frame of mind and not half so willing to be imposed upon. If this Is a foregone conclusion to these prophets, it does not seem to have made much of an impression upon the restaurant res-taurant men. They are considering adopting adopt-ing the 10 per cent tipping system, ft is true, but many have already decided against it. Their opposition Is not based upon their own dislike of the proposition, but upon the fear that it would not please the waiters or the public. "I very much doubt If It would please the waiters," declared the proprietor of a well-known New York cafe the other night. "A 20 per cent charge would have to be made. In my opinion, if waiters -vre to get, under the new plan, what they are getting now." This proprietor also believes that such a system would encourage the poor waiter and discourage the good one by removing j competition and permitting each to re- , ceive the same tip. "I imagine also." he said, "that you would find the American! public inclined to resent any rule that would specify the size of the tip it is to give. You might giadly give one waiter 25 per cent of the check where you would begrudge another waiter even 5 per cent." Another prdoprletor of a vry smart cafe also asserted that he believed the i American public would never be satis- 1 fied with such a system. "My experience has shown tiiat the majority of people who patronize a restaurant of this kind like to tip," he declared. "They like to fel that they can buy good service. In New York you have to pay for that, and it usually costs a lot more than lo per cent." In spite of these various views, the li per cent tip plan is meeting with suh general approval on tlie part of the public pub-lic that several smaller cafes have taken it op. If I'Oimlari'y is the has: nf moi.ey-making moi.ey-making in tho restaurant business, llvnl t;e new plan hs '-'n:;tbh; and Mand.s e cry chance to eur ivc. |