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“Wages paid waiters here in Bos ton are better than those paid in any other city in the country, yet tipping continues just the same. “We want to be dependent upon our wages alone to make a living, and independent of tips from customers,’—Business Agent John J. Kearney of the Waiters' Union. “I have never seen any evil re sults from tipping—good results, rather. “The Geneva Association favors the tipping system.”—Emile Coulon of Hotel Westminster. Boston union waiters want to see tipping abolished. They want living pay, not gratuities. Hotel custom alone, they say, rather than any “hotel trust,’’ has kept the custom alive up to the present time. The non-union waiters and members of the International Geneva Association of head waiters, founded about 35 years ago by Emile Coulon of the Hotel Westmin ster, don’t want tipping abolished. They say it raises their salaries above the margin of a Hving wage and they are quite satisfied with things as they are. Those arguing with their conviction un shaken on both sides of the question agree that Bostonians are generous in the matter of tips. Not only are the tips given by Bostonians generous, they aver, but also quite to be depended upon—as much so as the Saturday pay envelope. Strangers in Boston possibly give larger tips than Bostonians in Boston, the Sun day Post reporter was told, but that is because it was explained, it is the nat ure of mankind and womankind as well to be more generous in the matter of tips when away from home than when at home, money being spent more free ly when the spenders are enjoying a vacation. It was hinted that some of the most generous visitors to Boston, those who give most freely of their tips while here in the Hub, may actually re frain from tipping when they are at home. Anti-Tipping Movement “This idea of abolishing tipping,’’ stated John J. Kearney, business agent of the Boston Waiters’ Union, with headquar ters at 1160 Washington street, ‘‘so far as the idea goes, was started by us many years ago in Boston. I see that the New Yorkers have just taken up the matter, 500 men in the unions in that city having demanded that tips be stop ped. But the credit for taking the ini tiative in the matter must be given to Boston. “Twenty-one years ago when the hotel and restaurant employees of Boston ef fected an organization, they began the fight for a decent living wage, shorter hours and one day off in seven. “As long as the public will stand for tipping, the proprietors will continue to throw waiters on the mercy of the pub lic. Instead of giving their employees a sufficient wage, many of the pro prietors will make the public pay the bills. “Our union men get $12 a week in cafes and restaurants and in hotels $40 a month, which is about twice as much as non-union men receive. Dr. J. Darwin Nagel, in New York, read statistics that must have startled his audience. He said the percentage of suicides and of deaths from consumption, heart disease, rheumatism and pneumonia were three times greater among waiters and hotel workers generally than in any other trade. Few Deaths Here ?Now, what is the truth in regard to the application of these figures here in Boston? Of our 600 members in the past two years we have lost but three by death. One died from old age, another from consumption, while the third was suddenly killed. This shows that the astounding New York figures on mor tality among waiters and hotel workers do not apply to the members of the Boston union. Whether or not they ap ply to the 2500 who do not belong to organized labor, I cannot say, as, of course, there are no figures at hand to show that. “TIT notice that the tipping evil in New York is laid by one of the complaints to ‘the hotel trust.’ In Boston the better phrase would be ‘hotel custom,’ as of course there is no such thing as an or ganized hotel trust here to promote tip ping. Wages in Boston are better, I be lieve, than in any other city in the coun try, yet tipping continues here just the same. “The union waiters get a 10-hour day and a living wage; the non-union waiter gets a working day of from 14 to 18 hours, and in addition has to depend upon the hours he is able to remain on his feet to receive the gratuities of custom ers to get his living. “There is no doubt but that things have reached a stage where many of the hotels don’t like to ask their custom ers to pay 10 per cent more for their food in order to support the waiter. If the practice of hotels forcing their wait ers to become dependent upon tips con tinues, it must result in the establish ment of no-tip hotels, “The advent of no-tip hotels in Bos ton will mean a granting of the wages necessary to enable the waiters to make a living if the waiters will get together and demand these wages. If they don’t organize, starvation wages are liable to continue, “Waiters at some leading Boston ho tels are paid $6 and $7 a week. They absolutely cannot live on these wages under the present high cost of living, bring up families and be good citizens.”’ Joseph Webling, editor of the official paper of the New York union which has adopted the no-tip idea from Boston, interestingly writes: “In answer to those persons who spread stories as to the fabulous earn ings of waiters in big restaurants, let me say that the schedule this union would make for restaurants of the first class would be a weekly wage of $20. “We would ask the hotel keepers fur ther to give us a commission on our sales. We would not demand an exor bitant commission—say 1 per cent on the food and 2 per cent on the wine. “We are looked upon as pirates wav ing a skull and bones on a white table cloth background. What is the truth? This union wants to abolish tipping. We'd be the happiest of men if we could get the opportunity to earn our living as men in other trades earn theirs—if we could get regular salaries. The tipping system is kept alive not by the waiters but by the hotel trust which compels the patrons to support the waiters.” Opposition Views Emile Coulon is the maitre d’hotel of the Hotel Westminster. He is well quali fied to talk on the question of tips, both as recipient of some very handsome ones and as a keen observer of their effect on others, not only in this country but also in all parts of the civilized world. “This merely is a movement of the union waiters who ask that tipping be abolished,’”’ he explained to a Sunday Post reporter. “No first-class hotel is at all affected by the proposed change, nor, in my opinion, ought to be. “I have never seen any evil results come from tipping—good results rather. A waiter gives the best of service, and the diner is given an opportunity to ex press in a time-honored, gentlemanly fashion at once his appreciation and his generosity. “The Geneva Association, which repre sents the widely experienced class of waiters, does not oppose, but on the other hand actually favors the tipping system.” “There is no possible room for doubt that it is the restaurant waiters who want tipping abolished,” stated Felix Valle, maitre d’hotel of the Hotel Len ox. “Tipping is recognized as a part of the hotel business. To tip is good form,” he continued earnestly. “I have never seen anything but good results from tipping. To upset this system would be all wrong. It is founded on the us age of centuries,” paying ‘‘guests,” while the 10th or 11th, as the case may be, is declared by all the fervent oaths in many languages to be a “pensioner,” who pays nothing, and who therefore may not be included as a lodger that would make up the requisite number allowing the board to have jurisdiction. The rapacity of many of these “land lords” knows no bounds, as witness a recent case of a man who, with his four daughters, both maintained a lodging house on Commercial street, and worked in a candy factory at the same time. Investigation showed that the four daughters, in order to make room for the lodgers, were forced to sleep in a closet devoid of any ventilation or light, in one bed, in quarters so cramped that the first girl slept with her head at the head of the bed, the second with her head at the foot, the third and fourth al ternating as did the first two. It was also established that the ag gregate family income was about $40 a week, derived from the wagee from the candy industry alone, so that only a spirit of miserliness could have induced the father to remain in such quarters and force his four daughters to sleep in one bed, while the other rooms in the house were rented to outsiders. Past failures to get legislation putting the three-family houses in the group classed as tenement houses, board mem bers believe, should not discourage them in trying to secure laws that will enable them to invade these virtual tenements at their will, instead of having their hands tied, as they declare is now the case, until some specific complaint en ables them to enter a house and deal with its diseased patient or patients. Work in Schools Quite as much a part of the preven tive work as any other also is the school work that is being done—the careful and constant scrutiny of pupils who, from bad home conditions, from ill nourish ment or other causes, become tubercular. Through the co-operative work that has been established between the board and the Consumptive Hospital clinic on Burroughs place they have been further ing their work. Daily there come to the board headquarters reports of cases re quiring their attention. Nurses from the clinic investigate. Within the authority with which it is vested the board is able to remove to a hospital the hopeless pa tient, whose continued association with the world in general only spreads the dread disease. Disinfectors step in, clean up the place in which he has lived. He himself may die, in all probability will, but through preventive measures his family may not only be spared, but by prompt action the scores of people with whom he and they come in contact may be saved. Education, prevention—these are the watchwords today in the great white plague fight in Boston. That it will take many years to stamp out tuberculosis in Boston is admitted freely by the board of health. Unsani tary conditions cannot be stamped out immediately. Not in a day can the foreign mother be convinced that it is unhealthy for her to swing her baby’s cradle over her own and her husband’s bed, so that it may be handy to swing backwards and for wards during the night if the child cries, the three meanwhile sleeping in a fetid, unventilated room. Nor are Wards 2, 7 and 18 the only offenders. They contribute the largest percentage of cases, and the number even is not known since so many of their residents, taken seriously ill, go to hos pitals and die there, with the result that other wards or other cities even, bear the statistical brunt of the increased death rate. But Boston’s health officials believe that they are well on the way toward the conquering of the dready white plague. FELIX VALLE. JOHN J. KEARNEY. CROWDED ‘SLEEPING ROOM BREEDING SPOT OF TUBPERCULOSIS.
Newspaper Details
Boston Sunday Post
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Sun, Dec 17, 1911
Page 60
Full Page
Clipped by
Adeline C.
USA 01 Aug 2026
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