The Tipping Point

PETER: If you’re just joining us, this is BackStory. And we’re talking today about the history of America’s middle class. Our next story is about dining out, which as it turns out was a strong indicator of social class towards the end of the 19th century. For starters, there weren’t many restaurants back then. Most cities had only two or three. And we’re not That Red Lobster are Chili’s.

ANDREW HALEY: These restaurants are pretty exclusive. They have highly trained hoards of waiters. And in general, you have one waiter per every table.

BRIAN: This is Andrew Haley, a historian at the University of Southern Mississippi. He says these restaurants were all about service. And I don’t mean just getting your meal on time. Your waiter stood at attention, ready to cater to your every need.

ANDREW HALEY: That waiter is going to go to the kitchen and get your food. He may cut your roast. He may recommend the best dish or the freshest fish of the day.

But waiters were sometimes asked to do other servile tasks. They might be sent to the hotel lobby in order to purchase a cigar for you or even sent down to the railroad station in order to get the timetable of trains coming in.

BRIAN: So it was kind of like rent a servant.

ANDREW HALEY: It was kind of rent a servant.

BRIAN: Now right around the same time, the group we’d identify as the new middle class, factory managers, small business owners, lawyers, doctors, were starting to dine out, at least once in awhile. And when they did, it was a bit of a culture shock.

ANDREW HALEY: These are diners who are not accustomed to going out to fancy restaurants. They’re a bit intimidated by the experience anyhow. They don’t know the French language that is most often used on these menus. They don’t know the standards of behavior for the restaurant, how to dress, which fork to use.

And on top of that, this cost them a lot of money. To dine out at the turn of the century cost about $20. It might be the equivalent of spending $400 at one of these fancy restaurants.

BRIAN: All these things tripped up the new middle class diners. But none were as irksome as the relatively new practice of tipping.

PETER: Tipping was a convention that wealthy travelers had brought back from Europe in the years following the Civil War. By the turn of the century, it was common practice in American cities. And it served a few purposes, all of which suited the wealthy. It ensured top notch service, allowed people to flaunt their surplus wealth, and, says Haley, kept the waiters from spilling any proverbial beans.

ANDREW HALEY: You were also renting a degree of privacy, right, because the waiter was there the whole time, ready to wait on your table. And by paying a generous tip, you ensured that that waiter wouldn’t talk about what happened at the table, whether that was a business deal or you were dining with somebody other than your wife.

BRIAN: Middle class diners had no use for any of that. They hated the fact that there was no set standard for tipping. To them, this convention celebrated ostentatious wealth and nothing more. And they made their disgust known, railing against the so-called tipping evil in newspapers, magazines, really, in every venue that they could find.

MAN QUOTING NEWSPAPER: Class distinctions are being more and more emphasized in this country. And one of the causes of it is the prevalence of tipping. A considerable number of persons to whom money comes easy, like to show off by aping the customs of the aristocracy of the Old World, by giving freely to those who serve them.

BRIAN: This is from the Lincoln Daily News in 1915. It typifies the ideological critique of tipping that showed up on editorial pages. But on the ground, the anxiety was much more concrete. And it was all about the waiters.

ANDREW HALEY: The middle class were terrified of the idea that waiters were adulterating their food, spitting in their soup, doing other things. And occasionally, there was a kind of backlash against the waiters. In Chicago, they rounded up 100 waiters at one point in time who were suspected of doing something to the food.

BRIAN: Others took a less hands on approach. They looked to technology as the answer to this seemingly intractable problem.

ANDREW HALEY: There were about 20 patterns that were filed in the early 20th century for waiter-less restaurants.

BRIAN: One proposed remedy might seem odd coming from people who claim to be against class distinctions. The idea was that you’d sit at the table and write your order on a tablet of some sort.

ANDREW HALEY: And then the center of your table descends down into the kitchen with your order. And instantaneously, people throw the food on. And it rises back up. And you’ve been served your dinner without ever meeting a waiter and without having to tip.

PETER: Haley says the conflict over tipping was in large part due to the fact that the small, but growing middle class had no space to call its own. Today, we take for granted that the vast majority of restaurants, hotels, and stores are basically for the middle class. But around the turn of the century, it was either restaurants with $400 plus meals or seedy taverns, not many in betweens.

ANDREW HALEY: The middle class have two choices. They’re going to try and insert themselves into this upper class culture, in which they always are kind of second class citizens. Or they can try and colonize and take over some of these working class establishments.

BRIAN: The middle class went with option number two. Taverns were gradually upgraded and became a cleaner, friendlier, and reasonably priced option. Fast food, buffet restaurants soon emerged.

As for tipping, it obviously didn’t go away. But in the 1920s, the idea of a standard tip was introduced, helping it to become more predictable, more affordable, and a little less evil.

PETER: Andrew Haley helped us tell that story. He’s a historian at the University of Southern Mississippi and the author of Turning the Tables, Restaurants and the Rise of the Middle Class.

BRIAN: You’re listening to BackStory. And if you leave a big enough tip, we’ll be back in a minute.