News flashes from New York City inform us that Grover Whalen, N. R. A. Administrator for that city, has begun a war on "tipping" and seeks to have the age old custom abolished in hotels and restaurants as being a contrary policy to N. R. A. idea of making labor independent and self-supporting.

If those are really Mr. Whalen's reasons for desiring this abolition of extra compensation to hotel employees, on the part of the patrons, the Negro restaurant, and hotel worker will anticipate the success of the Recovery Administrations new fight as welcome news. Long before the new Packard was sold, or the country home given up, or even before the social secretary dispensed of, Mr. and Mrs. America became too concerned with whispered reports of stock crashes and bank failures to give much thought to service. So, the extra compensation that was once left to insure service was less frequently seen. In other words, tips have been on the downward trend for quite sometime. However, the hotel and restaurant proprietors have continued to pay extremely low wages, still relying upon the generosity of the patrons in "making up" the employess check at no cost to the establishment, which means, of course, that in most instances, the low wages paid the employee is the only compensation received.

If Mr. Whalen, the National Recovery Administrator of New York, really intends for labor to become independent and self-supporting, then living wages will be demanded by codes from the, conveniently, blind employers who are content to place upon the public, the burden of paying workers' salaries instead of paying the afore-mentioned living wages themselves.