On June 8, 1909, at midnight, a statute outlawing tipping in Washington takes effect, 90 days after the March 11 adjournment of the legislature. The first measure of its type in the United States, the law was passed by the state Senate on March 1, 1909, by the House of Representatives on March 4, 1909, and approved by the governor on March 22. Both giving and receiving "gratuities" were deemed misdemeanors. The prohibition was essentially unenforceable, largely ignored, and repealed in 1913. Nonetheless, during its brief time on the books it reflected the influence of a nationwide campaign against tipping that was widely supported by Progressives and the labor movement.
Legal Overreach
In 1909 the Washington legislature enacted a major revision of the state's criminal code. A parenthetical at the beginning of Chapter 249 of the 1909 session laws noted that "The Criminal Code was taken largely from New York and Minnesota." Not the anti-tipping law, however; neither those states nor any other had outlawed tipping. Washington's statute was the first, a homegrown creation that would later be copied by several other states.
The legislation was strongly supported by the state's Progressive Movement, which had achieved substantial political power and would accomplish much good, including winning woman suffrage in 1910, a decade before it became the law of the land. But the movement had a tendency for moralistic preachiness, and was an aggressive advocate for legislation banning...
CNN is defending its reporting on a statement given by Iranian officials regarding a ceasefire agreement the U.S. and Iran reached just hours before President Trump was set to launch an attack on ...