The Springfield herald., 1904-09-30
BROKEN PROMISE CASES.
Have Not the People Grounds for
Damages Against Democrncyf

Damages Against Dcmocrncyf
A Denver man has sued a restaurant
for damaging his stomach He says the
restaurant solicited patronage on the
ground that il served good food, but
that the promise was not fulfilled. The
food, he asserts, caused stomach trou-
bic, from which he suffered greatly, and
he fixes his damages at several thou
sand dollars.
This case will be watched with inter
est, for it opens new field in the dam
age suit line. 1t is usually easy to Sc
cure compensatory damages for losses
caused by broken promises, when tho
plaintiff has n written contract to back
up his demand, or il he has witnesses to
n verbal contract, but it is not always
possible to secure redress when the
promise is of such nature as is alleged
to have been made by the Denver res
taurant.
Suppose the Denver man had won his
case. An avalanche of damage suits
might follow. Business men who forget
engagements, girls who wait vainly for
lovers that fail to come, borrowers who
neglect to repay small loans, politicians
who promise and forget, and political
parties which bid for votes and never
meet their obligations these might
plaintiffs suit is sustained.
And what n mountain OF cases might
be piled up against Democracy il the
statute of limitations did not prove to
be a bar! Who will ever forget the
woe and misery, the distress and starva-
tion that came with the Democratic days
of 1893 to 1897? Industries lansuishcd
and trade and commerce generally were
parayZed. Millions of wage earners
We're either rendered idle or put on short
time. The streets of the cities swarmcd
with unemployed, and soup-houses were
established to feed the hungry. Once
happy homes were turned into places of
squalor, where hunger-pnched mothers
sat trying to still the cries OF ill-nour-
ished babes, and where saunt, sunken-
eyed men brooded over their inability to
obtain work.
And what caused these distressing
conditions? In the campaign of 1892
Democracy was lavish with promises.
The Republican policy of protection was
n great evil, the Democratic platform
said. The people were urged to try free
trade or n tariff FOR revenue only Great
blessings would follow abolition of
protective tariff, Democracy said. The
people were mislcd by these promises
and Grover Cleveland was elected. Then
came the Gorman-Wilson tariff bill and
with it general depression and panicky
conditions. These conditions prevailed
until the Dinglcy act went into effect,
and a huge wave OF Republican pros
perity began to cngulf the country.
If the Denver man has grounds for
redress, have not the millions who suf
fered by reason of Dcmocracy's vision
| ary and broken promises just grievance?
Their monetary losses were enormous
| and their suffcrngs beyond financial
| reparation.
And Democracy is again making prom
| ises. VIII the victims of 1887 listen
| to the political sirens who are singing
the song of ruin. in honeycd words and
| heguilins tones? Not if they stop and
| consider the past.
Democracy has nothing but its past
| record to stand on, and that record is
| strewn with heaps of broken promises,
| blasted hopes. dismantlcd factories.
| throttled industries of all kinds, bank
| rupt stores and wrecks and ruins Sener-
ally.
No candidate is greater Than his party.
| and it is n certainty that if Parker
should. by any chance. be elected his
administration would be Democratic, and
| Democracy never has conferred a real
benefit on the people.