The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-09-30
BROKEN PROMISE CASES.
Have Not the People Grounds for
Damages Against Democracy

damages A9A1n9t OGmOCr0CyS
a Denver man has sued a restaurant
for damaging his stomach. He says the
restaurant solicited patronage on the
ground that it served good food, but
that the promise was not fulfilled. The
food. he asserts. cansed stomach trou-
Bile, 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 a new field in the dam
age suit line. 1t is usually easy to Sc
cure compensatory damages for losses
caused by broken promises. when the
plaintiff has 4 written contract to back
up his demand. or if he has witnesses to
a verbal contract. but it is not always
possible to secure redress when the
promise is of such a nature as is alleged
10 have been made by the Denver res
tauTant.
Suppose the Denver man had won his
case. An avalanche ri damage suits
might follow. Business men VINO 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 ohl~igations-all these might
be liable for damages if the Denver
plaintiffs suit is sustained.
And what Il mountain of cases might
be piled up against Democracy if the
statute of limitations did not prove to
be a bari. Who will ever forget the
woe and misery. the distress and starva-
ton that came with the Democratic days
of 1888 to 1897? Industries languished
and trade and generally were
paralyzed. Millions of wage earners
were either rendered idle or put on short
time. The streets of the cities swarmed
with unemployed, and s~oup-houSes were
established to feed the hungry. Once
happy homes were turned into places of
squalor. where hun%ger-pinched mothers
sat trying to still the cries of ill-nour-
ished babes. and where gaunt. 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
a great evil. the Democratic platform
said. The people We're urged to try free
trade or II tariff for revenue only. Great
blessings would follow abolition of a
protective tariff. Democracy said. The
people We're misled by these promises
and Grover Cleveland was elected. Then
came the Gorman-Wilson tariff bin and
with it general depression and panicky
conditions. These conditions prevailed
until the Dinsley act went into effect.
and a huge wave of Republican pros
perity began 10 engulf the country.
If the Denver man has grounds for
redress. have not the millions who suf-
fered by reason of Democracy's vision
airy and broken promises just grievance?
Their monetary losses were enormous
and their sufferinss beyond financial
reparation.
And Democracy is again making prom
ises. Will the victims of 1897 listen
to the political sirens who are singing
the song OF ruin. in honeyed words and
hesuiling 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. %dismantled factories,
throttled industries of all kinds. bank
rupt stores and wrecks and ruins gencr-
ally.
No candidate is greater than his party,
and it is a 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.