The Elbert County tribune., 1904-09-29
BROKEN PROMISE CASES.
Have Not the People Grounds for
DAMAGE Against Democracy

nave NOV tnc Icbpic er0uuun Tor
Damsrcs Against Dcmocracyr
A Denver man has sued restaurant
for damaging his stomach. He says the
restaurant solicited patronage on the
ground that II 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 he watched with inter-
est, for 1t opens a new Held In the dam
age suit line. II Is usually easy to Sc
cure compensatory damages for losses
caused by broken promises, when tho
plaintiff has a written contract to back
up his demand, or IL he has witnesses to
verbal contract, but 1t 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
enga gements. girls who wait vninly for
lovers that fail to come, borrowers who
neglect 10 repay small loans, politicians
who promise and forget. and political
parties which bid for votes and never
meet their obllgations--nll these might
be liable for damages II the Denver
plaintiffs suit Is sustained.
And what n mountain OF cases might
be piled up against Democracy II 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 1898 to 1897? Industries languishcd
and trade and commerce generally were
parnlyzed. Millions of wage earners
were either rendered idle or put on short
time. The streets of the cities swarmed
with unemployed. and soup-houses were
established to feed the hungry. Once
happy homes were turned into places OF
squaior, where hungor-pinched mothers
sat trying to still the cries OF ill-nour-
ished babes, and where gaunt, sunkcn-
eyed men brooded over their inability to
obtain work.
And what caused these distressing
conditions2 In the campaign OF 1902
Democracy was lavish with promises.
The Republican policy of protection was
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 engulf the country.
II the Denver man has grounds for
redress. have not the millions who sur
fercd by reason OF Democracy's vision
airy and broken promises just grievance?
Their monetary losses were enormous
and their sufferings beyond financial
repatriation.
And Democracy Is again making prom
ises. Win tho victims OF 1897 listen
to the political sirens who are singing
the song OF ruin, In honeyed words aud
beguiling tones7 Not IL they stop and
consider the past.
Democracy has nothing hut 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 gener-
ally.
No candidate Is greater than his party,
and 1t Is certainty that II Parker
should. by any chance. be elected his
administration would be Democratic, and
Democracy never has conferred q real
benefit on the peOple