Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-09-28
BROKEN PROMISE CASES.
Have Not the People CT unds for
Damages Against Democracy9

DamNEeH against DemOCraCyF
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, caused stomach trou-
bic, from which he suffered greatly, and
he fixes his damages ut 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 the
plaintiff has a written contract to back
up his demand, or if he has witnesses to
verbal contract, but it is not always
possible to secure redress when the
promise is of such a 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 obigations--all these might
be liable for damages il the Denver
plaintiffs suit is sustained.
And what mountain of cases might
be piled up against Democracy if the
statute of limitations did not prove 20
be a bar! Who viii ever forget the
woe and misery the distress and starva.
ton that came with the Democratic days
nf IN III Il 1
and trade and commerce generally were
paralyzed. Millions OF wage earners
were either rendered idle or put on short
time. The streets of the cities swar ned
with unemployed. and soup-houses were
established 10 feed the hungry. One,
happy homes We're turned into places of
squalor. where hunger-pinched mothers
sat trying to still the cries of ill-nour-
shed 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
great evil, the Democratic platform
said. The people were urgeG to try free
trade or a tariff for revenue only. Great
blessings would follow abolition of a
protective tariff, Democracy said. The
people were misled by these promises
and Grover Cleveland wa elected Then
came the Communication tariff bill and
with it general depression and panicky
conditions. These conditions prevailed
| until the Dingley 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 suf-
fered by reason of Democracy's vision
| airy and broken promises just grievance?
Their monetary losses were enormous
and their sutferings beyond financial
reparation.
And Democracy is again making prom
| ises. VIII the victims of 1897 listen
To the political sirens who are singing
the song of ruin. in honeyed words and
heguil.ng 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 gener-
ally.
No candidate is greater than his party,
and it is a certainty that if Parker
| should, by any chance, I've elected his
administration would be Democratic, and
| Democracy never has conferred a real
| benefit on the people.