Milford chronicle., 1904-09-30
BROKEN PROMISE CASES.
Have Not the People Grounds for
Damages Against DemocracyF

Have Not the People Grounds for
Damages Against Democracy
a Denver man has sued restaurant
for damaging his stomach. He says the
restaurant solicited patronage on the
ground tAa. il served good food fut
that tie promise was not fulfilled. lhe
food. he asserts. caused stomach ,rou-
ble. from which he suffered greatly, and
he fixes his damages ii; several thou
sand dollars.
This case win be watched with inter
est. for it opens new field in the dam
age suit line. II is usually easy to Sc
cure compensatory damages for losses
caused by broken promises, when the
plaintiff has q written contract to back
up his demand or if lac has witnesses to
verbal contract. but il is not always
possible 10 secure redress when the
promise is of such a nature as is alleged
10 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
ngagements, girls who wait vainly 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 obligltions-aN these might
be liable for damages if the Denver
plaintiffs suit is sustained.
And what a 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 Starya-
tion that came with the Democratic days
of 1893 TO 1897? Industries languished
aud trade and commerce generally We're
paralyzed Millions Of wage earners
We're either rendered idle or put on short
| time The streets Of the cities swarned
with unemployed, and soup-hoases We're
established 10 feed the hungry. Once
happy homes We're turned into places OF
| squalor, where hunger -pinched mothers
sat TRYING to still the cries Of ill-nOHr-
| 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 lS92
| Democracy was lavish with promises
| The Republican policy. of protection was
q great evil, the Democratic platform
said. Tie people were urged 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 was elected. Then
came the Gorman-Wilson tariff bill and
with il general depression and panickS
conditions. These coalitions prevailed
until the Dingley act went into effect
and a hinge wave of Republican pros
perity began 20 engulf the country.
II the Denver man has grounds fol
redress, have not the millions who suf
fered by reason of Democracy's vision
AIRY and broken promises just grievance
Their monetary losses We're enormou
and their snfferings beyond hnaucia
rep1ratiou.
And Democracy is again making prom
ises Win the victims Of 1897 iistei
to the political sirens who are sinEin
the song Of ruin. in honeyed words an
beguling tones? Not if they stop an
consider the past
Democracy has nothing but It's pas
record TO stand on, and that record j
slrewn with heaps of broken promises
blasted hopes. dismantled factories
thrOttled industries of all kinds. bank
rupt stores and wrecks and ruins geneI
ally.
No candidate is greater than his party
and it is a certainty that if Parke
should. by any chance, be elected HI
administration would be Democratic, an
Democracy never has conferred a rea
| beueft on the people