Practical Argumentation Part 22

6. The fixed curriculum of studies is effective in making a specialist, because the specialist takes up only one kind of work.

7. Southerners are justified in keeping the franchise from the negro, because the Fifteenth Amendment to the Const.i.tution ought never to have been pa.s.sed.

8. Since the negro's devotion to the church is as great as that of most white people, he is of as high moral standing as the average unintelligent white.

9. Ireland is idle and therefore she starves; she starves and therefore she rebels.

10. Every one desires virtue, because every one desires happiness.

11. The present term of four years is so short a time that the President does not have opportunity to become acquainted with his duties, for just as he is becoming acquainted with them he has to step out of office.

12. This doctrine cannot be proved from the Gospels, nor from the Acts of the Apostles, nor from the Epistles, nor from the Revelation of St.

John; therefore it cannot be proved from the New Testament.

13. Crime is a violation of the laws of our country; piracy is a crime; this man belongs to a band of lawless men, and this band has been taken in the very deed of piracy. Therefore he has violated the laws of our country.

14. Since all presuming men are contemptible, and since this man presumes to believe his opinions are correct, he is not worthy of our consideration.

15. To prove to you that our standing army should be permanently enlarged, I will show that every nation of any prominence whatsoever keeps a standing army.

16. The elective system of studies is preferable to the prescribed system, because

A. The student can elect those studies which will do him the most good, for

1. He can elect what he pleases.

17. Strikes benefit the working man, because

A. They benefit him financially, for

1. If they did not, he would not strike.

18. When thirteen sit at table together, one of them always dies within the year.

19. To decide whether or not strikes are justifiable it is necessary to see if they have for the most part been successful in the past.

20. All the trees in the park make a thick shade; this is one of them, therefore this tree makes a thick shade.

21. Italy is a Catholic country and abounds in beggars; France is also a Catholic country, and therefore abounds in beggars.

22. Pitt was not a great and useful minister; for though he would have been so had he carried out Adam Smith's doctrines of free trade, he did not carry out those doctrines.

23. All criminal actions ought to be punished by law. Prosecutions for theft are criminal actions, and therefore ought to be punished by law.

24. Books are a source both of instruction and of amus.e.m.e.nt; a table of logarithms is a book; therefore it is a source both of instruction and of amus.e.m.e.nt.

B. On each of the following arguments from authority write a paragraph that will weaken its effect:--

1. "The Senate for more than a century has demonstrated the wisdom of the mode of its const.i.tution." Senator G. F. h.o.a.r.

2. "Mine disasters are largely due to the intoxication of miners, or to carelessness caused by the after effects of a 'spree,'" says Dr.

Jesse K. Johnson, superintendent of one of the largest mines in the Pittsburg district.

3. Both Mark Hanna and Grover Cleveland have stated that a six year Presidential term would be of great benefit to the United States.

4. Senator La Follet, who has made a thorough study of many of the princ.i.p.al monopolies in the country, states that the Standard Oil trust charges exorbitant rates.

5. Mr. Francis Walker, in the Political Science Quarterly, Volume twenty, page fourteen, says that legislation against trusts has improved conditions, and would therefore improve conditions in the United States.

6. President Hadley, of Yale University, has said that the subsidizing of s.h.i.+ps on a large scale has been detrimental to France.

7. "The Indian who is not obliged to labor for his maintenance becomes a lazy vagabond." Lyman Abbott.

C. Put the following article into the form of a brief and show exactly what methods of refutation are used:--

THE OLD FRIGATE "CONSt.i.tUTION."

The pretexts for removal of "Old Ironsides" from the waters in which that historic s.h.i.+p had her birth are now reduced to two.

One of these is that the old boat takes up room at the Navy Yard which is needed for the work of that establishment.

The other is that since the money expended in the restoration of the frigate--less than $200,000--came out of the Federal Treasury, the people of distant States ought to have the pleasure of seeing what their money paid for without coming to Boston in order to enjoy it.

As for crowding the Navy Yard, that is an absurdity. His Excellency Curtis Guild, Jr., in his letter to the Navy Department protesting against the removal, quoted the officers in command at the Navy Yard as declaring that "the s.h.i.+p in no way interferes with the work of the yard, taking up no s.p.a.ce that is needed for other purposes." The Governor would not make such a statement in an official communication without the clearest authority. "Indeed," he adds as his own opinion, "the strip of wharf occupied is but a trivial portion of the long water front controlled by the government."

There is the other pretext, namely, that because the "Const.i.tution"

has been repaired at national cost, therefore any special claim that Ma.s.sachusetts may have upon this relic of Ma.s.sachusetts patriotism is removed. This idea has found crude and unmannerly expression in the words of one of the committee of Congress looking over our navy yards.

"The agitation to keep the s.h.i.+p in Boston seems selfish," he is quoted as saying. "It was the money of the whole people of the United States that paid for its repair, and the people in other sections are as justly ent.i.tled to see the s.h.i.+p as in Boston."

Coming from a representative of the State of Kansas, this is almost amusing. His proposition to tow the s.h.i.+p around from place to place, as it may be wanted for a show, suggests the practicability of a ca.n.a.l, say, to Topeka, or to Fort Hayes.

The alternative proposition, namely, that Ma.s.sachusetts shall repay to the general government the cost of the repairs of the "Const.i.tution,"

would have some standing were it a commercial affair. Ma.s.sachusetts has expended many times the cost of the repairs of "Old Ironsides" in preserving for the nation the revolutionary sites and monuments upon our soil. Payment for the repair and restoration of "Old Ironsides"

would be a bagatelle if the people of the United States were to demand that this monument also shall be purchased by the people of Ma.s.sachusetts under threat of its removal.

But it is not a question of money; that is a contemptible suggestion.

Nor is it a question of bureaucracy. It is a simple, reasonable, entirely practical demand of the historic sentiment of patriotism which still warms the hearts and inspires the souls of Ma.s.sachusetts men.

CHAPTER IX

DEBATE--SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS

Debate has been defined as the oral presentation of argument under conditions that allow both sides to be heard. In both cla.s.s room and intercollegiate debating each side usually makes two speeches, a main speech and a reb.u.t.tal speech. The main speech ordinarily extends over a period of from seven to twelve minutes, according to the rules governing the contest, and is largely constructive in nature. The reb.u.t.tal speech, commonly called _the reb.u.t.tal_, is usually a little less than half the length of the main speech, and is for the most part destructive. It is almost superfluous to add that both sides are allowed exactly the same amount of time in which to present their arguments; that the affirmative side speaks first, the order being, when there are several debaters, affirmative, negative, affirmative, negative, and so on; and that all the main speeches are given before either side makes a reb.u.t.tal speech. If there be only one debater on each side, it is undoubtedly best for the affirmative to offer the first reb.u.t.tal; if there be several debaters, the order is usually reversed. The debaters on either side may or may not speak in reb.u.t.tal in the same order as in the main argument.