Books: Practical Argumentation
G >>
George K. Pattee >> Practical Argumentation
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 | 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18
They had no intentions to inform him of. They were merely acting from
hand to mouth to avert the parliamentary censure with which they were
threatened. They had no plan, they had no intentions to carry out. If
they could have known their intentions, a great hero would have been
saved to the British army, a great disgrace would not have fallen on
the English government. [Footnote: On the Desertion of Gordon in
Egypt, Lord Salisbury, The World's Famous Orations. Funk & Wagnalls,
Vol. V, p. 111.]
2. For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in
the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a
bill of attainder, or an _ex post facto_ law, and is therefore a
violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of
liberty are forever withheld from women and their female posterity. To
them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of
the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a
republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the
most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an
oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor. An oligarchy of
learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy
of race where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this
oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the
oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every
household--which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects,
carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the
nation.
Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in
the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.
The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I
hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say
they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State
has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall
abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination
against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is
to-day null and void. [Footnote: On Woman's Right to the Suffrage,
Susan B. Anthony. The World's Famous Orations. Funk & Wagnalls, Vol.
X, p. 59.]
3. The "Legal Intelligencer" prints the full text of the recent
decision of Judge Sulzberger in the case of Claus & Basher _vs_.
the Rapid Transit Company, which deals with a phase of the question
concerning the use of the streets in obstructing public travel. The
Judge, in denying the plaintiffs a rule for a new trial, put the
matter under review into his customary concise logic, as follows:
The plaintiff contends that the direction for defendant was erroneous,
because the jury should have been given the opportunity to pass upon
the question whether he was or was not negligent in placing his wagon
in such a position that it encroached three or four feet upon the
transit company's track, without which encroachment the accident could
not have happened.
His reasons are as follows:
1. That a driver, for the purpose of watering his horses, has the
right to encroach on the trolley track.
2. That even if he has not, it is negligence for a motor-man not to
stop his car in time to prevent a collision in broad daylight with a
conspicuous obstacle like a wagon in front of him.
As to the first point:
An obstruction of the highway which is temporary and partial may be
justified in cases of plain, evident necessity, but not where that
necessity is argumentative and supposititious: Com. _vs_.
Passmore, 1 S. & R. 217; Rex v. Russell, 6 East. 427. There was no
necessity on the plaintiff to water his horses in the way he did. Two
other ways, both perfectly safe, were open to him. He chose the
easiest and the riskiest.
But if there had not been two safe ways open for him, he would still
have been guilty of negligence in drawing his wagon across a trolley
track, on a busy city street, on which cars were running every minute
or two. The primary use of the car track is for public travel, not for
watering horses. A permanent watering-trough on a sidewalk, so
constructed as not to be usable without stopping the running of the
cars, would be a nuisance. The supposed analogy to the right of an
abutter to load and unload a necessary article fails entirely. A
passing driver is not in the position of an abutter, the
reasonableness of whose action is determined by the degree of
momentary necessity, and the limit of whose right is that his
obstruction must be temporary. Here, however, the watering-trough and
not the driver is in the abutter's position. The watering-trough is a
public utility, which every one may use. On a warm day, in a busy city
street, hundreds of vehicles may stop there, and the quantity of
obstruction is not the time occupied by each, but the sum of the times
occupied by all. The effect must necessarily be a serious hindrance to
public travel, which might sometimes result in complete stoppage.
To use the thought of Mr. Justice Dean, in Com. _vs._ Forrest,
170 Pa. 47, the law would soon be invoked to decide whether the car
track was for the cars or for vehicles stopped thereon for the purpose
of watering horses; whether the driver of such vehicles was in the
exercise of a lawful right or was a usurper of the rights of others.
In the case of Attorney-General _vs._ the Sheffield Gas
Consumers' Company, 19 Eng. Law & Eq. 639, Lord Chancellor Cranworth,
considering a similar question, used this illustration: "No doubt that
it would be a nuisance, and a very serious nuisance, if a person with
a barrel organ, or the bagpipes, were to come and station himself
under a person's window all day. But when he is going through a city,
you know that he will stop ten minutes at one place and ten minutes at
another, and you know he will so go on during the day." The watering-
trough, however, is stationary.
As to the second point:
The general rule in Pennsylvania is that contributory negligence
prevents recovery. This rule, it is true, does not apply where the
defendant is guilty of "negligence so wanton and gross as to be
evidence of voluntary injury"; Wynn _vs_. Allord, 5 W. & S. 525;
McKnight _vs_. Ratcliff, 44 Pa. 156. There is, however, nothing
in the testimony to indicate that the defendant's motorman did
anything wanton. Coming down a steep hill, he failed for a moment to
see an obstacle which he had a right to expect would not be on the
track. No one says that he did not do his best to prevent the
collision after he had seen the wagon.
The question at bottom is one of public policy. Should the motorman
anticipate that persons of mature age will station their wagons across
the tracks? If the rights of the traveling public are to be preserved,
the answer must be in the negative.
4. Aside from the money question, the most serious problem that
confronts the people of America to-day is that of rescuing their
cities, their States and the federal government, including the federal
judiciary, from absolute control of corporate monopoly. How to restore
the voice of the citizen in the government of his country; and how to
put an end to those proceedings in some of the higher courts which are
farce and mockery on one side, and a criminal usurpation and
oppression on the other....
In as much as no government can endure in which corrupt greed not only
makes the laws, but decides who shall construe them, many of our best
citizens are beginning to despair of the republic. Others urge that we
should remove the bribe-givers--that is, destroy this overwhelming
temptation by having the government take all these monopolies itself
and furnish the service which they now furnish, and thus not only save
our institutions, but have the great profits which now go into the
pockets of private corporations turned into the public treasury....
Let us see what civilized man is doing elsewhere. Take the cities of
Great Britain first, for they have the same power of self-government
that American cities have. In all that pertains to the comfort and
enterprise of the individual we are far in the lead; but in the
government of cities we are far behind. Glasgow has to-day nearly one
million inhabitants and is one of the great manufacturing and
commercial cities of the world. Thirty years ago there was scarcely a
city that was in a worse condition. Private corporations furnished it
a poor quality of water, taken from the Clyde River, and they charged
high rates for it. The city drained into the Clyde, and it became
horribly filthy. Private corporations furnished a poor quality of gas,
at a high price; and private companies operated the street railroads.
Private companies had the same grip on the people there that they have
in most American cities. Owing to the development of great
shipbuilding and other industries in the valley of the Clyde, the
laboring population of Glasgow became very dense and the means of
housing the people were miserable. Poorly lighted, poorly ventilated,
filthy houses brought high rents. In many cases two families lived in
one room. Cleanliness was impossible, the sanitary conditions were
frightful and the death rate was high. As for educational facilities,
there were none worth mentioning for these people. The condition of
the laboring classes was one of degradation and misery; children were
growing up mentally, morally and physically diseased; a generation was
coming which threatened to be an expense and a menace to the country.
It was a great slum city.
But patriotic and public-spirited men came to the front and gave the
city the benefit of their services free. In fact, none of the high
city officials in Great Britain received any pay other than the well
being of humanity and the good opinions of their country. The city rid
itself of the private companies by buying them and then brought fresh
water from the highlands, a distance of sixty miles. It doubled the
quantity of water furnished the inhabitants, and reduced the cost to
consumers by one-half. And yet the department now yields over two
hundred thousand dollars a year net income over all fixed charges.
The municipality, after much difficulty, bought the gas plants and
gradually reduced the price of gas from $1.14 to 58 cents, and it now
illuminates not only the streets and public places, but all
passageways and stairways in flat buildings, experience having shown
that a good lamp is almost as useful as a policeman. The total debt of
the city for plants, extensions, etc., to illumine perfectly all the
city had reached nearly five and a half millions of dollars.
Notwithstanding the low price at which gas is sold, this sum has
gradually been reduced to less than two and a half millions of dollars
out of the earnings of the system, and it will soon be wiped out and
the entire revenue go into the city treasury.
The street railways were owned by the city, but, until 1894, they were
leased out under an arrangement which paid the city full cost of
construction, with interest, besides a yearly income of $750 per
street mile. In 1894 the city began to operate the lines itself. The
fares were reduced 33 per cent., besides special tickets to laborers,
so that the average is under two cents, and over one-third of all
fares are one cent each.
The private company had worked its men twelve and fourteen hours a day
and paid irregular and unsatisfactory wages. The city at once reduced
the number of hours to ten, and fixed a satisfactory scale of wages.
And, compared with what it formerly was, the service has been greatly
improved. In spite of all these acts for the benefit of the public,
the roads which had cost the city nothing, now net over all charges
for improvements, etc., one-fourth of a million annually. In 1892 the
city bought out a private electric light company, and now has the
monopoly of furnishing electric light and power. This promises to be a
source of enormous revenue for the city....
Manchester has within its narrow limits only a little over half a
million people, but within a radius of twenty miles from her city hall
there are over three million inhabitants. These have to be considered
in discussing Manchester, which is essentially a manufacturing and
commercial city. Its history is in many respects a parallel of that of
Glasgow. It seemed to be a great city of slums, degradation and
misery, and was in the grip of private monopolies.
To-day the city furnishes all the service that is furnished here by
private corporations, and does it at about one-half cost. It furnishes
gas at fifty-six cents a thousand, and after deducting all that is
used to illuminate perfectly the streets and after applying $200,000 a
year on the original cost of plants, etc., it still turns $300,000 a
year into the public treasury, altho the aim in nearly all English
cities is not to make money, but to serve the public. The city
constructed an aqueduct ninety miles to secure pure water and
furnishes this for a little more than half what the private company
had charged for a poor quality of water. It owns street railways, and
besides giving greatly reduced rates and giving half-fare tickets to
workingmen, the city derives a large revenue from this source. Like
Glasgow and Birmingham, the city owns large cemeteries in which there
are separate sections for the different religious denominations, and
prices are so arranged that while those who desire to do so can get
lots costing from ten to thirty dollars, yet "a decent burial with
inscription on stone over a grave can be had at about four dollars for
adults and three dollars for children. This charge includes all
cemetery fees and expenses."
The city owns the markets and slaughter houses. It has provided parks
and swimming baths and, like Birmingham and Glasgow, it maintains
large technical schools in which thousands of young men are instructed
in the industrial arts and sciences, so as to be able to maintain
Manchester's greatness.
Birmingham has over half a million of people, and its experience
resembles that of Glasgow and Manchester. Formerly private
corporations controlled almost everything and charged very high rates
for very poor service, and the sanitary conditions were frightful. But
here again municipal statesmen came to the front, the most prominent
among whom was The Honorable Joseph Chamberlain, who has since been in
the British government.
Not going further into detail, let me say there are at present in the
United Kingdom 185 municipalities that supply their inhabitants with
water, with gas and electric light, and one-third of the street
railway mileage of Great Britain is owned by the municipalities.
Leaving out London it amounts to two-thirds. And in most instances in
which they do not own the street railways, they have compelled the
companies to grant low fares and divide profits.
Every business reason applicable to the municipalities and governments
of Europe is applicable here. We want as pure water, as good drainage,
as cheap service as they have, and we want the same privilege of
supplying ourselves as they exercise; and when it is apparent that, by
acting collectively, we can do business more successfully, can serve
ourselves better in every way, and can secure for the public treasury
these millions which now go into the pockets of grasping individuals,
have we not a right to do it? If we find that, in this manner, we can
give steadiness to labor, and can elevate its standards and improve
the conditions of our people, dare we not do it? Every one of the
reforms carried out in England and on the continent met with fierce
opposition from the same classes that oppose them here, but the
business sense and patriotic impulse of the people prevailed, and I
believe, will prevail here. [Footnote: On Municipal and Government
Ownership, Altgeld The World's Famous Orations. Funk & Wagnalls Co.,
Vol. X, p. 208.]
5. Draw a brief of Beecher's speech found on page 166.
CHAPTER VIII
METHODS OF REFUTATION
A complete argument consists of two kinds of proof: constructive proof
and refutation. Constructive proof is that part of an argument which
sets forth direct reasons for belief in a certain proposition;
refutation is that part which destroys the reasons for belief in the
opposite side.
In general, each of these divisions is of about equal importance, at
times the value of one predominating and at times the value of the
other. If one is addressing an audience unacquainted with his views or
hostile towards them, he is not likely to make much progress in
getting his own beliefs accepted until he has, at least in part,
shattered the opinion already existing. If, however, the audience is
predisposed or even willing to accept the doctrine advocated, very
little but constructive proof may be necessary.
In debate, the side that has the burden of proof will usually have
more use for constructive argument, and the opposite side will have
more use for refutation. This statement will not always hold true,
however, for the rule will vary under different circumstances; a
debater must, therefore, hold himself in readiness to meet whatever
contingencies arise. Debate may be likened to the play of two boys
building houses with blocks; each boy builds the best house he can,
and at times attempts to overthrow the work of his playmate. The one
that has the better structure when the game ends comes off victorious.
Thus it is in debate; each debater must do his best both to build up
his own argument and to destroy his opponent's.
To handle refutation successfully, either in written argument or in
debate, one must know what to refute and what to leave alone. The
general rule governing this matter is: _Refute only those arguments
which are essential to the proof of the other side_. All trivial
ideas, even all misstatements which if refuted would not destroy any
fundamental process of an opponent's proof, should pass unnoticed. To
mention them means waste of time and effort. It is not uncommon for a
debater to make trivial errors intentionally, in the hope that his
opponent will consume valuable time in refuting them and thus allow
his main argument to go unscathed. When this stratagem succeeds, the
one who made the mistakes can acknowledge that he was wrong in those
unimportant details, and yet show that his fundamental arguments have
not been overthrown. While arguing on a political question, an
intercollegiate debater once laid considerable stress on an opinion
expressed by Woodrow Wilson, "President," as he stated, "of Harvard
University." His opponent, of course, might have held this statement
up to ridicule, but such an exposure would have been impolitic, in
that it would have in no wise impaired the value of Mr. Wilson's
opinion as evidence. Another debater, not so wise, once spent
considerable time in correcting an opponent who had said that the
Steel Trust was formed in 1891 instead of in 1901, as was the case. As
these dates had no vital bearing on the question at issue, the error
should have been allowed to pass. The temptation to point out the
flaws that are most obvious is always great, but unless by so doing
one can knock out the props on which an opponent's proof rests, such
an attack accomplishes nothing.
Another common error in refutation consists in "answering one's self."
A person is guilty of this fault whenever he misstates an opponent's
argument, either because he does not understand it or through design,
and then refutes this misstatement. The folly of such procedure is
made apparent by merely calling attention to the fact that the
original argument has been garbled but in no wise refuted, An opponent
can convict the one who has "answered himself" either of unpardonable
ignorance about the subject or of downright dishonesty.
To guard against these errors of refuting unimportant details and of
"answering one's self," it is always well to reduce an opponent's
argument to the form of a brief. If the argument is in print, this
task is comparatively simple; if the argument is oral, the task will
be harder but will still present no serious difficulties to one who is
used to drawing briefs. When all the ideas have been arranged in the
form of headings and subheadings, and the relation between the ideas
has been indicated by means of numbers and letters, then the arguer
can quickly decide what points he ought to refute and what ones he can
refute.
It goes without saying that the headings marked with the Roman
numerals contain the most important ideas, and should, therefore, be
overthrown as far as possible. There are three ways of disposing of
them: one way is to state that the headings are false and then bring
on new proof to show their falsity; the second way is to call
attention to the subheadings with which the opponent has bolstered up
the main headings, and then, by proving these subheads false, allow
the main heads to fall to the ground; the third way is to admit that
the subheads are true and then show that the inferences drawn from
them are unwarranted.
To illustrate: A part of an argument on the affirmative side of the
proposition, "_Resolved_, That students in American colleges
should be excused from final examinations in all subjects in which
they have attained a daily grade of at least eighty-five per cent.,"
might be reduced to the following brief form:--
I. This rule would be of great intellectual benefit to college
students, for
A. They would master their work more thoroughly, because
1. They would study harder during the term.
The first method of overthrowing the heading indicated by (I) would be
to attack it directly. This attack might consist of opinions of
prominent educators who, on theoretical grounds, do not believe an
intellectual benefit would result from the adoption of such a rule; of
the opinions of educators who have tried the rule and declare that it
is an intellectual detriment; and of a course of reasoning which would
show that this system would rob the students exempted of the great
intellectual benefit that is derived from the preparation for an
examination and from the taking of an examination.
The second method would be to show that (1) is not true; therefore (A)
would be false, and (I) would be left entirely unsupported.
Under the third method the arguer would admit the truth of (1), but
would deny that the truth of (A) is established by it; therefore (I)
would be unsupported.
Whenever a subheading is attacked, it is always very essential to show
that the attack is made simply because this subheading serves as a
foundation for the main heading. In this particular argument,
refutation according to the second and third methods might read about
as follows: "The contention of the affirmative that the eighty-five
per cent. rule should be adopted because it would result in an
intellectual improvement among college students, rests on the
supposition that students would study harder during the term, and for
that reason would more thoroughly master their subjects. This
reasoning is erroneous because, in the first place, as I will show,
but very few students, if any, would study harder during the term;
and, in the second place, even if they did, those exempted would not
have mastered their work so completely at the end of the year as they
would have if they had taken an examination."
From the preceding, it is apparent that refutation consists of
discrediting evidence and attacking reasoning. The ways to overthrow
evidence will be considered first.
EVIDENCE.
It is taken for granted that the evidence mustered by the opponent is
sufficient, if not overthrown, to establish his side of the
discussion. Of course, if enough evidence for this purpose is lacking,
one has only to call attention to this fundamental weakness in order
to overthrow the argument then and there. The rules, therefore, for
testing evidence assume that the opponent has cited facts that, if not
combated, will establish his case.
These tests are the same as those given in Chapter VI; a hasty review
of them, however, may be serviceable at this point.
I. Tests of the sources of evidence.
A. Is the witness competent to give a trustworthy account of
the matter?
B. Is the witness willing to give an accurate account?
1. Does he have any personal interest in the case?
C. Is the witness prejudiced?
D. Does the witness have a good reputation for honesty and
accuracy?
II. Internal tests of evidence.
A. Is the evidence consistent (a) with itself, (b) with known
facts, (c) with human experience?
B. Is it first-hand evidence?
C. Can the evidence be classed as especially valuable?
1. Does it consist of hurtful admissions?
2. Is it undesigned evidence?
3. Is it negative evidence?
III. Test of argument from authority.
A. Is the witness an acknowledged authority on the subject about
which he testifies?
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 | 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18