138. Assignment in finding Principles.

Supply a principle, an appeal to common experience, an appeal to authority, in favor of or against one of the following. If you cannot, show how that fact itself may be used as an argument.

1. This school should have a better ventilating system.

2. The Australian ballot system should be adopted everywhere. 3. No student should be allowed to carry five studies at a time. 4. The curfew ordinance should be enforced.

5. Thanksgiving Day football should be prohibited.

6. Pupils should be allowed to study together.

7. Girls should have a different course of studies from that prescribed for boys.

8. Fishing in a swimming-hole will not bring a catch.

9. Pupils should occupy alternate seats in an examination. 10. The government should own and operate a public telegraph system in connection with the post-office.

Arguments based on a General Theory.

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139. Back of every proposition there will be found certain theories that will influence, or even determine, a person's attitude toward the proposition as soon as the cheories are recognized, and will lead him to find reasons for or against it. If the proposition is, “A should be graduated, though he has never studied algebra," those who favor and those who oppose his graduation will betray very quickly conflicting theories of education. If the proposition is, "This shade tree should be cut down in order to widen the street," we soon discover, from what people say for or against the proposition, that there are many theories of "improvement," "progress," and the

like, on the one hand, and conflicting theories of "beautifying the city," "preserving old landmarks," "the duties of city officers," on the other. What a person thinks about the proposition, "Cities should own and operate street railways," may be determined by a theory of government, or by some theory of taxation or of labor. The proposition, "Sunday baseball should be prohibited," involves theories of personal, as well as public rights and morals, and of the state's relation thereto. A person may be fully cognizant of the theory underlying the proposition, and may present it openly; or he may be only vaguely conscious of it, and, assuming it to be true, may make appeals to it as if it were accepted by all as an axiom. In either case the theory is present, and is used as an argument for the proposition. It is important, therefore, in studying a proposition, to penetrate beneath the surface to the various conflicting theories that underlie it. One way of doing this is to ask the question, On what theory or theories could this proposition be attacked and defended? or, if it be a proposition that has long been discussed, On what theory or theories has it been attacked and defended? How did the proposition come to be discussed? What was the origin of the controversy? What must be assumed to be true in order that the proposition may be fairly regarded as debatable? If any one of these questions can be answered by reading and thinking, one or more underlying theories will be discovered with which the proposition will square.

A general theory with which the proposition agrees, if accepted as true or proved true, is an argument in favor of the proposition.

140. Assignment in supplying a General Theory. What theory is back of each of the following propositions? 1. The city council should appropriate money for free band concerts.

2. The school should provide free noon-lunches.

3. The playing of pianos at midnight should be prohibited by ordinance.

4. A boy should be excused from any study on request of his parent.

5. Newspapers should not be permitted to print criminal news. 6. Novels should be censored for literary form.

7.. Women should be allowed to vote on the same terms as men.

How a Fact or a Theory becomes an Argument. 141. Every argument, of whatever kind, involves an element of fact and an element of theory. A fact is adduced because it is supposed to have a certain meaning; that is, because a certain inference may be drawn from it. A theory is adduced because it explains or gives meaning and sanction to certain facts of the case. Thus, the fact that A is a financier long accustomed to the safe management of large funds, when used as an argument for electing A city treasurer, involves the theory that "all men who have been accustomed to the safe management of large funds make good city treasurers.' The theory that "the state should prevent people from interfering with one another's rights," when used as an argument for the proposition, "Sunday baseball should be prohibited," raises a question of fact: "Does Sunday baseball interfere with the rights of certain classes of people?"

A fact or a theory becomes an argument because an inference is drawn from it, or an application is made of it.

142. Assignments in relating Facts and Theories to Propositions.

A. In each of the following (1) Discover the proposition, (2) Note the arguments, whether of fact or of theory, that support the proposition.

1. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever. - MACAULAY: Milton.

2. It may not seem that the few minutes which are given each day to physical culture in our schools will affect materially, for better or worse, the character and bearing of the children who are subjected to it; but when it is remembered that this sort of thing goes on day after day for eight or nine years, its influence will be more readily appreciated, and its hygienic importance more fully realized. If the present mental strain is to continue in our schools, then we must strive to overcome the nervousness which it induces through the efficient culture of the body. We must not have as our ideal of the work of physical training the development of great muscular strength and dexterity, so much as the promotion of health, and rendering the body an unconscious and ready instrument of the mind in the expression of its most gracious qualities. Nor can we hope, under the conditions which exist in our schools, to make the bodies of all our children symmetrical and harmonious by physical training; for we have to deal there with children in the great average, and it is only by dealing with individual tendencies that we can secure perfect sym

metry and harmony. But after all, this is not such a serious question; for if we can foster and promote the health of children, and induce in them the right attitude of spirit, the tendency of nature toward symmetry and harmony will produce gratifying results. — School Review, May, 1905.

3. I remember hearing an old gentleman (who represented old English feeling in great perfection) say that it was totally unintelligible to him that a certain member of Parliament could sit on the liberal side of the House of Commons. "I cannot understand it," he said; "I knew his father intimately, and he was always a good Tory.”

-BAGEHOT: The English Constitution.

4. The very mode in which a crowd is formed is highly favorable to its hypnotization, and hence to its becoming a mob. At first a crowd is formed by some strange object or occurrence suddenly arresting the attention of men. Other men coming up are attracted by curiosity: they wish to learn the reason of the gathering; they fix their attention on the object that fascinates the crowd, are fascinated in their turn, and thus the crowd keeps on growing. With the increase of numbers grows the strength of fascination; the hypnotization increases in intensity, until, when a certain critical point is reached, the crowd becomes completely hypnotized, and is ready to obey blindly the commands of its hero; it is now a mob. Thus a mob is a hypnotized crowd. — Atlantic, 75: 190.

B. Study the two briefs that follow. In the first, what theory of legislation is appealed to by argument A? On what theory would have to be defended? What theory is appealed to in D and D I? in E? In the second brief what theory of an ideal immigration law underlies A, B, and C? Are the theories of the first brief in conflict with those of the second?