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the Americans with taxation was no more than a cloak and cover to this design. Such has been the language even of a gentleman of real moderation, and of a natural temper well adjusted to fair and equal government. I am, however, Sir, not a little surprised at this kind of discourse whenever I hear it; and I am the more surprised on account of the arguments which I constantly find in company with it, and which are often urged from the same mouths, and on the same day.

For instance, when we allege that it is against reason to tax a people under so many restraints in trade as the Americans, the Noble Lord in the Blue Ribbon shall tell you that the restraints on trade are futile and useless; of no advantage to us, and of no burthen to those on whom they are imposed; that the trade to America is not secured by the Acts of Navigation, but by the natural and irresistible advantage of a commercial preference.

Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the debate. But when strong internal circumstances are urged against the taxes; when the scheme is dissected; when experience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective revenue from the colonies; when these things are pressed, or rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the scheme — then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their trance; and this useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a counter-guard and security of the laws of trade.

Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, in order to preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are separately given up as of no value; and yet one is always to be defended for the sake of the other.

149. Assignments on the Test for Consistency. A. What inconsistency is charged in the following?

Protectionists get mixed on their own argument when they compare conditions in England and in Germany. If European labor is all that protectionists say it is, how can a protective tariff help it? From whom is it to be protected? What particular pauper labor will endanger Germany, Italy, France, or Russia if they remove their protective tariffs? What pauper labor is flooding England? To be sure English protectionists have raised a howl about German goods, but German labor happens just now to be in what passes for a prosperous condition; and this cannot be on account of the German tariff, since Italy and Russia have much higher protective tariffs, without being so benefited. May it not be because the German government has checked railroad monopoly almost entirely, and land monopoly to some extent? — The Public, 12:584.

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B. Is there any inconsistency in the following?

1. Saturday should be preserved as a school holiday. For

A. All teachers need Saturday for rest and rec

reation.

B. All teachers need Saturday for attending institutes and for private study.

2. Free text-books should be provided in the schools. For

A. The system puts rich and poor on the same

basis.

B. Any one may continue to buy his own books, as now, if he likes.

3. Discovery Day should be a school holiday. For

A. It would enable us to show reverence for

Columbus.

B. It comes at the very time when the football games are more numerous than the dates available now.

C. Often the question method is used effectively in applying the test for inconsistency. Turn the following questions into the answers expected. Answer the questions in the way evidently not expected and then try to harmonize them.

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Let me ask a few questions for categorical answers: First: If all tariffs were abolished, is it true or not that the country would be flooded with foreign goods?

Second: If true, would the foreigners send these goods over free, or would they want to be paid for them?

Third: If they should want to be paid, would it not be necessary to perform labor of some kind in this country to produce wealth for export to pay for those goods?

Fourth If the answer to the third question is "yes," does it not necessarily follow that the more goods imported, the more demand there must be for American labor to produce exports? If not, why not?

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Fifth If, on the other hand, the answer to the third question is "no," where is the wealth to come from to pay for the "flood" of foreign goods?

Sixth: If pay for the goods is not forthcoming, will not the "flood" cease?

Seventh: If it should not cease in spite of no pay, wouldn't the foreigners be either an unusually silly or an unusually generous lot? Wouldn't they be voluntarily enabling us to get all the things we need without working?

All the above questions following the first are framed on the supposition of an affirmative answer to the first one. Of course if this supposition is wrong, if any protectionist

should unexpectedly reply to the first question in the negative, he would thereby deny the protection theory of a "flood of foreign goods." The Public, 12: 586.

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The Order of Arguments.

150. The strongest argument should be reserved until the last, because what is last said is best remembered. But the beginning is a strategic point as well as the end. It will not do then to put the weakest argument first. Appropriate to the beginning is an argument that is supposedly familiar to all. Being familiar, it affords an easy introduction to arguments that are not so familiar or so easy of apprehension. It is usually the argument that comes to your mind first, not the one which you have sought out in books or have reached after hard thinking. This most familiar argument will naturally call up the objection that is most commonly made to the proposition. Reasons why the objection is not sound are then in place. The objection being disposed of, one is again face to face. with the proposition itself. Arguments establishing probability in favor of the proposition may then be taken up in the order of increasing strength until the strongest of all is reached. This may be an argument showing the desirability of the thing proposed, the effects that are to be expected, the interests that are to be affected beneficially. Objections will be considered and answered in connection with those arguments against which they would naturally be urged. The very end is not the place for considering objections. That should be reserved for a concluding sum

mary reaffirming the principal arguments that have been made.

The order of arguments thus recommended is about as follows:

(1) A strong argument for the proposition, chosen because it is familiar to the audience.

(2) The answer to this argument refuted.

(3) Succeeding arguments, with refutation of answers, arranged in the order of climax, the conclusion. to be a summary.

151. Assignment on the Order of Arguments.

Criticise the order of arguments in any one of the longer briefs printed in this chapter.

The Brief.

152. After collecting arguments and before writing them out in full, it is highly desirable that they be displayed to the eye in a manner that will show their logical relationship to each other and to the main proposition. In other words, a brief like those printed in this chapter should be made. This is desirable for three reasons: (1) All that is to be said can be seen as a whole, and the soundness of each part can be tested separately before the writing begins; (2) if there are any gaps, or omissions of necessary arguments, they may be detected and filled; (3) the brief supplies a guide while the writing is being done. There are two respects in which a brief differs from an ordinary outline.

1. The brief is made up of complete sentences.

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