75. Informal Argument. The difference between formal and informal argument, as was pointed out in § 67, is largely a matter of thoroughness and tone. Since informal argument deals with a question in a simpler, less thorough way, it is usually much shorter. Examples of this kind of argument we read every day in the editorials of newspapers. In cases like this, a writer sometimes dispenses with an analytical introduction and treats only one or two main arguments; or perhaps gives his attention merely to analyzing a question in order to acquaint the public with the vital issues involved; or perhaps seizes an opportunity to arouse public feeling. For example, an editorial in the Outlook opens thus:

Our object in this article is, first, to define the issue joined between the "open shop" and the "closed shop;" and, secondly, to give our judgment on that issue and the reasons upon which it is based.1

This statement expresses clearly the essential steps in all argument, and indicates as well the compactness and brevity with which the particular question is to be treated. Another editorial, this time in the Independent, begins crisply with the subject to be discussed:

the

After the tariff- the currency, after the currency trusts, after the trusts the Presidential primary. In his address to Congress last December President Wilson urged "the prompt enactment of legislation which will provide for primary elections throughout the country at which the voters of the several parties may choose their nominees for the Presidency without the intervention of nominating conventions." There

1 The Outlook, July 16, 1904.

are indications that Mr. Wilson expects this to be the next big task which he will urge Congress to undertake.1

It then proceeds to support the Presidential primary by a series of paragraphs announced as follows:

The proposal for the direct nomination of candidates for the Presidency is based upon solid grounds.

It is an instrument of representative government.
It works well. . . .

In informal argument there is usually not time enough to give many details of evidence, but the contentions are supported by significant facts or justified by sound reasoning. As a result of brevity there is a gain in sharpness of impression and unity of effect. Furthermore, one of the distinguishing marks of informal argument is the greater part played by persuasion. Indeed, informal argument frequently has as its aim the desire to make people feel something or do something. Its appeal may be more direct and intimate than that of formal argument, and its tone and style may be more colloquial and spirited.

EXERCISES

1. Clip from newspapers examples of assertion. 2. Clip from newspapers examples of evidence.

3. Apply the tests of evidence (§ 58 of this book) to the arguments in College Readings, 257 and 276.

4. Copy into your notebook five examples of evidence in Lincoln's letters and speeches.

1 The Independent, February 23, 1914. See College Readings, pages 336 ff. For other examples of informal argument, see College Readings, pages 221, 223, 324-336.

5. Find examples in daily life of inductive or deductive reasoning.

6. Clip from newspapers or advertisements examples of fallacies.

7. Criticize the flaws in the following arguments. Refute these arguments.

a. Examinations are useful as a preparation for life; for does not life confront us with a series of tests?

b. I don't think much of a college education. My father had none and is a successful man. My uncle went to college, and my father supports him.

c. The only people excluded from the privilege of voting are children, idiots, foreigners, convicts, and women. How much longer will the civilized nations of the earth permit their women to be classed with the incompetent and the criminal classes of society?

d. The rapid increase in wages for the past twenty years shows the superior advantage gained by the organization of the working men.

e. It is a poor way to entertain a girl to take her to the theatre, for if you pay attention to the girl you'll miss the play and might just as well have entertained her at home and saved your money, while if you pay attention to the play you'll neglect the girl and might as well have bought one ticket and gone alone. f. Iowa is the best for farming of any of the states. Muscatine County is the best farming county in the state. My farm is the best farm in the county. Therefore, my farm is the best in the United States.

g. President Wilson should be reëlected, for the country has had an era of enormous prosperity since 1914. 8. Discuss the value of the proof in the following arguments: a. Boston real estate owners will not suffer if Boston has no-license. As to real estate to be vacated by reason of a nolicense vote, the experience of cities like Seattle and Denver is, that such real estate has been entirely taken up by legitimate

business within three months of a no-license law becoming operative.

b. "We want suffrage for peace,” declares an advocate of suffrage and sufferer from war. But would we get it? Are not the women of the warring countries just as keen for war as the men? In England are not the women the most active recruiting sergeants? Even in this neutral country do not the women divide as sharply on lines of racial sympathy as their husbands and brothers?

Why can't this question of the ballot be discussed on its merits, without pretense that women's hearts and minds differ radically in their workings from the like organs in masculine frames? Women should have the ballot if they should have it because they are human beings and taxpayers and workers, not because they belong to a supposedly superior sex. Those who would give woman the ballot as a means of reforming society either don't know what they are talking about or are not talking about what they know. Intellectually and morally, women are neither better nor worse than men. If this be treason, we're glad of it.

9. Discuss the value of the arguments in this political advertisement:

WHAT THE PUBLIC SCHOOL WHAT THE PRESENT SCHOOL CANDIDATES STAND FOR:

Administration of our Public Schools first, last, and all the time for the benefit of those who attend them.

The absolute and permanent separation of Politics from our Public School Administration.

The maintenance of the present schedule of salaries and

COMMITTEE HAS STOOD FOR.

The purchase of a secondhand Packard automobile for $2500, whose maintenance cost, exclusive of chauffeur, has averaged $198 per month.

The consumption of 1200 gallons of gasoline for the operation of this car, which means that it must have been run

increases for teachers, janitors, nearly 10,000 miles, more than and other school department three times across the United employees. States, since June 4, 1915.

The charging to the city

The expenditure of School of bills for refreshments, some Money for School purposes, petty, others not so petty; and FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES Some consumed in this city,

ONLY.

Strict adherence to the Merit System in the making of appointments and promotions.

The removal of all taint or suspicion of jobbery from the purchase of land to be used for School purposes.

Publicity for the doings of the School Board, and an opportunity for every member to attend all sub-committee meetings.

The holding of all meetings of the School Board or its subcommittees IN THIS CITY.

The extended use of School Buildings as Community Centers.

most consumed elsewhere.

Favoritism in the appointment and promotion of teachers and employees. Relatives of the School Board have been first preferred; political workers or relatives of political workers have been second preferred. Faithful, conscientious teachers who have done their duty and kept out of politics have been consistently ignored.

Disregard of their own rules regulating appointment and promotion when some relative or friend, or relative of a friend, was to be served.

Utter disregard of ordinary business prudence, as illustrated by the far-famed $11,000 deficit with which the special committee on improved business methods ended their first year's administration.