Are any of the words and phrases used likely to be misunderstood?  Are any used in special senses?  Do all people accept the same meaning?  Good illustrations of this last are the ideas attached to socialism, anarchist, soviet, union.

To illustrate:  the question of woman suffrage was brought into public interest once more by the advance woman has made in all walks of life and by the needs and lessons of the great war.  To make clear how its importance had increased a speaker might trace its history from its first inception.  As applied to women, what does “suffrage” mean exactly—­the right to vote in all elections, or only in certain ones?  Does it carry with it the right to hold office?  Would the voting qualifications be the same for women as for men?  Then would follow the arguments.

How could this scheme be used for a discussion of the Monroe Doctrine?  For higher education?  For education for girls?  For child working laws?  For a league of nations?  For admitting Asiatic laborers to the United States?  For advocating the study of the sciences?  For urging men to become farmers?  For predicting aerial passenger service?  For a scholarship qualification in athletics?  For abolishing railroad grade crossings?  For equal wages for men and women?

EXERCISES

Make the completed brief for one or more of the preceding.

Briefs should be made for propositions selected from the following list.

1.  The President of the United States should be elected by the direct vote of the people.

2.  The States should limit the right of suffrage to persons who can read and write.

3.  The President of the United States should be elected for a term of seven years, and be ineligible to reelection.

4.  A great nation should be made the mandatory over an inferior people.

5.  Students should be allowed school credit for outside reading in connection with assigned work, or for editing of school papers, or for participation in dramatic performances.

6.  This state should adopt the “short ballot.”

7.  The present rules of football are unsatisfactory.

8.  Coaching from the bench should be forbidden in baseball.

9.  Compulsory military drill should be introduced into all educational institutions.

10.  Participation in athletics lowers the scholarship of students.

11.  Pupils should receive credit in school for music lessons outside.

12.  The United States should abandon the Monroe Doctrine.

13.  In jury trials, a three-fourths vote should be enough for the rendering of a verdict.

14.  Strikes are unprofitable.

15.  Commercial courses should be offered in all high schools.

16.  Employers of children under sixteen should be required to provide at least eight hours of instruction a week for them.