30.  A trial before a group of competent judges should be substituted for trial by jury.

CHAPTER XI

REFUTING

Answering the Other Side.  It has been said already that even in a single argumentative speech some account must be taken of the possibility among the audience of the belief in other views.  A speaker must always assume that people will believe otherwise than he does.  In such cases as debate or questioning after a speech is made, this opposing side will very clearly be brought out, so that any person training for any kind of public speaking will give much attention to the contentions of others in order to strengthen his own convictions as displayed in his speeches.

A sincere thinker may believe that trial before a group of competent judges is a better procedure than trial by jury.  Were he to speak upon such a proposition he would realize that he would meet at once the solid opposition of the general opinion that jury trials, sanctioned by long practice, are in some mysterious way symbolic of the liberty and equality of mankind.  Before he could expect to arouse sympathetic understanding he would have to answer all the possible objections and reasons against his new scheme.  This he would do by refutation, by disproving the soundness of the arguments against his scheme.  He could cite the evident and recorded injustices committed by juries.  He could bring before them the impossibility of securing an intelligent verdict from a group of farmers, anxious to get to their farms for harvest, sitting in a case through July, while the days passed in lengthy examinations of witnesses—­one man was on the stand eight days—­and the lawyers bandied words and names like socialist, pagan, bolsheviki, anarchy, ideal republic, Aristotle, Plato, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Tolstoi, Jane Addams, Lenin.  Then when he felt assured he had removed all the reasons for supporting the present jury system he could proceed to advance his own substitute.

Need and Value of Refutation.  In all argumentation, therefore, refutation is valuable and necessary.  By it opposing arguments are reasoned away, their real value is determined, or they are answered and demolished if they are false or faulty.  To acquire any readiness as a speaker or debater a person must pay a great deal of attention to refutation.  It has also an additional value.  It has been stated that every argumentative speaker must study the other side of every question upon which he is to speak.  One great debater declared that if he had time to study only one side of a proposition or law case he would devote that time to the other side.  Study your own position from the point of view of the other side.  Consider carefully what arguments that side will naturally advance.  In fact, try to refute your own arguments exactly as some opponent would, or get some friend to try to refute your statements.