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. Many a speaker has gained power in reasoning
by having his views attacked by members of his family who would
individually and collectively try to drive him into a corner. In
actual amount, perhaps you will never deliver as much refutation of
an opponent as you will conjure up in your mind against your own
speeches. Perhaps, also, this great amount advanced by you in testing
your own position will prevent your opponents from ever finding in
your delivered arguments much against which they can pit their own
powers of refutation.

In judging your own production you will have to imagine yourself on
the other side, so the methods will be the same for all purposes of
self-help or weakening of an opponent's views.

Contradiction Is Not Refutation. In the first place contradiction is
not refutation. No unsupported fact or statement has any value in
argumentation. Such expressions as "I don't believe, I don't think so,
I don't agree" introduce not arguments, but personal opinions. You
must, to make your refutation valuable, _prove_