xist in the feelings or sentiments of a certain accused
person. A person trying to secure the passage of a certain law will
prove that it as the cause will produce certain effects which make it
desirable. Changed conditions in the United States will be brought
forward as the cause to prove that the Federal government must do
things never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. Great
military organization as the cause of the recent war is used now in
argument to carry on the plea for the securing of peace by
disarmament.

The main difficulty in reasoning from cause to effect is to make the
relationship so clear and so close that one thing will be accepted by
everybody as the undisputed cause of the alleged effect.

Effect to Cause. In reasoning from effect to cause the reverse method
is employed. This is also termed argument from sign or the _a
posteriori_ method. In it, from some known effect the reasoning proves
that it is the result of a certain specified cause. Statistics
indicating business prosperity might be used as the effect from which
the arguer proves that they are caused by a high protective tariff. A
speaker shows the good effects upon people to prove that certain
laws--claimed as the causes--should be extended in application.
Arguments from effect to cause may be extremely far reaching; as every
effect leads to some cause, which is itself the effect of some other
cause, and so on almost to infinity. The good speaker will use just
those basic causes which prove his proposition--no more.

In actual practice the two forms of reasoning from cause to effect and
from effect to cause are frequently combined to make the arguments all
the more convincing. Grouped together they are termed causal
relations.

Persuasion. When a speaker has conclusively proven what he has stated
in his proposition, is his speech ended? In some cases, yes; in many
cases, no. Mere proof appeals to the intellect only; it settles
matters perhaps, but leaves the hearer cold and humanly inactive. He
may feel like saying, "Well, even if what you say is true, what are
you going to do about it?" Mathematical and scientific proofs exist
for mere information, but most arguments delivered before audiences
have a purpose. They try to make people do something. A group of
people should be aroused to some determination of purposeful thought
if not to a registered act at the time. In days of great stress the
appeal to action brought the im