There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. . . To assail the great and admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping generalizations as to include decent men in the general condemnation means the searing of the public conscience. There results a general attitude either of cynical belief in and indifference to public corruption or else of a distrustful inability to discriminate between the good and the bad. Either attitude is fraught with untold damage to the country as a whole. The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what is bad is well-nigh as dangerous as the man who does discriminate and yet chooses the bad. There is nothing more distressing to every good patriot, to every good American, than the hard, scoffing spirit which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a public man as a cause for laughter. Such laughter is worse than the crackling of thorns under a pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant mind, but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to fruition.
In this speech Roosevelt is advising journalists to write honestly and not always muckrake.
In the final paragraph, how does Roosevelt attempt to persuade his audience?
By appealing to the audience's emotions
By appealing to the audience's sense of right and wrong
By appealing to the audience's good taste
By appealing to the audience's logic
Answer:
By appealing to the audience's emotions
Explanation:
According to the excerpt given, President Theodore Roosevelt is talking to journalists and newsmen on the importance of writing articles and news reports without bias and with fairness, while resisting the urge to muckrake.
In the final paragraph, Roosevelt attempts to persuade his audience by appealing to their emotions.
