In this editorial, the author draws the conclusion that the Mason City council will need to increase its budget for improvements to the publicly owned lands along the MasonRiver for the recreational use of the river is likely to increase. To justify this conclusion, the author cites that the plan to clean up MasonRiver and surveys which indicate that Mason City residents take the water sports as favorite recreation. Close scrutiny of these facts, however, reveals none of them lend credible support to the conclusion.
First of all, the author draws the conclusion based on unwarranted assumption that the recreational use of the river would increase. Even though the plans of cleaning up the Mason River were announced, no evidence justify that the river will become clean eventually for considering the work efficiency of the agency and the possible incessantly long-term pollution. If in this case, the increase of the recreational use of the river is doubtable.
Secondly, even if the river would finally become clean, no evidence support that the river would meet the needs of recreational use of the residents. Perhaps the river is so torrential that do not fit the need of swimming, and perhaps it is too narrow to boat. For these matters, that the river would satisfy the residents' recreational use even when it is clean is unwarranted.
Furthermore, even if the increase of recreational use of the river is substantiated, the author still hastily draws the conclusion that Mason City council needs to increase its budget to improve the publicly owned lands along the river. No information about the current situation of the publicly owned lands has been given, and it is entirely possible that the current budget for maintaining them is plentiful enough considering that the current conditions of the lands along the river are not so bad. Therefore, it is unnecessary for the council to increase its budget.
In sum, the editorial relies on several unsubstantiated assumption and scant evidence that render it unconvincing as it stands. To bolster the conclusion, the author has to give us more information about the situation of Mason City and further study of the necessity of increasing the budget.