Swift uses several methods of conveying a rational, humane tone in the opening paragraphs of "A Modest Proposal" before revealing what the actual proposal is.
First, the writer presents himself as a man of compassion, citing the unfortunate state of affairs in Ireland and the poverty that exists there. He claims that the mothers,
[...] instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
Second, he presents himself as a man of science, criticizing the judgement of others who have studied the same situation and claiming that his own research has yielded new information:
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation.
He then goes into a series of computations of his own regarding the demographics of Ireland, citing statistics about the total population, the number of women of child-bearing age, and the number of children who need to be cared for, in the guise of one whose wish is nothing more than to alleviate suffering. All of this gives a pseudo-technical veneer to the ideas being expressed, so that the reader finds himself or herself reflexively agreeing with the writer and judging him compassionate and wise, until his actual plan is suddenly revealed:
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
Today we can hopefully find additional amusement in Swift's alluding to "a very knowing" American as the source of his information about the benefits of cannibalism. But this caps off the whole style of the introductory paragraphs in which Swift's persona sounds so kind, rational, genial and authoritative, that the reader is ready to agree with anything he proposes.
Swift's persona, whose views are the opposite of Swift himself, falsely believes himself to be a reasonable person. He believes it is perfectly rational, and even kind, to suggest fattening and selling the babies of the poor for the rich to eat. The word "modest" as a way to describe this proposal shows that this utterly clueless narrator thinks his idea is reasonable. The word "modest" means unassuming. It means ordinary, as a modest home could be described as very ordinary; however, this proposal is anything but ordinary.
The narrator also focuses closely on the nitty-gritty of such "rational" parts of his proposals as a careful calculation of the profitability of raising a baby for a year to be sold as food and showing how much "return" a poor mother would get on the investment. He talks about the benefits of the "commerce" in babies to such things as Ireland's balance of trade. By emphasizing these economic benefits, he completely loses sight of the moral depravity of what he is suggesting.
Through this narrator, Swift is arguing that viewing humans only in economic terms is dehumanizing. Humans are more than economic units and deserve genuine compassion that isn't based on profit and loss.
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