The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-05-22
full TEXT OF Attorney. GENERALS
ADDRESS TO THE STATES ATTORNEYS
Exhaustive and Scholarly Discussion Of Their
Duties and Responsibilities.

attorneys covers so many important
questions of interest to the people OF
the entire state, that the Evening
Times prints the same in full. The
text follows:
II am pleased to meet and have an
opportunity to address the states at
tOrneyS of our state. There is OF ne
cessity mutually of responsibility,
aim and desire existing between the
states attorneys and the attorney
general, and for this reason l am
gratified and feel highly honored by
being one of your guests at this,
your annual meeting.
These meetings are important and
highly commendable. both from pro-
fessional and lay point of view:
they are conducive of good to the in
dividual and the bar collectively; they
tend to elevate the profession toward
that penacle OF morality and perfec-
ton for which the true advocate of
human rights strives; they also i'm
press upon the public mind the fact
that you realize the duties and obi
cations of your ONCE toward the peo-
pie. Every lawyer knows that he is
a member of the greatest profession,
and. believe, this is appreciated
with greater force among the profess
sion in republic like ours, where
the individual is only responsible to
low the dictates of his own conscience
in determining right from wrong,
without fear or favor of any king.
prince or potentate. 1t is privilege
to be permitted to hold up ones hand
111<1r 1T %I,oS l., ~~,s1
port the constitution of the United
States. the constitution of the state
in which he lives and that he will
perform the duties of an attorney-at-
law to the best of his ability. That
solemn and binding obligation, am
proud to say. is kept inviolate by the
great mass of our profession. while
those who violate it are the rare eX-
ception. 1t is those few exceptions
that create the opportunity for the
skeptic to give vent to his ridicule
and humorous wit against the profess
sion.
1--WE, who have been chosen by the
people as the legal protectors of their
rights. bear closer relation to the
state than the other members of the
bar, and society demands of lis the
eXemplificatiop of the highest prin-
ciples and standards of professional
action. The motive which produces
this relation is not only guarded by
principle, but it emanates from strict
sense Of duty.
"Commercialism is rapidly getting
firm grasp upon all the lines of
human activity; it is even making in
roads into the legal profession, fact
which is deeply deplored by the stu
dents of Blackstone and Coke. The
distinction which formerly marked the
difference between professional and
a business life no longer exists. 1t
has been set aside under the strain
of commercialism = that rush for
wealth, that eagerness to make all
things fit the common mould. Not
withstanding this evolution and depar-
ture. the dignity of our profession is
still preserved and it will continue
as long as the members of the bar
cling to the tenets of honor, justice
and right. 1t is those principles and
those alone that will perpetuate that
dignity and respect due the legal pro-
fession. You, as the legal guardians
of the property rights, the protectors
of society within your subdivision of
the state. occupy dual position. 1t
is your duty to protect and defend the
public property interest and to en-
force the penal laws in your respec-
tive counties. 1t is just as much your
duty to keep the innocent man, who
happens to be so unfortunate as to
be charged with crime, out of the pen
itentiary, as it is for you to see to
it that the guilty is incarcerated
therein. The prosecuting attorney is
human, he is endowed with the same
sensibilitieS. the same love of liberty
and hatred for coersion ,as the av-
erage man. whose lot is cast among
the upper strata of human energies.
AS you stand there as the arbiters Of
society before the courts, with public
sentiment on the one side and your
duty as the officer Of the law on the
other, period is reached which puts
the temper of your metal to the test.
Public sentiment clamors for a con-
viction or an equittal based upon i'm
pressions and rumors. which is mod
flied great many times by the po-
sition which the individual occupied
in the community. AS a counter bal
ance to this, the conscience of your
inward soul-the true indicator of
right-asserts itself Then your duty
stands out in bold relief on the can
vas of action: by the balance, en-
blematic of justice and right, sus-
pended over the judges seat. You
are constantly reminded of the oath
which you took when assuming the
duties of your Office. These are the
safeguards which come to us all and
ar,.fo 4f
These burdens. these responsibilities,
can not be shifted onto the court.
They must be borne by the prosecut-
ing officer, where they justly belong.
The court can only decide the mat
tiers brought before him by competent
evidence. besides he has not the same
opportunity to go to the bottom of
the circumstances and sift the true
from the false.
"The outside world has little con-
ception of the obstacles and difficult
ties that beset your path. The people
do not appreciate the years of strug-
gle and study you have put in. in
order to qualify yourselves for the
position you now occupy. And, even
now. when manhood's morning has
passed midday and casts its shadow
toward the east, you closet yourselves
In your libraries at night, while 9TH
ers indulge in peaceful sleep. engaged
in solving the intricate problems
which confront you during the day in
the courtroom. Then, after you have
performed your duty. honestly, faith.
fully and impartially, and have con-
victed an individual. who has been
sentenced for a term of penal SER
vitude, the sympathetic side of your
-