The Mena weekly star., 1910-06-02
NORWOOD MAKES
 PROMElNlEN ADDRESS
One of the Leading Leading Speakers Before the National Meeting of the Attor- ney Generals at Minneapolis
 This Week.

Ol tHe dSSOCldtiOu meeting or the
 Attorneys General, of the United
 States. taking place here today,
 was the address of Hal l.. Nor
 wood, Attorney General of Ar
 kansas, which took place under
 general discussion of the duties
 of the Attorneys General. He
 spoke on "The Unofficial Inqui-
 ries Addressed to the Attorney
 General" Gen. Norwood, who
 is a forceful speaker, created much
 applause with his reference to the
 nature of many letters which he
 has received since taking the
 oath of office.
 He stated that one manufacturer of ''pure malt tonic" wrote to him to ask his opinion of his bev- craze, sending dozen bottles
 with the request that he drink them and see If they contained
 alcohol in sufficient quantities 10 prevent their sale in prohibition
 territory. Attorney General Nor
 wood replied that the sender should have directed the package 
 to General Jackson of Kansas, as sampling beverages intended for distribution in territory prohib- ited, was outside his line. Gen. Norwood stated that he had re- ceived at least 5000 letters of an unofficial nature since he went into office, Is months ago, and many of these were of. such na- ture that he had to inform the writers they should employ coun- sel aud not expect the state to render them the service for noth- ing. General Norwood stated he was attorney for 25 boards, be- sides representing 17,000 school teachers through the Superinten- dent of Public instruction, to whom he must give legal opinions on all matters referred to him. He also stated that opinions must be furnished to many other off, cials of the state and districts, besides representing his state in the higher courts. In couclud- ing his address Attorney General
 Norwood said. "The daily in- creasing amount of unofficial cor
 respondence indicates a disposi- tion upon the part of the people generally to respect the law and desire on the part of the officials to faithfully discharge the duties. Of course, a state cannot afford to undertake to furnish legal ad- vice to its citizens generally, but 1 believe it should furnish to all officers on all matters who are connected with the discharge of their official duties, where the interest of the state, or any of its political subdivisions are in- yolyed. It would not be advis- able for state to undertake to supply the attorney generals of- flee with enough assistance to advise directly all officers, but the custom of most of the states could be improved, and if the attorney generals office was in a position to answer most of the unofficial correspondence, it would insure much more uniformity in the con- struction and administration of t he laws. Different statutes would be required to meet the To- cal arrangements and considera- tions in the several states. I | have personally looked after the unofficial correspondence in my | office, and have found that to an- swer much of 1t as l have, has required more of my time that | the duties required by the sta- tutes of the general attorney gen. eral. If an attorney general pos- sessed as much information as the of demands made upon him for legal opinions indicates that he is supposed to possess, this Association of Attorneys General would indeed be a distiu- g guished body of men, but if the people realized how little an st- torney general knows about most of the questions asked, without making an investigation, and now much more value to them wonld be the opinion of the aver ige lawyer. who had fima fo