Background
Oswald West was born on May 20, 1873 near Guelph, Ontario, the son of John Gulliver West and Sarah McGregor. His family moved to Salem, Oreg. , in 1877. As a boy, West worked for his father, who was a butcher and livestock broker.
Oswald West was born on May 20, 1873 near Guelph, Ontario, the son of John Gulliver West and Sarah McGregor. His family moved to Salem, Oreg. , in 1877. As a boy, West worked for his father, who was a butcher and livestock broker.
He attended grammar school through the eighth grade in Salem and in Portland.
At the age of fifteen became an office boy in the Ladd and Bush Bank at Salem. He was later promoted to clerk and teller. West prospected for gold in Alaska in 1899, without notable success, and returned to his bank job later that year. In 1900 he became a teller for the First National Bank in Astoria. One of his duties was carrying saddlebags of gold and cash, on horseback, from Salem to Astoria. West's public career began in September 1903, when Governor George E. Chamberlain appointed him state land agent. In this office, he performed with skill, efficiency, and seemingly tireless energy. His exposures of forgeries and bogus transactions enabled Oregon to recover more than 900, 000 acres of state land fraudulently obtained by speculators. He was instrumental in the passage of a revised land law with criminal penalties for fraud. Appointed to the Oregon Railroad Commission in 1907, West helped secure more rigid safety standards and lower freight and passenger rates. In the process, he cultivated an image of a progressive reformer. The Portland Oregonian praised his "aggressive spirit" and "efforts to establish a better order of things. " By 1910, there was considerable public interest in West as a gubernatorial candidate. He resisted initially and tried to persuade Mayor Harry Lane of Portland to enter the race. When Lane declined, West became the Democratic candidate. He conducted a nonpartisan campaign, partly because he was a political maverick but also because the Republicans held a registration advantage of more than three-to-one. He vowed to defend the "Oregon System" of government, with its initiative, referendum, and direct-primary laws, which were then under attack by conservatives. "No corporation nor individuals, " he promised, "nor machine nor combination of men, will have the slightest claim on me. " A major turning point came when Senator Jonathan Bourne, a progressive Republican, endorsed him. West defeated Republican incumbent Jay Bowerman by 6, 102 votes. West's administration was probably the most progressive in Oregon's history. In 1911 he turned back real estate interests that were threatening to ruin Oregon's coastline, by declaring the state beaches a public highway. "No local selfish interest should be permitted, " he said, ". to destroy or even impair this great birthright of our people. " He established a state conservation commission, an office of state forester, a bureau of forestry, and a fish and game commission. He blocked efforts to turn national forest lands over to private interests. Theodore Roosevelt described West in a 1911 article in Outlook magazine as "more keenly appreciative of how much this natural beauty should mean to civilized mankind, than almost any other man I have ever met holding high political position. " In addition, West pushed through such social reforms as minimum wage, workmen's compensation, and widows' pension laws. In 1913 he established an industrial welfare commission to protect women and children workers. As is often the case with strong executives, West had a stormy relationship with the legislature and in 1911 he vetoed seventy-two bills. West decided not to seek reelection in 1914, but he did campaign for a constitutional amendment making Oregon a dry state. The prohibition amendment passed and West became a stalwart dry. In 1918 West ran for the U. S. Senate after Secretary of the Treasury William G. McAdoo had helped persuade him to run. Although he campaigned as a Wilson loyalist, the president refused to support him because of West's close ties with Senator George Chamberlain, a leading administration critic. West was defeated by Republican Senator Charles L. McNary, whom he had earlier appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court. West, a self-educated lawyer, practiced law in Portland upon leaving the governorship but remained politically active for many years. He attended the 1924 Democratic convention as a McAdoo supporter and in 1926 was elected Democratic national committeeman. He opposed the nomination of Alfred E. Smith in 1928 because of Smith's advocacy of the repeal of prohibition, and gave him only nominal support in the campaign. In 1930 West was defeated for reelection as national committeeman. He regained some influence in 1932 as an early supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Like many other reformers of the Progressive era, West became a conservative critic of the New Deal. Yet he continued to support Roosevelt and the Democratic party. In his law practice, West represented private utilities and he fought public power in the Pacific Northwest. His strident attacks on younger, more liberal Democratic leaders left him isolated from the mainstream of his party. He curtailed most public activities after a heart attack in 1945 but became a prolific writer for Oregon newspapers about the early history of the Northwest. He died in Portland, Oreg.
He was a strong advocate of prison reform, creating a parole board and modifying an indeterminate-sentence law. He opposed capital punishment but lost a referendum to abolish the death penalty. An early supporter of woman's suffrage, West campaigned successfully in 1912 for an initiative giving Oregon women the vote. He expanded the Railroad Commission into the Public Utilities Commission, with wider authority, and formed the state's first highway commission, which authorized construction of a new system of roads.
Tall, of medium build, and with craggy features, West spoke with a clipped voice and often used his acerbic wit to advantage in speeches.
On September 22, 1897, he married Mabel Hutton; they had three children.