Oswald West

Oswald West

Oswald West State Park Beach on the Oregon Coast

Oswald West (born May 20, 1873 in Guelph , Canada , † August 22, 1960 in Portland , Oregon ) was an American politician and from 1911 to 1915 the 14th  governor of the state of Oregon.

Early years and political advancement

Oswald West came to Salem , Oregon with his parents as a toddler . There he attended the public schools until 1889. Then he started working in a bank. During the Klondike gold rush in Alaska , West was also in the gold fields there for six months.

Between 1903 and 1907, West served as the head of the Oregon Land Administration. In this capacity, he was able to get back for the state some 4,000 square kilometers of land that had been fraudulently sold. In 1907 he became a member of the Railway Committee for four years. In 1910 he was elected as the Democratic Party candidate for the new governor of his state. He prevailed against the Republican incumbent Jay Bowerman , for which a vote of 46.6 percent was sufficient, because candidates from smaller parties together came to just under twelve percent of the vote.

Governor of Oregon

West took up his new office on January 11, 1911. Women's suffrage was introduced during his four-year term in office . In addition, some health and safety laws have been improved and the area code system that is still used in the United States today has been incorporated into Oregon law. Governor West was an almost fanatical supporter of the Prohibition movement . For this reason, an alcohol ban was also issued. This went so far that on New Year's Eve 1913 he imposed martial law on the city of Copperfield to prevent alcohol consumption. This approach caused a sensation nationwide.

Regardless of this, the governor was very committed to protecting the environment. He also placed the beaches along the Pacific coast under protection and reserved them for the public. At that time, a separate department for the management of the forests ( Forestry ) was created. West also campaigned for a radical reform of the penal system.

Further life

In 1914, Oswald West did not seek a second term. Therefore, he resigned on January 12, 1915. After the end of his governorship, he worked as a lawyer. In 1918 he applied unsuccessfully for a seat in the US Senate . In the following years he wrote articles on all areas of public life in various newspapers. In the 1930s he was an advisor to Governor Charles Martin . After a heart attack in 1945, he quit his legal practice and finally retired. He died in 1960. Oswald West was married to Mabel Hutton, with whom he had three children.

In his honor, Short Sands Beach State Park was renamed Oswald West State Park in 1956 .

Web links

• Oswald West in the National Governors Association (English)
• Oregon State Library ( Memento November 25, 2004 on the Internet Archive )
• Oswald West in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Oregon Encyclopedia: Oswald West State Park. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 21, 2011 ; Retrieved September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)