Governor of Oregon
In 1910, he gained the Democratic nomination for Governor and went on to defeat his opponent, Jay Bowerman, and take office in 1911. While in office, West defended what he called the Oregon System which included initiative and referendum systems still in use in many western American states today. Through these processes women's suffrage, various workers rights laws and most infamously prohibition all came into effect during West's administration.
West established Oregon's beach highway law, proclaiming the entire Pacific coastline — today's Highway 101 — to be a public highway, thereby preserving scenery for future generations. The law protecting public access to the high-water line remains in effect on Oregon beaches, which were formally protected by Governor Tom McCall in 1967.
West is also credited with establishing Oregon's highway system, when in 1913 the Oregon HIghway Commission was created by the Oregon Legislative Assembly, levying a tax upon all property to fund the establishment of a state roadway system. The tax raised $700,000 during its first year, money which was targeted to the development of three major road routes — the Coast Highway (Highway 101), the Pacific Highway from Portland through the Willamette Valley, and the Columbia River Highway connecting Portland with Eastern Oregon.
He addressed a national convention of governors in New Jersey in 1911, on the topic of prison labor.
Read more about this topic: Oswald West
Famous quotes containing the words governor of, governor and/or oregon:
“Three years ago, also, when the Sims tragedy was acted, I said to myself, There is such an officer, if not such a man, as the Governor of Massachusetts,—what has he been about the last fortnight? Has he had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake?... He could at least have resigned himself into fame.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“When Paul Bunyan’s loggers roofed an Oregon bunkhouse with shakes, fog was so thick that they shingled forty feet into space before discovering they had passed the last rafter.”
—State of Oregon, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)