A Fight to Establish the State Police

Abstract

West Virginia, the fourth state to establish a police force,' took this action in 1919 after one of the bitterest fights in the state's legislative history.2 Defeated in the regular session of the Legislature,3 the measure authorizing the Department of Public Safety,4 as the state force was officially designated, was finally passed in the special session. From several angles the struggle possesses more than local significance. First, it is an example of successful gubernatorial leadership. Second, the appeals employed in the struggle are of interest to students of the technique of influencing both the layman and the legislator. Third, the issue of centralization is involved in the then novel method of supplementing the law enforcement efforts of local officers. And finally, the attitude of capital and labor on the subject is typical. Governor John J. Cornwell, a Democrat, led the fight for establishment. He was strongly supported by public officers and private citizens irrespective of party, by a majority of the state press, and by the coal operators and other employers.5 The most militant opposition came from organized labor, but office holders and non-office holders of all parties and some influential papers were also hostile. The governor testified in behalf of establishment that frequent demands from both employers and labor leaders for the protection of their persons or property had underlined his impotence in discharging his sworn duty of enforcing the laws of the State.