West was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada but moved to Salem, Oregon with his family at the age of four where he attended school and eventually went into banking.

After several years as a banker in Salem and Astoria, and a six-month stint searching for gold in Alaska, West gained an appointment as the State Land Agent.

In 1907, West left his position as Land Agent and was appointed to the Oregon Railroad Commission, where he again found a great deal of success.

He believed so strongly in the idea that he once declared martial law on New Year's Eve 1913 in order to shut down liquor-selling establishments in the town of Copperfield, Oregon.

[6] He then dispatched National Guard troops, chaperoned by his own personal secretary Fern Hobbs on January 2, 1914 to enforce the order and shut down the saloons.

Putnam asserted that the Governor's theatrical methods, and his inordinate attention to the affairs of local communities, detracted from the governance and national image of the state as a whole.