Putnam Rotary News

Arch Alfred Moore, Jr., served three terms as Governor of West Virginia, and his biography by attorney Brad Crouser is one of the best books on recent history and modern politics in the state.

"Most of us remember when Arch was in office," Crouser told Putnam Rotarians today, "but the younger people don't know anything except that he was one of two governors who went to jail, and he is Shelley Capito's dad. So I wanted to introduce him to the younger generation.

"Next month he is going to be 87 years of age. He's just now beginning to slow down. He still goes to his office every day, dressed in his suit. Cufflinks. Runs up and down those steps. Doesn't have a elevator in his building. It's the same building that he and his uncle practiced law in years ago."

In November 1944, Sgt. Arch Moore was leading a platoon across a German farmer's beet field. Two machine guns caught them in a crossfire. A bullet ripped through Moore's mouth, carrying tongue, bone, and teeth with it as it exited the left side of his face.

Arch dropped. He was trying to get back up. "I had my men to think about! I had to take care of those guys," said Sgt. Moore. He was left for dead.

"The Germans retake that area," said Crouser. "The Germans are going around kicking the American bodies, making sure they're dead, shooting them if they're not. [Arch] had the good sense to play dead.

"Lying on that field -- I got this from his wife," said Crouser, "he made a vow to God that if his life was spared he would dedicate it to the service of others.

"He said he was fortunate to have a good West Virginia surgeon and a Republican at that, who patched him up.

"He had to learn to talk all over again. Part of his rehabilitation was giving speeches to the troops.

"Arch almost beat Bob Mollohan for Congress back in 1954 during the Eisenhower years. But when Bob lost to Cecil Underwood in 1956, Arch grabbed that Congressional seat and held on to it.

He accomplished quite a bit as a Congressman. He was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement. He had many letters of commendation and his name is on some of the legislation.

In 1962, the Democrats controlled just about every office in the state, and it drove them nuts that they had this Republican up in the First District. And they wanted very badly to get rid of him. So '62 was their big chance:

"Because of the '60 census, the state had lost one of our six districts, so they pitted [Arch] against an old fellow named Cleve Bailey who had been a Second District Democrat in Clarksburg. And Arch had to run against Cleve.

"They pulled out all the stops. They brought in Lyndon Johnson (who was then Vice-President), Harry Truman (former President); they brought in several cabinet members including Labor Secretary Goldburg, and Speaker of the House, Franklin Roosevelt, Jr. They brought in everybody the could think of to beat Arch Moore in that First Congressional District, to get rid of him.

"Bailey said, we're going to bring in John F. Kennedy and that's going to be it. We're going to beat Arch Moore with President Kennedy. They scheduled Kennedy to speak at Wheeling Island.

"Kennedy comes in [at Wheeling Island]. They had predicted something like 20,000 people, and that might have been likely except it was one of those nights when it was pouring the rain down. So only about five or 6,000 appeared for the speech. Wally Baron was there, and Robert Byrd and Jennings Randolph and [Ken] Hechler. Everyone was on the stage, and it came time for Kennedy to come out -- no hat and no coat, that was his style -- and in the pouring rain, and he was giving a speech to the troops: 'We Democrats need to get out there and make sure we get the vote out.' And all the usual stuff.

"And then he came to the crescendo where he was going to give the marching order on Cleve Bailey, and he said, 'Now Ah want yew all to go out and elect -- Arch Moore.' And the audience was astonished -- and Kennedy said, 'Oh, I meant Cleve Bailey!'

"Arch had a good time with that one," said Crouser. "He had someone there recording that and so after the election, he and Kim Moore, his son, went into a studio and made these little 45 rpm records and said 'Merry Christmas to all, and now a message from your President.' He sent that to all of his antagonists.

"In the 1968 election, [Moore] had to defeat his rival Cecil Underwood. Now, you'd think Arch and Cecil would be the best of friends, both of them being Republicans in a Democratic state, but they weren't. They hated each other. They were fighting because Cecil was governor and Arch was congressman for that four years, and they would fight over who was going to pick the federal judgeships and so on.

"It came to a head in 1968 in the primary, and that was really where the 'Arch Moore, the crook' stuff started. Cecil dug a lot of that up.

"As you know, Arch defeated Cecil and got the nomination and then ran against a very strong young man named Jim Sprouse who had been Democratic chairman.

"Arch, ironically, was seen as the reformer. And, indeed, he campaigned against what was called the 'flower fund.' At that point in time the Democratic courthouses in the state took a tithe from your salary. It wasn't voluntary. And if you were serving in any type of public office, you were expected to contribute to the Democratic party. They called that the 'fower fund.' And Arch pledged to get rid of the flower fund at the state house, and he did.

"That campaign was really colorful, probably the most colorful campaign in modern history. How many of you remember the Arch Moore Marching Song? It was on the radio all the time. They had a quartet version and a marching version, and it was one of those things that really caught on. And they call it today the Arch March.

"The polls were close right down to the wire. Hubert Humphrey carried the state that year, but just a couple of days before the election, Arch flew into Hamblen in a helicopter with [Dennis R. Knapp] one of the candidates for Supreme Court. And the tail of the helicopter caught the flagpole as it went down. Arch broke some ribs and the candidate for justice had a spinal injury.

"Of course that made front page news all over the state. Jim Sprouse said when he heard the news he was driving on a mountain road somewhere and his first thought was 'I need to drive my car off this cliff so I can get equal time.' So Arch pulled off a very narrow victory over Sprouse.

"The next four years were perhaps the most productive in the history of state government. I-79 connected the northern to the southern part of the state. Libraries were built, airports were built, colleges were expanded. The kindergarten system was started, black lung benefits for miners, mental health facilities.

"There was a professionalism about state government for the first time. They were getting rid of that old political [way] -- where everything was done by politics. The computer system. More civil service.

"A lot of people assumed that Arch would be defeated by Jay Rockefeller who was then Secretary of State. That too was a very colorful race. But Arch won something like fifty out of the fifty-five counties. Of course, the tables were turned in 1980 when Arch tried to come back and Jay defeated him.

"[Arch Moore's] third term (1985-89) was judged pretty much by the public as a failure, but I don't think it was. You have to understand where Arch was when he came into office," Crouser explained. "Unemployment had got up to 20 percent. That's Great Depression level unemployment. The unemployment fund was in debt. Things were in really bad shape, and so Arch had to make some really tough decisions. He had seen Reagan cut taxes which boosted the economy in the early 80s, and so Arch went about trying to cut some major taxes. It left us in somewhat of a shortfall. There were times when tax refunds were not sent out promptly. It caused some unpopularity, but it got the state out of a very severe recession.

"He never really got credit for that because Gaston Caperton, the new reformer, defeated him and reaped the benefit of what had taken place to bring the economy back.

"If you want to read about the time in prison," Crouser concluded, "you'll have to buy the book. I will tell you that Arch never stole any money from the state or anyone else. What he was doing was essentially raising cash, because the southern West Virginia political machines were not going to take checks. But Arch was not the first nor the last to spend cash in some of those political machines."

Rotarian Jack Bailey (no relation to Cleve), remembers two pictures in the family room in his grandparents' home. "On one wall was a picture of Jesus; and on top of the television was a six-by-ten photo of Arch Moore."

"I don't know of a life that's more interesting than Arch Moore's has been," said Crouser. "It is Shakespearean because of the ups and downs, the tragedies and the triumphs throughout his life."

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