Arthur R. Gould
| Arthur Robinson Gould | |
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United States Senator from Maine |
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In office November 30, 1926 – March 3, 1931 |
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| Preceded by | Bert M. Fernald |
| Succeeded by | Wallace H. White, Jr. |
| Member of the Maine House of Representatives | |
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In office 1921-1922 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 16, 1857 Corinth, Maine |
| Died | July 24, 1946 (aged 89) Presque Isle, Maine |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Frances Donovan |
| Children | 3 |
Arthur Robinson Gould (March 16, 1857 – July 24, 1946) was a United States Senator from Maine.
Born in Corinth, Maine, he attended the common schools and East Corinth Academy. He moved first to Bangor, Maine, where he opened a candy factory and met Mary Frances Donovan, who became his wife. They moved to Presque Isle, Maine, in 1887, where he engaged in the lumber business and built power plants and an electric railroad. He was president of the Aroostook Valley Railroad from 1902 to 1946.
Gould served in the Maine Senate from 1921 to 1922, and was elected on September 13, 1926, as a Republican to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Bert M. Fernald and served from November 30, 1926, to March 3, 1931. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1930. During his time in office he served as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Immigration for the 71st Congress.
He died at Presque Isle and is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
The special election to replace Senator Fernald occurred near the height of the Ku Klux Klan's influence in Maine politics. Klan infiltration of the Republican Party split Maine Republicans, with klansmen finding their champion in Maine Governor Owen Brewster, and their chief opponents in former Governor Percival P. Baxter and Senator Frederick Hale. Gould, whose wife was Catholic, ran on an anti-Klan platform after receiving the Republican nomination for Senator, which caused Gov. Brewster to take the unprecedented step of denouncing his own party's candidate in the general election.
The Maine special election was of national importance because the U.S. Senate was evenly split along party lines (47 to 47). Maine Democrats, however, deserted their party in droves to vote for Gould, in order to break the power of the Republican Klan faction. In an unprecedented outcome, Gould carried every city and county in the state. The Chairman of the Republican State Committee hailed Gould's victory as demonstrating that "the sinister influence of an oath-bound organization no longer threatens the welfare of Maine". The issue would be played out one more time, however, when Gov. Brewster challenged Sen. Hale for the Republican Senate nomination in 1928, and lost, signaling the eclipse of Grand Dragon DeForest H. Perkins and the Klan as a force in Maine politics.
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