McFarland, Ernest William "Mac", 1894-1984

<p>Ernest William "Mac" McFarland (October 9, 1894 – June 8, 1984) was an American politician, jurist and, with Warren Atherton, one of the "Fathers of the G.I. Bill." He is the only Arizonan to serve in the highest office in all three branches of Arizona government, two at the state level, one at the federal level. He was a Democratic Senator from Arizona from 1941 to 1953 (Majority Leader from 1951 to 1953) before he was the tenth governor of Arizona from 1955 to 1959. Finally, McFarland sat as Chief Justice on the Arizona Supreme Court in 1968.</p>

<p>McFarland was born to William Thomas and Keziah (Smith) McFarland on October 9, 1894 in a log cabin on his family's farm near Earlsboro, Oklahoma. When he was eight, his family moved to Okemah for a year before returning to Earlsboro. This had the effect of delaying McFarland's education for a year as Okemah had no schools at the time. As a result, he graduated from Earlsburg High School in 1914.</p>

<p>After high school. McFarland enrolled at East Central State Normal School in Ada, Oklahoma. He completed the required work for a temporary teaching certificate after one quarter. In late 1914 and early 1915, McFarland taught in a one-room school in Schoolton, Oklahoma to raise funds for his education. He then returned to East Central and taught mathematics at Ada High School to pay for his education. During the same time he was active in his school's debating societies. It was at this time he began a friendship with Robert S. Kerr, who was a member of the same debate club. In mid-1915, McFarland completed his studies at East Central and left the school with a lifetime teaching certificate.</p>

<p>Following East Central, McFarland enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. Working various part-time jobs, he initially studied mathematics with the intention of having a career in education. After a year he changed majors to pre-law. Studying at an accelerated rate, McFarland graduated with a bachelor's degree on June 5, 1917.</p>

<p>Following his graduation, with the United States having recently entered World War I, McFarland enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He entered the military on December 11, 1917 as a seaman second class and was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. The climate on the shore of Lake Michigan did not agree with him and he was admitted to a naval hospital on March 3, 1918 suffering from pneumonia. McFarland spent the next several months in the hospital dealing with a variety of problems, including pericarditis, emphysema, and pleurisy. It was not until early 1919 that McFarland recovered enough for a navy medical board to recommend he receive an honorable discharge. His discharge from the U.S. Navy became effective on January 31, 1919.</p>

<p>After leaving the Navy, McFarland returned to Oklahoma for a short time before deciding to move to Arizona. He arrived in Phoenix on May 10, 1919 and after several days had found employment at a local bank. Seeing little opportunity for advancement at the bank, he applied to the Stanford University Law School. Before leaving to begin classes he filed for a 160 acres (65 ha) homestead near Casa Grande. McFarland would later refer to the land as his "jackrabbit farm".</p>

<p>McFarland attended law school for four quarters before taking a break. During this time, his parents and younger brother had moved to Arizona. At the time, Stanford recommended all law students spend a quarter interning at a legal office. Feeling homesick after a year in California, McFarland worked at the Phoenix office of Phillips, Cox, and Phillips. During this time he was legal clerk for future Arizona Governor John Calhoun Phillips. McFarland was also introduced to a variety of figures within the Arizona political establishment. At the completion of his internship, he returned to Stanford. McFarland completed work on his Juris Doctor in the summer quarter in 1922. In addition to his law degree, he had completed the class work for a Masters of Arts degree in political science. McFarland was admitted to the Arizona Bar later the same year.</p>

<p>Upon graduation from law school, McFarland moved to Casa Grande to "prove up" his homestead claim and open his first legal practice. The Arizona economy, at the time, was doing poorly and he found little legal work. He dealt with the lack of work by becoming involved in politics. McFarland worked for George W. P. Hunt's campaign during the 1922 governor's race. After Hunt won the election, McFarland received an appointment as assistant attorney general. In mid-1924, he returned to Stanford to complete work on his master's degree. Later that year he was elected county attorney for Pinal County. As state law required the county attorney to reside in the county seat, McFarland moved to Florence. He served three two-year terms in the position.</p>

<p><b>Ernest McFarland<br>
"Father of the GI Bill"</b></p>

<p>The son of Oklahoma pioneers, Ernest "Mac" McFarland nearly died from a bronchial infection he contracted while serving stateside during World War I. Military surgeons operated on his lungs, then sent him off to recuperate in a drier climate. "Jobless and homeless," he made his way to Phoenix, where he eventually found work as a bookkeeper in a bank. While other veterans struggled in the postwar economy, the future majority leader thrived in Arizona, rising to the state's three highest offices: U.S. senator, governor, and chief justice of the state supreme court.</p>

<p>Throughout his life, McFarland never lost his appreciation for the needs of veterans returning to civilian life. In the Senate, he introduced more than 40 measures promoting the welfare of servicemen and servicewomen. His most important contribution, the famous GI Bill, continues to help finance veterans' educations, housing, and business pursuits. He won acclaim for state issues as well, working with the senior senator, Carl Hayden, to secure funding for Arizona's ambitious irrigation projects.</p>

<p>McFarland saw his authority diminish after his election to majority leader. Serving between 1951 and 1953, he displayed little power compared to the Senate's de facto leaders, fellow Democrat Richard Russell and Republican Robert Taft. In 1952 he lost his Senate seat to Barry Goldwater. McFarland remained politically active for three more decades, however, earning himself the title, Arizona's "favorite son."</p>

<p>Mac McFarland grew up in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, a farming community located within what was then known as the Cherokee Strip, Indian Territory. Following high school, he attended a teachers' college and taught at a country school before graduating from the University of Oklahoma. World War I interrupted his career plans, however, sending him to the Great Lakes Naval School in Illinois. Discharged from the navy in 1919, McFarland saved enough money working in Phoenix to pay his initial tuition at Stanford University in California, where he earned degrees in law and political science.</p>

<p>McFarland moved back to Arizona and passed the bar exam. From 1925 to 1930, he served as Pinal County attorney, his first elected office. In private practice, he became an expert in agricultural and water-use legislation, representing the San Carlos Irrigation and Drainage District. He also defended the notorious "trunk murderess," Winnie Ruth Judd, who killed two of her closest friends. McFarland and his law partner secured an insanity verdict, saving Judd from the death penalty and raising their reputations within the state.</p>

<p>As McFarland built his legal career, he experienced a series of personal tragedies. Within one year, both his son and baby daughter died. Shortly thereafter, his grief-stricken wife became ill and passed away. In 1933 McFarland remarried and adopted his second wife's daughter. The following year, he won election as a judge to the Pinal County Superior Court.</p>

<p>In 1940 McFarland entered Arizona's Senate race. The 28-year Democratic incumbent, Henry Ashurst, appeared to be unbeatable and did not launch an aggressive campaign to retain his seat. While Ashurst remained in Washington, McFarland canvassed the state, giving speeches on water issues and the war in Europe. By a three-to-one margin, he defeated Ashurst in the primary and went on to win the general election.</p>

<p>During his first Senate term, as a member of the Committees on Indian Affairs and Irrigation and Reclamation, McFarland helped draft land and water-use legislation benefiting his constituents. For several years, he and Senator Hayden lobbied for a major irrigation system, the Central Arizona Project, and directed its passage through the Senate. (Held up in the House, the C.A.P. authorization bill became law in 1968.) At the same time, McFarland became increasingly involved in legislation regarding communications and the armed forces.</p>

<p>Speaking before the American Legion in 1943, McFarland presented his plan to reintegrate veterans into society at the conclusion of World War II. The original proposal had three components: bonuses for each returning GI based on the number of days spent in domestic and overseas service; monthly assistance for GIs to attend high school, college, and vocational schools; and funds for down payments on homes, farms, or businesses. McFarland introduced the first of several GI bills in October, then worked behind the scenes to ensure support from veterans organizations and members of Congress, including Missouri senator Joel "Champ" Clark, who directed the Senate hearings and helped revise the bill that became the Serviceman's Readjustment Act of 1944. By unanimous votes, the Senate and the House approved the legislation in March and May, respectively and, on June 22, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the GI Bill into law.</p>

<p>McFarland easily won his reelection campaign in 1946, while his success with veterans' affairs propelled him to greater responsibility within the Senate. As chairman of a Commerce subcommittee, he helped plan a postwar role for the United States in international communications, rewriting the Communications Act of 1934. Beginning in 1949, he co-chaired the Joint Committee on the Navajo-Hopi Administration, which shaped legislation providing roads, hospitals, and schools for the two Indian reservations. Meanwhile, he monitored Senate floor proceedings for Democratic Majority Leader Scott Lucas.</p>

<p>Linked to President Harry Truman's unpopular administration, Lucas and Democratic Whip Francis Myers lost their reelection campaigns in 1950. Richard Russell, one of the remaining party leaders, feared that the next majority leader would meet a similar fate and chose not to succeed Lucas. Instead, he encouraged his colleagues to elect the amiable McFarland as majority leader and aggressive Texas senator Lyndon Johnson as party whip.</p>

<p>More a legislative craftsman than a commanding ruler, Majority Leader McFarland did not make a significant impact on Senate proceedings. Given that the Republicans, when allied with the southern Democrats, actually held the balance of power in the narrowly divided Chamber, McFarland served mainly as a compromise maker. He maintained good relationships with President Truman and Lyndon Johnson and rarely drew attention outside of the Senate. He did speak out on one issue: Senator Joseph McCarthy's charges of communism in the government. Deciding that the time had come to "strike back" against "wild statements and character attacks," McFarland declared, "When the name of any member of the Senate becomes an adjective for mudslinging, we have come a far way from the tradition of those great men who preceded us here."</p>

<p>Like Scott Lucas and earlier leaders, McFarland found it difficult to campaign for his next election while handling the floor proceedings in the Senate. And as his state became more conservative, he could not escape his association with Truman, despite claiming independence from the administration. His 1952 defeat to Goldwater, however, was only a momentary setback. The following year, McFarland founded the Arizona Television Company, and in 1954 he won election to the state house. After two terms as governor, he tried to unseat Goldwater in 1958 but lost the rematch. Returning to his legal career, he joined the state supreme court in 1964 and became chief justice in 1968. Until his death in 1984, he worked to modernize Arizona, expanding the state's education, broadcasting, and irrigation systems. Outside Arizona, however, veterans remember McFarland for an earlier achievement, his distinctive role as the "Father of the GI Bill."</p>

<p>MCFARLAND, ERNEST WILLIAM, a Senator from Arizona; born on a farm near Earlsboro, Pottawatomie County, Okla., October 9, 1894; attended the rural schools; graduated from East Central State Teachers' College, Ada, Okla., in 1914, and from the University of Oklahoma at Norman in 1917; during the First World War served in the United States Navy; after the war moved to Phoenix, Ariz., and was employed as a clerk in a bank; graduated from the law department of Stanford (Calif.) University in 1922; graduated Stanford University, M.A., 1924; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Casa Grande, Pinal County, Ariz.; assistant attorney general of Arizona 1923-1924, and county attorney of Pinal County 1925-1930; moved to Florence, Ariz., in 1925; judge of the superior court of Pinal County 1934-1940; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1940; reelected in 1946 and served from January 3, 1941, to January 3, 1953; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952; majority leader and Democratic caucus chairman 1951-1953; Democratic Policy Committee chairman 1951-1953; co-chairman, Joint Committee on Navaho-Hopi Indian Administration (Eighty-first and Eighty-second Congresses); Governor of Arizona 1955-1959; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1958; resumed the practice of law; elected associate justice, Arizona supreme court, in 1964, becoming chief justice in 1968, and serving until 1970; member, National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence 1968-1969; director, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco; president of Arizona Television Company; died in Phoenix, Ariz., June 8, 1984; interment in Greenwood Memorial Park, Phoenix, Ariz.</p>

<p>ERNEST W. MCFARLAND, who served in all three branches of government, was born near Earlsboro, Oklahoma, on October 9, 1894. He attended East Central Oklahoma Teachers College from 1913 to 1914, the University of Oklahoma in 1917, Stanford University in 1921, and the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, where he earned honorary LL.D.’s. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1920. McFarland was Arizona’s assistant attorney general from 1923 to 1924, county attorney of Pinal County from 1925 to 1930, and a judge of the Pinal County Superior Court from 1936 to 1940. McFarland became a U.S. senator in 1941, was named majority leader in 1951, and served in that capacity until his defeat in 1952 by Barry Goldwater. On November 2, 1954, McFarland was elected Governor of Arizona, and on January 3, 1955, was sworn into office. He was reelected to a second term in 1956. During his administrations, the State Parks System was founded, the Colorado River Boundary Commission was established, and state aid to schools expanded. Also, the Interstate Oil Compact was sanctioned, and the State Racing Commission was given legal powers. McFarland left office on January 5, 1959, and was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court in 1964, serving as chief justice from 1968 to 1970. He also was a member of the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence from 1968 to 1969, was the director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and president of KTVK Arizona Television Company. Ernest William McFarland died on June 8, 1984, and he is buried at the Greenwood Memorial Park, Phoenix, Arizona.</p>