He returned to the University of Arkansas in 1919 and received his Bachelor of Arts degree that year from Kent Law School, Chicago, Illinois, and his LL.B.

McFarlane was elected as a Democratic Representative for Texas's 13th congressional district to the Seventy-third and to the two succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1939).

He resumed the practice of law, and served as special assistant to the attorney general at Texarkana, Texas, from 1941 to 1944, and then as director of the Surplus Property Smaller War Plants Corporation, Washington, DC, from December 1944 to January 1946.

He subsequently served in the Lands Division of the Justice Department from December 1, 1951, until his retirement on August 1, 1966, when he again resumed the practice of law.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress