William U. McCabe (1880 – May 5, 1931) was an attorney and politician from

Mountain Home, Arkansas Mountain Home is a city in, and the county seat of, Baxter County, Arkansas, United States, in the southern Ozark Mountains near the northern state border with Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 12,448. A total of 41, ...

. He served in the Arkansas Senate from 1921 to 1924, and the

Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the ...

from January 1931 until his assassination on May 6, 1931. McCabe worked to reform the

Arkansas Constitution The Constitution of Arkansas is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of Arkansas delineating the duties, powers, structures, and functions of the state government. Arkansas' original constitution was adopted at a constitutional conv ...

and

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

funding system during a period of

good government Good government is a normative description of how government is supposed to be constituted. It has been frequently employed by various political thinkers, ideologues and politicians. Thomas Jefferson and good government Thomas Jefferson often r ...

reforms in the state.

Career

McCabe entered government by serving in the 1918 constitutional convention to replace the 1874 Arkansas Constitution. The proposed constitution included

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, but was not ratified. Throughout his political career, McCabe fought to increase highway funding for small, rural counties like Baxter County. He introduced bills in 1924 and 1931.

House of Representatives

During the 48th Arkansas General Assembly, McCabe authored a bill proposing a

constitutional convention Constitutional convention may refer to: * Constitutional convention (political custom), an informal and uncodified procedural agreement *Constitutional convention (political meeting), a meeting of delegates to adopt a new constitution or revise an e ...

to reorganize the state government. Proposed during the peak of the

movement, McCabe's bill echoed many of the retrenchments proposed by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Harvey Parnell Harvey Parnell (February 28, 1880 – January 16, 1936) was an American farmer and politician from Southeast Arkansas. Parnell served in the Arkansas General Assembly for eight years, first in the Arkansas House of Representatives, and later servi ...

Death

McCabe was shot in his hotel room early in the morning of March 12, 1931. With a bullet embedded in his heart, McCabe recovered sufficiently to return to Mountain Home, but succumbed to

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

at a Little Rock hospital on May 6, 1931. Another hotel guest, H.G. Lansdale, a traveling salesman from

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, was charged with murder after a pistol was found in his room. The two men had both complained to a hotel clerk about noise. Lansdale was later acquitted by a jury on June 20.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCabe, William U. 1880 births 1931 deaths 20th-century American politicians Arkansas lawyers Democratic Party Arkansas state senators Assassinated American politicians Deaths by firearm in Arkansas Democratic Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives People from Mountain Home, Arkansas People murdered in Arkansas 20th-century American lawyers Deaths from pneumonia in Arkansas Assassinated American State House representatives