The Punta Gorda herald., 1919-06-05
JUDGE COCHRAN'S
FRUITLESS FIGHT


The Tallahassee correspondent
of the Tampa Times, telegraphine
on Monday, gives the following
report, Of Judge Cochran s fruit
less efforts to prevent Okeechobee
county from getting a hundred
thousand acres Of DeSoto s terri
tory:
About 100000 acres of DeSotc
county-eight and one-half town.
ships, roughly-were taken away
from that principality by the
house late Saturday and added tc
the county of Okeechobee. Al
the same time the house refused
to take off small portion OF
Palm Beach county lying along
the st. Lucie canal and add it also
to Okeechobee. Cochran of De-
Soto, fought the proposition hard
but Coats, the Okeechobean, had
his friends lined up and with the
assistance of Amos Lewis and Bob
Mathis. Mathis said he had been
hearing of the division of DeSoto
county for many years and ex-
pected to be hearing of it many
years hence. He thought the
county ought to be split up and
urged county division on the peo-
pie Of that big county.
Coats and Cochran made about
the same arguments that were
made pro and con in the Glades
county fight, namely that the dis
tance to Arcadia is too great on
one side and on the other that di-
vision of the county now before
it is fully ripe would be a crime.
Cochran moved to make the Kis-
simmee river the dividing line,
which is the same as now and also
moved to strike out the enacting
clause, losing this by vote of rs
to 80. After an afternoon spent
in debate the final vote, adding
the territory sought to Okee-
chobee county as far as the house
can do so, was as follows:
Yeas: Barber, Brooks, Bryan,
Runker Campbell Caro- Chavous
Goats, Crews, Deas, Folks, Futch
of Lake, Gates, Hagan, Harris,
Hinley, Jarmon, Lewis, Marshall,
Mathis, Miller Moore, McCrary,
Phillips, Roebuck, Sans, Scruggs,
Small, Stokes, Tilghman, Tillis,
Wade, Whyte, Woodruff of Or
ange.-34.
Nays: Wilder, Busto, Cochran,
Corbett, Dawson, DeGroves, Dill
lard, Edge, Epperson, Gillis, Glaz-
ier, Green, Hamblin, Jones, Keen,
Merchant, Perry, Parrish, Strom,
Surrency, Waybright, Weaver,
Wicker, Williams of Leon, Will
liams Of Polk, Wilson of Pasco,
Wilson of Gadsden, Woodruff of
Seminole.-28.
Arcadia sent Judge j. B. Coch-
ran to the legislature to prevent
county division. He was and is,
in our opinion, the very best man
the Arcadia leaders could have Sc
lected. He is able, honest, loyal
but, when it came to PROPOSE
tions to divide DeSoto county or
subtract from its territory, Judge
Cochran had so little influence
with that bolsheviki house that
every thing he was elected to pre-
vent went through with a whoop.
The Moore Haven new county
bill, Notwithstanding vigorous op-
position by the judge, passed the
house two to one; and, last Satur-
day, although the judge emitted
a just and resounding howl, the
house permitted those Okeechobee
fellows to steal (annex, they call
it) part Of DeSoto county. Here
is the report of the incident
which Herbert Felkel sent to the
Tampa Tribune under Saturday IS
date:
When the house met this after
noon it resumed consideration of
the bill annexing a slice of Desc 4
to county to Okeechobee county.
The bill had been called up just [
before the house recessed for din s
ner, and while Mr.. Cochran was +,