a friend of Couch's for some years and Couch knew his election meant that an ear sympathetic to the need for the Sebastian Inlet was in Tallahassee. Several important events occurred in 1917 that concerned the Sebastian Inlet. One of these events was when Mrs. C. H. Holderman started another newspaper in Brevard county after selling the one she had published in Manatee county for some years. On March 22 the first edition of her new publication, the "Cocoa Tribune" hit the streets. Holderman was 1 of only 3 women in Florida who edited a newspaper at that time. She was an outspoken advocate of women's suffrage and unafraid of taking a stand on other controversial subjects as well. She exhibited an unrestrained disdain for burdensome taxation and used the pages of her publication to relay her feelings on the subject to her readers. Holderman's "Cocoa Tribune" came out every Thursday. In her 3rd edition, that of April 5, 1917 a large front page article appeared that openly called for the digging of several inlets along Brevard's coastline, including one at Sebastian. Couch's lobbying, Holderman's editorial support and that of other editors in the area led Florida's legislature to draft, and pass, the Indian River Inlet Bill during its 1917 session. Known also as the Hughlett-Rodes inlet bill it called for a special election to let the voters in Brevard County decide whether or not to go ahead and allocate tax money for continued engineering studies of the inlet's feasibility. The election was scheduled to be held on August 21, 1917. Holderman's support for the Sebastian Inlet waned once she became aware of its dismal history. Subsequent issues of the Cocoa Tribune carried only criticism of the bill and the Inlets that would result if the bill became law. Most of the other newspaper editors in North Brevard also opposed the idea and let everyone know of their beliefs in no uncertain terms. Only one editor in the county's northern reaches, W. B. Dobson of the Cocoa Star, was very much in favor of the bill. No doubt this was because he was to become one of the three commissioners on the board should the inlet district become reality. The other two commissioners were going to be Couch and A. B. Tull. As the August election drew close the inlet bill was a hotter, and more frequently discussed topic than