I 



GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 257 



The figures for Roman Catholics seem surprisingly small for 

 Tampa, ^^•ith its large Latin population, but if West Tampa was 

 included the results would doubtless be different.* The only Greek 

 church reported in central Florida in 1916 is in Tarpon Springs, 

 and claimed 1,500 members; but it could hardly seat a third of 

 that number at one time. Outside of Tampa and its suburbs and 

 other cities the Catholics seem to be most numerous along the 

 western edge of. the Hernando hammock belt in Pasco County, 

 as indicated in the description of that region. The Baptists and 

 southern Methodists have their greatest strength in the rural dis- 

 tricts, as elsewhere in the South. 



POLITICAL PARTIES 



Without going into historical details, or making allowance for 

 inevitable periodical fluctuations, we may take the results of the 

 presidential election of 1916 as a fair indication of the average 

 political complexion of the white population of central Florida 

 (for coniiparatively few negroes vote in Florida now) in recent 

 years. In that election 67.3% of the votes cast in the area und^r 

 consideration were Democratic, 19.7% Republican, 6.6% Social- 

 ist, and 6.2% Prohibitionist. The proportions for most of the re- 

 gions vary so little from this that it is hardly worth while to tab- 

 ulate them,t and those for the whole State are almost exactly 

 the same. 



In 1920, when conditions were somew^hat abnormal, about 

 60% of the vote in central Florida was Democratic and 30% Re- 

 publican, and conditions in the whole State were very similar. 



*The city of Tampa contains over half the population of Hillsborough 

 County, butj only 28.3 per cent of the Catholics, if the census figures are cor- 

 rect. Most of the remainder may be in West Tampa. 



tThe principal exception is Osceola County, where the Democrats had a safe 

 majority in 1912, only a plurality in 1916, and a minority in 1920. (Only two 

 other counties in the State had Republican majorities at the last election, and 

 they were both farther south.) 



