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was urged to purchase more expensive tools and supplies and could plainly see that it irritated them when I refused. Finally it came out - I was told that if we failed to spend all of our budget before the fiscal year ended, our allotment would be cut by whatever amount we had left. So the idea was to live it up, spend it all, so our budget would be increased! I said, "Gentlemen, I believe it is our duty to save the taxpayer's money, not to help increase taxes by being extravagant!" When I resigned, the commander wanted to know why. I told him that it was simple, that I was given the privilege of hiring men but denied the privilege of firing them when it was necessary. When the Navy brass desired to get rid of an enlisted man they simply transferred him to another outfit. In the case of a civil service employee, the brass teamed up with his department head and kept a log on the victim's activities until they compiled enough dirt to have him tried before the civil service commissioner. They had done this to a civil engineer and just one day after I left the base, he came to my home with a copy of all the ridiculous charges they had filed against him. After I read the charges he asked if I would drive to Atlanta with him to appear as a witness in his behalf. When we walked into the hearing room, the commander, his executive officer, and a civilian personnel man were already seated. When they saw me they nearly fainted! I knew then we had the case won. I was the accused's only witness. The veteran's consort officer, a civilian, was acting as his attorney. I refuted all their lies and when we left the hearing, I suggested we return to the hotel and celebrate our victory over a few beers. We did just that! About a week later the commissioner ordered the young engineer reinstated and his salary paid from the day of his discharge. He came to see me to tell me the good news and I asked him what he intended to do. He said he would like to remain in Gulfport, but I warned him that his accusors would again try to frame him. I then advised him to go to Mobile on annual leave and take a good look at the jobs being offered on the Civil Service register and apply for one in order to get out of Gulfport as soon as possible. He signed up as a Sanitary Engineer in Alaska at a salary of twelve thousand dollars per year. The last time I heard from him he was happy and doing? fine.
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In 1952, I received word from the IRS office in Jackson, Mississippi, that I owed three hundred and eighty eight dollars on my 1951 return, and that if I failed to pay that amount within ten days, my personal property would be sold as prescribed by law. I replied by mail and enclosed photostatic copies of cancelled checks amounting to some twelve hundred dollars in full payment of my 1951 income tax. I then asked how they could possibly apply any of my money on estimated tax when I was not subject to estimated tax in 1951 for the simple reason I was working for a salary in 1951 and was subject to withholding tax! End of threat. I have always thought, ever since I became a victim of the Marxist graduated tax on personal incomes, the only justifiable revolt is tax revolt by the over burdened middle class taxpayer! In my lifetime, that damnable tax has increased from one per cent to as much as ninety per cent. Plus the additional Marxist inheritance tax which is as high as seventy per cent! If the taxpayers of our once-great nation do not wake up soon to the power of taxation in the hands of greedy politicians who are guided by the international banker, they will be reduced to the status of slaves! Under the beast!
When I left the Navy base, I accepted a job supervising a dewatering job in Gulfport. After completion of this job I became master mechanic for the J.A. Jones Construction Company who had the contract to build more living quarters at the ever expanding Keesler Field. Toward the end of 1953, I was sent to the Cuyahoga Wrecking Company in the same capacity. My job was to tear down the old creosote timber bridge across the Bay of St. Louis, the same bridge I had helped build in 1928! Christmas was near when we completed the job. Our son Bob was now a sophomore at Ole Miss and the twins were sophomores at Pass Christian. We visited my mother on Christmas Eve as usual and then drove to New Orleans Christmas Day to be with Fran's folks. Bob and I worked around our little ranch during the holidays, patching fences and repairing the barn. We now had thirty-two acres.
On January 17, 1954, at about 3:00 a.m., something happened that changed my life! I suffered a coronary occlusion! I did not panic. Which probably saved my life. I just felt that if it was my
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