"the whole nine yards" 1942

[Stephen Goranson]

Investigation of the National Defense Program: Hearings Before a Special
Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, By United States Congress.
Senate. Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, part 12,
U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,1942, page 5192.
(Google Books provided the title and page number but gave no text; WorldCat
indicated the page was in pt. 12; the rest is from the paper publication.)

Senators and Admirals on Thursday April 23, 1942 were discussing a rapid
increase in construction of Liberty ships. Senator Harry S. Truman was
chairman.

[page 5191]
....
Senator [Harold H.] BURTON....therefore you see a possibility of actually
increasing the
percentage of gain by 50 percent in these yards as a whole.
Admiral [Howard L.] VICKERY. In the yards as a whole.
Senator BURTON. And the yards that are below 12 percent now there would be more
than a 50-percent gain because they are below that average at this time?
[page 5292]
Admiral VICKERY. Yes, sir.
Senator BURTON. So that you have involved here a tremendous expansion in
production, and you are shooting for a 50-percent increase or more than a
50-percent increase in seven out of nine plants.
Admiral VICKERY. That is right, and they have got to make that to hit the
schedules.
Admiral [Emory S.] LAND. You have to increase from 7.72 to 12 for the average at
the bottom of that fifth column, for the whole nine yards.
Senator BURTON. That is pretty nearly twice.
Admiral VICKERY. That is what we have got to do.
Admiral LAND. That is what we are up against here, and they aren't up against
anything that the rest of the United States and all its armed forces are up
against.
....

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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