"the whole nine yards" 1942

Wed Jul 11 22:27:19 UTC 2007

I see nothing significant here, just "yards" = "[industrial] plants",
as in "navy yards".  OED2 n.1 4a.  Burton refers to "nine plants",
Adm. Land to "nine yards".

Joel

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.

At 7/11/2007 06:39 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
>Admiral Emory Scott Land was appointed by FDR soon after the Pearl
>Harbor attack to oversee a massive increase in U.S. shipbuilding. In his long
>life (1879-1971) Land was, among other things, a naval architect and
>administrator, a submarine builder, a pilot and president of the Air Transport
>Association of America, and a director and consultant to General Dynamics, a
>defense contractor and a supplier to NASA (where a 1964 usage of "the whole
>nine yards" was recently announced). The Library of Congress published in 1958
>a "Register of His Papers" deposited there. Land was on the cover of Time
>magazine on March 31, 1941, before Pearl Harbor and before his April, 1942
>Senate testimony in which he spoke the words "the whole nine yards."
>
>Three of the options regarding those latter words, ending a sentence or
>list, as they often do, are the following: (1) the words are a coincidental
>collocation, having nothing whatever to do with the later popular quotation;
>(2) he was quoting popular words; and (3) the words gave rise to the saying.
>
>(1) These words, despite many and sustained searches, have not been
>found (to my knowledge) earlier than 1942. So they are a fairly rare
>combination
>of words. All other (known) uses of these words appear to be related to one
>another. Note that these words appear in Defense appropriation
>hearings, in the
>U.S. Senate, where they would reappear, though years later, at least possibly
>sustained in memory there by slang oral tradition. Recall that many, for some
>reason, insist that the phrase goes back to World War II times.
>
>(2) In context, the dialog appears as quite serious business and devoid of
>word-play or double meanings. And, again, the phrase is not (yet) known beforw
>1942, to be quoted, anyway. Note that the huge increase in shipbuilding,
>including at new yards set up by Kaiser on the west coast, was quite an
>ambitious goal, and to achieve that goal at "the whole nine yards" would be a
>remarkable achievement, seen as urgent to the war effort.
>
>(3) The words in 1942 are a straightforward response to a question.
>They do not seem to be intended to be artful, but they were
>emphatic, and spoken
>by a much-respected authority. They report that if several items are achieved,
>the ensemble whould require the full compliment of extraordinary contributions
>by "the whole nine yards." This sets up the pattern: item, item, item--the
>whole nine yards. Even by speakers, later, who were unaware what type of
>"yards" were originally intended. I suggest that the possibility
>that April 23,
>1942 was the birth of "the whole nine yards" is well worth considering and
>testing by further research.
>
>Stephen Goranson
>
>Quoting Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>:
>
> > 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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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