"a billion here, a billion there" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[James Smith]

I don't have the time to search for it now, but I once read a statement from Sen. Dirksen wherein he said he did not recall ever having uttered the "A million (billion) here ..." aphorism.

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.


--- On Fri, 9/12/08, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:

> From: Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject: Re: "a billion here, a billion there" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Date: Friday, September 12, 2008, 2:52 PM
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Well, that's the story.  Fred Shapiro covers it in the
> NYT 21 July 2008.
>
> "We are similarly certain that Everett Dirksen coined
> "A billion here, a
> billion there, pretty soon it begins to add up to real
> money." Yet the
> Dirksen Congressional Center, scouring the Illinois
> senator's audiotapes
> and transcripts, news clippings and speech notes, has found
> no concrete
> evidence of his uttering these words, only uncorroborated
> attributions
> after his death in 1969. On the other hand, a historical
> database search
> of The New York Times yields a Jan. 10, 1938, Topics of the
> Times column
> with the lines: "Well, now, about this new budget.
> It's a billion here
> and a billion there, and by and by it begins to mount up
> into money." No
> mention of Dirksen. "
>
> I submitted the cite as a semi-antedating.
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society
> > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of sagehen
> > Sent: Friday, September 12, 2008 3:42 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: "a billion here, a billion
> there" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "a billion here, a billion
> there" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> >
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> > -----------------
> >
> > on 9/12/08 12:49 PM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC at
> > Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL wrote:
> >
> > > Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> > > Caveats: NONE
> > >
> > > "Trillion On Deck"
> > > Date: 1917-06-23; Paper: Idaho Statesman,
> published as: The Idaho
> > > Daily Statesman p 4 col 1 "Congress never
> appropriates less than a
> > > thousand of them [millions] for any military
> activity, a
> > billion here,
> > > a billion there until billions are getting
> common."
> > ~~~~~~~~~
> > Was it Everett Dirksen (sp?) who said "...a
> Million here, a
> > Million there:
> > pretty soon you're (we're) talking big
> money."?
> > AM
> >
> >
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> >
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
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