five of which may be definitely formulated as
f ollows:
16
1. Agricultural resources
2. Mineral Resources
3. Highly developed transportation facilities
4. Freedom of trade between states and
territories
5. Freedom from inherited and over-conservative
ideas.
A study of these causes affords an explanation of
the great development of manufacturing in the past,
as well as an indication of its possibilities in
the future. . .
In the second place, the United States produces
nearly every mineral required for manufacturing
industries. In most of these the supplies appear
to be sufficient for years to come, and are obtain
able at prices which compare favorably with prices
in other parts of the world.(ip)
But in the course of subsequent economic growth,
much of an initial abundance of natural wealth has been
consumed. The first official note of anxiety was
sounded by the President's Materials Policy Commission
to President Truman in 1952.
A hundred years ago resources seemed limitless and
the struggle upward from meager conditions of life
was the struggle to create the means and methods
of getting these materials into use. In this
struggle we have succeeded so well that today,
in thinking of expansion programs, full employ
ment, new plants, or the design of a radical new
turbine blade, too many of us blankly forget to
look back to the mine, the land, the forest: the
resources upon which we absolutely depend. So
19
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census, Twelfth Census of the United States Reports,
Vol. VII,Pt.I,United States by Industries(Washington,
D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1902), pp. LVT-LIX,
reprinted in Louis M. Hacker, Major Documents in American
Economic
Historv
(Princeton, New Jersey:
D. Van Nostrand
Co., Inc.
, 1961)
pp. 146-47*