63
which was proceeding with great haste at the time--was
matched by peacetime production of 79>1^3277 long tons
20
in 1948. Remembering that a great deal of existing
machinery and equipment was devoted to war ends during
the lpUOs, one readily can understand the consequent
assumption that wars have made exceedingly heavy demands
upon metal resources. But the diversion of metals from
domestic to war industries for short periods of time
did not constitute a significant drain on metal
resources when compared to the total metal demand exhib
ited over the past hundred years for non-military uses.
The output of the steel industry during wartime has
come to be exceeded each year by the demands of the
domestic economy; even if all the metal produced during
the war years had been lost, the amount of metal lost
due to wars would not have begun to approach the amount
of iron mined, fabricated, and put to use in the economy
over the past hundred years. Between the two great
wars, the production of steel for use in ordnance was
insignificant. During periods of peace following World
War IX, it amounted to only two or three hundred
thousand tons of steel per year, and even during the
Korean conflict it reached a maximum of only three
million tons.^^
20
Historical Statistics, p. 4l6, Series P-203*
21
Landsberg, Resources in America's Future,
p. 870, Table A16-3*