examined with particular attention given to the demand

for new metals inputs and for ores. Factors relating to

the supply of metals are then considered, and finally,

increases in production and produced wealth are related

to the available supply of metals to United States

industries during the century.

 In the course of this study, the economic growth

of the United States during the past century is considered

from a new perspective. The same basic question asked

by other studies underlies this one: Why is the United

States so rich while much of the rest of the world is so

poor? But rather than asking what parts of the American

experience might be shared with others, the purpose here

is to examine to what extent the American experience might

have been fundamentally unique. The conclusion of this

study is that while other factors have been important to

United States economic growth, resources have been parti-

cularly so. By forgetting them and assuming instead that

the economic growth of the United States resulted

primarily from cleverness, prescriptions may have been

presented to poor countries for a kind of growth they may

not be able to achieve.