In 1853, the United States followed Great Britain in an attempt to establish the gold standard. We reduced the weight of our silver coins, smaller than one dollar, and made them legal tender for only five dollars in amount. The silver dollar was not considered in this legislation of 1853, and not until February 12, 1873, did the gold dollar become the unit of value, when the gold standard was unequivocally established. The silver dollar was at that time worth about two cents more than a gold dollar, and therefore it was omitted from the coinage. This was the famous crime of '73, about which the men now wearing gray hair, or no hair, heard so much in the '80's and early '90's. Yes, we were hearing this as late as 1896, when it was the Battle Cry of the Presidential Campaign. It may be stated that practically the whole civilized world, with the single exception of Great Britain, has come to the single gold standard, since 1873. The only country now remaining upon the silver basis, or that has not taken steps to place itself upon a gold basis, is, according to the report of the Director of the Mint, the Central American States, which are of comparatively no commercial importance whatever. MR. MERCHANT: How much gold is there in the world today? MR. LAWYER: It was estimated in 1890 that the amount of gold accumulated was approximately $4,000,000,000 (four thousand million dollars). The amount of gold produced during the last twenty-two years, or since 1890, by all the countries of the world approximates $6,500,000,000 (six thousand five hundred million dollars). Of course a deduction, or allowance, must be made for what has been used outside of monetary purposes, or in industrial consumption, approximately $1,500,000,000 (one thousand five hundred million dollars). A deduction should also be made for what has been absorbed by India, about $700,000,000 (seven hundred million dollars), and also by Egypt, about $200,000,000 (two hundred million dollars), or nearly $1,000,000,000 (one thousand million dollars), by these two countries. The Director of the Mint in his report, Page 53, says: "In statistics of the precious metals India is the most important country of Asia, and has long been one of the most important in the world. The Government of India has advised this bureau that the uncoined gold imported into that country might be considered to be used for ornaments and in manufactures. This amounted in 1910 to $47,026,698.