Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Accounting for the Individual and Family," by Neva Henrietta Radell.

According to the author of this article, it is not his purpose to deal at length with the materials or subject matter with which accounting research might concern it. While some mention will be made of these materials, he is more concerned to develop certain points of view, which he thinks should animate the research worker in accounting. A common assertion by research workers is that a given generally accepted principle ought to be re-examined, or that indeed all of them ought to be re-examined. This is a proposition, which in itself can receive general consent. But it often happens that the statement "that generally accepted principles of accounting should be re-examined" is frequently made by those who already have rather definite ideas for converting those generally accepted principles into something entirely different from what they are, or were ever intended to be. Those accountants who pretend to anything at all along the lines of accounting research cannot ignore the idea which bobs up from time to time, that accountants should try to devise a presentation of their data in entirely new forms.

Reviews the book "Business and the Public Library: Steps in Successful Cooperation," edited by Marian C. Manley.

Reviews the book "Beginning Accounting," by Dana F. Cole.

The article discusses several issues related to accounting as a tool for economy in German business. With the start of European hostilities, innumerable questions concerning industries, commerce, raw materials, and economy of the belligerent nations were raised in the daily press. Of particular interest was Germany, which through the innovation of its "Four-Year" Plan, had set out some years before to place its national economy as much as possible on a basis of self-sufficiency. Stringent foreign exchange laws, rigid economy, strict control over capital and labor, barter-trade with other nations, and rationing of food articles have long been regarded as measures foreign to American trade, business, and national policies. It is the purpose of the author in this article to present the development of that phase in the German business world, which on the one hand has made such rapid and important progress, and, on the other hand, has been called upon to help in the struggle for greater economy and for the success of the Four-Year Plan.

Reviews the book "Corporate Financial Policy," by Harry G. Guthmann and Herbert E. Dougall.

Reviews the book "1940 Tax Diary and Manual."

Accountants are just beginning to develop a consciousness of some of the problems of obsolescence that are present in connection with the use of fixed assets. This article is limited to consideration of only one question, which arises, that of separate accrual. Depreciation in this article is used to describe only the physical factors, which contribute to the retirement of fixed assets from use. The term obsolescence describes the functional or intangible factors that cause the permanent abandonment of fixed assets. Fixed assets are considered to be obsolete if they go out of use before the end of their potential physical life, because of changing economic or technical conditions. Depreciation, then, implies the gradual expiration or consumption of productive power, while obsolescence implies the abandonment of unused potential productive power. The difficulties of separating physical depreciation and obsolescence, the two dissimilar things may be too great to attempt at the present time, but accountants should recognize that they are different in nature, and that considerable progress in predicting obsolescence has been made in the past and may be expected to be made in the future.

Reviews the book "Trends in Rural Retailing in Illinois 1926 to 1938," by Robert V. Mitchell.

Reviews the book "Government and Business," by Ford P. Hall.