Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract Accounting statements are one of the chief sources of data which mold the financial activity over the various phases of the business cycle. They are the basis on which capital funds are (or should be) invested and earnings distributed. Thus they contribute directly to those influences which bring about business inflation, and, in turn, they measure the extent of the aftermath of recession, possibly viewing it through the dark-colored spectacles of pessimism. This paper is an attempt to indicate some considerations with which accounting is concerned in its relation to the business cycle. The paper has been suggested by the types of financing which have taken place in the recent period of prosperity, by the several questions raised in accounting theory by the fact or myth of appreciation, that there is a fundamental error in bookkeeping which tends to augment directly those influences that contribute to the optimism of business expansion and the pessimism of depression. The discussion will be limited to a consideration of accounting for income over the period of the business cycle.

Reviews the book "The Operating and Earning Power Ratios of Gas Companies."

Reviews the books "Introductory Cost Accounting," by Gillespie Cecil Merle and "Intermediate Accounting," by Harry Altschuler.

Reviews the book "Bookkeeping and Accounting for Rural Schools," by M.E. Studebaker.

Reviews the book "Simplified Mathematics for Accountants and Executives," by Harris D. Grant.

Reviews the book "Accounting Principles," by James O. McKinsey.

Reviews the book "The Pound Sterling. A History of English Money." by A.E. Feavearyear.

Abstract This article is an attempt to state the fundamental legal principles governing the rights of holders of original shares in a corporation to subscribe when that corporation issues new or unissued stock. The general rule is that when new shares are issued for money each `holder of the original stock is entitled to a prior right to subscribe in the proportion that his shares bear to the total issue before the increase If part of the authorized capital stock of a corporation remains unissued, in the absence of a statute to the contrary, each stock- holder has a right to purchase such proportion of it, when the issuance and sale thereof are directed, as his holdings bear to the stock then outstanding. It has been held that the right to issue the remaining stock is a corporate franchise, held by the corporation in trust for the corporators, and that this right must be used for the benefit of all the shareholders. The same rule applies to the corporation which has issued and sold but part of its authorized stock and later decides to issue the unissued shares.

Reviews the book "Law for Laymen," by Harold Dudley Greeley.

Abstract In late years the number of students who have enrolled for the courses in the accounting curriculum in collegiate schools of business has been increasing tremendously. This increase is almost appalling when one considers the strain which is being placed upon the educational set-up, particularly as it applies to the accounting courses. A program of work which has been outlined for small groups of students becomes totally inadequate when the numbers increase to considerable proportions. Coupled with the adjustments which may be necessary because of larger classes, there is also the responsibility of recognizing present-day trends in accounting and business and adapting the accounting curriculum to these trends. The problem of critical analysis of the curriculum is one which is often delayed indefinitely, if not put off altogether. That there is need for such analysis and probably for much change cannot be denied. Most curricula in accounting are the result of haphazard growth and not of careful planning. There is very definitely a challenge in the present situation for colleges to appraise carefully the equipment needed by the accounting-trained man in the years ahead of him and to adapt the training given him to that need.