T HE index numbers of prices here presented in monthly form for the period I795 to I824 were constructed as a part of a study of the financial history of the United States during and immediately following the War of i8I2.1 To students of international trade, government finance, and money, banking, and prices, the developments of a hundred years ago are of interest because of the similarity between that period and the recent war and post-war period. It is hoped that the index numbers of commodity prices at wholesale may be of service to students of the history of these years. Such series provide a continuous record around which non-quantitative data may be organized, and, being sensitive barometers of economic life, they enable us to say something concerning the timing and the magnitude of the effect of the forces at work. A description of the construction of the indexes of prices in the United States from I795 to I824 is given in Part I below. Three indexes of prices in the Boston marketone of the prices of domestically produced goods, one of imported goods, and one of domes'tically produced and imported goods (the all commodities index) have been computed by months for the 30 years. In this section also indexes of prices of domestic goods quoted in the markets of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, from i8io to I8I9, are presented. In Part II the index numbers for the years i802-2o,have been examined to find out when business recessions and crises occurred, and some non-statistical material has been quoted which helps to explain the movements of prices in this period. Our conclusions concerning the causes of fluctuations in prices must necessarily be tentative, for the data upon which our judgment must be based are fragmentary.

Reviews the book "Accounting for Surplus," by Paul W. Pinkerton.

There is always a certain amount of interest attached to the excursion of a state into the field of industry. This is not confined to the state itself, but usually manifests itself as well in even remotely located sister commonwealths. Because of the publicity given North Dakota's program of state ownership, it was thought that a paper dealing with some of the problems of its major industry would find enough interest to justify it. In order to understand clearly the nature of the organization and management of the state mill and elevator, it is necessary to touch briefly on certain acts of the legislature. In the first section of an act passed by the sixteenth legislative assembly of the State of North Dakota and approved February 25, 1919, is found the statement that "for the purpose of encouraging and promoting agriculture, commerce and industry, the State of North Dakota shall engage in the business of manufacturing and marketing farm products and for that purpose shall establish a system of warehouses, elevators, flour mills, factories, plants, machinery and equipment, owned, controlled and operated by it under the name of the North Dakota Mill and Elevator Association." In addition, this act provided for the manner of operation of the Association and the powers and duties of the persons charged with its management.

In a manufacturing business, according to the author's view, there are only two primary and fundamental activities, which should be made to embrace all operating factors and the costs attached to them, the two activities are those of production and distribution. Management and administration in a manufacturing business or in any other business, are not ends in themselves. In manufacturing the administrative function must concern itself either with problems of production or problems of distribution. Financial activities of an internal nature over which management has control must also be viewed as assisting production and distribution in the proportion that these two fundamental divisions utilize the funds of the business. It is generally admitted that modern cost accounting methods lead to an accurate knowledge of product cost, costs which express themselves in the various inventories of manufactured product, and, of course, in the inventories in process. Cost accounting methods also enable one to recognize and give effect to all the variable production factors that enter into the manufacture of a variety of goods.

The article presents information on the concept of developing a relation between economics and accounting. According to the author, the precipice on the economic side is the concept of consumers' cost, whereas the considerably lower precipice on the accounting side is the present limited concept of inventoriable values. Profit has been defined as that increment of consumers' cost value which is ordinarily in excess of the conversion value created for consumers' needs by the merchant or manufacturer. It has been assumed that only those merchants and manufacturers who do create, through their operations, consumers' cost values will remain in business, because business cannot continue without profit. The theory of marginal utility finds its application and, sooner or later, produce a proper balance between the demands for economic goods and the activities that satisfy the demands. The article summarize that finished inventories, or merchandise for sale, should Include all the values created by the business process, except the profit which is the additional value created by the consumer's act of purchase.

The work of Pearl and Reed, 558 — Their postulates, 559. — The logistic formula, 561. — The question of closeness of fit of the formula to the observed data, 562. — The applications of a mathematical formula of growth, 564. — Intercensal interpolation, 564. — Prediction of future growth, 566. — Malthus, 568. — Elkanah Watson, 569. — Department of Agriculture experts, 570. — Pritchett, 571. — Critique of Pearl's assumptions and of his formula as a predictive device, 573. — Cultural influences and cycles of growth, 577. — Empirical versus rational laws, 579. — The use and abuse of analogy, 582. — The analogy between the growth of an individual and that of an aggregate, 583. — Relation of changing birth rates, death rates, and age constitution to the shape of the growth curve, 586. — The Algerian population, 587. — Inconclusiveness of Pearl's analysis, 589. — Further analogy — correlation of population growth with density, 590. — Doubtful value of the logistic formula, 593.