Reviews the book "Cause and Control of the Business Cycle," by C.E. Harwood.

Reviews the book "Advanced Accounting," by Frank H. Streightoff.

Reviews the book "Accounting Principles and Procedure," vol 1., by Charles S. Langer.

Reviews the book "The Principles of International Trade," by Huntly M. Sinclair.

The article focuses on valuation of fixed assets. The values of assets might be determined from the equities. Stock exchange quotations provide current values of stocks and of bonds. The total value of all capital stock in the hands of the public plus the face value of bonds and other liabilities would give a figure which might be called the value of the corporation. Another approach to the determination of asset values would be through the process of capitalizing normal earnings. This is a valuation method of ultimate importance in the field of unregulated industry. Still another possible approach to the valuation of a corporation's assets is the one ordinarily taken; an appraisal is made of the assets themselves. Cost is the logical and preferable basis for balance-sheet valuation of plant and equipment. Deviation from cost results in distortion of future income and earned surplus. The belief that asset values of plant and equipment as shown on the balance sheet indicate market value or any other value should be discouraged. They should represent legitimate unrecovered costs, long-term prepaid expenses, and in this way display the financial condition of the individual enterprise in question.

The article focuses on the planning of field work in accounting. One of the acute problems facing accounting departments in collegiate schools of business is that of bridging the gap between the work in the classroom and the accountant's activities in business. The field work plan for those students who wish to enter public accounting has been developed to establish a means whereby the students may gain some valuable experience before graduation. The plan which is described in these pages is the one which has been in successful operation at the Ohio State University for about six years. Being located adjacent to several cities of considerable size, it has been possible for the university to secure the cooperation of a sufficient number of public accounting firms to make the venture a success. Participation in the field work plan on the part of the students is not compulsory. The success of the venture would be jeopardized if it were to be made so. Only the better students are privileged to take part in the field work and even in these cases, it is purely optional.

The article focuses on accountants' role in determining standards. It has come to a matter of general agreement that one of the primary purposes of accounting is to measure performance and promptly inform management when this performance is such as to merit special consideration. To measure either individual or group performance requires certain standards like collect and analyze statistical data which will be useful to those who must pass judgment on what constitutes good performance. Counsel with various executives upon whom these responsibilities fall. Record the standards set and their continuous revision. Inform those who set standards as to apparent discrepancies or errors. Promptly report variations between the actual performance and the standards, collecting and analyzing all data which tend to explain such variations. Translate the variations between actual and standard performance into such terms as will clearly and forcibly inform both executives and workers as to the ultimate results of such variations. Accumulate a story of individual or group performance in terms of the standards set.

The article focuses on different aspects of teaching cost accounting. Commerce students who have had little or no business experience present a problem to instructors in cost accounting because their lack of background keeps them from comprehending the aims sought by a cost system and particularly the managerial aspects of such a system. This condition seems to be general with all classes of students, whether they be those in day classes who are taking a complete commerce course or evening students who have some experience in business and are seeking to develop themselves in a special branch of accountancy. It therefore seems necessary for the instructor in cost accounting to carry on some preliminary work with his students to give them a philosophy of cost accounting whereby they will appreciate the importance of internal transactions in a business, the use that can be made of cost records for managerial purposes as apart from mere record keeping and the general relation that exists between all the manifold activities of a business, as well as some idea of what those activities are.