Abstract Today, the members of the American Accounting Association have assumed the performance of an important, dual mission. As teachers of accounting they have accepted the responsibility to train young men in the sound accounting theory and practice which will provide the foundation for whatever these men may build during their careers. And as teachers they have the opportunity to influence young men at that time in life when they are forming the habits, attitudes, virtues and vices which are likely to remain with them throughout their lives. To accomplish this dual mission, it is essential that accounting teachers be alive not only to new techniques in education, but to the changing complexity of business and government, and to new developments in accounting theory and practice. Nor is it enough to be aware of such changes. A vital group of teachers not only recognizes change; it causes change. These necessities to progress require primarily the exchange of ideas, for ideas-bartered in the free, competitive forum-are the life-force of any art, including the arts of teaching and of accounting. In this respect the American Accounting Association has played a major role since its organization in 1916.

Abstract A meeting of the American Accounting Association is a particularly good place for the Chairman of the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Accountants to discuss the Uniform CPA Examination. It is here that the author would expect to find the sort of constructive criticism that can be most helpful in the continuing efforts of the board to supply an examination which will, if possible, better satisfy and more fairly serve the public, the profession, and the candidates, as well as the examining boards of forty-six states, four territories and the District of Columbia. There would be no law, and certainly not fifty-three of them requiring examination to prove the qualifications of those who would hold themselves out as capable of serving the public as certified public accountants, if the only purpose of such legislation was to serve the special interests of a favored few whose vanity had prompted them to secure for themselves a special designation placing them above their fellows.

Abstract According to the author accounting profession would be strengthened and the public interest would be better served, if all persons who present themselves as practitioners of public accountancy would be required by law, first to demonstrate their professional abilities and then to act in accordance with recognized standards of practice. Accountancy is not an exact science. There are no set rules or formulae, which can be used as a guide by the untrained. It follows, then, that the public accepts the practitioner pf public accountancy in good faith as one properly qualified to render a specialized service, important to the welfare of business and, consequently to the general public. The present generation should accept this, even though it means that they will encounter the many difficulties concomitant with such a drastic change as the regulation of practice through restrictive legislation. They should work and strive with all the ability they possess and the strength of character, which has been built into their profession to bequeath to the certified public accountants of the future the gracious heritage of a unified profession.