Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Money--The Principles of Money and Their Exemplification in Outstanding Chapters of Monetary History," by Edwin Walter Kemmerer.

Reviews the book "The Mathematical Theory of Finance," by Kenneth P. Williams.

The article focuses on cost accounting and the classification of municipal expenditures. According to the author, financial accounting relates the expenditures to the various activities. Cost accounting goes further. It relates the expenditures to the amount of work done. Each activity is divisible into operations which, in turn, are measurable. The costs are first allotted to the activities or operations. The direct costs are chargeable directly; the indirect costs are necessarily apportioned to arrive at the true costs as accurately as careful estimation makes possible. The specific uses or purposes of municipal cost accounting help to indicate its nature. The information used in cost accounting comes for the most part from the general accounts. So intimately are they related that the cost accounting may and usually should be "tied in" with the general accounts. For the activities to which cost accounting is being applied, it is convenient to locate the detailed classification of expenditures by object in the cost accounts rather than the general accounts.

The article explains that surplus has been defined as the amount of the net worth in excess of the par value of the capital stock outstanding. In the case of corporations with no par value stock, it is sometimes defined as the amount of the net worth in excess of the net amount realized from the sale of the stock. There are many kinds of surplus, however, because it arises from so many sources. It may be created by donations to the corporation, by earnings, by the issue or purchase of the corporation's own stock for more or less than par, and by many other transactions. Likewise the surplus may be decreased by a number of transactions, such as operating deficits, dividends, and the sale of fixed assets for less than the value at which they are carried on the books and losses on the abandonment of properties. The purpose of the present article is to show to what extent corporations, in the iron and steel industry publish information showing what entries have been made in their surplus accounts and what types of entries are made.

The article focuses on financial statements of national wealth and national income. According to the author, an article published in the "Journal of Political Economy," by Morris A., points out that the national income statement has relationships to the statement of national wealth or national balance sheet which are analogous to the relationships of a corporate income statement to the corporation's balance sheet. This observation intrigues the accountant. The possibilities of setting up financial statements for the national income and the national wealth are for the most part unexplored in published works on these subjects. The interrelationship between the income sheet and the balance sheet is here especially important. Most of the previous studies of national income in the United States have necessarily made use of accounting data, both as found in census reports and as secured directly from business enterprises. Some of the previous studies have attempted estimates both of the national income produced, and of the national wealth, classified by industries.

Reviews the book "Expenses and Profits of Limited Price Variety Chains in 1934," Stanley F. Teele.

The article presents the author's comments on studying accounting in a liberal arts college. He speaks in the defense of the subject. The author asserts that accounting in the liberal arts college has struck deep root and is there to stay. It has inherent qualities that justify the position it now holds in the liberal arts curriculum, and it may be a factor in inducing changes within the college in the direction of a more frank facing of the situation regarding the problem of professional education. The author also finds himself somewhat unprepared to accept the implications of the reference to professional education. He do not think that the case for accounting as a subject making a contribution to a liberal arts curriculum is strongest when put in terms of professional education or of a possible revision of liberal arts curricula looking toward more professional training, as this expression is commonly accepted. According to the author the most valuable contributions which accounting can make toward the enrichment of a liberal arts curriculum are those which can be made within the framework of a conception of this curriculum which has little, if anything, to do with professional or vocational education.

Reviews the book "Managing the People's Money," by Joseph E. Goodbar.

Reviews the book "Accounting Principles for Engineers," 2nd ed., by Charles Reitell and Clarence VanSickle.

Reviews the book "New York Laws Affecting Business Corporations," edited by J.B.R. Smith.