Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract The article focuses on a symposium on various accounting principles underlying corporate financial statement. Those who have been charged with responsibility for activities of the American Accounting Association and its predecessor during the last 15 years frequently have occasion to recall the annual meeting held six years ago. For nearly ten years various members had proposed a restatement of aims and purposes of the association: a broadening of its expressed scope to cover the range of activities in which it seemed actually to be engaging and a more direct participation in practical affairs where national associations up to that date had seemed to be devices for the protection and defense of members, rather than mediums for the clarification and expansion of their fields of endeavor. Among other things, the devising of unequivocal statements of professional principles and policies had been suggested as a major project, notwithstanding that the normal interests of the association had been variously described as belonging to the realm of theory, pure science and academic narrowness.

Abstract In discussing the role of accounts in the administration of the affairs of the United States Government, the author talks about the history and development of accounts and the relation of Federal accounting to business accounting. It is indeed encouraging that the President of the United States and the Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Budget are committed to a comprehensive program of placing the accounts of the Federal Government upon a sound basis, which would compare favorably with those of commerce and industry. It is the author's fervent hope that the program will so commend itself to the U.S. Congress during the coming session that the Legislative branch of the Government will give its support and encouragement to those officers in the Executive branch who are desirous of providing the Congress and the American people with more informative over-all financial statements relating to the operations and condition of the Government. The author commends to readers thoughtful consideration a careful examination of the basic principles prescribed in Executive Order No. 8512, and would welcome their suggestions with respect to their application to the accounting and reporting procedures of the Federal Government.