Reviews the book "Commercial Credit and Collection Practice," by Watrous H. Irons.

This article stresses the need for both practical and theoretical accounting training in the U.S. Probably the ideal situation for a school is to have its accounting faculty include both the theoretical and the practical types of teachers, the natural leaning and emphasis of each offsetting and complementing the other. By planning the sequence of courses with this in mind, the students will receive some instruction heavily freighted with theory and some devoted mainly to the mechanics of accounting procedures. The results should be stimulating to both students and faculty. Whether a special service course in accounting is designed for a group that will not pursue the subject further, or whether the same introductory course is offered to all students, the proper balance between practical and theoretical training should be considered. When the elementary course is available to diverse types of students, it can be planned to give all of them a proper and satisfactory introduction to the subject. The teacher's presentation to the class should supplement material in the text, and should often disagree with some of it.

During 1940 the Curriculum Committee and the members of the Accounting Department of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, made a study of the accounting curriculum to determine if it needed revision. As an aid in this study, two questionnaires were sent out, one to the Deans of the fifty-two other schools in the Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, and the other to 494 graduates in accounting. The answers received to these questionnaires were informative and helpful to the Committee and to the Department. With the thought that the data might be of interest to others this analysis and summary of the answers to the questions has been prepared. The replies of the graduates are considered first. As a result of the questionnaires sent to the graduates and to the schools, and the recommendations of the Accounting Department to the Curriculum Committee, the Faculty of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce approved a new accounting curriculum. The new curriculum increases the semester credits offered in accounting from 31 to 39.