Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Short Cuts in Business Calculations," by Carl J. Becher.

Abstract Certified Public Accountants (C.P.A.) examinations have long been accepted as phenomena of the first importance in the academic apprenticeship of the accountant. At one time, so far removed from each other were the training for and the practice of the profession that the skilled practitioner was regarded with no little awe in academic byways. He was a moving and dynamic figure, the paragon of the accounting world, and perhaps rightfully so; for was he not a master of an amazing technique, a technique evidenced by artfully designed C.P.A. problems? He had produced no other literature. His creations were pounced upon as manna for classroom consumption; and many were the threads to be spun about their engrossing obscurities. C.P.A. problems were the first footbridge between theory and practice, or, more accurately, between the theories of textbooks and the theories of practitioners. The American Institute of Accountants has been in a unique position during the past thirteen years in framing a uniform examination for more than thirty states.

Abstract Companies formed under the English laws may be either Joint Stock Companies, that is formed under the Companies Act, or Statutory Companies, generally formed under a Private Act of Parliament incorporating the clauses of the Companies Clauses Act and such other Acts as may be applicable. In the case of ordinary Companies not having public utility characteristics, the legislature has tended to leave the Companies themselves to adjust questions of finance as between the shareholders, on the one side, and the customers, on the other side, as normally the field of supply is open for the operations of competitors to the advantage and protection of the public. In the case of public utility concerns, however, the same degree of possible competition is not available, so that the "undertakers" are not unreasonably restricted as to dividends in the interests of the consumers who have to pay the tariffs for their supply. The mere regulation of dividends, however, would not be sufficient protection for consumers unless limitations were also placed upon the accumulation of surplus profits.

Abstract The adjustment of the student who has had bookkeeping in secondary school to the college courses in elementary accounting is a troublesome problem. Mingling such students with those who have had no such preliminary work causes disturbances of teaching, and segregating them into separate courses seems to offer just as great difficulties. Probably the larger number of colleges make no distinction in the elementary course between students with a knowledge of bookkeeping and those without. High schools and commercial teachers are of the opinion that the commercial course should either be given preference for admission to schools of business and commerce or that the commercial work lead directly to somewhat more advanced work in the field of business. These teachers frequently look to the schools of business as the goal of their better students and urge them to continue their training. To an increasing extent also the universities are serving as training schools for commercial teachers, and these former students feel their work should be recognized. It is difficult to do this with the usual commercial subjects but it should be possible to make some adjustment for bookkeeping courses since a good deal of such work is necessarily duplicated in our accounting courses.

Abstract This article shows that replacement costs furnish the best basis for producing serviceable financial statements to use for current managerial purposes or for use in planning mergers and reorganizations where the status of an enterprise as a whole is under consideration. The concept of profit sought is one which will enable the enterprise to function property as an economic unit in all economic situations. It must be that profit which at the moment of its calculation can actually be distributed-that profit which gives a value-picture in the profit and loss statement corresponding to the current economic situation. The profit of an undertaking can only consist of what is produced above the maintenance of business assets. A sharp line is drawn by this definition between assets and profits. Profits are also found in differences in time-values. While the entrepreneur can measure the degree of his success in buying and selling if the sale of his goods brings him returns which would permit him to buy or produce an additional quantity of the same goods at the moment of selling, the purpose of the speculator is differently orientated.

Reviews the book "Casualty Insurance Accounting," by Robert Sedgwick Hull.

Reviews the book "Industrial Accounting for Executives," by John R. Banks.

Reviews the book "Recent Economic Changes."

Reviews the book "Economics," by Bruce Winton Knight and Nelson Lee Smith.

Reviews the book "Stabilization of Prices," by John S. Lawrence.