Knowledge that Transforms

Abstract The certified public accountant's interest in the subject of appreciation is a practical one. He is forced to consider the matter in connection with his review of accounting and his certification of financial statements. The facts are, whether or not such procedure is justifiable, that physical property and intangible frequently are revalued by, or at the instance of, the owners of such possessions who attempt, in various ways, to give expression to the estimated increases in value. The certified public accountant, therefore, is confronted primarily with a condition; not a theory. The authority for the restated value may be either a report of independent appraisers, or a resolution of corporation directors. In as much as the certified public accountant does not attempt to act as an appraiser, to pass judgment on the work of such persons, or to assume responsibility for the values which they fix, he accepts their judgment and qualifies his statements accordingly. The occasions for revaluations which give rise to estimated increases in values are various.

Abstract This article provides information about various Universities. In the University of Arkansa, enrollment in both elementary and advanced accounting classes has shown more than 50% increase this year. Several public accounting firms have indicated their willingness to employ students during the month of January. In the University of California at Los Angles, Mr. Arthur Lorig has left the department to become Secretary and Treasurer of the Cypress Petroleum Co. Mr. Nathan Silverstein has been appointed associate in economics and accounting. In the University of Chicago, Mr. J.H. Cover, director of the bureau of business research at the University of Pittsburgh, has been appointed professorial lecturer in economics for one year to conduct research in the consumption of meat and meat products. The University of Chicago Law school has added a special course in accounting to the regular law curriculum, it may be applied toward requirements for the L.L.B. degree. In the Louisiana state University, Mr. James B. Trant has been appointed as the dean and professor of banking, formerly head of the department of Banking and Finance at the University of Texas.

Abstract Teaching business and other subjects by the case method has resulted largely from the desire of teachers and school administrators to bring into the class room a larger sense of the actuality of things, this in turn presumably has meant greater orientation for the student in the field of his interest. Auditing, like other business and professional subjects, cannot be learned wholly in the class room, at the same time experienced teachers are generally of the opinion that a great deal can be learned about these subjects in the class room, the degree of learning will depend partly upon abilities of the teacher and student, but also partly upon the nature of materials which are used in the teaching process. The subject of accounting has for years been taught generally by the use of problems which have varied very widely with reference to the air of reality which surrounded them. Some of the most noted teachers of the subject have maintained that a purely abstract problem, without necessarily any reality attached to it at all, was the most satisfactory teaching device; they have argued that the principles of accounting can be best presented in just this manner. At the other end of the scale have been equally able men who have taught from problems reproducing in the greatest detail certain business or accounting situations, how can anyone, ask these men, learn accounting except by doing in the class room what they will have to do when they actually take up accounting work.

Abstract The article focuses on the proceedings of the twelfth annual convention of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting, held at Washington D.C., between December 28 and 29, 1927. After some introductory remarks by the organizers, papers were read by W. W. Nissley of the American Institute of Accountants, John R. Wildman of the company Haskins and Sells, David Himmelblau of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, William A. Paton of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and J. L. Dohr of Greene and Hurd and of Columbia University, New York, New York. The second program meeting was given over to a discussion of various features of the federal income tax law. Johns Hopkins University's, Baltimore, Maryland, professor presided at the session and opened it with a brief statement introducing the speakers of the afternoon, all of whom were representatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The third program session consisted of a joint meeting with the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The general topic for discussion was "The Place of Accounting in Commerce Curriculum."

Abstract Accountancy practice in this country has grown from a theoretical zero to an institution comprising, probably, 25,000 public accountants, and gross annual earnings estimated at from $ 350,000,000 to $100,000,000. Twenty-five years ago engagements were taken, work was performed, reports were prepared and rendered, bills were paid, and few, if any, questions were asked by clients. This condition may be attributed largely, perhaps, to the fact that clients had little knowledge of accounting, or of auditing, or of what the accountants were supposed to do. Today, the accountant's relation to business, and to the personnel of business is quite different. For twenty-five years university schools teaching accounting and other subjects have been pouring their products into the business world. These men have taken positions as accountants, company auditors, treasurers, comptrollers, and credit men. Some of them have risen to the ranks of presidents, vice presidents, secretaries, and chairmen of finance committee. Not a few have become substantial shareholders.

Abstract It was in the main due to an accident that the efficiency idea was taken over by the engineering fraternity. The accountants, had they interested themselves in that direction, would have made better efficiency experts than the engineers, for they are by education and training better fitted for efficiency work. In the first place the accountant has a better grasp of business and economics subjects because of his education than has the engineer. Second, the accountant, coming constantly into contact with business men, has a better understanding of human relationships. He can deal better with people, whereas the nature of the engineer's work enables the latter to deal best with machinery and construction problems. An excellent judge of problems connected with bridges, roads, etc., he is more or less at a loss when confronted with problems involving human relationships. The efficiency engineer has tried to handle the workman as though he were a machine. The accountant on the other hand, accustomed as he has to deal tactfully with people, would never have antagonized labor against the whole efficiency movement as has the engineer.

Abstract The appearance a few years ago of a new English translation of Frater Lucas Paciolo's book "De Computis et Scripturis'" raises the question a new of how much, or how little, the art of bookkeeping has changed in the 434 years since 1494 when bookkeeping's first printed book appeared. But one should not open Paciolo's book with the expectation of finding modern practices completely foreshadowed. Nineteenth and twentieth century conditions have, of course, brought about many modifications of what was originally sound method, and have, in some cases, forced the introduction of practices which are of necessity entirely foreign to fifteenth century conditions. From the very beginning certain basic peculiarities of method and form have been associated with bookkeeping. These fundamental characteristics still persist, and, being peculiar to double-entry bookkeeping, form the principal means of setting it apart from other fact-manipulating systems. Ever since the record-keeping methods of bankers and governments were expanded to suit mercantile affairs, bookkeeping has possessed a characteristic theory, a characteristic form, and a characteristic technology.

Reviews the book "Forecasting, Planning and Budgeting in Business Management," by Percival White.

Abstract Teachers of accounting faces once more the perennial problem of what to teach and how to teach it, there is perhaps even more than ordinary occasion for considering whether accepted methods are acceptable and recognized modes worthy of recognition. On many points there are good reasons for doubt that presentations are sound and on some for certainty that they are not. In matters of record-keeping method and procedure one may be sure of shortcomings when one finds that one is laboriously teaching in the classroom and laboratory methods which have been almost completely superseded or modernized in every well-organized business concern. The purpose of these remarks is the discussion of some instances in point. To the writer it has always seemed curious that teachers of any subject should need to be adjured to keep their teaching abreast of standard practice in their field. Surely the individual whose time is given almost exclusively to research, to reasoning and to elucidation of principles and practices should lead the way in the development of those principles and practices. In accounting instruction, however, there seem always to be many who conceive it as their function merely to learn what is being done in practice-alas, often, no more than what has been done at some past time-and to interpret, explain and justify it to their students.

Reviews the book "Tax Diary and Manual--1928."