Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Fundamentals of Bookkeeping and Accounting," by S. Bernard Koopman and Roy B. Kester.

Abstract The scope of the engineer is changing. Today's engineer must not only know his chemistry, physics, and mathematics; he must also be familiar with finance, labor problems, and accounting. One finds the engineer as the chief executive of many successful organizations. In such a capacity, he must be more than the master craftsman; he must be the able administrator of functions whose technologies are widely different. Now engineering clearly falls under the general function of management; yet management is more than engineering. To give a general list of the fields of management there are in broad general terms: finance, personnel, public relations, purchasing, traffic, storage, sales, design, production. Certainly engineering is most closely related to production, rather than to the others; and there is where it belongs. Yet production management and engineering are not parallel terms. The engineer solves technical problems of design – of product, of machinery and equipment, of plant, and of operation – but the production management must coordinate these, and cooperate with managers of finance, personnel, public relations, purchasing traffic, storage, and sales, in order to keep production going in balance with the other units of the organization.

Reviews the book "The New Place of the Stockholder," by John H. Sears.

Reviews the book "Handbuch für Das Revisioinsund Treuhandwesen," Wilhelm Voss.

Reviews the book "Industrial Balance Sheets," by Myron M. Strain.

Reviews the book "A Scientific Approach to Investment Management," by Dwight C. Rose.

Abstract This article discusses various aspects of capital. One aspect of capital stock is that it is an aliquot share in profits and residual ownership rights; a second aspect is that it represents the amount contributed. Both aspects of capital stock could be given adequate recognition by means of par value stock, if discounts thereon and premiums were considered unobjectionable, for if these be inseparable from the par account, the three elements together would be the sum actually contributed. The difficulty is that corporation law makes it inadvisable openly to treat par value, adjusted by premiums And discounts, as the capital. The legal definition of capital is the natural outcome of the kind of problems presented in litigation. One argument showing the derivation of the lawyer's definition is as follows. Capital marks the limit of the liability of the stockholders to the creditors. The creditors cannot rely on the private assets of the stockholders. These rights and duties, according to one view of thee matter, are implied by law, as stipulations in the contract presumed to run between the corporation and the creditor at the time credit is extended.

Abstract The Committee on Research of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting has assembled certain material on the subject of appreciation for review by the membership at large. Thus, an opportunity will be afforded for criticism, and for the expression of any opinion which any one may have to offer. Appreciation, because of conflicting theories and opinions held by various parties at interest, presents one of the most trying problems with which business men, lawyers and accountants have to deal. Much of the difficulty probably results from the failure to make a thorough study of the subject from all its angles. Certain graduate students at the University of Illinois, under the direction of professor A. C. Littleton, have prepared a report on a survey made by them on the subject of appreciation. This material appears in the article under the main headings and is followed in each instance by the comments of certain members of the association. In seeking a definition of appreciation, an extensive search through the accounting literature fails to yield a very rich return. The fundamental idea of an increase in values is, of course, always present.

Reviews the book "The Stock Market Crash--And After," by Irving Fisher.

Reviews the book "Elementary Training for Business," revised by York Wilkes and Tirrell Wilkes.