Reviews the book "Expenses and Profits of Variety Chains in 1933," by Malcolm P. McNair.

Reviews the book "Modern Accounting Systems," by William D. Gordon and Jeremiah Lockwood.

Reviews the book "The Flexible Budget," by John H. Williams.

Reviews the book "Corporation Financial Statements," by Mortimer B. Daniels.

Reviews the book "A Test of the Consumer Jury Method of Ranking Advertisements," by Neil H. Borden and Osgood S. Lovekin.

Reviews the book "Budgeting," by Prior Sinclair.

The editorial in the December issue of the journal The Accounting Review is entirely right in pointing out the importance at this time of a better development of accounting principles. Everybody engaged in accounting work, whether in teaching or practice, has the feeling that this is a crucial era for the profession and all its adherents. The fact that accountants are, as everybody hopes, on the eve of another great expansion of business activity, makes it urgently desirable that business take every step which may help to make the next period of prosperity healthier and more permanent than the last one. The work of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is bound to have a vital influence in defining and giving effect to accounting principles. But when the editorial referred to uses this situation as a stick with which to beat the accounting profession, chides it for its tardiness and reluctance to submit itself to a prescribed discipline. The editor is entirely right in his primary contention. This matter cannot stand still. The principles, practices, and literature of accounting must be advanced and developed to the point of being more definite, more helpful, to all the interested parties.

Accounting for depreciation is in itself a procedure whose desirability is generally considered to be unquestionable. A policy, of course, must be judged by comparing the results which it actually achieves with those which were expected of it. The policy of accounting for depreciation was designed to accomplish the maintenance intact of the capital sum invested in an enterprise by preventing its impairment through the distribution of dividends to the full extent of profits computed without regard to the diminution of the value of its capital assets as the result of wear, tear and obsolescence. The policy was imposed upon corporations doing business for profit by courts acting at the insistence of creditors determined to enforce financial policies which would afford them maximum security for their credits and investors anxious to guard against being deceived as to their own financial position by the return of their savings in the guise of income. Both were seeking to preserve the capital upon which each depended for security.

Survey courses are limited, apparently, to one semester or less and under such conditions it becomes educator's rather difficult and painful duty to devise teaching methods, which will, in the brief time allotted, convey a reasonably intelligent concept of basic principles and procedures. Results are unsatisfactory if the survey course is merely a duplication of the first semester of a standard one-year course. The usual and better procedure, the author believes, is to abridge the year course by a careful process of elimination and condensation. The author suggests, timidly, the elimination of any extended discussion of notes, bills of exchange, note registers, location of errors, business papers, merchandising activities, and various unusual and complex transactions. The purpose of a survey course differs entirely from that of a one-year course and it is not illogical, at least, that teaching methods in the two courses should differ. The author believes that a survey course should emphasize statements and if, by reason of a time limit, something must be slighted in the last few weeks he would prefer that material to be other than statement preparation and analysis.

Through the cooperation of some of the members of the accounting association a list of accounting theses for a master's degree has been compiled. Requests for titles approved during the past five years were sent to 46 universities represented in The American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. Thirty-eight answers were received. Ten of those replying indicated that no graduate work in accounting, as a major field, has been done. Four more indicated that the thesis requirement has been abolished or waived. Twenty-four replies listed titles numbering more than 415, but the excess over that number represented subjects approved prior to 1919, doctors' dissertations, or bachelors' honors reports. Elementary, intermediate, and advanced or special courses such as cost accounting, auditing, income tax, budgeting, accounting systems and problem review must be made a part of the equipment of the graduate accounting student who would carry on research in his chosen field. Probably nothing, which the average graduate student must do is as difficult for him as the selection and statement of his thesis subject.