Abstract This article presents the need for a research program in accountancy. A longer-range objective is the application of research findings to actual accounting situations, in the hope that they may be helpful in establishing better standards for both accounting training and accounting practice. From suggestions submitted by the accountants consulted in this connection it is evident that the word research must be taken in a broad sense to cover the activities proposed. The task is not one of merely collecting facts, or even of suggesting interpretations and applications of such facts. Many of the problems which are most in need of solution call for a coordination and rationalization of existing current thinking and practice in respect to various aspects of accounting. Thus it seems that a research program in accountancy must include not simply studies in the theoretical and economic aspects of accountancy but also in the legal and social aspects of its practice. The word practice, too, is here used in its broadest sense, to include not merely the professional activities of public accountants but also the duties and responsibilities of accountants at work in the service of government and of private business.

Abstract The article discusses the importance of distribution and distribution costs as elements in business activities of today. It is well recognized that as production has become more efficient and economical, constituting less and less of a problem, distribution has become more complicated and costly, representing more and more of a difficulty. This fact does not in itself necessarily constitute criticism of existing distribution methods, but is simply an expression of conditions which have been brought about by economic, social and technical developments of recent years. It is, however, certainly desirable that the distribution of products of industry be accomplished economically and that every effort be made to bring about reductions in the cost of distribution comparable to those which in the last half century have been brought about in respect to costs of production. The cost accountant has rendered invaluable service to production engineers in their efforts toward cost economy. The present situation offers an outstanding opportunity to the cost accountant to furnish equally valuable aid to the marketing specialist in his task of obtaining mass distribution at costs comparable with those effected in the factory under mass production.

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.

Abstract Presents a letter to the editor about the missing addresses of Association members published in the December 1928 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review."

Reviews the book "Paton on Accounting," edited by Herbert F. Taggart.

Abstract Six of the nation's outstanding accounting authorities have been invited to prepare papers expressing the views for and against the proposition that depreciation need not be restricted to the amortization of historical cost. While accountants have long realized that their basic standard of measurement, the dollar, is a varying one, they have, with one conspicuous exception, declined to recognize, as generally accepted accounting procedures, departures from cost because of changes in the purchasing power of money. In the list obstacles to good accounting is the misconception, often entertained, and blindly fostered by many accountants, that an income statement should reflect earning power or be confined to current operating performance. By moving depreciation expense up or down, according to predictions of the moment, a more accurate earning power or operating performance is said to be reflected in the net result. A good deal of mumbo-jumbo necessarily attaches to the process, for to them earning power or operating performance is a nebulous thing, visible only to initiates such as forceful corporate managements and accountants of discernment.