Abstract This article focuses on the author's view about earned surplus. The author says that the general course of the reasoning which led to the final definition will prove to be of even greater interest than the expected applications of the definition. The Committee on the Definition of Earned Surplus, reappointed hopefully each year by the president of the organization American Institute of Accountants, faced a task of no mean proportions. First was the obstacle that many common terms in use in the world of business, especially terms appearing on financial statements, have no fixed meaning, and can be made intelligible only through the aid of explanatory phrases. Second was the apathy, if not the actual resistance of business itself, toward more exact usages. The astonishing growth of interrelations between business enterprises has prevented the precise formulation of the scientific truths that are presumed to underlie the various manifestations of economic endeavor. Third was the multiplicity of state laws and court decisions bearing on the questions of dividends and maintenance of capital.

Abstract The problem of labor turnover remains unsolved. This problem is not a new one, but over the year. has taken on varied aspects and has attained a significance which now calls for universal serious attention. The scope of the problem places it beyond the limits of comprehensive treatment in a single paper or by one individual. Of world-wide, international application, it knows no political boundaries, nor territorial prohibitions. Labor turnover is not only an industrial problem, it is a vast social problem. With some what cyclical regularity, it assumes the nature of an epidemic, under the diagnosed name of unemployment. For a single company, labor turnover has not been considered as fatal, but the effects upon business of the malady in virulent form and epidemic proportions, are paralysis or death. In 1921, consequences were serious enough to warrant coordinated and determined effort. Instead of that, only here and there was any constructive work done. No real lesson was learned. In 1929 and 1980, business suffered losses which justify the expenditure of a large sum to prevent the recurrence of such a situation or at least to insure distinct progress in that direction.

Reviews the book "Federal Income Taxation," by Joseph J. Klein.

Reviews the book "An Accounting System for an Industrial Bank," by Joseph P. Christianson.

Reviews the book "Introduction to Accounting," by Alva L. Prickett and R. Merrill Mikesell.