The article focuses on the influence of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upon the practice of auditing. The study has been confined to an examination of the liability provisions contained in the Federal Securities Acts of 1933 and 1934, the effect of governmental regulation on the accounting profession based on those acts; and an evaluation of the Commission's influence on auditing procedures, standards, certificates, and the personal conduct of accountants. The liability provisions included in the two acts were found to have been designed as precautionary measures and were not the result of auditing practices prior to 1933. Auditing standards appeared necessary to regain public confidence through the assurance that examinations by public accountants were up to a specified level of performance. Auditing standards prior to their requirement by the SEC were on an individual basis, and the need for a profession-wide adoption was apparent. A special committee appointed by the American Institute of Accountants proposed a set of standards, which was subsequently adopted. Early decisions of the Commission regarding audit certificates indicate the prevalence of faulty certificates accompanying SEC registrations.

The article focuses on an analysis of accounting skills and knowledge used by selected experienced electrical engineers in Rhode Island. In consideration of the complexity of modem industrial organization, in which engineers are employed, this study was based upon the hypothesis that professional electrical engineers do use skills and knowledge of accounting in their daily professional activities and their personal business affairs. The purpose of the study was to discover these accounting skills and knowledge areas in order to determine phases of accounting worthy of inclusion in a collegiate elementary accounting course for electrical engineers. First, a preliminary survey was made of 70 accredited collegiate electrical engineering curricula, through an examination of college catalogs, to determine the extent to which accounting courses are presently included in such curricula. Then, an outline guide of 20 basic accounting topics for use in the interviews was developed through a perusal of several collegiate elementary accounting textbooks.

The article focuses on a study on cost accounting and budgeting for state mental hospitals in the U.S. The study develops principles and procedures of accounting and budgeting for state mental hospitals. Special emphasis is given to procedures for determining departmental and functional costs and to the relationship between budget administration and control and functional cost accounting. The development of improved fiscal procedures is related to great advancement, which is being made in mental health programs. Mental disease has been recognized as a very important problem and the responsibility for caring for those afflicted will probably remain with states. Several aspects of systems in use in the several states are reviewed, and the desirable features are included in the procedures developed. It is shown that both cost accounting and the program or performance budget have been adapted to some extent by many states. Cost accounting and the program budget concept are aimed at common objectives and each is somewhat dependent on the other in the accomplishment of these objectives.

The article focuses on the impact of the choice of base and method of amortization of long-term cost on financial and other business policies. The problem of amortization of long-term cost, principally depreciation, has been animated by the recent occurrence of two events: the sharp decline in the purchasing power of the dollar; and the enactment of the 1954 Revenue Act, which permits restricted use of declining-amount depreciation for the determination of taxable income. These two events provided the stimulus for this study. The two aspects of cost allocation studied are: timing of the capital recoveries, a problem relating to depreciation method, straight-line, activity, declining-amount, or other; and total amount of the capital recoveries, a function of the base original-dollar cost, original cost re-expressed in terms of current dollars, or replacement cost. An evaluation is made of factors influencing the choice of method and base, usefulness of income and cost information as determined by alternative bases and methods; and related tax problems. The objective is to ascertain the appropriateness of these methods and bases for the determination of business income and for the development of accounting information for management.

The indispensableness of a national position statement in addition to the national income accounting system for macroeconomic analysis can scarcely be overemphasized. But this hardly seems to be recognized by most economists who seem to have placed greater emphasis on income accounts than on stock accounts. Indeed, students of economics have failed to visualize the vantage of combining position and income statements in their analytical work. It is clear that to use but one of the two statements to analyze an economy is at best a partial study. Moreover, the macroaccounting mechanism will become an incomplete system without a balance sheet. In the application of accounting to economics it should be pointed out that the national balance sheet alone cannot furnish all the information needed for national position analysis. For a penetrating study a combination with other branches of macroaccounting seems desirable, such as regional and sector balance sheets, national income accounts, input-output tables, moneyflows, and balance of payments. In order to explore fully the functions of national position statement, a series of statements covering a period of several years will give a more meaningful study than the use of any single statement.

The article evaluates the accounting provisions contained in the Ohio General Corporation Law. In addition to providing the authority for individuals to use the corporate device for the conduct of business, corporation statutes contain regulatory requirements designed to protect the rights and interests of investors. Regulation is necessary because the corporation is legally an entity apart from the creditors and owners who provide the capital with which it operates. Requirements relating to accountability and disclosure are a means of safeguarding rights of investors. The evaluation of the propriety of any legal requirement must be in terms of the public interest. Since the corporate form of organization is predicated upon an assumption of continuity, a permanent division between invested capital and earnings is necessary. It is in the public interest that the statutes recognize this distinction in the requirements relating to legal (stated) capital, surplus, dividends, and share acquisitions. In addition, these requirements must insure an accurate accountability and disclosure of those transactions, which affect the corporate equities.

The article focuses on a study of the accounting graduates of five selected Albama schools of higher education from 1946 to 1955. The purpose of the study was to obtain occupational data and opinions relative to their training from graduates who have majored or concentrated in accounting. Those accounting majors who graduated during the ten years 1946 to 1955 from the 5 institutions of higher education have been included in the study. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,152 accounting majors, all those whose addresses were known. The data collected are grouped into personal data, occupational data, non-occupational activities, opinions and comments by respondents. The characteristics of the entire group of respondents are discussed as well as the differences within the group. Roughly three-fourths respondents were from Alabama high schools. Approximately three-fourths of the respondents were first employed after graduation in accounting positions and, at the time the questionnaire was completed, about the same numbers of them were still employed in accounting positions, or jobs closely associated therewith.

Three movements among colleges and universities now threaten the lives of all lower-division courses in business administration. The first is the return to an undergraduate program dominated by the liberal arts courses; the second, complementing the first, is the postponement of all professional education until the upper-division or preferably the graduate years; the third is the elimination of all courses which are "pre-judged" as occupational and vocational in objective. Elementary accounting, the foundation course for practically all curricula in business administration, appears to be directly in the path of these three movements. If it is to survive the onslaught, it may have to undergo some drastic revisions. The author of this investigation examined rather closely the objectives of the elementary accounting course and compared these objectives with the needs of the students who take either one or both semesters of the course. The findings indicate that a large proportion of college students who enroll in the usual elementary course, especially those who take only the first semester course, would benefit more from a one-semester course in which emphasis is placed on the understanding of financial data and the fundamentals of corporate accounting.

The article focuses on the guaranteed annual wage and accounting for decision making. In recent years, much attention in the U.S. has been centered on plans to cope with unstable incomes through the device of "guaranteed wages." On the one hand, the state governments have instituted plans of unemployment compensation, which might be referred to as a type of guaranteed wage. On the other hand, the guarantee of eight hours of pay if the employee is called in for a shift, regardless of the actual number of hours worked under eight hours, has also been referred to as a guaranteed wage. This article is limited to a discussion of the guaranteed annual wage and approximations to it included among the supplemental unemployment benefit plans. The term "guaranteed annual wage," involves two main ideas. First, it is a method of payment; the emphasis generally laid on the hourly rate is shifted to the annual rate of pay. Secondly, it implies the idea of a minimum wage, which is guaranteed to the employee by the firm.