Reviews the book "Principles of Accounting," by Rufus Wixon and Robert G. Cox.

Successful decisions are the hope of every manager. Snap decisions indicate a disregard for scientific thinking and reliance upon intuition and chance, or an unusual mental ability to simulate the problem, determine the strategic factors, and evaluate the alternatives. Historically, accounting has developed as the result of a specific need. The balance sheet model was presented to satisfy a need for financial information. Each ledger account is a model, or method, of measuring all transactions (the relevant factors) of a business which are relevant to the respective ledger account as it is specifically defined and by a method recognized as generally accepted by the accounting profession. To identify a specific ledger account as meaningful, the account must be defined in terms of the relevant business transactions which the model (ledger) will summarize, as well as the specific method or methods by which these relevant transactions will be measured. Finally, the specific ledger account must be defined as a relevant factor in the total accounting system, including its relationship to all other relevant factors of the system. Thus the accounting system itself, as we identify it, consists of a model summarizing the relationships of a large number of smaller models presumably for some specific purpose.

Reviews the book "Business Experience With Electronic Computers," by B. Conway, J. Gibbons and D.E. Watts.

Reviews the book "Electronic Computers and Business Indicators," by Julius Shiskin.

The education of a public accountant can be divided into four stages: undergraduate education, graduate education, staff training programs conducted by the firms, and continuing professional education through direct and indirect participation in the broad activities of professional organizations. While the majority of persons who have entered the profession in the past twenty-five years have not had the benefit of formal graduate study, an ever-increasing number feel the need or desire for more advanced formal education. The successful public accountant has had to continue to apply himself both to meet the rapidly changing conditions in the world's economy and to keep up with the increasing and expanding demands for his services. As the economy continues to grow and become more complex, the demands on, and for, trained accountants, both public and private will become more critical. The accountant in the future will have to be better trained than his counterpart of today. The need for specialization will become more apparent than it is now.

Reviews the book "Taxation of Life Insurance," by Bertram Harnett.

Reviews the book "Information for Administrators: A Guide to Publications and Services for Management in Business and Government," by Paul Wasserman.

Reviews the book "The Business Enterprise As a Subject for Research," by Howard R. Bowen.

The article presents a case study of price-level adjustments to the financial reports of a large department store. The method outlined is designed for a study of a twenty-year period. The results of the adjustments to dollars of constant value revealed the expected distortions in periodic income reporting. In as much as the general price level rose during the year ended January 31, 1947, the adjusted balance sheet reveals that the non-monetary items, such as inventories, land, and depreciating assets, exceeded the historical costs by material amounts. In the proprietorship section, the value of the stockholders' original investments in common stock was increased by $6,368. The retained earnings are not as high as reported by $3,621, due to the continual overstatement of "real" income during the inflation years. The net income after taxes was distorted in the annual report by almost a half million dollars. In addition, an unrealized loss of $946 was omitted entirely from the report to stockholders. It appears that this type of information would have been very informative to existing and prospective stockholders.

The Commission on Standards of Education and Experience for Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) was organized in 1952. The commission is independent of the American Institute of Accountants or any other one body. Its membership includes professors of accounting, deans of university schools of business administration, practicing CPA's and members of state boards of accountancy. The commission hopes to set goals which the state boards and schools might strive to approach over a reasonable term of years, together with suggestions for interim procedures which may be practical to follow in approaching what it is hoped may be accepted as longer-range objectives. Since the commission is concerned primarily with uniformity of standards, the CPA examination which has now been adopted by all jurisdictions in the U.S. may be said to be a subject of secondary importance to the commission. Any improvement or standardization of educational or experience training for the profession, however, is bound to lead to some consideration of the level and content of the written examinations.