The use of financial and operating ratios as a means of rendering accounting statements more intelligible and significant is a matter which deserves the consideration it has been receiving of late. This device certainly represents an important angle from which the problem of statement presentation and analysis can be approached and is worthy of every encouragement. And it is a thoroughly natural and appropriate device for the accountant to emphasize. In fact any system of accounts may be conceived as a set-up of business data in terms of their underlying relations. It is clear, accordingly, that in presenting final statements and reports the accountant must not be satisfied that his work is complete with the compilation of masses of debits and credits. Through classification and arrangement, charts and graphs, oral and written explanations, or other means he must see to it that all important relationships are disclosed and this means of course that all significant financial and operating percentages must be calculated and exhibited. On the other hand, the enthusiasm for ratios as such seems at times to go beyond reasonable bounds. What one has here after all is a very commonplace feature of accounting work, long recognized and used and no great good can come from exaggerating its significance and scope.

Many teachers of accounting feel that the present methods of instruction in their field leave much to be desired. Apparently, the necessity of keeping the content of the curriculum up with the rapid expansion of accounting theory and practice has resulted in less attention to the more purely pedagogic aspects of accepted fundamentals than is desirable. The well-nigh universal acceptance of some variation of the balance sheet approach was an inevitable step in the right direction. Insofar as it gets away from the older apprentice methods of doing without understanding and emphasizes methods of logical presentation it is pedagogically sound. But insofar as it leads toward new methods of understanding without doing it is pedagogically fallacious. It is the author's observation that very few accounting students retain the gist of lecture, reading, or discussion unless the subject matter thereof is also embraced in concrete problems worked by the student. Even careful illustrations in the lecture or reading are apparently of little avail unless immediately backed up by concrete problems worked by the student.

Reviews the book "Factory Management," by Paul M. Atkins

Reviews the book "Problems in Industrial Management," by Erwin Haskell and Harold Hazen Thurlby.

Reviews the book "Charts and Graphs," by Karl G. Karsten.

The ratification of the constitutional amendment permitting the taxation of income became effective on March 1, 1913 in the U.S. Therefore, appreciation in value after that date is subject to an income tax, but appreciation to March 1, 1913, is tax-free. This feature required the valuation of property of all kinds as at one specific time. Depletion and depreciation deductions from taxable income are merely provisions for the return of value when properties are consumed in the process of production, and are thus sold piecemeal to the purchaser of marketable products. Valuations have also been required as at date of acquisition in determinations of invested capital for excess profits tax purposes; and current valuations, year by year, have been necessary for the capital stock tax assessments. The estate tax also necessitates valuation, in some instances numerous valuations of the same property at various dates. Further, many facilities were acquired strictly for war purposes, and the difference between the cost of such facilities and their value for post-war use was recognized by Congress as a fair deduction from war-time income.

The journal entry is all important bookkeeping mechanism which serves as a means of converting a non-technical statement of a transaction into a species of technically-formed, intermediate statistical record. It is, moreover, particularly characteristic of double entry-more characteristic perhaps than the ledger-because it so clearly expresses the inevitable duality which is concealed in all transactions. For this reason, undoubtedly, journalizing has always been a very important element in the teaching of double entry book- keeping, and in some countries it is a legal requirement that all transactions pass through the journal. This last probably is due to the desire to have the facts conveniently assembled for authentication rather than to any wish to give further emphasis to the importance of the journal.

A,NALYSIS of business conditions in the I 2 federal reserve districts, as shown by the fluctuations in the volume of check payments (bank debits) since the beginning of I9I9, supports the following conclusions: (I) Business in the individual districts usually fluctuates in sympathy with that in the United States as a whole. There are no systematic differences in either the timing or nature of the business fluctuations among the various federal reserve (listricts, after due allowance has been made for varying seasonal movements and trends. Such differences as do appear are clearly less significant than the fundamental similarity in the broader movements. This condition is indicative of the close economic interrelationship of the several areas of our country. (2) Substantial improvement has been taking place in agricultural conditions in recent years. This is clearly reflected in the figures for the primarily agricultural districts, notably the Kansas City and Dallas districts. The sharpest recent movement is to be found in the Minneapolis district, where the marketing of a large spring wheat crop in I927 has been clearly reflected in the figures for debits. The Kansas City and Dallas districts exhibit a more steady gain, and have advanced materially above their I924 levels. (3) The recurrent brief periods of expansion, recession, and renewed expansion are less marked in bank debits than in basic production. This condition is explained by the fact that fluctuations in such production, while important, do not represent the movements of general business. Bank debits, on the other hand, constitute an extremely representative measure of the complex of activities included under the term general business. Production of consumption goods, wholesale and retail trade, construction of buildings and engineering projects, and agriculture these and all other forms of economic activity have a share in making up the total of check transactions. Thus, while production indexes have moved sharply during these intermediate movements, it seems probable that the narrower movements of total debits depict more accurately the course of general business over the past few years. Except in those districts which are primarily agricultural, the several districts contain such a diversity of economic interests that the volume of check transactions is relatively insensitive to changes in any one line of activity. There are, however, some instances (notably the Cleveland district, where the iron and steel trade is of such great importance) in which sharp changes in the pace of basic industry are reflected in the figures for debits. These conclusions are based upon adjusted relatives for bank debits which appear on Charts 3 and 5 and in Table 4. Conditions in the various federal reserve districts are discussed in the following sections and a map of the I2 districts appears on page I46. A full description of the actual data and the statistical methods employed in adjusting the figures for irregularities of the calendar, trend, and seasonal variation is given in the section on data and methods,

It was in the main due to an accident that the efficiency idea was taken over by the engineering fraternity. The accountants, had they interested themselves in that direction, would have made better efficiency experts than the engineers, for they are by education and training better fitted for efficiency work. In the first place the accountant has a better grasp of business and economics subjects because of his education than has the engineer. Second, the accountant, coming constantly into contact with business men, has a better understanding of human relationships. He can deal better with people, whereas the nature of the engineer's work enables the latter to deal best with machinery and construction problems. An excellent judge of problems connected with bridges, roads, etc., he is more or less at a loss when confronted with problems involving human relationships. The efficiency engineer has tried to handle the workman as though he were a machine. The accountant on the other hand, accustomed as he has to deal tactfully with people, would never have antagonized labor against the whole efficiency movement as has the engineer.