Abstract The art of accounting including cost accounting, consists primarily of accounting methods which may be described as procedures or practices. However, a comprehensive statement of cost accounting necessitates that one look behind the accounting methods and see upon what ground the whole system of cost accounting is constructed. Cost accounting concepts, as well as concepts of general accounting, may be divided into two groups: first, those ideas having to do with the nature and purpose to the organization which cost accounting. is to serve; second, those ideas as to the purpose and function of cost accounting in rendering its services to the organization. Cost accounting consists of those phases of accounting in general which have to do with the classification and assignment of costs to centers of operation, to product units, and to portions of the revenue stream. In addition it includes the reporting of all types of cost information. Within its scope are the accounting techniques which seek to determine the over all periodic net income of the business firm as well as the portions of that income derived from divisions, departments, product lines, or other subdivisions of the business enterprise.

Abstract Reviews the book " Auditing: An Introduction," by E.L. Kohler.

Abstract Reviews the book "Mathematics of Accounting," 3ed., by Arthur B. Curtis and John H. Cooper.

Abstract Reviews the book "The Functions of the Executive," by Chester I. Barnard.

Abstract In 1943; the American Institute of Accountants appointed a committee on selection of Personnel to investigate procedures for selecting and guiding into public accounting well qualified young people and to develop a program of selection. After preliminary investigation, the Committee secured the cooperation of several specialists in evaluation to serve in an advisory capacity and to handle the technical aspects of the project. The Educational Records Bureau, a non-profit making organization of schools arid colleges, which had many years of experience in handling a test service program, was chosen as the operating agency for the project. From the outset, the Committee took a broad-gage view of both the technical and social aspects of the total problem. They recognized from the outset that the personnel in the profession at any given time was the result of a long process ranging from original recruitment of students through selection at the point of employment, and elimination, retention, and promotion after employment.

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.