Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "The Regulation of Industry," by Dudley F. Pegrum.

Reviews the book "Pricing, Distribution, and Employment," by Joe S. Bain.

Reviews the book "Intermediate Accounting," by Wilbert E. Karrenbrock and Harry Simons.

Reviews the book "Modern Corporation Finance," William H. Husband and James C. Dockeray.

In February 1948, upon the request of Ben D. Wood, Director of the College Testing Program of the American Institute of Accountants, its President appointed a Test Advisory Committee of this association. The committee was created to work with the Committee on the Selection of Personnel of the American Institute in the preparation of new tests and to act as adviser upon such matters as the Institute committee might place before it. In the article, the author discusses briefly the effects of any national, regional, or wide-range testing program on accounting education, for the purpose of the present discussion, a mythical program. Certain it is that at present people have neither educational nor instructional equality in several institutions, and certain it is that they should pause to restudy methods. Accounting in theory and in practice has grown by leaps and bounds, but much of the educational method has not kept pace with it and people must look forward to more coordination and less variability in their instruction. A testing program, worthy of the name is one means toward the end people should be seeking.

The article focuses on the 1948 revision of the American Accounting Association's statement of principles. The proposal of the committees, masquerading under the label "concepts and standards," is precisely in line with the idea that the private owner is entitled to nothing more once he has as a matter of bookkeeping-written off his costs. It is precisely in line with the accounting ideas of those who have been campaigning for the impairment and minimizing of private property rights in every possible way and the concurrent glorifying and maximizing of the so-called public interest in property, looking toward the goal of complete suppression of private rights and complete state ownership, or socialism. It seems to echo the arbitrary accounting policy of one of the agencies participating in this campaign, the Federal Power Commission, which provides for writing off recorded assets and the related equity of investors, retroactively for an indefinite period, on one flimsy excuse or another, and at the same time insists that under no circumstances can there be any restorations or adjustments in the other direction, as this would constitute that terrible thing labeled "reaccounting" by members of the Commission's staff.

In January 1947, the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Accountants requested the appointment of a committee of the American Accounting Association to survey the board's examination procedures, the content of the Uniform CPA examinations, timings, weightings, grading, and any other items, which the committee deemed pertinent. Such a committee has been functioning the past year. The committee is not yet in a position to render a formal report, and the remarks and opinions in this paper should not be considered necessarily representative of committee consensus. Nevertheless, the speaker has not hesitated to draw upon the ideas and research of members of the Committee on the Uniform CPA Examination or on the ideas and research of others. Examiners have a tremendous obligation and responsibility to the profession, the states and territories delegating duties to them, and to the candidate. The approach of the examiners should be objective; it is their responsibility to determine the standards set by examination and grading. Educators may help in construction and arrayal of data, timing, weighting, and suggestions as to grading procedures and techniques.

The article presents problems that were presented as the second half of the November, 1948 C.P.A. Examination in accounting practice prepared by the Board of Examiners of the American Institute of Accountants. Candidates were required to solve problem 1 and either problem 2 or problem 3 in four and half hours. The weights assigned were, problem 1, 30 points and for problem 2 or problem 3, 20 points.

Reviews the book "The Federal Income Tax," by Joyce Stanley and Richard Kilcullen.

Reviews the book "The Structure of Postwar Prices," by Frederick C. Mills.