Three logical possibilities as to what an entrepreneur should maximize: the internal rate of return, total profits, rate of profit over cost, 56. — I. The use of these criteria in the literature on the theory of capital and interest, 57. — II. The case of tree-growing: the internal rate of return, 63; total profits, 66; choice between them when a market rate of interest exists, 68; when no market rate exists, 70. — III. Total profits vs. rate of profit over cost, 71. — Where entrepreneur's funds are not limited, 75. — Financing by stock and by debts, 76.

mHERE has been a growing tendency among economists to recognize the inadequacy of the simple acceleration principle as the explanation of investment activity. The qualifications and reservations that must be made for that principle to hold true in the real economic world have caused some economists to deny it virtually all validity. For instance, Professor Hansen says, is well known . . . that the simplified conditions usually assumed when the Principle of Acceleration is under discussion are rarely valid in the actual world. When more realistic assumptions are introduced, it is clear that the effect of new consumption upon investment is a very complex and uncertain one. 2 In this paper, the acceleration principle first will be set forth in its virginal simplicity. Then in Part II, the qualifications that theory suggests will be noted, and it will be seen how these are borne out by the statistics on investment in freight cars in the United States.3 Through these investigations, we hope to show that the acceleration principle does in large part serve to explain investment activity if additional variables are introduced and our theory is enlarged so as to include the effects of these variables. Since it has been dealt with so fully elsewhere,4 only a brief sketch of the so-called simple acceleration principle will be made. To put it most concisely, net investment is proportional to the rate of change of consumer-taking.5 Or, as J. M. Clark said, If demand be treated as a rate of speed at which goods are taken off the market, [demand for] maintenance varies roughly with the speed, but new construction depends upon the acceleration. 6 Another version of the doctrine is that the per cent changes in the stock of capital goods equal the per cent changes in the consumption of their products. This second version holds that in the first statement the constant of proportionality the constant of acceleration equals the amount of capital per unit of output the capital intensity. It is clear from the very outset that the abovestated theory is an over-simplification and that it does not describe the course of actual economic events. In Chart i the year-to-year per cent changes in the total number of freight cars are

Abstract A system has been defined as the orderly arrangement according to some common law, a collection of rules and principles, or the method of transacting business; an accounting system has been called the chief aid, the indispensable tool of modern industry with which management will understand, control, and direct all operations of the business. The primary function of the system is the compilation of information in order to present it to management for control purposes. The manufacturing procedure and shop methods will lead to a consideration of the type of pay, the control of inventories, the problem of costing tools, dies, jigs, facilities, the methods of collecting hours worked, and many other problems. The creation of a system and a procedure division in many a company indicates that this phase of office activity has gained in creasing recognition and will undoubtedly continue to do so. Only the organized and coordinated effort of all employees, from president to office boy, can assure the successful conduct of the business. The system unites the various links into a continuous chain through all departments and activities.

Abstract Reviews the book "Mobilizing for Abundance," by Robert R. Nathan.

THROUGHOUT the inter-war period, the 1 value of commodity imports into the United Kingdom was consistently greater than the value of exports. In the fifteen-year period 1924 through 1938, the average annual commodity import surplus was 358 million pounds sterling. Payment for this import surplus was made in three ways. First, the British earned a substantial net income on their overseas investments; average annual receipts from this source in the fifteen-year period amounted to 209 million pounds sterling. Second, average annual net receipts of I04 million pounds sterling were obtained from the sale of shipping services to foreigners. Finally, the United Kingdom received income from abroad, in the form of interest and commissions, for its services as a financial center; the average amount of these receipts was 46 million pounds per year. Considering the inter-war period as a whole, the United Kingdom was able to pay for its commodity import surplus without resort to borrowing or to the sale of overseas assets. The import surplus was offset by invisible exports shipping and financial services and by income from overseas investments. This balanced position for the period as a whole, however, conceals a gradual deterioration in the British balance of payments on current account. In the earlier years (I924-30), invisible exports plus income from overseas investment were slightly greater than the commodity import surplus, but in the thirties (193I-38) the import surplus exceeded invisible income (Table I). Other items, of course, were included in the balance of payments, but in most years these were of minor importance. Changes in the British international position may therefore be described in terms of exports, imports, income from overseas investments, shipping income, and interest and commissions.

Abstract The extensive plans of the American Institute of Accountants for organized research are a highly promising feature of near-future developments in accountancy. And suggestions made at meetings of the American Accounting Association regarding a statement of cost accounting principles and an analysis of the curriculum problems involved in accounting education point in the same direction. Another suggestion has recently appeared which could be made a basis for enlarging the extent of accounting research activities and coordinating the projects in that field. It comes from Gay Carroll, controller of the Humble Oil and Refining Co., and was made in the course of an address on December 19, 1944, before the Houston Control of the Comptroller's Institute. Accounting principles and technical standards are of such broad significance that their usefulness extends beyond any single organization. Therefore their formulation in words, or when necessary, their later restatement, should be of interest to all organizations in contact with accounting.

Abstract Reviews the book "Lectures on Fire Insurance Accounting."