Abstract Obsolescence is an investment in future and better operations. This article is concerned with obsolescence which occurs only from time to time in any ordinary business. It may be, that the more extensive and often cataclysmic obsolescence, which often presents itself in special industries such as public utilities, may deserve different treatment, under those conditions it may be impossible to make future operations the basis for its absorption. Additional capital may have to be called upon to take care of the situation, that fact however, in itself, would indicate as investment in obsolescence, or in progress. The new capital stands in place of the new equipment and the obsolescence created thereby. In connection with this proposition of obsolescence, as well as with other things, the writer has often wondered whether accepted accounting practices are not being influenced by certain opportunistic factors, of which Federal Income Tax legislation is doubtless one. Unfortunately, many sound principles are often discarded, or denied, when dollars are involved.

Abstract The article presents information about the role of controller in a business organization. Qualifications and training of the controller may not be out of place. It seems that the primary requisite is that he shall be a business man. While he, of course, must be a skilled accountant that characteristic is secondary to the one just mentioned. Because of demands made on him in the making of records and drafting of reports which shall be usable by all operating executives, it is absolutely essential that he have a sound basic knowledge of all of the functional activities of the business. This means that he must have an understanding of the principal operating problems of the business. Without this he cannot adequately perform duties of his office. Because he is brought in such frequent contact with officials of the company, he must also be a student of men. Coming, as he does, into close relationship with all executives of the business he must know how to get along without undue friction with the men whom he is serving and whose activities it is his duty to control from an accounting standpoint, as distinct from an operating standpoint. It is thus seen that the controller must have a thorough training in business and this should give him a basic understanding of the broad movements of business, as well as a particularly intimate knowledge of the operation of his own business.

Reviews the book "Business Books: 1920-1926, An Analytical Catalog of 2,000 Titles."

Abstract The article focuses on the proceedings of the twelfth annual convention of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting, held at Washington D.C., between December 28 and 29, 1927. After some introductory remarks by the organizers, papers were read by W. W. Nissley of the American Institute of Accountants, John R. Wildman of the company Haskins and Sells, David Himmelblau of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, William A. Paton of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and J. L. Dohr of Greene and Hurd and of Columbia University, New York, New York. The second program meeting was given over to a discussion of various features of the federal income tax law. Johns Hopkins University's, Baltimore, Maryland, professor presided at the session and opened it with a brief statement introducing the speakers of the afternoon, all of whom were representatives of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. The third program session consisted of a joint meeting with the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. The general topic for discussion was "The Place of Accounting in Commerce Curriculum."