There has always been a great deal of dissention between accountants and management concerning charges to depreciation expense and the corresponding credits to the reserves for depreciation. A restriction on assets would seem to be for the purpose of financing replacement either directly or by earnings re-invested. Restriction is a little more descriptive and the term is not subject to so many connotations. The fact that restrictions for renewal apply to all assets implies that only one account would need to be maintained in the general ledger for this restriction, providing adequate subsidiary records were maintained. If a general price decline ensues, the balance or balances of such excess restriction accounts could be transferred to the surplus account at a time when surplus is likely to be embarrassingly low. The assets would no longer need to be restricted from ownership equity. For a going concern the problem of providing for fixed asset replacement would seem to be more important than establishing a valuation reserve for old assets.

As the economy changes there must be changes in accounting practices. Accounting cannot serve a useful function by remaining static in a dynamic economy. New rules and methods must be devised better to account for assets, liabilities, and net worth and to report on financial status, earnings, and the utilization of resources. These are desirable goals even in a static economy, they become imperative in one that is shifting and changing. Accounting principles are defined as fundamental truths, concepts, or basic assumptions such as the cost principle and principles of objectivity, conservatism, consistency, disclosure, the stable dollar. The problem of price level changes concerns owner equity, not assets, and certainly not fixed assets in particular. This can be demonstrated by a simple example. On January 1st of a given year an enterprise borrows $50,000. It invests the proceeds of the loan in merchandise, sells all the merchandise for $60,000 net of selling cost during the year, and repays the loan at December 31st. This enterprise would have increased its purchasing power or productive capacity by $10,000, less any interest paid on the loan. If the enterprise had operated solely on this loan and if there were no other transactions, it would have no justification in taking any kind of inflation loss against this income regardless of how great the price level rise may have been.

The article presents a report on teaching methods and programmed instructions in the U.S. During the past few years, in the process of continuing search to discover means for increasing instructional efficiency and for developing new materials to cope with the rapidly expanding demands for additional education and training by a burgeoning number of learners, the experimentation and development of programed learning has received the attention of educators and training directors across the country. Programed instruction has found wide-spread usage in industry and in the armed forces in various aspects of training for specific assignments or tasks, in which predetermined performance levels or behavioral patterns had been established. In numerous situations in both education and industry, programed instruction has proved to be effective, and under some circumstances more so than conventional methods. However, at this time research findings, especially at the college level, are totally inadequate to serve as a basis for making decisions on the adoption of programed learning for use throughout any specific course or program.