Abstract In 1937 certain justices of a U.S. state supreme court were of the opinion that there is no greater justification from the standpoint of public welfare for a law regulating accountancy than there would be for laws regulating rivet-catchers, janitors, or drain-layers, that the title "certified public accountant" is a trade name and that manifestly it was intended to give a monopoly of the accounting business. Happily, and as irrefutable evidence that progress as well as time marches on, this legal opinion was a minority dissenting one. Nevertheless, the statement that accountancy is a profession can scarcely be said to have attained the freedom from attack enjoyed by the statement that two plus two is four. On the other hand, the statement is now accepted as fact among the enlightened everywhere. One of the most difficult and misunderstood phases of defining the term "profession" is that of distinguishing it from the term "business." This distinction does not imply any superiority of the professions as such over business as such. The two are simply different. As a matter of fact, each is complementary to the other, for the professions could not exist without business and business would surely perish without the professions.

Abstract In this article, the author discusses issues and beliefs on accountancy as a profession for well-educated men. He observed different views and publishing of various eminent members of the accountancy profession and researchers regarding this topic. According to these studies the thought that members of the accountancy profession should have well-developed intellectual, moral and cultural faculties is a relatively new idea in the history of the profession. The author reports that the accountancy profession had its beginning in England, probably at some time during the seventeenth century. It seems quite probable that the early public auditors, or public accountants, of England worked single-handed, but in the course of the increased recognition and prestige which these men obtained from the field of business it became necessary for the principal to secure the services of assistants. The idea of the desirability of a technical education for those entering the accountancy profession gradually took form after the year 1900. It is argued that the profession needs greater educational as well as personality qualities because the professional should have engagements in complex and technical duties, such as, auditing, the installation or revision of systems of accounts, special investigations, municipal or other governmental auditing and system installation, engagements pertaining to the financial affairs of trusts, receiverships, bankrupt and decedents' estates, and audit and system installation engagements involving cost accounting.