Reviews the book "Capital Stock Without Par Value," by John R. Wildman.

Reviews the book "Auditing Theory and Practice," 4th ed., Robert H. Montgomery.

Reviews the book "Auditors' Certificates," by David Himmelblau.

The article presents information on Harvard School method of case studies as experienced by the author himself. The Business School had operated for a number of years what was known as a Bureau for Business Research. That seemed to be the logical agency to begin the gathering of materials of this kind, and so the Bureau of Business Research was asked to obtain teaching materials for the development of the case method. In the beginning the Bureau of Business Research took a position which many of the professors in the school felt was quite unsound, namely, that any man whom they had on their staff could go out and gather cases in any field of business. It was the place where only people who can successfully gather cases are those with practical experience in that field of work; and at the present time the reorganization of the plans has not been completed the procedure which is being adopted as rapidly as possible is to have all of the cases gathered by men who have bad anywhere from ten to twenty years actual business experience. In other words, we are going to the other extreme for the time being. Men who are not even college men but men who have made a success in professional life, are being asked to come In and spend their time in helping bring together a body of materials which will be satisfactory for use as cases in the teaching of the various courses in the School.

In the attempt to give the student a training in the fundamental principles of the various commercial subjects, and to develop in him the broader outlook which should result from the educational processes, marked changes have occurred in recent years in the methods of presenting materials in the classroom. In the college and university schools of commerce, for example, there has been a decided tendency during the past few years away from the classroom lecture and toward the use of what is commonly known as case material. A second tendency relating to the technical training of the student is the increase in class or socialized instruction. A matter which is almost or fully as important as that of improving the technical training of the student, relates to the introduction in the classroom of the study of ethical principles in business. Originally the apprentice was promised only a technical training in the field of his prospective endeavor. In schools, however, there is a growing desire to teach the student that it is not merely the making of money that counts, but that success in business comes from rendering a real service to the customers and to the employees of the concern, and even to the public generally.

Teaching business and other subjects by the case method has resulted largely from the desire of teachers and school administrators to bring into the class room a larger sense of the actuality of things, this in turn presumably has meant greater orientation for the student in the field of his interest. Auditing, like other business and professional subjects, cannot be learned wholly in the class room, at the same time experienced teachers are generally of the opinion that a great deal can be learned about these subjects in the class room, the degree of learning will depend partly upon abilities of the teacher and student, but also partly upon the nature of materials which are used in the teaching process. The subject of accounting has for years been taught generally by the use of problems which have varied very widely with reference to the air of reality which surrounded them. Some of the most noted teachers of the subject have maintained that a purely abstract problem, without necessarily any reality attached to it at all, was the most satisfactory teaching device; they have argued that the principles of accounting can be best presented in just this manner. At the other end of the scale have been equally able men who have taught from problems reproducing in the greatest detail certain business or accounting situations, how can anyone, ask these men, learn accounting except by doing in the class room what they will have to do when they actually take up accounting work.

At the annual meeting of the American Association of University Instructors in Accounting in Pittsburgh in 1921, one of the prominent accountants of the U.S. read a paper entitled "The Need of a Broader Conception of the Work of the Accountant." Early in his discussion this accountant stated that all of his firm's work was built about its annual and periodical audits. He proceeded to say that practically all of the work done in constructive accounting, public utility accounting, tax work and industrial engineering, resulted directly or indirectly from these audits. A partner in another accounting firm, which does work of an entirely different nature, and the partners of which, presumably, have little interest in the auditing aspect of accountancy, recently stated that it was a real problem whether or not the auditing work would largely supersede the other accounting activities in which the firm was more interested. These two examples, taken from the experience of firms who are not primarily interested in auditing, tend to emphasize the importance in the work of almost every accountant of the annual or periodic audit. The constructive audit is and probably will continue to be, the most important part of the public accountant's work.