At the request of Edwin N. Hurley, then Vice-Chairman and later Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, the President of the American Association of Public Accountants (predecessor of the American Institute of Accountants), J. Porter Joplin, appointed a special committee to confer with the trade commission on all questions of accounting. Robert H. Montgomery was Chairman of the eight-member committee. The most important accomplishment of the committee was the promulgation of a programme for audit procedure which was prepared at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, approved by the commission and transmitted to the Federal Reserve Board... . The audit program in its final form was unanimously approved by the members of the council.2 The Federal Reserve Board published the text in the Federal Reserve Bulletin (April 1, 1917) and reprinted it in pamphlet form in 1917 and again in 1918 for general distribution. The text also appeared in the Journal

The article deals with the application of some of the elements of measurement theory to the problem of reporting the financial effects of price-level changes. Among other matters, measurement theory concerns itself with different "scales" of measurement and their interrelationship. There is a major concern related to the notorious shift in the exchange-value of money, country by country, decade after decade. In price-level accounting where one is trying to measure the change in the "exchange-value of money," the change in the unit employed in accounting to measure the power of money to command goods and services in the market. The means most frequently used to measure this change is an index of the level of prices in general. One further feature of scales of measurement is pertinent to the price-level problem in accounting. Furthermore, one should not underestimate the extent of the change required in the thinking habits of businessmen before one can expect enthusiastic acceptance of "price-level accounting."

Reviews the book "The Rise of the Accounting Profession," vol. 1, by John L. Carey.