Reviews the book " Business Budgeting and Control," 2nd ed., by J. Brooks Heckert and James D. Wilson.

This article gives a definition of "security." The term security means any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in any profit-sharing agreement, collateral trust certificate, pre-organization certificate or subscription, transferable share, investment contract, voting-trust certificate, certificate of deposit for a security, fractional undivided interest in oil, gas, or mineral rights, or in general any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim certificate for, receipt of, guarantee of, warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing. Among the more common instruments which have been held to be securities are certificates in a trust estate. Such certificates, though legally very different from corporate stock, are in practical effect very similar to shares of stock. If the stockholders of a corporation permit of a voluntary assessment on their stock, the receipts for money paid may be considered as securities. Similarly, a corporation which before maturity date of its outstanding convertible certificates offered the certificate holders new certificates with a new maturity date, was held to have issued new securities.

The article presents information related on the independent accountant in the accounting profession. The requirement that financial statements prepared in connection with the issue of securities be certified by an independent accountant was incorporated in the Securities Act of 1933. The act provides that a detailed balance sheet certified by an independent public or certified accountant of a recent date must be submitted as a part of the registration statement. A profit-and-loss statement similarly certified must also be submitted, showing expenses and income for the latest fiscal year of the registrant and for each of the two preceding fiscal years. If the date of filing the registration statement is more than six months after the close of the last fiscal year, a statement must be submitted covering the period from the dose of the fiscal year to the date of the most recent balance sheet filed. If he is to discharge his obligations to the public, the accountant who certifies the financial reports must be independent because the reports are largely a matter of considered opinion. To perform his function of certifying the balance sheet and the statement of profit and loss, the accountant must investigate the financial condition of the company from a detached and independent point of view.

Business management as an advanced course will necessarily differ from such a course given as an introduction to the subject. Since the student may have studied marketing, corporation finance, accounting and possibly some management courses, the advanced course in management must stress those principles of organization and executive control, which have not been adequately considered elsewhere, or it must serve in some way to build upon the specialized courses. Nine of the eighty-one universities give one or more advanced courses in management. Fundamental principles underlying efficient management, correct office procedure, economies gained through plant location and plant layout, the routing and storing of products and standard operating practices are among the topics discussed, with approximately half of the semester devoted to reports prepared by members of the class. The advanced course, a seminar, emphasizes effective working methods and systems, work of executives, methods used in establishing and maintaining control, different types of management and control methods used in different industries.

The article explains that surplus has been defined as the amount of the net worth in excess of the par value of the capital stock outstanding. In the case of corporations with no par value stock, it is sometimes defined as the amount of the net worth in excess of the net amount realized from the sale of the stock. There are many kinds of surplus, however, because it arises from so many sources. It may be created by donations to the corporation, by earnings, by the issue or purchase of the corporation's own stock for more or less than par, and by many other transactions. Likewise the surplus may be decreased by a number of transactions, such as operating deficits, dividends, and the sale of fixed assets for less than the value at which they are carried on the books and losses on the abandonment of properties. The purpose of the present article is to show to what extent corporations, in the iron and steel industry publish information showing what entries have been made in their surplus accounts and what types of entries are made.

Reviews the book "Executive Action," by Edmund P. Learned, David N. Ulrich and Donald R. Booz.