The role of accounting in public utility regulation is merely one aspect of the role of accounting in the broader field of economic control. Of course, the general development of accounting is a process of evolution which has gone on for many centuries whereas the use of accounts in public utility regulation is a matter of recent origin, as of July 1947. It is, in fact, considerably less than 100 years old. Nevertheless, the use of accounts as a tool of regulation is, in a sense, a forerunner of the current dominant trend in general accounting. The procedure in this article will be to consider first, public-utility regulation and some of the accounting problems associated with it. On the basis of that discussion the author shall turn to the broader problem of general economic control in the expectation that the broader view will help to appraise better the place of accounts in public utility regulation. The regulation of public utilities developed as a practical expedient designed to correct certain injustices and abuses which had arisen in the prevailing economic system of competitive control. From the start regulating commissions have been heavily dependent upon accounts

The medieval guilds, 311. — Modern guild regulations in the service trades — the barbers: importance of legislative aid, 312; non-price regulations, 314; price-fixing laws, 316; enforcement of regulations, 323. — Economic aspects of the pricing of barber services: characteristics of the “product” and the market, 325; pricing without restriction on individual action, 328; pricing with concert of action but without benefit of legislation, 330; pricing with minimum price legislation but without extralegal concert of action, 331; pricing with minimum price legislation undergirding extralegal concert of action, 333. — Guild pricing in other trades, 335

Importance of the problem, 206. — Congressional directives, 207. — General attitude of the Commission, 208. — Minimum rates and discrimination, 211. — Adequacy of revenue, 211. — Protection of the rate structure, 214. — Preservation of the advantages of particular modes of transport: the value standard, 220; particular agencies, 223; cost standards, 225. — Conclusions, 229.

An examination of the statements of condition published by twenty-five representative Chicago banks as of December 31, 1946 reveals the continued publication of condensed statements with stereotyped arrangement and terminology which compare most unfavorably with the published financial reports of industrial and commercial concerns. The arrangement and terminology of these statements are undoubtedly influenced materially by the current regulations, instructions, and uniform forms prescribed by the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. But, to explain the paucity of data, one must probably look to the influence of heritage, traditions, and customs on the current practices of the modern commercial bank. Since the qualitative and quantitative features of the reported financial data correspond closely to those found in the pocket-sized folder usually distributed to depositors, the published statements may be judged fairly in the light of their services to the interests of the depositors as well as the stockholders