ACCOUNTANCY—A PROFESSION.
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.
- DOI
- 10.2308/tar-7039152
- Volume
- 21 (1)
- Pages
- 47-51
- Language
- en
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