Profession's future;

              The Profession'
by Robert M. Trueblood
Robert M. Trueblood is partner in charge of our
Chicago office and chairman of the firm's Policy Group.
His biography appeared in the QUARTERLY last year
when we published his article, "The New Frontier of
Financial Executives." Since that time he has added still
another book to his printed works . . . it is "Auditing, Man­agement
Games, and Accounting Education," which he
co-authored with Neil Churchill and Merton Miller. (Mr.
Trueblood is also co-author of "Sampling Techniques in
Accounting" and "The Future of Accounting Education,"
as well as author of numerous articles in professional jour­nals.)
This year the American Institute of CPAs appointed
Mr. Trueblood a member of the Accounting Principles
Board, a member of the Executive Committee, and chair­man
of the Long Range Objectives Committee. Mr. True­blood
is also a member of the Commission on the Common
Body of Knowledge jointly sponsored by the AICPA and
the Carnegie Corporation.
This is a time in our professional life when we must
reflect, decide, and act.
About three years ago, the AICPA Committee on Long
Range Objectives began its present project of predicting
the nature of the profession in 1975. Today its investiga­tion
is largely completed. Early next year, Jack Carey's
book, The CPA Plans for the Future—which may well
run to 600 pages—will be published. This book, based on
the intensive efforts of the Committee, postulates the
problems and the opportunities of the accounting profes­sion
over the next decade.
As both preview and introduction to the book, this
article covers a few of the most important highlights of the
Committee's study over the past three years. What pat­terns
of development for the profession did the study
discern? What crucial questions did it raise? What is the
stature of the profession it foresees for 1975?
Some Reflections on the Past
The profession has come a long way in its relatively
short life of 75 years. To others looking in upon us, our
growth and present position are enviable—almost un­believable
to some outsiders. Let us look at a few statistics:
—From a base of very nearly zero in 1900, we have
grown to a population of 80,000 CPAs in this coun­try.
Perhaps even more startling is that in the period
from 1945 to the present—less than 20 years—the
CPA population has more than doubled. And mem­bership
in the AICPA has more than tripled during
this same 17 or 18 years, to a present total of more
than 50,000.
—Auditing has advanced from what was initially a
2 THE QUARTERLY