Book review;

              62 HASKINS & SELLS August
Book Review
BLISS, JAMES H . Financial and Oper­ating
Ratios in Management. (New
York, The Ronald Press Company, 1923.
396 p.)
Too many superlatives, like too many
capitals, in composition, are likely to defeat
the purpose of emphasis for which they
are intended. Superlatives are needed
to do justice to the present book under
review. It is a contribution which has
not in excellence and comprehensiveness
been approached, let alone excelled, in
modern times.
Anyone who has followed accounting
and related literature during the last
decade must have been impressed with
the smattering of treatment accorded
to analysis and interpretation of financial
statements and statistics. Either afraid
of the subject or unqualified to tackle
it, authors have generally contented them­selves
and imposed on the reading public
by repeating and rehashing the conclu­sions
resulting from the sporadic, though
praise-worthy, work done by one or two
pioneers.
The author of the present volume has
recognized the need for a complete con­sideration
of the subject, gone courageously
about the task, and done a fine job. He
is entitled to praise and the everlasting
gratitude of all progressive accountants.
He has blazed a trail, the like of which
will not be seen for some time to come.
Any review short of a digest would
be inadequate to give more than a hazy
idea of the valuable material with which
the book bristles from cover to cover.
It must be read to be appreciated. Any
accountant who fails to read it and further
to take advantage of its contents is passing
up something which is like water to the
thirsty desert wanderer; this notwith­standing
that the book was prepared
particularly for those in the field of man­agement.