Book reviews; [News items];

              8 HASKINS & SELLS January
Book Reviews
Kilduff, Frederic W. Standard Inven­tory
Manual. (Chicago, The Accounting
Standards Corporation, 1922. 227 p.)
Whether or not this author has cast
about for something unique with which to
break into print, he has selected a most
important subject. He is to be compli­mented
on having contributed something
for which there has long been great need.
One shudders to think of the many in­ventory
valuations accepted by public ac­countants
in the course of auditing work,
because of the numerous errors which may
creep into the computations, and which,
to some extent, must go undetected.
The Standard Inventory Manual is
predicated on the conviction that the tak­ing
of an inventory is a serious piece of
work, and not a mere job at which every
one around the plant who can be corralled
puts in a certain amount of time. Proper
plans are drawn, preparations are made,
and the whole inventory operation is con­trolled
by a clearing house which not only
issues and collects all inventory tags, but
checks the information thereon after the
tags have been completed before releasing
them for coding, pricing, and tabulating.
It is thus apparent that the operation,
from the time the tags leave the clearing
house, is a mechanical one which may be
accomplished without the exercise of any
remarkable degree of judgment.
The book is a veritable mine of informa­tion,
and while the author offers it as a
manual rather than a textbook, there are
few students, particularly those aiming
at public accounting, who could not spend
several hours in reading and digesting the
contents to great advantage. The ar­rangement
is such as to make digestion of
the contents extremely easy. The book
is well worth while, and should be very
welcome to practitioners as well as stu­dents.
Shurick, A. T. Coal Mining Costs.
(New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company,
Inc., 1922. 515 p.)
This book, while dealing primarily with
mining costs, contains incidentally a con­siderable
amount of information relating
to mining technique. The book is divided
into five sections: accounting costs, shaft
sinking, haulage costs, timbering costs, and
miscellaneous inside costs. It is written
from the point of view of the engineer, but
should be none the less interesting to ac­countants.
It is replete with illustrations
and statistical tables. While dealing es­sentially
with coal mining, it nevertheless
contains a great deal of data which is
applicable generally to mine development
and operation.
Announcement is made that Mr. Edward
Fuller, formerly resident partner at the
Baltimore and Philadelphia offices, is now
located at our office at 30 Broad Street,
New York, where he is giving attention to
general practice matters.
Mr. C. C. Croggon, heretofore manager
of the Baltimore office, will hereafter be
resident partner at Baltimore.
The Philadelphia office is now under the
supervision of the Executive offices.
Word has recently come from Mr. H . B.
Cook that he has settled, with his family,
at Territet, Switzerland, where they will
spend the winter.
The following members of our organi­zation
are to be congratulated on their
recent attainment of the C. P. A. certifi­cate
of the several states specified:
Mr. H . C. Izard and Mr. R. C. Fischer,
of the Saint Louis office, Missouri; Mr. W.
C. Johns, of the Philadelphia office, Penn­sylvania;
Mr. R. A. Thompson, of the
Seattle office, Washington.
PRESS OF WILLIAM GREEN, NEW YORK