Book reviews;

              34 H A S K I N S & S E L LS April
Book Reviews
SLOAN, LAURENCE C., Managing
Editor, Standard Statistics Company,
Corporation Profits. (Harper & Brothers,
New York, 1929. 365 p. Price $3.50).
This reviewer confesses to having tucked
away, for the purpose of future study, and
never to have studied them, the series of
bulletins entitled, "Beneath the Surface of
Corporation Profits," upon which Mr.
Sloan's book is based. This reviewer con­fesses
also to representing himself as a
certified public accountant. In reading
Mr. Sloan's book, for the purpose of re­viewing
it, he pleads guilty to having been
annoyed by the premise set forth in chap­ter
1, paragraph 2, to-wit: "It is about
accounting, but is not a book on account­ing.
It examines the results of accounting:
takes up the work of the professional ac­countant
where he himself leaves off, seeks
to determine the meaning of what his
figures report, so far as possible, and seeks
likewise to differentiate between meaning
and confusion."
Obviously, there must be some mis­understanding
with respect to the function
of the professional accountant if the pre­sumption
exists that his work has been
finished when he compiles and presents
certain financial statements. Year in and
year out, for many years, educators have
been preaching the doctrine that the pro­fessional
accountant must interpret as
well as exhibit the results of his work.
These exhortations have had their effect,
and the facts are that there has been a
marked increase in the amount and quality
of interpretation introduced into the re­ports
of certified public accountants. How­ever,
so far as the public is concerned, this
condition is not apparent. In the case of
corporations, the public sees only the re­ports
made by officers of the corporation,
included in which, usually, are the financial
statements supported by the approval of
certified public accountants. Whatever
there may be of interpretation or comment
appears to be that of company officials.
Mr. Sloan, perhaps, has based the con­clusions
stated in his premise on the ex­amination
of published reports, and is not
aware of the voluminous comments which
are included in the confidential reports of
the accountants to the corporations.
Now, that we have settled our score with
the author, we may turn, with friendly in­terest,
to a consideration of his book, which
is, indeed, a contribution of value to ac­countants
as well as to investors, corpora­tion
officials, and bankers. The book
affords what might be termed a bird's-eye
view of financial condition and results of
operations of American industries. It