Book reviews;Additions to the Library, January, 1920;Index;

              Bulletin HASKINS & SELLS 15
Book Reviews
Duncan, C. S. Commercial Research.
(New York, The Macmillan Company,
1919. 385 p.)
There has long been need of a book like
the one under review. It is the first, so far
as the reviewer knows, of its exact kind.
Brinton, in his "Graphic Methods of Pre­senting
Facts," did something of the sort
but stressed the presentation without de­voting
so much time to the general discus­sion
of business facts relative to their col­lection,
analysis, and significance.
The book is broad in its scope. It en­larges
one's vision. It is a book which
should be studied by every accountant. It
would help him in his work.
The author discusses many things which
are of interest to the accountant; many of
the things in detail which the accountant
with vision tries to do. For example:
"Sales records on the basis of territories or
districts . . . Sales fluctuations . . . an­alyzed
from the point of view of the sales­man
. . . and the character of the
goods . . . The object of this general dis­cussion
has been to indicate some of the
facts which now lie at hand for every manu­facturer
or merchant in the accounts which
he must necessarily keep."
It has long been the ambition of progres­sive
accountants to give clients on certain
engagements reports which are not only
comprehensive but instructive and service­able
as a basis for admistration. In order
to do this it is necessary to take into con­sideration
the production and service fac­tors,
and to group items of cost around
units of production and items of expense
around units of service. In other words,
the accountant who would serve best must
take cognizance of statistics; that is, busi­ness
facts correlated with financial data.