Gleams of recognition;

              112 HASKINS & SELLS December
Gleams of Recognition
THOSE who have the interests of the
accountancy profession at heart
should experience a sense of gratification at
references which are now frequently made
to the useful and important place occupied
by public accountants in business affairs of
the day.
Mr. Julien H . H i l l , in a paper entitled
"Information Desired by the Banker," read
before the Virginia Society of Public
Accountants, September 4, 1920, and re­produced
in the November, 1920, number
of The Journal of Accountancy, pays com­pliment
to the profession as follows:
The banks of this country are becoming
more and more dependent every day on your
profession and we often wonder how our busi­ness
was conducted without you. . . . The
audited statement is daily growing in import­ance
in determining the extension of credits,
but there are thousands of concerns which
have yet to appreciate the advantages accru­ing
to themselves as well as to their banks,
and I do not hesitate to tell you that we are
daily advocating the value of periodical audits
by certified accountants, and I rejoice to see
that even among the smaller banks the au­dited
statement is now recognized as of first
importance. . . . And a closer relationship
between the men of your profession and of
ours cannot but tend to safer and saner busi­ness
methods and constructive work along
many lines.
The Wall Street Journal, exercising its
editorial prerogative of criticizing public
affairs, said on November 20, 1920, regard­ing
Admiral Benson, who assumed the
chairmanship of the United States Ship­ping
Board:
Admiral Benson was not responsible for
the mistakes, and worse, which characterized
that Board's inception and operation during
the war and after the armistice. But he
should have known what sort of task he was
undertaking when he took up the chairman­ship
of the Board. . . . An officer appointed
to the presidency of a large corporation which
had drifted into such condition as the Ship­ping
Board was in when Admiral Benson ac­cepted
its direction, would, with the backing
and approval of the stockholders, have had
an accountant's examination of the whole
concern. This would be his manifest duty,
not merely to the stockholders of the company
and its creditors but to himself, as an act of
the commonest self-protection.
From the point of view of accountancy,
perhaps the most significant fact is that the
suggestion comes from a newspaper with
the standing of the Wall Street Journal.