Keeping up with the times;

              ATLANTA PHILADELPHIA
BALTIMORE HASKINS & SELLS PITTSBURGH
BIRMINGHAM
BOSTON PORTLAND
PROVIDENCE
BROOKLYN SAINT LOUIS
BUFFALO
CHARLOTTE CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS SALT LAKE CITY
SAN DIEGO
CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO
CINCINNATI SEATTLE
CLEVELAND BULLETIN TULSA
DALLAS WATERTOWN
DENVER DETROIT BERLIN
JACKSONVILLE LONDON
KANSAS CITY PARIS
LOS ANGELES SHANGHAI
MINNEAPOLIS
NEWARK E X E C U T I V E O F F I C ES HAVANA
NEW ORLEANS 30 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK
MEXICO CITY
NEW YORK
MONTREAL
VOL. IX NEW Y O R K , AUGUST, 1926 No. 8
Keeping Up With the Times
PLATITUDINOUS though it may be,
there is merit in the statement that
there is no such thing in business as stand­ing
still; one must go forward or he goes
backward. While this may not be literally
true in relation to a fixed point, it is true
when compared to the movement of others
who are pressing forward and making
progress in that direction.
"Business conditions in the United
States," says our Mr. Forbes, according
to an interview appearing in the China
Press of June 13, 1926, "have never been
better in normal times and with over one
hundred and ten million people within the
states actively employed, with crops and
prices fair and the country at peace
with the world they are likely to continue
good domestically unless something un­foreseen
happens."
This statement portrays a condition
which the best minds in the country are
striving to maintain, even though here and
there alarmists, perhaps seeking publicity
under this cloak, are prophesying an un­favorable
change. But business, it seems,
refuses to be alarmed. Business, instead
of getting worse, is becoming better.
Business men of this country believe in
going forward, rather than backward.
They are never satisfied. Nothing ever is
good enough. "More and better business"
is their watchword.
Accountancy, like business, well may
press onward with a similar motto. The
surface, as yet, has been but scratched.
Science has played little part in helping
accountancy to find itself. The profession,
in many respects, has "just grown."
Business men have told accountants
what they would like to have done. Ac­countants
have done very little along the
lines of telling business men what they
can do, and demonstrating for the latter the
force of the statement.
Accountants never should be satisfied
with their work. If last year was a good
year, it is something for which to be thank­ful.
But, paraphrasing the common
prayer, we must have "done those things
which we ought not to have done, and left
undone those things which We ought to
have done," which affords a good basis for
a resolution concerning the coming year.
The opportunity for accountancy lies in
the future. But it will be found only after
a process of introspection, from self-analysis,
and a study of how best business
men can be served; by studying business
and business conditions and interpreting
transpiring events in their relation to the
problem of service.