Professional ambition;

              ATLANTA
BALTIMORE
BIRMINGHAM HASKINS & SELLS PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH
PORTLAND
BOSTON
BUFFALO CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS PROVIDENCE
SAINT LOUIS
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DALLAS SEATTLE
DENVER TULSA
DETROIT WATERTOWN
KANSAS CITY LOS ANGELES MINNEAPOLIS HAVANA
NEWARK LONDON
NEW ORLEANS E X E C U T I V E OFFICES PARIS
NEW YORK HASKINS & SELLS BUILDING
37 WEST 39TH ST., NEW YORK
SHANGHAI
VOL. VI NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1923 No. 12
Professional Ambition
A DESIRE for progress is undoubtedly
the motive for all individual human
endeavor. Progress is a relative term. It
consists in getting some place where one
isn't, being something which one hasn't
been, or having something not heretofore
enjoyed; the desire for all of which, from
the viewpoint of a human being, is per­fectly
natural.
Desire for progress is the sort of thing
which makes the farmer's son aspire to a
city job; the chauffeur's daughter want to
go to college; and hundreds of thousands of
business men seek opportunities for finan­cial
reward which bring greater economic
ease; in a word, "ambition."
It is not inconceivable that ambition
might be the actuating motive for a wide­spread
accountancy organization. The
value to business of genuine accountancy
service needs no argument.
Could the natural resources of the coun­try
have been developed and America
brought to the present economic forefront
without far-reaching organizations of capi­tal
and business talent?
Could an individual accountancy practi­tioner
alone audit the accounts of one of the
great industrials or the huge financial in­stitutions?
Could the accountancy organization of
average size establish audit control simu-taneously
in twenty-five offices of a busi­ness
concern spread over the country from
the Atlantic to the Pacific?
Does not big business organization in­vite
large scale accountancy service?
Is there any reason, therefore, why the
individual proclivity of ambition may not
find justifiable expression in a desire on
the part of a group of professional account­ants
to serve business, no matter how large,
how ramified, or how complicated the
affairs of any business organization may be?
No! Granting the accountants are morally
sound, technically competent, and render
efficient professional service in the true
sense of the word.