Publicity for accountancy;

              84 HASKINS & SELLS November
Publicity for Accountancy
AN outgrowth of the long-continued
and sometimes warm debate on the
question of whether or not accountants as
individuals and firms should advertise,
looms large now in the form of a campaign,
planned by the American Institute of Ac­countants,
with the idea of educating the
public as to the service which public ac­countants
are prepared to render. For
several years past, accountancy practi­tioners
have divided into two camps on the
advertising issue. The conservatives have
contended that accountancy being a pro­fession,
the members thereof may not with
propriety urge their services on the public.
They have held it to be of the essence of
professional practice that its members are
sought rather than accepted as a matter of
solicitation. The progressives have main­tained
that it is impossible for the new­comers
to the profession and the younger
members thereof to acquire a practice
without bringing themselves to the atten­tion
of potential clients. Many of the
progressives have granted the transgres­sion
of such procedure against the ethics,
but have been moved by the practical as­pect
of the situation to brush aside such
views.
The American Institute of Accountants
went on record, after several stormy
sessions, as being opposed to advertising,
and finally promulgated rules which prac­tically
proscribed any individual adver­tising.
It is generally conceded by members of
the accountancy profession that the public
is not fully acquainted with the kind and
character of service which public account­ants
are prepared to render, and that busi­ness
organizations generally do not avail
themselves of such services. Statistics in­dicate
that not more then twenty per cent.
of the industrial organizations in this
country retain public accountants. Strange
as it may seem, there are still persons who
ask, "What is a public accountant?"
Even some of those who appear to be best
educated on the subject conceive the public
accountant to be a checker of figures, or a
mechanical auditor.
There are few whose knowledge em­braces
the wide range of service which the
public accountant is qualified to render.
They do not realize that, in addition to
being a reviewer of accounts, his function is
to serve as business adviser, to interpret
as well as compile figures, to prepare tax
returns and handle reassessment cases, to
plan and install systems of accounting and
of cost finding, to make examinations and
surveys of all classes of enterprises and to
investigate special phases of business ac­tivity,
to render opinions on accounting
matters and give testimony in legal pro­ceedings.
With the idea of bringing these matters
to the attention of the public and promot­ing
a wider utilization of the service of
public accountants, the American Institute
resolved as follows:
"After prolonged discussion of the report,
it was moved that the report of the committee
be received as a report of progress; that it is
the sense of the Executive Committee that
the campaign of publicity be entered upon,
consisting of paid advertising, the use of
speakers at conventions and other meetings,
editorial publicity, and such other forms of
publicity as the Executive Committee may
direct."
The thought back of the whole plan is
that accountancy needs advertising, and
not the members of the profession as indi­viduals
and firms. There is little doubt
that if the business houses in this country
which may utilize to advantage the serv­ices
of public accountants are acquainted
with the broad range of service which
accountants are qualified to render, the
individual members will have nothing