Step forward;

              108 HASKINS & SELLS November
A Step Forward
THE following excerpt is quoted from
Chicago Commerce, the organ of the
Chicago Association of Commerce.
"The question of whether Chicago busi­ness
men are taking their inventories at
the best time has for some months been
under consideration by a special com­mittee
on Inventories appointed by the
council of the Ways and Means committee,
the chairman of this special committee
being George W. Rossetter. At a recent
meeting of this committee it was agreed
that a great many concerns are taking
inventories at a period of the year which is
not the best for them, and it was also
agreed that an inventory should be taken
and yearly statement prepared at that
time of the year when would be reflected
most truly the actual conditions of the
business. It is further agreed that beside
any individual business affected by a
change of policy other interests would be
helped by a distribution of inventory dates,
and among these would be lawyers, bank­ers,
accountants and the commissioner of
internal revenue.
"Against adoption of January 1 as an in­ventory
taking date these six reasons were
advanced: Interference by cold weather;
closing of the plant at the busiest period
of the year; large number of men required
to inventory a large stock; greater liability
for error in greater amount of goods;
when stock is lowest the most desirable
financial statement can be prepared, de­sirable
that the commissioner of internal
revenue have income tax reports coming
in throughout the year rather than all in
one group.
"Having come to such conclusions as
these and feeling that the facts should be
brought before the membership of the
Association, the committee on Inventories
decided to present its findings to the
various subdivisions and to publish them
in these columns."