Your profession and mine;

              ATLANTA PITTSBURGH
BALTIMORE
BIRMINGHAM
BOSTON HASKINS & S E L LS PORTLAND
PROVIDENCE
SAINT LOUIS
BROOKLYN SALT LAKE CITY
BUFFALO
CHARLOTTE CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO
CHICAGO SEATTLE
CINCINNATI TULSA
CLEVELAND WATERTOWN
DALLAS BULLETIN DENVER
DETROIT
JACKSONVILLE
KANSAS CITY BERLIN
LONDON
MANILA
PARIS
LOS ANGELES SHANGHAI
MINNEAPOLIS NEWARK E X E C U T I V E O F F I C ES
NEW ORLEANS 30 BROAD STREET. NEW YORK HAVANA
NEW YORK MEXICO CITY
PHILADELPHIA MONTREAL
VOL. X NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1927 No. 9
Your Profession and Mine
BILLS affecting the practice of account-ancy
have been introduced in state
legislatures this year to an extent greater
than ever before in any one year. The
fact that this is an active year for state
legislation may have facilitated the intro­duction
of these bills, but it is not the
cause. The real reason is found in the ever­growing
and widespread interest which
surrounds the youngest of the professions.
Many of these bills indicate that a
steady advance is being made in the
statutory provisions regulating account­ancy.
They have been prepared or en­dorsed
by the local societies. In some of
the states, however, bills have been intro­duced
which, if passed, would have been
detrimental to the interests of the pro­fession.
The latter bills are due to the
ever-present few who, shortsighted in
their policy, attempt to gain privileges to
which rightfully they are not entitled.
The struggle to obtain legal recognition
in all of the states was indeed a long and
arduous one. Valiant efforts they were,
but the work did not end with the attain­ment
of that recognition.
Just recently the legal profession indi­cated
the necessity for a more broadly
educated and more thoroughly trained bar.
Future candidates for admission to the bar
in the State of New York will be required
to have completed successfully two years
of study in a recognized college, or its
equivalent. Each year additional law
schools raise their entrance requirements,
and, eventually, all the schools of recog­nized
standing will be on a graduate-school
basis.
The time will come when the accounting
profession, among other things, will have
to raise its educational requirements. The
increasing complexity of the accountant's
services requires men with a broad educa­tional
background as a foundation. Our
colleges today turn out well-nigh as many
men as our high schools did a generation
ago, so that the requirement of a high
school education, although adequate
twenty years ago, is not as high relatively
at the present time as it was when the
earlier C. P. A. laws were passed.
In the meantime the accountant should
be ever vigilant as to the status of the
legislative situation in his state. His
problem takes on a dual aspect. He must
protect the results of past efforts from the
attacks of those less scrupulous in their
motives, and he must seek to improve,
wherever possible, the standards of the
profession as exemplified in statutory
regulations. Theodore Roosevelt once said,
"Every man owes some of his time to the
upbuilding of the industry or profession
to which he belongs." One way in which
the accountant can further the interests of
his profession is to aid attempts at con­structive
legislation.