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FOOTNOTES
* As most stockholders and readers of
financial pages know, Lewis Gilbert frequently
attends the annual meetings of
the many companies in which he owns
stock: his intense concern for his own
and other shareholders' interests has
made him a cogent questioner of management
on such occasions.
This year at the General Motors Corporation
annual meeting he engaged in
a conversational exchange with Chairman
Frederic J. Donner and Executive
Office partner John Schumann, who is
in charge of our world-wide services to
GM.
A condensation of their remarks is
reprinted below, because it centers
upon constructive services—a subject
close to all our hearts (and workdays).
Mr. Gilbert quoted from a letter to
Fortune magazine by Father J. E. Cant-well
of St. Louis University: "Older
auditors were not content to make the
income balance the outgo. They always
added their observations on the condition
of the business, and made recommendations
as to what they thought
ought to be done about it. This work
was considered an important part of
the audit . . ." If this is not being done
today, "the profession," Father Cant-well
wrote, "should be revised backward
to the old style."
"As far as General Motors is concerned,"
Mr. Gilbert said, "I should
like to hear from my good friend, the
auditor, as to his comments on Father-
Can twell's observation."
Mr. Donner said he would like first
comment.
"It happens that I was breaking my
business teeth in auditing about forty-three
years ago . . . (As) an older auditor
today, at least a renegade auditor
. . . I don't think that forty-some years
ago they did as well what I would call
the analytical side of auditing . . . advising
management whether there were
trends, situations... that needed consideration."
Mr. Donner noted that General Motors
had always "looked on our auditors
as being equally concerned with giving
us advice as they are merely telling us
the condition of the accounts." He invited
Mr. Schumann to comment.
"We consider it our responsibility,"
Mr. Schumann said, "not merely to do
the things that Father Cantwell was
talking of, but . . . to render the most
constructive service we can."
* Contributions are still coming in to
the University of Illinois Foundation to
finance a Weldon Powell Professorship
in Accountancy at the University. They
have been received from hundreds of
Weldon's partners and associates at
H&S, DPH&S (Canada), other firms,
and from his countless friends throughout
the profession. When plans for the
professorship were announced last winter,
the Haskins & Sells Foundation undertook
to grant an amount at least
matching all other contributions. Contributions
and their matching grant totalled
more than $100,000 at time of
publication of this issue.
* We hope the following book review
will be the first of many to come. All
members of H&S families are invited
to share their non-technical reading
with the rest of the Firm in this way.
Marion B. Medich, who contributed
this review, is a principal in our San
Juan Office. He went there in ig6$
from Cleveland, where he joined the
staff in 19SQ. He appeared on the program
at the 1963 Principals' Meeting.
THE LUTE PLAYER by NORAH LOFTS
(Published in paper back by Bantam Books 1964)
The tragedy of Richard I and the 3rd
Crusade is mainly told by a lute player
in this historical novel by Norah Lofts.
This Crusade (1189-1199), although
aborted at the walls of Jerusalem, was
a grand affair planned by the three most
powerful rulers in Christendom, Richard
the Lion Hearted, Philip of France,
and Frederick Barbossa, Emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire. The gallant
encounters between Richard and Sala-din,
ruler of Egypt and leader of the
Moslem forces, provided the romance
to inspire the countless chronicles of
these ancient struggles.
But it is not these adventures with
which the author is concerned. As in her
other novels, Miss Lofts portrays vivid
characters. Her portrayal of Richard,
founded upon four years' research, carries
the force of understanding, albeit
told subtly by third parties. The legendary
king is revealed as a man whose
character contained inconsistencies
common in most men, but curiously
fascinating when found in heroic figures.
Although surprisingly modern,
these "flaws" are not exaggerated by the
author, and this makes her portrayal so
much more realistic. Since Miss Lofts is
not, thankfully, a practitioner of the
clinical approach to character study,
much is said by circumstances themselves,
such as Richard's strange courtship
and marriage to Berengaria, Princess
of Navarre. In most instances this
leaves room for the reader to interpret
the actions of the characters in the light
of his own knowledge, environment, or
intuition. The author wastes no time
with the obvious. That Richard was
among other things courageous, magnanimous,
and possessed of rare leadership
qualities is almost incidentally
shown throughout the story. It is precisely
the flashes of opposite characteristics
that make the portrayal realistic.
Since many epic events become so
in retrospect, and virtues and faults
tend to magnify in retelling, the story
is particularly interesting because it
does not orient events to their historical
contexts and the ingredients of character
are described in a simple way that
makes them both ordinary and timeless.
Miss Lofts' etchings of secondary
characters—the lute player, Richard's
mother and his wife, an abbot, a deformed
princess, common soldiers, and
sundry knights, are equally memorable.
The only deficiency in this work is
the lack of a more complete picture of
the chivalrous Saladin.
Although his kingdom was threatened
by conspiracies which could succeed
only in his absence, Richard's sole
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