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Professional Ethics.
B Y J. E. STERRETT, C. P. A. (Pennsylvania.)
This is probably the first time that the attention of a representative
body of American accountants has been directed to the
consideration of professional ethics. The importance of the subject
and the value of its thoughtful consideration are sufficiently
evidenced by the decision of the Committee in assigning it so
important a position upon the programme of this annual meeting.
Despite the fact, and even in a sense because so little has been
said or written by accountants upon professional ethics, the subject
is one by no means free from difficulties. Phillips Brooks
once said that he preached the best sermon of his life one day
when at four years of age he climbed upon a chair, which for the
moment he converted into an imaginary pulpit, and declaimed to
his small audience in the playroom these four words: " A l l men
be good." All that can be said upon the subject of professional
ethics is wholly comprised in the youngster's sermon. Everyone
will agree, for his neighbor at least, that to be good is all that
is required.
However, abstract principles must be incorporated into daily
conduct and it is in the process of doing this that we so often
become involved in uncertainty and sometimes pursue a course
which when viewed in the clear light of justice is at least regrettable,
if not reprehensible. We all acknowledge that stealing is
wrong, and if we saw one man purloining another man's watch
we would at once call a policeman. In such a case our mind acts
promptly and surely. Through long centuries we have been
slowly taught to respect the rights of property, and we are long
past the point where we would stand aside and allow a strong man
by mere brute force to take to himself that which belonged to his
neighbor. We have not yet, however, fully developed our moral
faculties to the point where it is always easy for us to distinguish
those finer lines of right and wrong and to determine the proper
course in affairs involving not physical property but rather those
108
Object Description
| Title |
Twentieth anniversary year-book |
| Author |
American Association of Public Accountants |
| Contributor |
Sells, Elijah Watt, 1858-1924 |
| Date-Issued | 1907 |
| Source | Proceedings of the Annual Meeting at St. Paul, Minn., October Fourteenth--Seventeenth, Nineteen Hundred and Seven |
| Type | Text |
| Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi (21.7 MB) |
| Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
| Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
| Date-Digitally Created | 2009 |
| Language | eng |
| Identifier | aapa yearbook 1907 |
