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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 |