nation, it is nevertheless my opinion that you should make the examination harder, not by making it intensive, but more extensive among the various subjects in the field of business. The accountant, if he is to command the respect of professional men, should demand from the young man entering the profession of accounting the same training demanded from the young men entering law, medicine, or any other profession. We cannot hope to be recognized as a learned profession until that attitude is taken. So within the next ten or fifteen years I expect to see certified public accountants receive a training not merely in the use of figures, but in subjects that cover the whole field of the science. of business. The university cannot teach it all. The university does not claim to teach everything about business, but it will start the young man on the right track; it will give him some knowledge of how he may make a living in banking, commercial law, transportation, and so on. I do not believe the profession will receive the recognition from the public which is its due until we recognize the fact that a very broad and liberal education, a thorough education is necessary to its professional practice. Professional Accountancy and Education. It is a great pleasure to stand before you in order that I may bear witness, not to my learning or knowledge, on this subject, but rather to my faith and interest in the work to which you are devoted. The revelations in the business world of the last few years have given new emphasis to Oxenstiern's famous injunction to his son on leaving the university, to go forth and see with how little wisdom the world is governed. When one observes the imperfect knowledge with which men have undertaken in the last generation to manage not only large affairs, but constantly enlarging and more complex affairs, he is reminded of Lord Clive's famous utterance when he was charged before the House of Commons of accepting bribes in India. He was too much of a soldier and fighter to deny the accusation, but ejacnlated, "By God, gentlemen, I wonder at my own moderation, when I think of the temptation to which I was subject." The fact is that the changes in the business world have been much more rapid than our philosophy or understanding of them. The result has been an inability on the part of those in charge of important affairs to know whither they are drifting. In all such cases from the days of Socrates to this day, and especially in this day, uncertainty always leads to carelessness, and frequently to dishonesty and corruption. One in my position never turns his attention to any phase of education without being struck by the contrast between the early centuries and our own. Truly in this field history repeats itself. In the good old days, the artisan learned his craft or trade by working alongside of the master and absorbing not only the master's handicraft, but all his worldly wisdom, his ethical and religious standards. It is impossible for a workman to learn his trade or occupation in that way to-day, and thank God, we have begun to realize that the task heretofore performed by the master workman who was a workman himself, must be transferred to the schools. There could be nothing better and nothing more hopeful than the movement toward meeting this particular need. What was true of the apprentice in the hand labor world was true until very recently in regard to the great and important professions of to-day. Those of you who are familiar with Dr. William Douglass's famous tract on the currencies of the American Colonies, will recall that he in 1721 was the only physician in Boston who had had medical school training. Doctors in those days served an apprenticeship to another doctor to learn the trade. The same principle applied to the law training until a much later period. In fact, it is only within the last century that the three great professions of to-day, namely, that of the lawyer, the doctor and the engineer, were in any wise dependent upon the schools for their professional training. So long as the world was so simple and the master had time and inclination to teach the apprentice, and no large capital investment and plant, and no high degree of specialization were required, the old system was entirely satisfactory. Nobody to-day questions the desirability or even the necessity of technical or professional training in the fields just mentioned. But if professional schools in any of these lines be necessary, it must be very plain to men in your position that systematic training, such as one cannot get by the old method of apprenticeship from your strenuous lives, is necessary to prepare the professional accountant. It is quite as impossible for a member of your Association to devote his time to training accountants as it is for the great metropolitan lawyer to devote his time to making lawyers of men in his office. It is needless to say that the theory and practice of accounting are perfectly fundamental necessaries for the proper and successful conduct of business as we know it to-day, and as it is sure to be in the coming generation. Further illustration of the need, therefore, of school and university training would seem unnecessary. The burden has got to be greater than the professional accountants individually can carry. The conclusion is inevitable, that the lower schools must teach bookkeeping and the universities must train the accountant in the principles of accounting, and in the kindred subjects which are necessary for that breadth of view and understanding of the bearings on accountancy which gives the accountant command of the situation. Our universities have been slow to realize either the need or the possibilities in this field. One or two results of this backwardness on the part of the universities may be mentioned briefly. The first and most notable one is that young men planning to enter the business world in any capacity are either plunging into the stream with tremendous odds against them, without any university training, or they are deserting the college or academic departments for the professional schools of law, engineering and agriculture. We have heard much talk in recent years in this Mississippi Valley about the ever increasing percentages of women in the collegiate or academic departments of our university. One reason for this condition is not far to seek, namely, that the curricula of our college departments are such as to make a special appeal to women, while the men are going, as already said, to the professional schools. Perhaps sufficient has been said by others, elsewhere, if not here, in regard to the examination and licensing of accountants. I need dwell but a moment, therefore, on that phase of the subject. If my position be at all correct, that the university must furnish the training, then by all American precedents and standards, it follows that the university should be authorized to superintend, if not to conduct, the examination and the granting of licenses, for in this way only can the whole work be properly co-ordinated, and in no other manner can the examining bodies have sufficient influence on the content and method of the educationa process. Once more I wish to thank the members of the National Association for the opportunity to appear before you, and to extend also my hearty thanks to the members of the Minnesota Association for the encouragement they have given me in the attempt to bring this important matter before the university world. I know not what the future may bring forth in the university with which I am connected, or in any other, but if I know anything, I know that the university which would hold a fair proportion of men in its college department and would in the long run appeal to the male portion of the population for sympathy and support, must assume, and that early, heroically, and strenuously, the duty which the progress of the century has laid upon them to extend and strengthen all of the departments which tend to prepare men for what is known as a business career, as against the traditional professions, and I do know that the training of accountants in the theory and principles of accounting, in auditing and in commercial law, must make the very heart and core of courses meant to accomplish this purpose. Accountancy Education. DISCUSSION BY PROF. STEPHEN W. GILMAN, of the University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin has been trying to do through the public accountants in Wisconsin what the certified public accountants in New York did through New York University. Our department in Wisconsin is trying to arouse the public sentiment that will bring a C. P. A. law in Wisconsin. I confess to a feeling of shame and humiliation that we have failed to do what we desired. The reason is because the people, or rather the legislators, are not educated to the point that you have reached in the East. The University of Wisconsin's reason for establishing our course in business administration is this: we felt we must have a general foundation for business practice from which foundation may spring the certified public accountant, or one who is deserving of that title. We felt that we must teach from the beginning those things which will put the student in possession of that broad business training which is so absolutely necessary to an account ant worthy of the name. We teach him business practice. We are in touch with some of the great manufacturing industries of Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and they send us their pay rolls, and most valuable of all, they send us men right out of their offices to talk to our classes. We give the students commercial law and plain, old-fashioned bookkeeping at the start, and they have a hard time to digest that. The secondary schools send us in our State-and I have no doubt, if we could have a frank expression, we should find that they send to every university in the country-men who are proficient in higher geometry, who have read Virgil, who have carried off honors in languages, but they cannot add, divide, or multiply and do it right. As to the degree of certified public accountant, I hope the day will come when we can say to students, that the university of Wisconsin is prepared to give them a degree and they will not have to slip over to Illinois to get the title. We are unable to-day to give our young men the education that they are entitled to have. In addition to commercial law and accounts, we give them a course in salesmanship and advertising writing; we give them the general procedure of commercial life; the writing of technical contracts under advanced conditions and so on. We try to reach out into all of the great markets of the world to bring what we can to the University of Wisconsin. We are represented in this meeting to-day because we are interested with you all. The Dean of this department of our university has asked me to say to you that the University of Wisconsin is interested, particularly interested in the work of this association. The University of Wisconsin wishes to work in entire harmony with you. Accountancy Education. REMARKS BY PROF. M. H. ROBINSON, of the University of Illinois. Professor Johnson told what has been done, Professor Gray, what ought to be done, and Professor Gilman, what Wisconsin has not done; now I will try to tell you what Illinois also from the standpoint of public accountants has not done. It is not because we lack the spirit of enthusiasm, but because you and your profession have failed to furnish us with any one who is |