No doubt many of the candidates for the C. P. A. degree in American states would heartily approve of some such innovation as is contained in the following resolution:

RESOLVED, That it be a recommendation to the Council that the number of examiners be increased, in order to insure that the results of examinations shall be announced as soon as possible after the conclusion of the examinations.

But the most interesting of all in some respects is the glimpse we get of the relations between accountants and the universities from the following resolutions:

RESOLVED, That in view of the fact that the New Zealand University has not yet adopted a sufficiently comprehensive Syllabus in accountancy subjects, this Convention is unable to recommend the Association to enter into negotiations with the University in respect to the preparation of papers and the conduct of examinations in accountancy subjects.

We also print in this issue a frank and unusually vivid description of conditions in Holland, as viewed by a leading public accountant. Mr. Hogeweg's article indicates that accountancy in Holland is passing through the same stages of internal dissension and absence of proper recognition from which American accountancy is just emerging. It seems, however, a matter of only a few years until Dutch accountants will work into a far more satisfactory position.

THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY, on behalf of American accountants, extends its congratulations and best wishes to our foreign brethren, who are guided by the same ideals, and are striving to reach the same objects as ourselves. Every step forward they take is in the larger view a gain not only to themselves but to the profession of accountancy the world over.

Mr. Sells' Address.

It is the accountant who speaks, and he bases his judgment entirely upon what the records and books of accounts have disclosed to his ideas. It is well said that the position of a public accountant in respect to corporations and their management is an entirely independent one. Unlike the attorney, the accountant is not expected to make out a case. He is asked to ascertain the facts, and these facts exist for his examination in form so tangible and so subject to other scrutiny than his own that, even if he were willing to prostitute his calling, he would never dare to do so. What, then, is the statement of this accountant with respect to the causes responsible for the great shrinkage in security values with the resulting business depression, from which the whole country is now suffering? He points out that the answers so generously provided are very wide of the mark. Usually they involve grave reflections upon cor

porate management. We are told that the corporation managers are dishonest; that they "exploit" the people and their utilities; that they put their own enrichment above their duty to the stockholding interest or to the public, and that before there can be a return of the splendid prosperity the country was recently enjoying, the corporation must be regulated, and the Government must step in with a sharp eye and a big stick. In opposition to these views, Mr. Sells declares it the unassailable truth that almost any one of the men who stand at the head of our great business institutions is far more competent to run the government, and would run it more economically, more wisely, and more honestly, than any of those who are in the business of running governments.

Mr. Sells also dwells on the inter-relation existing between the railways and agriculture, and he shows by means of figures that the effect of the Government regulation has been not only to hamper the railway industry but agriculture as well. Both record much smaller proportionate growth than other branches of human activity. He calls the railways and agriculture the two greatest business interests of the country, a fact which no one can dispute, and he lays down the further unassailable proposition that everything which tends to restrain capital from investing in railway enterprises, everything that retards the extension of railways into new and undeveloped country, checks the settlement of new farms and the production of new crops. Prior to the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887 railway construction had progressed in line with the development of business generally, but since that time, notwithstanding the enormous increase of capital resources, the railway industry has fallen far below other lines of development, and with it, also, has fallen the agricultural interests.

Altogether, Mr. Sells, it will be seen, has succeeded in crowding many facts and much solid truth into his remarks, and the address, coming from such a well-informed public accountant, must be considered as forming an important contribution to the discussion of the subject.Commercial and Financial Chronicle, January 25, 1908.

NEWS AND NOTES.

Accountancy in the University of Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota announces that, through the generous courtesy of the Minneapolis Association of Life Underwriters, the Minneapolis Fire Underwriters Association, the Minnesota and North Dakota Fire Underwriters Association, and the Minnesota Society of Public Accountants, the University is enabled to offer gratis to the public two Semester courses of lectures; one on Insurance, and the other on Accounting. The course on accounting is as follows:

ACCOUNTING.

MONDAY EVENING AT 8, ROOM 16, LIBRARY BUILDING.

February 10: Mr. J. Gordon Steele, Chartered Accountant, "The History of Accounting."

February 17: Mr. J. Gordon Steele, "Accounting Records and their Uses."

February 24: Mr. Herbert M. Temple, Public Accountant and Auditor, "The Accounting Routine of a Life Insurance Company."

March 2, 7: Mr. Louis Betz, City Comptroller of St. Paul," Municipal Accounting and Routine."

March 16: Mr. Herbert M. Temple, "The Accounting of Banks." March 23: Mr. Herbert M. Temple, 66 Accounting in the Flour Milling Business."

March 30: Mr. Ralph E. Johnson, Assistant Public Accountant, "Coal Operations and Accounting Routine."

April 6: Mr. J. Gordon Steele, "The Accounting of Street Railways." April 13: Mr. G. R. Martin, Assistant Controller G. N. Ry. Co., "The Administrative Organization of Railroads."

April 20: Mr. G. R. Martin, "The Accounting of Railroads."

April 27: Mr. Ralph D. Webb, Public Accountant and Auditor, "The Accounting of Jobbing Houses."

May 4: Mr. Herbert M. Temple, "Accounting in the Retail Trade." May 11: Mr. Herbert J. Freeman, Assistant Public Accountant, "The Accounts of Saw Mills and Lumber Yards."

May 18 Mr. Herbert M. Temple, "The Accounting of Fire Insurance Companies."

May 25 Mr. J. Gordon Steele, "Auditing and the Duties and Responsibilities of a Public Accountant and Auditor."

Professor John H. Gray, under whose direction this work is organized, says of these courses:

"They ought to be of great value and interest to all insurance agents, insurance brokers, insurance clerks, accountants, accountants' clerks, auditors, bookkeepers, bank clerks, brokers' clerks and to all other aspiring young men who want to enlarge their knowledge of the general principles

of their business, and to increase their general efficiency and earning capacity, and especially to such as wish to break away from the mere routine to which modern specialized business tends to confine them.

"One can no longer learn the principles of a business in a large office. If he is deprived of regular collegiate training in these matters, and wishes to rise, he must acquire a thorough grasp of the general principles of the business by study and instruction outside and apart from the business itself."

The Pioneer Press of St. Paul says editorially of this work:

"With the opening of the second semester, the University of Minnesota will start two courses in practical economics which, it is hoped, will be the beginning of a school of business. These two courses are at once eminently practical and notable. They are notable because they represent the only business courses offered in the department of economics in any university within fifteen hundred miles. The University of Pennsylvania and (the University of the City of New York have such business courses, but facilities in other institutions of higher learning are lacking along similar lines. The courses have been established through the instrumentality of the head of the department of economics and sociology, Prof. John H. Gray, in coöperation with officials of the two associations under whose auspices the lectures are to be given.

"Discussion at the meeting of the National Association of Accountants in this city last October turned in a vigorous manner toward the lack of means of education for accountants. There seems to be but one or two places over the country where systematic training can be obtained in the higher branches of accounting. This training, above that afforded in business colleges, is necessary in order to attain the excellence demanded by examination for certified public accountant in those states which have such an office established. Seven universities of the country had representatives at the national meeting here to take part in a discussion on the best means by which such courses as would supply the lack could be offered. Out of those discussions grew the organization of the two courses which the university is offering.

"In addition to the direct benefit to the students through the opportunities of such courses, the fact is worthy of notice that these lectures have been arranged only through the assistance of twenty or more men who have consented to speak. These are all men who in their daily work use the facts they will impart to the students, which is additional assurance of the practicability of the courses. This bringing of the people to the university as lecturers extends the influence of the institution by so much and augurs much for the future of the business school it is hoped to establish."

Ohio.

A C. P. A. bill has been introduced in the General Assembly of Ohio. The bill provides that an applicant must have a high-school education or its equivalent and prescribes that the C. P. A. examination shall be in the usual subjects, "Theory of Accounts," "Practical Accounting," "Auditing," and "Commercial Law as Affecting Accountancy." The "reciprocity clause" is as follows:

"SECTION 6. Any person who is a citizen of the United States or has declared his intention of becoming such citizen, over twenty-one (21) years of age, of good moral character, and who has complied with the rules and regulations of said board pertaining to such cases, and who holds a valid and unrevoked certificate as a certified public accountant issued by or under the authority of any other state of the United States, or of the United States or the District of Columbia, or any territory of the United

States, or by or under the authority of a foreign nation, when said board shall be satisfied that their standards and requirements for a certificate as a certified public accountant, are substantially equivalent to those established by this chapter, shall receive from said board a certificate as a "certified public accountant," and such person may thereafter practice as a certified public accountant and assume and use the name, title and style of "certified public accountant" or any abbreviation or abbreviations thereof, in the State of Ohio."

Maryland.

The Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants has prepared and introduced the following "bill to protect the public against misleading and fraudulent financial statements of corporations" in the General Assembly of Maryland:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That two new sections be added to Article 27 of the Code of Public General Laws, title "Crimes and Punishments," sub-title "Fraud-Corporate Misrepresentation," to follow Section 134, and to be known as Sections 134A and 134B, and to read as follows:

134A. All Corporations incorporated under the laws of the State of Maryland and foreign corporations or corporations of other States, doing business in the State of Maryland, upon issuing or publishing any financial statement inviting the purchase of their stocks or bonds, or in issuing to the public any quarterly, semi-annual or annual balance sheets or statements of the financial condition or business of such corporations, or any published financial statement or statements for the purpose of public information in the State of Maryland, shall be required to have such statements verified by a Certified Public Accountant, and a certificate of such verification attached thereto, showing under what State laws the certified public accountant is authorized to practice.

134B. If any such corporation shall issue or publish any financial statement or statements without the certification as provided in Section 134A of this Act, it shall be deemed and held guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), nor less than five hundred dollars ($500); and any officer, agent or employee of such corporation issuing or publishing any financial statement or statements, or any Certified Public Accountant knowingly certifying to the correctness of a statement issued or published by a corporation, when such financial statement or statements issued or published are vitally incorrect or misleading, the officer, agent or employee making such financial statement or statements and the Certified Public Accountant certifying to such financial statement or statements shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year and not less than six months, or a fine not exceeding three thousand dollars nor less than one thousand dollars; or both, in the discretion of the Court.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this bill shall take effect from the date of its passage.

New Jersey.

The Tenth Anniversary Dinner of the Society of Certified Public Accountants of the State of New Jersey was held in Newark, Monday evening, January 20, 1908, with an attendance of about fifty persons. Both in numbers and in enthusiasm the dinner was highly successful. The notable address of President Elijah W. Sells of The American Association was printed in the January issue of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY. The complete list of toasts follows: