young men making a mistake in preparing themselves for that vocation? Will the business of accountants expand in the next ten years as it has in the last ten years? We frequently receive inquiries of this sort from young men, and in reply we have invariably said that no young man, if he has a taste for the work, need fear making a mistake in fitting himself to be a public accountant. This reply it is not difficult to defend.

A man need travel but little in the United States to be convinced that accountancy is in its infancy. Outside of the large cities few business men know anything about the public accountant or have even a suspicion that his services might help them increase their profits. People in the smaller cities and towns think of the public accountant as a sort of detached but expert bookkeeper, who need be sent for only in cases of fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy, and disputes among partners. That an accountant can help a man save money by reducing his expenses or by the introduction of an accurate cost system, or that by regular and thorough audits he can prevent wasteful and unnecessary leakages, are notions that never enter the heads of three-fourths of the business men of the United States. Many a country storekeeper runs behind even when his "order-wagon is loaded every day and his assistants are kept busy tying up parcels and drawing off molasses, simply because he is terribly loose in his accounts, doesn't know what are the real costs of many of his goods, and is careless about the inventory. Bad credits and poor accounting keep many a business man poor. The public accountant is the enemy of both these evils. In the cities this fact is well known by the larger business men, and the knowledge is spreading. The expansion of the accounting business in recent years has been due, not to the growth of the country, nor to the increase of business enterprises, but to the steadily increasing recognition of the value of the accountants' services.

There is no reason for expecting an unfavorable change in the attitude of the public toward accountants. On the contrary, since the accountants of to-day are better trained than ten years ago, and since the young accountants are forced in most states to make a careful preparation for their work, while many of them are securing a university training, there is every reason to believe that the public accountant will play during the next twenty-five years a very important part in the affairs of the United States,

and that there will be an abundance of work for all young men who have aptitude and taste for it.

A special reason for expecting a steady enlargement of the accounting field, and an increasing demand for accountants' services, may be found in the political situation. Fifteen years ago the American people were greatly concerned over the money question; to-day they are aroused over the abuses of corporate franchises. The majority believe in the strict regulation of corporations; a minority are clamoring for public ownership of public service utilities; and a still smaller crowd, but a growing band, are proclaiming the virtues of socialism. Whatever the view that prevails in the long run, there can be no doubt that the American people are determined that corporations shall be definitely recognized as the creatures of the state and servants of the public, and that their promoters, managers, and stockholders will be held to the strictest possible accountability for all their acts. The people are demanding publicity with regard to the affairs of railroads, banks, insurance companies, gas companies, telephone companies, street railway companies, in fact, from all corporations which enjoy special or exclusive privileges. Whatever one's own opinion may be on this subject, it is impossible for a man to read the newspapers of the United States and escape the conviction that the day is near when none of our giant corporations will be permitted to operate in the dark. Indeed, the transition from darkness to light is now under way, and the calls for public accountants are multiplying in consequence. A few of our great corporations already recognize the value of an independent certificate, and all the others will finally be forced, either by public opinion or by the law, to follow suit. The public accountant, so called because he is the servant of the public, never becomes the hired man of any corporation for whose balance sheet he vouches. His audit is an independent one, and, before long, it will be the only audit which the people will accept with any confidence.

Instead, therefore, of fearing lest there be a glut of accountants on account of the multiplication of schools of accounting, we are more inclined to fear lest the demand for first-class accounting ability may outrun the supply, in which case the profession would suffer in public estimation, for cheap and poorly trained men, not to mention political place hunters, would then scramble into responsible positions.

Furthermore, we must not lose sight of the fact that many of the young men now in training for accountancy will abandon it for other callings. More than either law or medicine, this profession demands personal aptitude. The young man who is to succeed as a public accountant, must have, in addition to a head for figures, sound business judgment, exhaustless patience, a capacity for infinite drudgery, a personality that inspires confidence, and a temperature always at 60° regardless of other people's thermometers. These qualifications are not set forth in the certified public accountants' acts of the various states, nevertheless young men entering the profession soon discover their importance, and, if they are not made of the right stuff, either fall by the wayside or get another job.

Requirements for the C. P. A.

Mr. Webster, in his discussion on another page of the "Prerequisites for Accountancy Practice," does not take into account all the reasons why experience should be numbered among the prerequisites. Much can be said in favor of his contention that accountancy in this country should follow the precedents set by law and medicine, and admit to independent practice the young men who have given satisfactory evidence that they possess the necessary general and technical education.

The public takes a risk with the green M. D. and with the callow LL. B.; why not let it take a chance with the unbaked C. P. A.? If the experimenting M. D.'s and LL. B.'s kill patients and lose cases they starve obscure; if they save patients and win cases they become the country's great doctors and lawyers. Why not let a young man of good education study the rules and practice of accountancy, and then send him out, armed with a C. P. A., to win his spurs? Surely, a green accountant's blunders could not be deadlier than those of an unseasoned physician, nor costlier than those of a fresh graduate in law. Why, then, should the American public demand more from the neophytes in accountancy than from those in either law or medicine? What is the justification for the " articled clerk in Great Britain or for the requirement in most of the states of this country that a young man shall

not be licensed a C. P. A. until he has spent a year or more in the employ of a practicing public accountant?

We beg the whole question when we assume that the American way of starting young men in law and medicine was adopted because it was best, or that it is now best suited to American conditions. There was a time when any man could practice medicine or law without the sanction of a constituted authority, but this laxity became unendurable and the states and courts began to prescribe certain prerequisites in order to make life more difficult for quacks and shysters. The standards in these professions are being steadily raised. In the best medical schools hospital experience, which is analogous to a young accountant's experience in an office, is required of the graduate before he can have the university's approval as an independent practitioner. Law schools are raising their educational requirements, and there is frequent complaint of late that the bar examinations in some of the more progressive states call for certain practical information not teachable in schools. But the public, after all, needs less protection against poor lawyers than it does against poor accountants or poor doctors. The courts quickly expose the incompetent attorney and his clients drop him, For the accountant and the doctor, however, there is no higher authority to review their work and no adversary on hand to criticise it. These two professions, therefore, need jealous supervision at the start, and they are getting it more and more every day. The American plan in accountancy, as it already is in the engineering profession, will doubtless soon also be the American plan in medicine.

But the real reason why a school or book education should not entitle a young man to call himself a C. P. A. is because present conditions make it most important that the American business public should discover what those three letters mean and then hold them in deep, genuine, grateful esteem. Accountancy is a new profession struggling for recognition. Already, there are too many uneducated, untrained, inexperienced, incompetent public accountants," and the equipment of the best is not what they wish it might be, nor was their training what they wish it had been. Nevertheless the great majority of American C. P. A.'s representing the best accounting talent and experience in the United States, are a sturdy, long-headed, hard-working and modest lot of men. They have had all the hardships of

pioneers. The public has not known what they were doing, nor could their friends or their relatives explain it, and their clients have haled them into court because their fees were not those of a bookkeeper. These men, or many of them, are determined that the public shall know and respect the profession of accountancy. That is why they insist that the C. P. A. shall mean not only that a man knows the theory, but also that he can put it into practice patiently, accurately, honestly, successfully.

Secretary Charles J. Nasmyth, of the American Center, Central Association of Accountants, writes that he "can not conceive the grounds upon which you could justify the savage and unmerited attack upon the Central Association of Accountants which you made editorially in the July issue of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY. I expected and was prepared to answer honest criticism of my remarks published in the May issue of THE JOURNAL, but I certainly never anticipated the necessity of defending myself against mere invective and denunciation by those palpably ignorant of the merits or demerits of the subject under discussion." We are surprised that Mr. Nasmyth found invective and denunciation in our editorial. We meant only to call in question the claim of the prospectus that membership in the new association gave a guaranteed recognized status in the profession," and to warn accountants in America against expecting any great advantage from such membership. England already has two well-known bodies of accountants. We believe that their leading spirits should cultivate friendly relations, and that the two bodies of accountants should unite in one large and strong organization. We believe, furthermore, that the creation of a third body of accountants in Great Britain is to be deprecated. This whole matter, however, is one that can not be effectively discussed in the columns of THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY. Our cousins across the pond have our best wishes, and we will not pretend to give them advice.

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The Ohio State Board of Accountancy is endeavoring to get an authoritative definition of public accountant, and is also trying to find out exactly what is meant by experience in the practice of accounting. At the first meeting of the Board, the following definition of public accountant was adopted: A public accountant is a person skilled in the affairs of commerce and finance, and particularly in the accounts relating thereto, who places his services at the disposal of the community for remuneration, and maintains an office for the transaction of such business; whose time, during the ordinary hours of business, is not entirely under the control of merely one individual, firm or corporation." As exceptions were taken to this definition by certain applicants, the Board is now seeking the views of prominent accountants in all parts of the country.