Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-18


fore them is to elevate their
vocation to the plane and dignity of a
profession. They have a code of ethics,
their rules of propriety, and they de-
sire the world to recognize their pro-
fession as it recognizes those of
theology, law and medicine.
One can get no better idea of the
marvellous development of the business
world than to review the history of ac-
counting. The methods that were in
vogue in a single generation ago would
be no more adequate to the needs OF
present-day accounting than the Peter
Cooper railway would now suffice to
handle the traffic between Pittsburg
and New York. There has been almost
as much progress within the past three
decades as there was between the reign
of the divided stick and the begin
ming of the nineteenth century. The
science of accounts has become an
exact science. Legislatures have pro-
vided for the degree of certified public
accountant, and the work of him who
bears that title has broadened in scope
until now he is truly the doctor of
commerce.
Taking the records of the bookkeep-
ers-and to call bookkeepers account
ants is no longer to speak accurately
the accountant studies the case and
gives his diagnosis. That diagnosis
shows whether the patient is sick or
we'll; whether the business is being
operated at a gain or at a loss; the
sources of the losses and gains; how
the losses may be prevented and the
gains increased by the minor savings
"a thousand things which tell of the
health of the business.
If the records of business were kept
today in the way they were kept twen-
ty years ago commercial progress
would be seriously handicapped.
Without an intelligent cost-keeping
system 1t would be all but impossible
to make and sell things on the narrow
margins that now obtain For in
stance, the eighth part Of cent add
ed to the cost of coal oil by the Stan
dard Oil company would in short
while suffice to wipe out a fine like
that imposed by Judge Lands. Ten
cents per mile saved in the operation
of trains would make the difference
between prosperous conditions on a
railroad and a receiVership.
The things that were thrown away
in the butchering business of yester-
day represent it's profits today. The
fortunes of today are built up by saw
ing the waste of yesterday and those
of tomorrow will be the accumulation
this narrow margin between wealth
and poverty, between success and
failure, between prosperity and adver-
stty in the business world, the public
accountant has to do. He constructs
the system of bookkeeping that shows
the data essential to the gauging of
this margin, and then he sees that the
bookkeepers keep the accounts cor
rectly.
Accounting as a science began early
in the morning of civilization, and it
touches man early in life. 1t is just
as necessary for the child to know
what is in his pocket, from his stand
point as it is for the 1inanciers of an
treasury. The financial secretary of
the Rothschilds declares that account
ing is properly a part of primary edu-
cation; that it's principles are more
easily apprehended than those of
arithmetic, and that accounting ought
to lead to arithmetic as arithmetic
reaches over into algebra.
1t was once declared by Sir John
Lubbock that accounting had its be-
ginning in the English eXchequer A
great Irish historian undertook to dis
pute that assertion, and in his re-
searches found that the Greeks ha6
banks not d1SSlnllar In luea ana prln-
ciple to our own. They kept then
treasure in banks aid used letters oi
credit The historian adduces a docu-
ment dealing with the repayment Of g
loan by the Joint Stock Bank oi
Athens and Delos. and mentions case
where ancient bank directors were
pulled into the streets and beaten be-
cause they charged too high rate OF
interest. He found that the private
bank of Pasian of Athens had capi-
tai of fifty talents-equivalent to
$50, 900.
One may, even in this day, find al
the stages of accounting from the be
ginning to the present highly scientific
state of the profession. Francis Gal
ton, on his scientific travels through
Africa, found people who would moi
sell him but one sheep at a time be-
cause they could not understand that
IL one sheep was worth two plugs OF
tobacco three sheep would be worth
six plugs The Montezuma and the
Aztec Indians had a device known as
the quipu a twisted cord made oi
strands of thread of different colors