Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-18
Scientific Accounting
Bv Frederic u HaSkin

and from which hung a fringe of knot
ted strings.
These knots were made to represent
numbers in any variety of combtna-
tion, while the cord itself by ingen-
uous manipulation was made to repre-
sent facts related to the figures. The
uuipu was the first American form of
accounting. The Chinese abacus, with
it's little rack of balls, is equally an
cient with the quipu. The split stick
was another early form of accounting.
Notches were cut into the stick to rep
resent certain mutually understood
things, and then it was split half in
two and each party had a statement
of the account. That was the earliest
forerunner of the duplicate and tripli-
cate account and voucher, and also of
the carbon copy.
The world owes the alphabet to the
accountant more than to the litterateur.
1t comes to us from the Phoenicians,
| business communication. 1t is said
that while trading on the African
coasts it was tantalizing to them to
see the Egyptian accountants keeping
| an exact account of the loading and un-
loading of foreign vessels, and SO they
devised a few sound-signs of their
own, adopting the few accidental sim
plicities of the numbering old Egyptian
thought signs. In these they wrote
down their debts and credits to save
themselves from being cheated.
Bookkeeping as science had its be-
ginning in Venice in 1494. 1t is CO.
incidence that the virtual discovery of
the new world and the world of ac-
| count keeping should have come SO
close together. the one the result of
| Genoese enterprise and the other the
outcome of Venetian ingenuity
The accountants of the country are
now striving to secure legislation in all
the states creating the degree of GER
titled public accountant, and to have
their calling recognized everywhere.
Already one university has recognized
their claim, and possibly half dozen
states have done likewise. The exami-
nations in those states, where the G..
P. A. degree is recognized are eX-
tremely rigid, requiring a knowledge
not only of the rules of accounting,
but the principles as we'll
One of the most interesting of the
newer methods of accounting is the
perpetual inventory system that has
been brought into use. There are bust
ness establishments where there are
hundreds of thousands of articles to
be kept account of, and where 1t is
absolutely essential that the exact
stock on hand shall be ascertainable
at all times.
1t would be manifestly impossible to
take the old-fashioned way of going
over the stock, piece by piece, and
checking it up as the old-time merchant
did. So the perpetual inventory system
has been devised, and by the balancing
of figures on the debit and credit sides
of the ledger one may be as sure of
what they show as he is sure when he
places a pound of sugar in scales
with a pound weight on the opposite
side of the beam. The perpetual in.
ventory ledger footings will always
show at a glance the exact condition
| of the stock.
Accountantcy is at the bottom of
all the complex civilization of today.
without the pioneering work of the
| accountant the bank might not be
with us with all it's elaborate aids to
! the exchange and interchange of
money. The manufacturing establish
ment could never know whether it
was at the high tide of prosperity or
| on the very brink of ruin. Every
where that civilized man goes or
turns he finds the need of the work
| of the accountant. A note which IL
| lustrates whittier the world is drifting
| is the statement that there ought to be
three new professions created-accoun-
fancy, finance, and business admin
istration. Each may yet arrive at the
| dignity it's advocates claim for it. and
surely the business engineer is as
much a factor in present day business
as the physician or the lawyer. 1t
may be that these sciences are not re-
ducible to fixed principles, but those
who know the subject best declare that
these professions may be taught quite
as accurately as theology, medicine
or law.