Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

OF

ACCOUNTS ·

BY

PAUL-JOSEPH ESQUERRÉ, C.P.A.

(SECOND PRINTING)

NEW YORK

THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY

1915

Copyright, 1914,

BY

THE RONALD PRESS COMPANY

AIROHLIAD

William G. Hewitt Press, Brooklyn, Printers

J. F. Tapley Co., New York, Binders

PREFACE

Just before the dawn of the French Revolution, there was, at the Military College of Brienne, a young student whom his classmates called the "Visionary." Never mixing in their noisy pastimes, he would spend hour after hour in his room, drilling tin soldiers on a large table. Dirt, sand, and pieces of glass became hills, fields, and rivers; twigs picked up in the playground were his cannon, while leaves, planted straight in the sand, were to him as forests. His tin soldiers were ed or blue; some were mounted, and others, on foot. Night after night, while his comrades slept, the "Visionary" would pitch the blue soldiers against the red; the cannon would roar, and infantry and cavalry, pushed by his thin fingers, would fall dead on the battle-field.

A few years later, when the English fleet blockaded the port of Toulon, and threatened the existence of the Revolutionary Government, the visionary youth, now an officer in the army of France, pitched his "theoretical" knowledge against the "practical" knowledge of men who had grown gray under the soldier's uniform, and to their astonishment, and to the dismay of the invader, he discovered the one strategic point which rendered a battery of artillery so effective as to compel the immediate retirement of the enemy's fleet.

The young officer of artillery knew nothing of warfare but its theory; yet he succeeded where practical strategists had stood in impotent rage. Later, when he became Emperor of the French, it was said of him that his

304770

unequalled knowledge of the theory of artillery operations won his battles before they were fought.

It is the purpose of this book to instruct the student in the principles of accounting, as the practice drills with his tin soldiers instructed Napoleon the First in the principles of war. May the conscientious presentation of these principles of accounts teach the young accountant how to win the bloodless battles of his chosen profession.

Accounting is essentially a militant science; if it remains passive, it must die. To live, it must war incessantly against carelessness, ignorance, inefficiency, evildisposed cleverness, and, possibly, against dishonesty. Having won, it must rebuild where it has destroyed; but the new structure must be such that it can never again be successfully assailed.

The accountant is a judge to whom appeals are made by the employer against the employee; by the "cestui que trust" against the trustee; by the stockholder against the director; by the director against his associates or against the corporate officers or agents; by the government against violators of fiscal laws; by the trader, the manufacturer, and the financier, against the conclusions to be drawn from their own accounts.

He is also an adviser who must derive from the arithmetical results of books of account, often purposely confused, facts which will enable him to pass judgment upon financial conditions, to guide the judgment of others, to suggest remedies, and to devise means of safeguarding the interests of all parties, whether clients or antagonists. He must be capable of refuting conclusively all assertions which are mere speculation based on supposed or assumed facts which cannot stand the test of accounting analysis; he must be able to defend his ground by submitting proofs so fundamentally correct and so conclusive that they cannot be challenged; he must be so

familiar with the anatomy of accounts that the mere mention of a financial transaction will present to his mind a diagram of the position which the facts to be recorded will occupy in the books, and of the effect which they will have upon facts previously recorded; he must be able to perceive at once the accounting principle involved, and so to apply it as to compel figures to reveal that which they are prone to conceal from the uninitiated.

If it is true that no one can be a great detective who does not know the psychology of the human heart, and that a recruit cannot become an efficient gunner until he has been taught the theory of ballistic curves, it must be true that no one can become an accountant until he has learned the theory of accounts. If one is not so equipped, he may indeed make his way towards practical accounting truth by luck, by intuition, or by plucky determination, but, before he has reached this goal, he has consumed his energy, exhausted the patience of his clients, and too often failed to furnish valuable information at the opportune moment.

The theory of accounts has been evolved from the study of economic and financial conditions, from the development of commercial methods, from careful analysis of the results attained in industries old and new, from the application of the principles expressed by judicial decisions in litigation brought about through business relations, from the doctrines of the law merchant, of the common law, and of modern statutes. It is the outgrowth of centuries; and while its principles are immutable, they are, at the same time, susceptible of different methods of application, which though apparently irreconcilable among themselves, are worthy of consideration on their individual merits.

When about to pass judgment upon the actions of individuals or of nations, we are careful to inquire into

« AnteriorContinuar »