HANSON, ARTHUR WARREN. Auditing: Theory and Its Application. Pp. xii, 488. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1942. $4.00

Published date01 November 1942
Date01 November 1942
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/000271624222400171
Subject MatterArticles
228
This
is
a
revision
of
a
work
that
ap-
peared
in
1937.
It
consists
of
a
description
of the
organization
and
administration
of
our
schools,
an
account
of
their
historical
development,
an
analysis
of
former
and
prevailing
philosophies
and
psychologies,
a
discussion
of
some
educational
problems
and
encouraging
trends,
and
a
chapter
de-
signed
to
help
the
reader
to
decide
as
to
whether
he
should
become
a
teacher.
A
book
which
undertakes
to
give
a
bird’s-eye
view
of
an
extensive
and
complicated
field
must
necessarily
appear
thin
and
super-
ficial
to
a
careful
student,
but
its
purpose
is
to
serve
the
novice
and
not
the
scholar.
The
critical
reader
will
wonder
why
the
authors
chose
the
main
title.
The
subtitle
is
accurate,
whereas
the
main
one
might
be
interpreted
as
slogan-sounding
in
view
of
the
fact
that
the
book
is
concerned
only
incidentally
with
democracy.
The
cloudy
and
stilted
pictures
add
little
to
the
appeal
of
the
book.
If
the
purpose
of
the
authors
was
to
induce
capable
young
people
to
be-
come
teachers,
they
will
probably
produce
a
negative
result,
for
the
hodgepodge
mix-
ture
of
materials
is
likely
to
lead
the
care-
ful
reader
to
avoid
a
profession
that
seems
to
be
so
chaotic.
The
second
last
chapter,
devoted
to
promising
educational
activities,
illustrates
the
uncritical
attitude
of
the
authors.
They
seem
disposed
to
bless
and
commend
whatever
is
new.
For
example
(p.
351),
they
join
that
big
throng
of
edu-
cators
who
denounce
the
evils
of
subjects,
refer
to
them
as
&dquo;watertight,&dquo;
and
demand
that
such
boundaries
be
removed.
For-
tunately
this
book
will
be
read
only
by
those
who
have
already
decided
to
become
teachers,
and
so
it
probably
will
not
dis-
courage
them
unduly.
It
may
be,
however,
that
this
book
is
an
accurate
index
of
American
education,
re-
flecting
its
noble
purposes,
its
diverse
urges,
its
inconsistencies,
its
inability
to
unify
divergent
elements,
and
its
attempts
to
make
progress
in
spite
of
the
lack
of
a
compass.
If
such
be
the
case,
the
authors
deserve
hearty
words
of
praise
for
pre-
senting
a
frank
picture
of
a
rather
un-
appealing
profession.
EDGAR
B.
WESLEY
University
of
Minnesota
HANSON,
ARTHUR
WARREN.
Auditing:
Theory
and
Its
Application.
Pp.
xii,
488.
New
York:
McGraw-Hill
Book
Co.,
1942.
$4.00.
This
is
a
textbook
which
fits
well
into
the
present-day
discussions
to
distinguish
between
auditing
standards
and
auditing
procedures.
Approximately
one-fourth
of
the
volume
is
devoted
to
auditing
theory,
and
the
rest
to
its
application
through
the
case
system.
The
theory
section
of
the
book
is
presented,
or
so
it
seems
to
this
reviewer,
for
those
who
are
very
well
grounded
in
accounting
theory
and
prac-
tice-as
indeed
all
auditors
should
be-but
unhappily
teachers
of
auditing
do
not
find
their
students
so
well
qualified.
The
second
section
of
the
book,
pp.
135-
370,
is
devoted
to
selected
cases,
the
con-
sideration
of
which
will
develop
the
proce-
dures
underlying
the
standards
of
auditing
previously
discussed
in
the
book.
The
case
material
is
excellent
and
provocative
of
discussion,
but
here
again
it
would
seem
as
though
intended
for
the
postgraduate
ac-
counting
student
or
the
experienced
prac-
titioner.
For,~example,
a
problem
such
as
case
4
(pp.
147-148),
in
which
five
inter-
nationally
known
firms
of
public
account-
ants
were
engaged,
seems
a
bit
too
deep
to
inflict
upon
an
auditing
neophyte.
In
passing,
it is
noted
that
the
Interstate
Hosiery
Mills,
Inc.,
The
State
Street
Trust
Company,
and
the
McKesson
&
Robbins,
Inc.
cases-in
all
of
which
public
account-
ants
were
seriously
involved-are
not
in-
cluded
among
those
selected
for
study,
although
the
last-named
case,
in
particu-
lar,
is
very
important
in
view
of
its
in-
vestigation
by
and
the
consequent
recom-
mendations
of
the
Securities
Exchange
Commission
and
the
American
Institute
of
Accountants.
That
the
author
was
aware
of
the
McKesson
&
Robbins,
Inc.
case
is
evident
from
references
on
pages
130
and
275,
the
latter
directing
attention
to
the
April
1939
issue
of
the
Journal
of
f
Accountancy,
in
which
and
later
issues
of
that
publication
the
case
was
reported
at
considerable
length.
The
third
section
of
the
book,
pp.
371-
484,
contains
an
excellent
presentation
of
audit
work
papers,
prepared
in
complete
and
informative
detail,
and
includes
the
at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on December 4, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT