HISTORICAL POTPOURRI

—”The earliest relationship that ever existed, was the relationship between buyer and seller, creditor and debtor. On this ground man first stood face to face with man. No stage of civilization, however inferior, is without the institution of bartering. To fix prices, to adjust values, to invest equivalents, to exchange things —all this has to such an extent preoccupied the first and earliest thought of man, that it may be said to constitute thinking itself.” Business Power, (J. F. Tapley Co., 1910) quoting Friedrich Nietzche.

—”Not to know what happened before one was born, is always to be a child.” Cicero, 80 B.C. as quoted in The Wall Street Journal, “Letters,” October 11, 1973.

—”Vocabulary is an index to Civilization. . . .” Parade Magazine, quoting C. L. Barnhart, etymologist, October 21, 1973.

—”After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all.” Yale University Press Catalogue, Fall, 1973, quoting A. S. W. Rosenbach.

—”Science is attained by study, art by practice; and without a com¬bination of both, the student’s attainments must be superficial. Many expedients have been devised whereby the toil of study might be saved. But let no one be reduced to idleness by spe¬cious promises. Excellence can only be attained by labour.” Double Entry Elucidated, London, 1849, quoting the author B. F. Foster, Found in “History Tells. . . .” The Australian Accountant, September, 1973.
(Vol, 1, No. 1, p. 3, 1974)

-“By act of Parliament in one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, the first day in January was appointed to be the beginning of the year for all purposes. Priestley.” Oxford University Press Calendar Sale Catalogue, 1973-74, p. 1.

“[W]hoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times.” The Future as History, R. L. Heilbroner, p. 21.

-“The doomsayers work by extrapolation; they take a trend and extend it, forgetting that the doom factor sooner or later gen-erates a coping mechanism. I have a rule for this situation too, which is absolute: you cannot extrapolate any series in which the human element intrudes; history, that is, the human narrative, never follows, and will always fool, the scientific curve. “History as Mirror,” B. Tuchman, The Atlantic, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal, January 2, 1974, p. 6.

-“History? The British never remember it. The Irish never forget it. The Russians never make it. And the Americans never learn from it.” Fulton J. Sheen.

-A “common human failing is the tendency to put on dark glasses when it comes to the lessons that history might teach us,” “The Gullible Society,” William A. Paton, The Freeman, January, 1974, p. 6.
(Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 6, 1974)

-“Although Double-entry bookkeeping was being practiced in the city states of Italy during the 15th century and during the follow-ing century gradually spread throughout the lands of Western Europe, it was not until the reign of Peter I (1689-1725) that the concept of double entry percolated into Russia.” D. T. Bailey, “Accounting in the Soviet Union,” The Certified Accountant, (England), March, 1974, p. 99.

-“History records change, but it does not necessarily record con-stant progress. The two ideas change and progress are not to be equated. To know that, and to appreciate it, is to help one to understand and live with the present. That is why a sense of his-tory is the sign of an educated man.” John Cardinal Carberry, “A Sense of History,” The Wanderer, June 6, 1974, p. 4.

-“. . . [A]ccountants can no longer afford to be so engrained with past concepts that they lose sight of current and future needs.” Arthur Litke, “Aged Accounting Concepts Underlying Financial Statements,’’ The Federal Accountant, March, 1972, pp. 34-41.

-“Some modern Zealots appear to have no better knowledge of truth, nor better manner of judging it than by counting noses.” Jonathan Swift in “Why History Repeats Itself,” (A Comment), The Freeman, June, 1974, p. 326.

-“A Little Anthology of Words and Pictures About Insurance from Antiquity to the Present Day,” J. Broderick and A. Newgarden, The Arthur Young Journal, Winter, 1974.

-“Postwar Optimism and the Rural Financial Crises of the 1920s,” H. Thomas Johnson, Explorations in Economic History, Winter 1973/74.

-“The brouhaha over full disclosure is of relatively recent vintage, as, indeed is the subject of annual reports. No one knows for sure just when or by whom the first was issued. But one source ac¬cords the honor to a chap named Anticles, who served as a sec¬retary to the Board of overseers in charge of building the Parthe¬non in 434-433 B.C. Fragments of his accounts, engraved in stone, have been found on the Acropolis.” Eric Aiken, “Full Dis¬closure,” Barron’s, April 15, 1974, p. 12.
(Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 3, 1974)

-“The history of the numerous attempts to set standards, here and elsewhere, tells us that the Achilles’ heel of the FASB is its reli¬ance on voluntary cooperation. It tells us that reliance on volun¬tary, willing ‘adherence’ to the standards of an agency without explicit power of enforcement is illusory. Management will co¬operate when it has no other choice, or when it suits its own goals and objectives, but not otherwise.” Maurice Moonitz, “Ob¬taining Agreement on Standards in the Accounting Profession,” Studies in Accounting Research #8, American Accounting Asso¬ciation, 1974, p. 87.

-“A page of history is worth a volume of logic.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, as cited in Watergate Hearings, July 30, 1974.

-“The fundamental precepts of sound management and account-ability, applied of necessity to business, are not being applied in the social and environmental sectors. . . . Archaic tradition domi-nates our budgetary and appropriations processes, with little, if any, attention paid to whether the job is being done.” David F. Linowes, The Wall Street Journal, July 23, 1974, p. 16.

– ” I believe that it would be difficult to set bounds to the possibili-ties of American development. The inventive genius of the peo-ple, their adaptability to all circumstances, their tenacity of pur-pose, their wonderful energy, and the fabulous resources of the country all make it certain that the United States will reach a degree of power and prosperity hitherto unexampled in human history.” Henry Clews, Twenty-Eight Years in Wall Street, New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1887, p. 716.

-“The history of accounting should be given the same importance now given to the history of economics.” W. E. Stone, “Education and Professional Training,” Journal of Accountancy, March, 1971, p. 88.

-“The illusion that times that were are better than those that are, has probably pervaded all ages.” Horace Greeley as quoted in The Times-Picayune, New Orleans, August 21, 1974, p. 10.

-“History is a vast early-warning system.” Norman Cousins, Read¬er’s Digest, September, 1974, p. 24B.

—”Americans reflect a notable lack of historical-mindedness, and this myopic concentration on the here-and-now can be trouble-some. Not bothering to look up the facts, we often find ourselves making current decisions based on what ‘everyone knows’ to have been demonstrated by some previous episode. In some cases what ‘everybody knew’ turned out to be surprisingly un-related to the historical facts. This historical myopia may simply be unfair. According to a recent article . . . , for example, four decades after he left office and a decade after his death Herbert Hoover, we are now perceiving, looks a good deal better than what ‘everybody knew.’ When misperceptions assume the force of historical facts through sheer repetition, however, public policy can also become a casualty.” Paul W. McCracken, “Let’s Read the Minutes,” The Wall Street Journal, August 29, 1974, p. 8.

—”Not withstanding the dangers of naivete or presumptuousness, I think the developments of the 60’s might be summarized in a few succinct statements. First, there was the maturing of the Account¬ing Principles Board, conceived in the late 50’s, into a significant, constructive and controversial force. Second, there was the ex¬plosion of litigation against accountants, particularly in cases of national significance involving members of the ‘Big Eight.’ This development coincided with the increase in securities litigation in general resulting from the imaginative application by federal courts of Rule 10b-5, an achievement abetted in no small part by the resourcefulness of private practitioners. Third, there was the increasing restlessness of the Securities and Exchange Commis¬sion, which for many years, despite clear statutory authority to intervene in the accounting area, had followed a policy of self-restraint. Fourth, there was the development of the cults of dis¬closure, earnings per share, and growth through acquisition, all of which directly impinged upon, and called into question, his¬torically sanctified accounting principles.” A. A. Sommer, Jr., “Survey of Accounting Developments in the 60’s; What’s Ahead in the 70’s,” The Business Lawyer, November, 1970, p. 207.

—”Many of the foreign writers are unaware of the numerous ac-counting texts of the 14th and 15th centuries already pubfished in Italy during the time period of their respective investigations while too many base their authority on the unreliable Paciolo.” The Origins of Double Entry (Business Administration and Market Conditions in the 74th and 15th Centuries), Thomas Zerbi, Milan, 1952, pp. 5-6.
(Vol. 1, No. 4, p