Letter to the Editor
The Book Review Section of the Accounting Historians Journal, Vol. 13, No. 1, Spring 1986, pages 109-112, contains a review by O. Finley Graves of the University of Mississippi on Robert R. Locke, The End of the Practical Man: Entrepeneurship and Higher Education Germany, France, and Great Britain, 1880-1940 [Greenwich, Conn: JAI Press].
My interest with regard to this review centers on the last sentence of the first paragraph on page 110 that says: “and little is known of German thought on this side of the Atlantic.” The footnote states that the American accounting academician may have read Schmalenbach’s “Dynamic Accounting,” translated by Murphy and Most (1959). Of significance is the phrase “may have read.” The 1959 translation was based on Schmalenbach’s “Dynamische Bilanz” whose first edition appeared in 1919. Murphy and Most’s translation, published by Gee and Company, London, was reviewed by Eric L. Kohler in the “Journal of Accountancy,” April, 1961, pp. 95-96. On the basis of this review I wrote to the Gee Company for a copy of the book.
The Gee Company mailed me the following answer dated August 31, 1961. I quote from the letter which is still in my possession:
“We thank you for your letter of the 24th instant requesting us to forward you a copy of Schmalenbach’s “Dynamic Accounting” but regret to state that due to a certain clause in our contract with the German publishers, unfortunately we are unable to forward this publication to your country, and trust you will understand the position. This book can only be sold to customers within the British Commonwealth.”
Fortunately, a business friend of mine visited London a few weeks later and purchased a copy. The original German text had been in my library for some time.
The same footnote also states that not until 1980 was Arno Press’s reprint edition of the 1959 edition available in the United States.
The above remarks should indicate why Schmalenbach’s philosophy, teaching, and writings, never could penetrate the American accounting profession. To ascertain the amount of lecturing on Schmalenbach’s theory at American universities, I learned that in one Graduate Seminar the professor devoted about 30 minutes to that topic for which no reading assignments were made.
I believe that these notations regarding a possible know-ledge of Schmalenbach’s “Dynamic Accounting” might be of interest to accounting historians.
Very truly yours,
Adolph Matz, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Accounting
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Blue Bell, Pa 19422
June 25, 1986
A short while after this correspondence was received we learned of Professor Matz’s death. We are pleased that he remained actively interested in matters in our discipline throughout his career and that he informed us of an insight which might otherwise have been lost.
