R E V I E W S A N D N O T E S O N B O O K S
solution of this problem b,y the abolition of propert instincts in land, so that collective farming will be attainable by non-violcnt methods. This enabres him to assume, without further discussion.
that Bhoodan will increase the productivity of the soil, and to ignore all reasons for expecting the contrary.
ssible to persuade landholders t o give generously: the figures in Table X of the gifts receiveEn the first four years of Bhoodan (1951-5) add up to over 14 million ncres, although the total rinted at the foot shows less than 4 millions. Non-violent persuasion is likely to prove less effective as a m a n s of inducing the peasants to surrender their lands to collectivc farms, and Dr. Misra himself seems to envisage coercion if persuasion proves too slow. According to him, collective farming “is a historical necessity from which there is no cscape. Individual farming would come to a n end the moment there arose a food crisis like the Bengal Famine of 1943. In 1943 an alien Government could treat it lightly. In future the masses would not tolerate its repetition and sheer necessity would force the Government to introduce cospentive or collective farming”. This has a truly ominous ring.
The example of Russia should h a w taught lndinn intellectuals that forcible collectivization is likely, at any rate in the short run. to create famines rather than to alleviate thcm. Dr. Misra believes that Russian collective farming has been an unqualified success, without which the Revolution would ultimately have failed, and that the regrettable violence of Russian methods in no way detracts from the lessons which non-violent India ought to learn from their success.
Vinoba has a truer morality, and a truer love and understanding of the peasants. H e has no wish to persuade, trick or coerce them into collective farming. In this. his conce t of Bhooclan appears more realistic than that of Dr. Misra. The spoliation of the kulaks was t f e inducement by which the Russian Communists persuaded some of the poorer peasants to support collective farming. Dhoodan seems likely to deprive the advocates of collective fnrming of such allies amongst the pcnsantry, a t least until population pressure creates a new rural proletariat by the excessive fragmentation of holdings.
Vinoba aims at individual farming aided by co-operation. The land belongs only to God, but its use should belong to him who cultivates it with his own labour. The cultivator, however, should hold the land and partake of its fruits only as trustee on behalf of the society in which he lives, embodied especially in the village community. Under the laws which certain Indian States have passed to encourage Bhoodan, the recipients of the redistributed land arc to forfeit it if they neglect it, and are not permitted to alienate it. These ideas nre in accord with Indian tradition, to which the concept of absolute private property in land has always been alien. Vinoba’s present . target is to get the 50 million acres which he needs for the landless, but the logical culmination
of the movement would be that all land should become Bhoodan land and that no-one should .
have more than he can cultivate with his family, with no hired labour except in emergency.
Thus a classless agrarian society would be achieved without violence, by a chan e of heart.
Dr. Misra iiccepls this ideal, and speculates about Bhoodan economics, that is, about tte new tools which economists will need to analyze an economy no longer dominated by the price mechanism and in which money is n o longer the measuring rod.
We are told, on. the authorit of Ohandiji, that Vinoba is an accurate rtudent of history.
It is impossible to say so much &r Professor Misra. He makes the surprising statement that legislative interference on behalf of the peasantry “commenced with the Tenancy Acts passed in various Provinces when the Congress Government had come to office in 1939”. and the meaningless one that “rural India at the close of British rule was essentially mediaeval in its outlook”.
University of the Witwatersrand.
Johannesburg.
In the circumstances of present-day India it has been
H. R. C. WmaW.
Handbook of hfodern Accoiintlng Theory. Edited by MORTON BACKER. (New York: Prenticc- THIS SYMPOSIUM OF Modern Accounting Theory contains but little on the Theory of Modem Accounting as found in the spate of publications covering principles of accounting practice;
that in itself is a recommendation. Practising accountants and accounting students are well served by writers, mostly repetitive, on the theory and practice of cost accounting, on holding companies, and similar problems of today. But the problems of tomorrow are mostly avoided in such textbooks, the reason being no doubt, that tidy solutions have not as yet bcen evolved which would cnablc the accountant to apply formulae and automatically “balance things up”.
There is a growing urgency to seek solutions, however, for tomorrow is practically on our door- step, and the effectiveness of measures to deal with fast-changing situations will depend on the validity of preparatory basic theory.
The main value of the Handbook olModern Accountin Theor is the frankness with which problems are presentcd, nlthough one needs to restrain fecfings o(frustration that so often the argument ends with no apparent conclusion in prospect; but this is surely the challenge that is
61 Hall Inc., 1955. Pp. 601.)
T H E S O U T H A F R I C A N J O U R N A L O F E C O N O M I C S
presented by the contributors to those engaged in economics and accounting research, in educa- tion, and in practice.
In his preface, the editor states “many of the problems confronted by accountants are exceedingly complex and reflect the dynamic conditions of contemporary society. Moreover, the alternate solutions available are often delicately balanced. Only through a thorough under- standing of the nature and ramifications of the problems and ,their potential remedies can these difficulties be satisfactorily overcome. The purpose of this book is to familiarize its readers with the major areas in controversy in accounting”.
To aid himself in the task imposed the editor hascalled upon twenty-one selected contributors*
all writers of distinction, whose relatively short chapters cover the period 1776-1956 by a n expo- sition of fundamental principles. As one writer comments “one way to bring forth a novelty is
to find something so old that it has been universally forkotten or ignored“; the moral being that many of the problems, apparently insoluble today, will in the long run prove to have been no more so than those which confronted commerce and itidustry when Adam Smith published The Weofth of Nottons and James Watt invented the stcam engine--1776. But-how to relate cause and erect, how to apply precept in practice, how to ensure that the wider field is covered in all its complexities. that the simple rule is not ruined by the, aa yet, unknown impact of contingencies only partly envisaged-there’s the rub!
The writers d o not hesitate to expose the weaknesses of accountants as economists, and of economists as accountants, and they plead wry effectively for a closcr liaison. Cost and Value concepts, Fluctuating Price Levels in relation t o accounts, Determination and Measurement of Business Income, Assct Cost and Expiration, Valuations of Inventories, Standards of Reporting, Equities-all these and more arc presented for di estion, and.indiFtion. They throw down the gauntlet to the Accounting Societies to maintain tleir responsrbilities of leadership, and i n d i r d y to the South African Universities to get b a d to cducation-an interesting chapter this one, on the Education and Training of Accountants; particularly pertinent t o the South African scene where the wider study of essential theory has been practically relegated to post graduate work, in favour of a mad scramble to cram Accountancr candidates with techniques of examination passing: surely a more sell-defeating inversion, building a pyramid o n its apex, could hardly be imagined. In a quiet but incontrovertible manner the author makes his points, “it is impossible for the student to go into minute details in accounting and 8till receive a liberal background.
. . . The ‘breadth of viewpoint‘ ctimulata the embryonic accountant to challenge existing Con-
cepts. . . .
The ‘practical course’ dncribcs minutely the contours of a rut someone is in”.
This is a book to be read slowly, seriously, by accountants, economists, and leaders in the field of business. Those who feel that something should be done, but d o not know uite where to start, will find a wide selection of starting points, pithy presentation of the pro%lcmr, and sufficient wealth of bibliography to engage the attention of nsearch workers for a long time;
an adequate review would take up a whole issue of this Journal.
University of Cope Town. H. G n e m w m .
An Introduction to BrNish Economic Statistics. By E. DEVONS. (London: Cambridge University THIS IS A lucid book adorned with pithy and penetrating comments. Though it makes no attempt to be comprehensive. it deals with the wide field of population, manpower, industrial production.
agriculture, distribution and transport, foreign trade, p r i w , incomes and national income and expenditure.
The author stresses that “no amount of reading other people’s comments on economic statistics will give the student the insight Into problems of using them that he will get from actually making contact with the primary material himself. If students use this book as a way of escaping from their need to become familiar with the original statistical sour~ea, It will have failed in its purpose. For it is meant to guide the student in using theK original sources, rather than merely to enable him to acquire a superficial acquaintance with them second hand.”
Press, 1956. Pp. vii+255. 22s. 6d.)
University of the Witwotersrond. JOHN E. KERRICH.
Stotbtics. By L. H. C. TIPPET. (London and Cape Town: Oxford University Prcss, 1956.
Ttw IS AN enlarged edition of a useful little book that has stood the test of time. The author has a very shrewd and commonsense style, based on years of experience in his field.
Pp. vi+224. 7s. 6d.)
University of the Iyilwatersrond.
62
JOHN E. KERRICH.
