ABSTRACT
The first legal recognition of the certified public accounting profession took place during the period 1896-1913, along with many other features which aided the evolutionary development of the profession. This chapter deals with some of the early firms, still in existence, which have since acquired national reputations. Many of the prominent practicing public accountants in these years felt that the profession of accountancy needed federal recognition and regulation. They based their argument largely on the fact that accountancy was to a very large extent interstate. The legal recognition of the accounting profession in New York led to the incorporation of a National Society of Certified Public Accountants in the United States in 1897. The Federation arranged the first International Congress of Professional Accountants in connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, or World’s Fair, held at St. Louis, Missouri, in September, 1904.
