ABSTRACT
The first legal recognition of the certified public accounting profession was gained during the period 1896-1913. These were years of great expansion of accounting education, and of the founding and growth of organizations that advanced the standing of the profession. After the failure to get the legislature of the state of New York to pass public accounting legislation in 1895, the American Association and the Institute of Bookkeepers and Accountants united behind the Institute’s bill, from which the restrictive provision which would have permitted only certified public accountants to practice accounting had been deleted. With over twenty-two hundred certified public accountants in the United States by 1913, it would seem safe to assume that there were several hundred public accounting firms. In most of the corporations, public accounting firms were employed to make examinations and reports on the financial condition and earnings of these corporations before their securities were offered for public subscription.
