ReportingonCompanyFinancialMattersbeforeGAAPTHEWALL.docVIP

REPORTING ON COMPANY FINANCIAL INFORMATION BEFORE GAAP: IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL FOR THE YEAR 1900 by Mary Ellen Oliverio, Ph.D. and Bernard H. Newman, Ph.D. Mary Ellen Oliverio is Adjunct Professor of Accounting at the Lubin School of Business of Pace University. Bernard H. Newman is Professor of Accounting at the Lubin School of Business of Pace University.ABSTRACT Although there were no nationally accepted accounting standards, financial reporting had begun approximately three decades prior to 1900. Barron is credited with “defining the need for financial journalism” in the 1870s (Wendt 1982, 103). The Wall Street Journal (hereafter referred to as The Journal) had begun publication on July 8, 1889, and soon became a national business newspaper that had gained credibility as a source for sound financial information. By the beginning of the new century, the extent and quality of financial reporting reflected the experience of approximately three decades in a number of publishing efforts and also reflected the need for such information. The question that motivated this exploratory review of reporting of financial information was: “What was the nature and extent of financial information reporting in The Journal before there was an organized, clearly specified body of accounting principles – before GAAP?” From a reading of The Journal for its first two decade, there was discovered a series entitled Studies of Value, which began publication on January 4, 1900. These columns seemed worthy of review as a source for understanding how The Journal’s reporters coped with their task without the availability of established, authoritative accounting guidance. This was an initial exploratory historical survey that provides merely a tentative first review of the nature of the accounting information presented in the series of articles used. While there is complete silence as to the motivation for the series, there is a hint at