Chapter 2: A Profession Survives: 1913 to 1921
The Certified General Accountants' Association had a federal charter, the power to qualify and regulate its members, and the will and scope to pursue its ambitions on a national scale. Montreal nevertheless remained the principal seat of action for many years. The Association had to work hard to survive and gain recognition in a business and public world where accounting organizations competed and conflicted with one another for clients and status. The CAs had pride of precedence as Canada's professional accountants and a near stranglehold on public auditing. But the CGAs were determined to yield nothing to their rivals.
The directors discovered immediately that problems, as well as privileges and opportunities, flowed from their formal status. All their initiatives and decisions now had to be measured against the terms of their charter. The CGAs ventured into matters of constitutional interpretation as new circumstances arose and honest men differed over what course of action the Association should pursue. When the Association had been informal, the executive had made things up as they went along.
Survival also meant taking the charter goals of education, examination, and certification of would-be CGAs seriously. Selective recruiting meant turning away, as well as admitting, prospective students on the basis of qualifications and performance. Professions are by definition exclusive as well as meritocratic. The Association automatically had two classes of members —students, and designated CGAs. But the charter said nothing about how those who had passed examinations would be distinguished from those who had not.
The Board addressed the certification issue forthwith. In August 1913 the Board considered an examination plan suggested by the Principal of Shaw Business College in Toronto. In October, as the worst economic depression since the 1890s settled upon Canada, the members adopted by-laws that ratified the two obvious categories of members, 'certified' and 'non-certified.' Applicants for membership had to pass oral and written pre-admission tests on theoretical and practical bookkeeping, arithmetic, and bills of exchange.
Ambitious Venetians petitioning the Collegio dei Rexonati in the 1500s had confronted similar requirements and procedures. Gaining professional status has, in terms of the process at least, a timeless quality. In November 1913, the first Board of Examiners convened in Montreal to establish a list of texts and subjects for both pre-admission and intermediate levels of testing. The final examination covered commercial arithmetic, advanced bookkeeping, commercial and statute law, the Companies and Banking and Bills of Exchange acts, cost accounting, theory, auditing, and office routine.
The Examiners set high standards. G.W. Parkin was the first candidate to pass both the pre-admission and intermediate examinations. In May and June of 1914 eight more candidates sat for the finals under the new procedures. Because the Association virtually suspended operations between June and September of each year, these men had to wait until mid-October before the president of the Examination Committee announced that only three of the eight had passed. D. Smith, J.H. Bryce, and H.T. Clegg joined Parkin and became the first professional members of the Association entitled to display CGA after their names.
At this point, the Association had a centralized directing body, established testing procedures, its first designated members, and an education program of sorts, although it relied on others to educate applicants for membership. It had also established a link with Toronto area accountants through the Shaw Business College.
Once again, the Association changed its venue, moving to the Medico-Chirurgical Association hall back at 112 Mansfield Street, not far from McGill University.
The advent of World War I in August of 1914 had a severe impact on Canada. The flood of war orders abruptly halted the depression that had spread so much misery since the previous fall. Inflation mocked the promises of prosperity, however, and labour shortages appeared instantly as men streamed through recruiting centres. Ottawa spent hundreds of millions of dollars spreading its tentacles into the Canadian economy in an effort to control the war effort. Federal agencies multiplied. Monitoring the flow of wartime finance, production, and services provided new opportunities for accountants.
Continued...
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