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 the Board and the traditions under which they conduct what may be called the balance-sheet side of the business is not only of the highest importance, but is also a matter on which the ordinary investor is likely to have even less information than upon the conditions and prospects of any enterprise in which he is interested.

Having thus bewildered and puzzled ourselves by trying to discover what a balance-sheet is meant to convey and finding that on its credit it consists chiefly of figures that may be too low or may be too high, but are almost certain to be an inadequate guide to the value of the business, let us go back to the Bass balance-sheet and see what sort of reply the Board would make to the observations of the ultra-critical critic which were set forth above.

They would probably admit

(1) That the figures set against most of the assets can only be arrived at by taking their cost price and writing off from it whatever sums the Board thinks right to deduct for depreciation and that consequently these figures are a matter of the Board's opinion. Nevertheless they would say