varied—perhaps quite unconsciously—from one year to another. But at least he will be able to make intelligent guesses as to growth or decline, he can mark the amount (or the book value, which is not the same thing) of stock-intrade and draw doubtful inferences concerning the speed or sluggishness of sales of the company's products, and he may try to trace the financial strength of the company's position by noting the extent to which it is pledging its credit as compared with the amount that it is owed by other parties. Even here, however, it is dangerous to be too dogmatic. Critics of balance-sheets often pat companies on the back because the creditor item among the liabilities is less than the sundry debtors among the assets; and there is certainly a satisfaction in seeing that a company in which one is interested owes less than it is owed; but a big overdraft at a bank is the best guarantee of solvency that a company can have, and a large sum due from debtors may be only an indication that business is being pushed not by selling a good article cheap but by giving credit to purchasers, too many of whom will some day have to be provided for as bad and doubtful debtors.
Having wallowed so long among the quicksands which surround any attempt to test from a company's accounts the real extent of its
