This article deals with development of basic management structures of large American corporations. In general, the problem has been one of growing operational complexity; the solution commonly adopted has been operational decentralization. This solution, however, has raised difficult questions of control, and various administrative answers have been evolved. These have fallen into recognizable patterns, for an examination of case histories graphically illustrates the close connection between the nature of a company's business and its administrative structure. Those firms whose activities cross established industry lines have tended toward product decentralization. Companies producing a relatively restricted line have decentralized on a functional or a geographic basis. Market-oriented firms have tended to decentralize on a geographic basis. Among the fifty companies studied, however, other variations are discernible. Historical analysis of the decentralization trend also suggests the importance of management personalities in governing the timing of structural changes and indicates clearly the reasons why some companies have yet to find decentralization a meaningful answer for their prevailing administrative problems.

The Best Friend of Charleston was a famous locomotive engine, but the real best friend of Charleston was the engine's owner, the South Carolina Railroad. Together the city and the railroad faced and endured the rigors of Reconstruction; both held fast to an ante-bellum dream of regional dominance. The railroad made bold moves to acquire the trunk lines and feeder systems that would make Charleston a Gateway to the West. But frustrating forces were at work. Developing traffic patterns did not favor Charleston, and profligate multiplication of competing lines cut into existing business. Rate agreements and pooling arrangements gave the company only mild relief at best. By 1878 Charleston had resigned itself to its role as a local trading center, and the SCRR was in bankruptcy, the victim of circumstances too powerful for even the most competent of managements to combat.

The widespread advent of money-back guarantees and one-price policies were symptomatic of a major transition in merchandising history. As trade grew and retail stores multiplied, standardization of terms and practices became apparent. Before 1864 Champaign-Urbana merchants had made little progress in developing a policy of standard prices. The postwar years brought increasing competition at the retail level, and the use of the money-back guarantee spread. When this practice became widespread, a one-price-to-all policy became essential. Some old-time merchants continued to haggle with customers, and barter trade in country produce created complications, but by the early 1870's the integration of one-price policies and money-back guarantees had been generally accomplished and the way paved for the advent of mass distribution.

Business historians have become increasingly aware of the pertinence to their endeavors of developments in the field of public accountancy. The present article is a pithy summary of the rise of the profession in the United States. British precedent and personnel were influential in the formation of early American accounting firms and associations. The movement for state regulation developed early, as did efforts directed at institutionalizing on a sound basis the education of young men seeking a career in the field. Public recognition of the profession came in the wake of the income tax laws of 1909 and 1913, the important effects of which are set forth. Early associations of accountants gave way to new organizations with a broader professional base, while a series of important legal actions have continued down to the present time to alter the nature of the accountants' services and responsibilities.