THE GOVERNMENT: Accounting Theory

For more than a month Wall Street and Washington have heard that roly-poly Howard Hopson, kingpin of $1,038,000,000 Associated Gas & Electric Co., was so ill he was under an oxygen tent. Since Mr. Hopson has often been “ill” when the Government wanted him for hearings and investigations of his fabulous operations, many a cynic wondered whether the utility magnate’s latest indisposition was a portent of further trouble for A. G. & E.

Last week trouble arrived in the form of an SEC order for a hearing February 14 to determine whether A. G. & E.’s common stock should be delisted from the New York Curb and other stock exchanges. SEC said it believed the company’s registration statement to be “false and misleading” in certain particulars which had the effect of substantially overstating assets, etc. A. G. & E. promptly retorted: “It appears that the matters covered by the order relate largely to accounting theory. . . .”