BANKING STANDARDS
Series and years: Gross earnings, 1924-192 5; total expense, 1922-
1925; net earnings, 1924-1925;
3. For the Second (New York) District:
Banks: a sample of 280 member banks, individually
Series and years: Total expense, 1923-1923.
The various series of data were taken from the reports of the
Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency, and
from the files of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and of New
York, the latter sources being made available through the cour-
tesy of the officers of these institutions. It will be noticed that the
data for the country as a whole refer to Federal Reserve districts
as units and cover the years 1919 to 1925, inclusive. The plan of
analysis, briefly described in the next following section and fully
set out at various places in the text treatment, required series
running over a number of years. Comparable data, being avail-
able beginning with 1919, were assembled by years through 1925
—the last year, at the time the compilations were made, for which
the required figures, in all of the series, had been published. It
was realized, of course, that banking conditions from 1919 to 1921
were somewhat abnormal, but to have selected only the subse-
quent years would have so shortened the period as to have made
the analysis of doubtful value. Moreover, the fact that the years
1919-1921 were unique argued strongly for their inclusion. The
purpose of the study was to disclose norms, tendencies, and cor-
relations, and if these obtain both in “abnormal” and in “normal”
years, the evidence of system in banking affairs is strengthened.
Indeed, it is far from certain that the criteria required to label
periods as “normal” are at hand.
The data for individual banks in the First and Second districts
cover only those years which, at the time they were requested,
were readily available. After all, if economic order of the type
supposed characterizes the operations of our banking system, the
matter of the years selected is relatively unimportant, provided
the time studied is long enough for it to be disclosed.
The data, with minor exceptions, are ratios, each series being
expressed in terms of a suitable base, and the amounts used as
percentages. By adopting such units, series are made comparable,
changes and differences in absolute amounts, due to differences in
the size of districts and shifting membership in the System, being
allowed for in this manner. The ratios are given in the text tables
