XVIII 
GENERAL SUMMARY 
THE foregoing discussion has resulted in a number of con- 
clusions which have been stated from time to time. In closing, 
it is appropriate briefly to summarize them in their most general 
aspects, and to sketch in broad outline the economic, banking, 
and business conditions in which an explanation may be found. 
The more important norms, trends, and correlations are as 
follows. 
1. The tendency, among the various series of data, for district 
ratios at a given time to be similarly placed with respect to their 
own seven-year averages. If, for a given series, the average 
amount for each district for the years 1919-1925 is taken as a 
standard or norm, and if the ratios in the several years are ex- 
pressed as percentage differences from such average amount, 
then it tends generally to be true that all of the districts will be on 
the same side of their own average at the same time. With 
respect to the various series, districts have their own average 
levels, and these may and do vary markedly. Yet, relative to 
such levels, districts tend to be similarly placed at a given time. 
It is the uniformity among the several districts in this respect 
which is distinctive. It is obvious, of course, that if items differ, 
some of them must be above and some below their average. It is 
not required, however, that the ratios in the twelve districts 
should tend to be on a given side of their own averages at the 
same time, and yet this tendency is unmistakably present in most 
of the series studied. 
2. The tendency in each of the series of data, despite the dif- 
ferences in their average levels, for district and group ratios to 
change from year to year and over a series of years in the same 
direction and by similar percentage amounts. This tendency, 
while not everywhere present and while differing in degree, is 
nevertheless the rule, as even a casual inspection of the various 
ratio charts will make evident. What is observed is consistent 
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