354 BANKING STANDARDS 
Moreover, 
Bank debits of different cities 
tend to fluctuate together;’ 
City bank debits tend to fluc- 
tuate with city business 
conditions; 
Business conditions in cities 
tend to fluctuate together. 
TABLE 199 
YEARS IN WaICH BANK DEBITS ARE 
ABOVE OR BELOW THE SEVEN- 
YEAR AVERAGE, 1919-1025 
Total Bank 
Debits 
'Y4T cities) 
Percentage of Cities 
with Bank Debits 
on Same Side of Their 
Averages as the Total 
for vax Cities 
But 
City bank debits tend to fluc- 
tuate with district bank 
debits; 
District banking resources 
tend to fluctuate with dis- 
trict bank debits; 
City bank resources tend to fluctuate with city bank debits. 
The following conclusions, in summary, have now been reached: 
First: National, district, and local business conditions tend to fluc- 
tuate together; and 
Second: Such business fluctuations tend systematically to be re- 
flected in fluctuations in bank debits and banking resources. 
*In this year the bank debits of New York City 
run against the prevailing tendency. 
By and large, commercial banks wherever situated render 
similar service to business. Moreover, this service is rendered 
competitively. Banks are daily brought into relation through 
the granting of loans, in the investment of surplus funds, in com- 
peting for deposits, and in rendering a large number of other 
services. Their lending and investment areas overlap. “The ex- 
tent to which any bank may loan is dependent in part upon the 
extent to which other banks are loaning. And when the re- 
serves of any particular bank are low there are numerous means 
by which it may increase its loaning power at the expense of, 
or through the permission of, its competitors.”® ¢, . . . Indi- 
vidual banks cannot escape relations with other banks, their own 
prosperity and safety being fundamentally linked with that of 
the system as a whole. . . .”® Moreover, they are subject to 
much the same type of government regulation and inspection, 
"See Table 108. 
8 Harold G. Moulton, Principles of Money and Banking (The University of Chi- 
cago Press, 1916), Part II, p. 04. 
® Ibid., Part II, p. 197.