56
BANKING STANDARDS
years, but on the whole the size of the differences tends to be
about the same for the different years. One district in which this
is conspicuously not the case is San Francisco; districts in which
it is strikingly true are Cleveland and St. Louis.
Certain general conclusions relating to norms and trends in the
ratios of demand deposits to earning assets and to total deposits
may be drawn from the data presented and from the foregoing
analysis.
Norms
1. For the period 1919 to 1925, the average percentage of
demand deposits to earning assets was §7.65; to total deposits,
67.29. Measured in the former unit, the typical ratios fell in the
group 48-52; in the latter, in the group 60-635.
Ratios of demand deposits to total deposits were high in all
districts in 1919 and 1920, and low in 1922 (one district ex-
cepted), 1923, 1924, and 1925. When demand deposits are
expressed in terms of earning assets, the districts show a less sys-
tematic tendency to be high or low in a given year.
3. Districts 1, 2, 10 and 11—Boston, New York, Kansas City,
and Dallas—have ratios of demand deposits to earning assets
above the country’s level during all of the years 1919-1925; those
for the other districts (except San Francisco in one year) are
below the country’s average for the entire period. Similar condi-
tions hold when demand deposits are expressed in terms of total
deposits.
Trends
1. The trend of ratios of demand deposits to earning assets
was generally downward from 1919 to 1921 and upward from
1921 to 1925; of ratios of demand deposits to total deposits, the
trend was downward during the whole period 1919 to 1925.
In the years in which the ratios of demand deposits to earn-
ing assets in each district were high relative to the seven-year
district levels, the direction of change in each following year
was downward; in those in which they were low, similarly meas-
ared, it was upward, the net percentage amounts of change from
year to year varying directly with the amounts of dispersion from
these levels. When the demand deposits are expressed in terms
2.
